The highly acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy series of Mario games -- which hasn't been seen since Galaxy 2 was released in May 2010 -- could see a return in the future, according to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto.

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In a new Iwata Asks released ahead of the launch of the newest Mario game, Super Mario 3D World , later this month, the subject of Galaxy was brought up. Miyamoto answered the most pressing question of all: Will we ever see another Galaxy game?"Just so there is no misunderstanding, I should point out that this doesn't mean we'll never make another Super Mario Galaxy game," Miyamoto said.Yoshiaka Koizumi, the director of the original Galaxy and producer on 3D World, then chimed in, adding, "That's right. When we first started making Super Mario 3D World, Miyamoto-san asked me if this was going to be more like Super Mario Galaxy or more like Super Mario 3D Land. When we made Super Mario 3D Land, we had our eyes on the form of this game, so we made it this way without any hesitation."Miyamoto continued, "The same team can't make both at the same time. And we can't bring in a second party and slap the name Super Mario Galaxy on it. I suppose we could idealistically make both in Tokyo, but we want to do something new too, so there was that dilemma."Also touched upon were the regrets Koizumi had in making Galaxy that he was finally able to address with 3D World. One of those actually goes back to Mario 64 (on which he was an assistant director working with Miyamoto), at which point Nintendo had to choose between including Luigi or more "elaborate landforms." Obviously the latter was chosen, and Luigi was left out in the cold."Later, Luigi appeared in Super Mario Galaxy, but instead of running around together with his big brother, he got treated somewhat differently," Koizumi explained. "But this time [with 3D World], he finally stands on the same course with Mario as a character that will make people say, 'Luigi's great!' I think that's fantastic.""Another regret with respect to Super Mario Galaxy," he said. "I think the deep-blue image of space and the impression you get from the title was more geared toward boys. I felt like a player-character you might want to choose besides Mario was necessary to convince, say, my wife to feel comfortable picking it up and playing. This time, we welcomed in Princess Peach, so you can play as a female character. In that way, I feel like we filled in a piece that had been missing."3D World will be released on November 22 in North America and November 29 in Europe. For more on the game, check out the six things we just learned about its development and our more than 20 minutes of new footage from the game.

Chris Pereira is a freelance writer who spends his spare time agonizing over the final seasons of The X-Files. Check out what he's saying on Twitter and follow him on IGN