In the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii, up to four players can play controlling one of four characters -- Mario, Luigi, and two different colored Toads.
Why two toads instead of what might seem like the obvious choice, Princess Peach? Creator Shigeru Miyamoto answered this question (asked by Wired Game|Life's Tracey John), and the answer was... surprising. Turns out, you can blame her signature pink dress.
"Originally, I thought it would be nice if we could have Princess Peach in there as a playable character," he said through a translator, "but in fact, the Toad characters have a physical that's a little bit closer to Mario and Luigi. In particular, if we had one character ou of the four that wore a dress, we would have to have special processing and programming to handle how the skirt is handled within the gameplay."
Miyamoto-san, 1988 called and wants to know if you'd like to borrow its copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES. I kid, of course. But I do wish I could get some more Peach action in our Mario games. There's always New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2.
Oh well. I'll still get the game, but that's a lame ass excuse.
He says they're pushing the Wii with this game, but they can't make Peaches dress a little wavy? Seriously? How'd they do it in Smash Bros., then?
also, port of the ds game statements are lazy posts
Scoping out the playable characters and what it will take to implement them should be a very early decision made in the project. That's a pretty cheap move to keep your margins high ;)
Miyamoto:
"we didn't add the princess because it was so much easier to do a palette swap in one of the toads!"
Ok, now I believe you!
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/10/shigeru-miyamoto/
Wired.com: Why isn’t Princess Peach a playable character in New Super Mario Bros. Wii?
Miyamoto: Well, originally I thought it would be nice to have Princess Peach in there as a playable character, but in fact, the Toad characters have a physique that’s a little bit closer to Mario and Luigi. And in particular if we had one character out of the four that wore a dress, we would have to have a special programming to handle how the skirt is handled in the gameplay (laughs).
And that’s the only reason that Princess Peach is not there. Of course, if we had Wario in there, we’d have to program him to fart.
Ugh.
pretty lame that the greatest developer of all time couldn't put a character in because he would have to develop coding for the dress. also, peach has been known to wear shorts (Mario Superstars Baseball/Tennis) why wouldn't a globe trekking peach wear shorts or pants on an expedition.
I'll probably pass on this game until a cheap price drop. If they can't be bothered with doing a bit of extra work to add some character to the game then I can't be bothered paying $50 for it when A Boy and His Blob is $40 and that just screams character.
What do two toads get?
Bad Miyamoto.
Go f*ck yourself.
And let's be honest: you are going to have to rescue the cockteasing bitch just like in the DS/NES/SNES/N64/Wii versions (Rosalina counts!). So, playing as her would lead to a black hole on par with dividing by zero (or they want to keep humor like that for Paper Mario 3.)
Totally agreed, but I think the whole game is a cop-out anyway.
Wario would have been cool, but I don't think he would fit in with the story like the other four. And yes, 2 generic toads is a stupid cop out. For all the original levels this new game will have, it will have 2 GENERIC toads as the stars, and Mario and Luigi.
Well, if you had to throw us two Toads could they have, at the very lest, made them be Toad and Toadette. Damn.
It would only mean more development time and debugging > time = money.
Yes they make sh/tloads of money, but each project has its own budget and you cant fill it up just because they have money.
And since its for one character it seems logical they left it out to keep their development ongoing and finished on time.
Most of you don't even know what programming is about or how energy consuming it can be.
Although Toadette would have been awesome though D=