Miyamoto’s son was so bad at Super Mario 64 he questioned his parenting

While 2D Mario entries still exist, there’s no doubt the 3D installments are considered the “mainline” direction of the franchise nowadays. That all came about due to the release of Super Mario 64, which was an absolutely huge milestone for Nintendo and gaming in general.

While 3D Mario and gaming in general is the standard nowadays, that kind of play was pretty new with the introduction of Super Mario 64, especially in the platformer genre. Getting that kind of experience just right required a ton of work from the dev team, along with all sorts of playtesting for feedback.

Among the playtesters was none other than Shigeru Miyamoto’s son, as was revealed in a decades-old, newly-translated interview from Shmuplations. Not only does Miyamoto mention his own son putting the game through its paces, but apparently his gameplay was so tough to watch that it drove Miyamoto up the wall.

“Seeing him try dozens of times, over and over, to get up this unclimbable hill, as a parent I couldn’t help but think, ‘Geez, does this kid have any brains?’ (laughs) Afterwards we asked the children what they thought of the game, and they said it was fun, and that they wanted to play it again.”

[Shigeru Miyamoto]