The team chose to build on Super Mario 3D Land this time, but there may be room to make a new Super Mario Galaxy somewhere down the line.
The Super Mario Galaxy series may be gone, but it has not been forgotten, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. Super Mario 3D Land and the Super Mario Galaxy series are developed by the team, potentially indicating that the shift away from Mario’s space-bound adventures may shut the book on a sequel. In a recent “Iwata Asks” interview, Miyamoto clarifies that the absence of a new Galaxy should not suggest that Nintendo won’t ever return to the concept.
“Just so there is no misunderstanding, I should point out that this doesn’t mean we’ll never make another Super Mario Galaxy game,” says Miyamoto. “The same team can’t make both at the same time. And we can’t bring in a second party and slap the name Super Mario Galaxy on it. I suppose we could idealistically make both in Tokyo, but we want to do something new too, so there was that dilemma.”
In the same interview, producer Yoshiaki Koizumi reveals the team made a conscious decision to make a game building the ideas established in Super Mario 3D Land, but they had also considered making the game more like Galaxy. “When we first started making Super Mario 3D World,” said Koizumi, “Miyamoto-san asked me if this was going to be more like Super Mario Galaxy or more like Super Mario 3D Land. When we made Super Mario 3D Land, we had our eyes on the form of this game, so we made it this way without any hesitation.”
While there isn’t a new Galaxy in the works, the legacy of the series has made its mark on the series in general: Nintendo announced yesterday that Rosalina, the Galaxy princess, will return as a playable character in Super Mario 3D World.
Source: Iwata Asks