Well, we're certainly not quite sure what to make of this one. Nintendo's guru, the guy behind titles like Mario and Zelda – Shigeru Miyamoto – wishes that he'd invented Angry Birds. While in conversation with Hookshot Inc., Miyamoto said that he has “very much enjoyed Angry Birds.”
Despite Nintendo's harsh words for Apple's App Store, and for mobile gaming in general, Miyamoto seemed cautiously enthusiastic about the game which, like many of his own achievements, takes a fairly simple concept and manages to build a strong title out of it.
Speaking of smartphone gaming in general, Miyomoto said:
“There aren’t many games that I’ve played recently that have been truly convincing to me. But that said, I have very much enjoyed Angry Birds, especially the way in which it combines traditional and new game elements in exciting ways. Angry Birds is a very simple idea but it’s one of those games that I immediately appreciated when I first started playing, before wishing that I had been the one to come up with the idea first. I mean, obviously I want to be the one creating the most convincing, surprising game ideas."
In particular, Miyomoto praised the control scheme of Angry Birds. “I think a lot of work went into getting that right,” he said.
So, what are you to make of this? Is it a sign that Nintendo could be considering giving in to pressures from some shareholders that they start developing for other mobile platforms? Probably not. But Angry Birds has been a pretty successful game, and it's just the sort of title that Nintendo would've liked to have created.
And despite Miyomoto's admiration for Rovio's development skills, he stopped short of praising Apple's hardware. “Obviously,” he said, “if the developer had created the game for Nintendo DS the controls would have been even better, but what can you do?”
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