Given its incredible influence on the world of gaming, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that fans of Super Mario 64 have spent the last couple of decades doing all they can to find out more about the development of the N64 classic.
Over the years, we've witnessed countless groups and individuals take on the responsibility of improving our knowledge of the landmark platformer, doing everything from documenting early builds of the game to translating old Japanese magazine interviews, and in some cases, even tracking down the original developers themselves to find out what else they can learn.
But, despite that, it still amazes us how much there is left to discover about the legendary title, as evidenced by a recent thread on Twitter/X by the user Charly Con Nostalgia about a newly resurfaced Japanese interview with the game's director Shigeru Miyamoto.
The video interview was uploaded to YouTube on March 10th, by an individual named Kanpei Hagama, and is also available on archive.org. It appears to date from around the release of Super Mario 64 and shows Miyamoto being interviewed about the game by a person named Kōji Watanabe (who is described online as a representative director for the game and video software production company GTV) while footage from an earlier build of the game plays onscreen.
Sadly, as you might expect given the interview was never intended for an overseas audience, it is entirely in Japanese, but Charly Con Nostalgia has put together an interesting breakdown of the video, which picks out some of the more interesting titbits. This includes Miyamoto describing the levels as "garden dioramas" and that the game was product-tested by elementary students ahead of release (in addition to adults).
There are also many differences from the version we know today, which are included in the footage, including differences in Bowser's dialogue, changes to the size of the Penguin you race in Cool Cool Mountain, missing assets, early textures, and much, much more.
You can watch the full video below: