In Tomodachi Life, Miis have nightmares of escaping hat-shaped traps. A Super Mario 3D World power-up turns the iconic plumber and his friends into cats. And in the upcoming Splatoon, teenagers can transform into squids –– Nintendo has never been the leading proponent for realistic games.

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Shigeru Miyamoto prefers it that way. During an E3 interview with LA Times Hero Complex , the Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong creator said that Nintendo's offbeat titles aren't accidental.“It’s not that I don’t like serious stories or that I couldn’t make one, but currently in the video game industry you see a lot of game designers who are working really hard to make their games seem really cool,” Miyamoto said. “For a lot of us at Nintendo, it’s difficult to decide what cool is. In fact, it’s a lot easier for us to laugh at ourselves. It’s almost as if we’re performers. Our way of performing is by creating these fun, odd and goofy things.”The designer said that Nintendo is more of an idea than it is a cog in a larger machine. Making unrealistic games has always been a trademark of the Japanese company, balancing the medium against the realistic, gritty experiences much of the rest of the industry is focusing on.“Nintendo isn’t one simple element of an overall gaming industry,” Miyamoto said. “I really think there needs to be a Nintendo genre, that’s almost its own entity.”

Mike Mahardy is a freelance writer for IGN. To hear him rant about Wes Anderson and Kurt Vonnegut, you can follow Mike on Twitter