The brain behind Mario would make a shooter, if only he had time.

Shigeru Miyamoto, arguably the most recognizable man at Nintendo, has created a lot of franchises over the years. Series like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pikmin may not appear to have that much in common, but all of Miyamoto's games so far have placed the player hovering somewhere above, behind, or beside the protagonist. Now, the legendary designer wants to move the players themselves to the focal point of the action by using his expertise to craft a first-person shooter. As things stand, though, Miyamoto just doesn't have the time it would take to invest in a new project.

Although Miyamoto's theoretical project would involve a first-person perspective and guns, it wouldn't necessarily be his answer to Call of Duty. "Rather than necessarily the question of 'What kind of weapon do I have?' ... I think that the structure of a first-person shooter is something that's very interesting," he says. "Having that 3D space that in theory you are in and being able to look around and explore that-particularly being able to do that in conjunction with another person-is very interesting." Especially now that Nintendo has confirmed support for two gamepads on the Wii U somewhere down the line, Miyamoto believes that he could leverage this technology for an immersive, cooperative experience.

In spite of his enthusiasm, Miyamoto's shooter will not be hitting shelves anytime soon. "I actually do kind of want to make a first-person shooter, but I don't have time," he explains. Given the impending launch of the Wii U, Miyamoto definitely has a lot of work to do in the coming months, but perhaps he'll have time to start a new project once the excitement surrounding the new console has died down. An exploration-based, cooperative FPS from the man who made Mario could be just the shot in the arm that the over-saturated FPS genre needs.

Source: Kotaku