In an interview with gaming website Kotaku following the 2012 E3 conference, Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda series, mentioned that he was highly interested in making a first-person shooter, but he wasn’t sure when he’d have time to work on it. This was exciting news. Miyamoto is one of the most creative minds in gaming.
How could a Miyamoto shooter set itself apart in a genre that is saturated with unoriginal clones? At the first official unveiling of the Wii U during the 2011 E3 conference, Nintendo showed off a demo in which the Wii U Game Pad worked like a scope with a Wii remote to search for Miis hiding in a building. Perhaps a Miyamoto shooter would go this route, creating a first-person shooter for the casual gamer. There could be mini games that take advantage of the Wii U Game Pad’s screen as a scope. This would definitely carve out a niche and breathe fresh life into the genre.
Or, perhaps Miyamoto could adapt his classic Mario franchise to the world of first-person shooters. Both Mario and Luigi have experiences with devices that could be really fun in a first-person shooter game (F.L.U.D.D. in Super Mario Sunshine and Luigi’s Poltergust 3000 in Luigi’s Mansion). A new sequel fully committed to the shooter genre would shock the gaming world and offer a new way to experience the Mario universe.
Or maybe Miyamoto would try a no take on the sci-fi shooting genre set in the Star Fox world, or create a fantasy shooter in the same vein as Link’s Crossbow Training. Whatever he decides, let’s hope he finds the time to make the project a reality. A first-person shooter by such a brilliant mind could be groundbreaking.
