The latest “Iwata Asks” discusses the challenge of bringing simultaneous two-player modes to Mario platformers, and how Miyamoto believe he’s finally figured it out with Super Mario Galaxy.

Iwata: So, with the creation of the Co-Star mode do you feel that you’ve finally successfully solved this challenge that has spanned about 25 years since the birth of Mario Bros?

Miyamoto: Absolutely…. As the pointer had become available to use with Wii, I started to put into place piece-by-piece the things that I wanted to do in two-player simultaneous play using that feature…. The single-player mode had become very complicated, so we removed some of its features and moved them to the two-player mode. Doing so cleared things up quite a lot…. So, by making good use of the Wii Remote’s pointer, I think we were able to have the second player play the game with a very strong sense of participation.

Now the question is… who will YOU choose to play with?

Nintendo UK
via Kotaku