Shigeru Miyamoto forced Frog Suit into Super Mario Bros 3 because he liked it

Super Mario Bros 3 is widely regarded as one of the best Mario games on NES, and its wide array of unique items includes the infamous Frog Suit. The sight of Mario as a four-legged frog is one of the platformer's most enduring images, but it always kind of sucked in practice.

In fact, that's part of why Shigeru Miyamoto was so keen to keep it in the game. Miyamoto made the point in a 1989 interview for the Japanese publication Gamer Handbook, recently translated by shmuplations. He spoke with Shigesato Itoi, and they agreed that games of the time could stand to be a lot more playful.

"We distinguish between 'field' and 'performance' systems in a game's structure," Miyamoto explained. "Mario is built that way, too. Say I want to add some funny animation for an enemy at the end of a level, and I show it to programmers or hardcore gamers… they'll say 'It's the end of the level, no one's going to even see that!' But I just tell them, 'That's fine.

Japan

shigeru miyamoto, shigesato itoi, frog suit, mario 3, nes, shmuplations, gamer handbook, game design, platformer, funny animation