There’s a new mode called Boost Rush. How did that come about?
Last time, there was a Free Mode for lightly playing the regular courses. We decided at the start that we wanted to put in something similar to that. We tried connecting certain courses and playing them through, but it wasn’t very fun.
The gameplay was uneventful without surprise.
Yeah. There were a lot of opinions to the effect that simply playing the courses you had played in the story mode was lacking something. Then we tried adding rules, so that the screen keeps scrolling and the more coins you get the faster it goes. It’s slow at the start, but it gradually gets faster and more difficult. That fit Super Mario gameplay.
I see.
When you do drop-in play and jump on blocks at just the right time, coins come out , but getting those coins speeds it up, so when you play alone or with another player or as drop-in play, the strategy changes.
How so?
When two people play, you’ll call out to each other, saying, “You get the coin up above, I’ll get the one down below.” In drop-in play, when you hop on blocks, coins pop out, so the player coming along behind can collect them. You split up roles to gather the coins. In the end, with reaching the goal quickly as the objective, it becomes like a time attack mode.
Like a racing game.
Right. Definitely an interesting one! (laughs)
So while New Super Mario Bros. U is an action game, you can also enjoy puzzle and racing game elements.
That’s right. One game with three-times the flavour! (laughs)
The goal in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS was to get lots of coins within a limited amount of time. New Super Mario Bros. U is different in that you can decrease your time by getting coins to speed up the scrolling, which is interesting.
Yeah. Thanks to that idea, you’ll strive to get coins you would have left alone before. I think that makes drop-in play come to life.
You didn’t have coins come out when you jump on blocks just because of Boost Rush mode, did you?
No. Originally, if you did a good job placing a block, we wanted to reward the player.
I see, it came in handy in another form.
Yes, it connected perfectly.
Like all the pieces snapped into place.
Right.
What other new elements did you put in?
I think the biggest thing is how in the story mode, on the course selection screen, all the various worlds have been joined into one .
I heard those who have played it say that this way you can clearly see the purpose of your adventure.
Yeah. You can look out over all the landforms on the way to your final destination.
Why did you want to connect all the separate maps into one?
Super Mario Bros. 310 on the NES had a board game-like world map.10. Super Mario Bros. 3: An action game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in August 1991.
Yeah, that was shocking.
When I saw that, I was floored. In Super Mario World11 for Super NES, everything was connected and I felt like I was cruising right along on my adventure.11. Super Mario World: An action game released simultaneously with the Super NES system in April 1992.
That was exciting.
Yeah, I was really impressed. That’s engraved in my memory.
And that’s why you decided to join this vast world into one.
Yes. I wanted to take that thrilling map from over 20 years ago and use the latest Wii U technology to take it a giant step further.
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