Post by gnid on Jan 8, 2008 17:38:15 GMT -5
Caricatures of game developers in their own games aren't new. In Nintendo games however, it's rare to ever see a developer leave his imprint of himself in the game. We already know about Iwata's cameo from Wario Ware, and of course the latest Wario Ware had the Mii of everyone who worked on the game in the credits.
My thoughts rest on that of a particular recurring character in the Zelda series. Though they aren't related story wise in anyway, they have one thing in common, their smile.
In Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask the Happy Mask Man made his first debut. What made him interesting wasn't just that he was a happy mask salesman, but that if you took a mask promising to sell it back, sold it, and then returned to him with no money at all, he'd be sliiightly aggravated.
This unexpected change from eternal happiness to table-upturning angry was surprising to say the least. And this mood swing of his continued into Majora's Mask.
Wind Waker brought us a character with a Cheshire Cat-esque grin with the Fanboy in the Nintendo Gallery. One of only two characters whom you would meet their, the other was a man who was the master of the shop, with graying hair and a calm disposition. If you actually make every carving you can in the game, when the last one is finished the master unexpectedly leaves the gallery, leaving the young apprentice as the one in charge now.
The last and most recent appearance of a smiling man came via, well The Man of Smiles of course. Not quite as odd as Tingle but strange none the less, when you first come across his ship in Phantom Hourglass and meet him, he acts as if you should already know him. "The MAN OF SMILES" he proclaims himself, and starts you off on the standard trading sequence as well as giving you a chance to win an item every day if you return to him and get a postcard from him to send away.
Of course, this is a nice theory, but it's just that. I have no concrete evidence that these Men of Smiles are caricatures of Nintendo's actual Man of Smiles, Miyamoto, if you haven't already guessed he was the developer I believe his own apprentices put into the game over the years. Seeing as how we've heard stories from the various new generation of Zelda directors about him changing his mood at a moment's notice during a game's development, maybe my theory isn't that far off.
I can only hope the next time someone catches Eiji or any of the new guard at a Developer's Conference that they could slip this question to them.
My thoughts rest on that of a particular recurring character in the Zelda series. Though they aren't related story wise in anyway, they have one thing in common, their smile.
In Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask the Happy Mask Man made his first debut. What made him interesting wasn't just that he was a happy mask salesman, but that if you took a mask promising to sell it back, sold it, and then returned to him with no money at all, he'd be sliiightly aggravated.
This unexpected change from eternal happiness to table-upturning angry was surprising to say the least. And this mood swing of his continued into Majora's Mask.
Wind Waker brought us a character with a Cheshire Cat-esque grin with the Fanboy in the Nintendo Gallery. One of only two characters whom you would meet their, the other was a man who was the master of the shop, with graying hair and a calm disposition. If you actually make every carving you can in the game, when the last one is finished the master unexpectedly leaves the gallery, leaving the young apprentice as the one in charge now.
The last and most recent appearance of a smiling man came via, well The Man of Smiles of course. Not quite as odd as Tingle but strange none the less, when you first come across his ship in Phantom Hourglass and meet him, he acts as if you should already know him. "The MAN OF SMILES" he proclaims himself, and starts you off on the standard trading sequence as well as giving you a chance to win an item every day if you return to him and get a postcard from him to send away.
Of course, this is a nice theory, but it's just that. I have no concrete evidence that these Men of Smiles are caricatures of Nintendo's actual Man of Smiles, Miyamoto, if you haven't already guessed he was the developer I believe his own apprentices put into the game over the years. Seeing as how we've heard stories from the various new generation of Zelda directors about him changing his mood at a moment's notice during a game's development, maybe my theory isn't that far off.
I can only hope the next time someone catches Eiji or any of the new guard at a Developer's Conference that they could slip this question to them.
