NES Classic developer interview

Cite as: NES Classic developer interview
Original: http://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/super-mario-bros-and-super-mario-bros-3-developer-interview
sha256: 2efba9ff34523228a9bfa4a6d8fa84c9f6ab2645e18096a874becba6bc846cfb
Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20170101001654id_/http://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/super-mario-bros-and-super-mario-bros-3-developer-interview
Accessed: 2026-10-26
Licence: © Nintendo
Credit: Nintendo; Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, interviewed for the NES Classic Edition.
Notes: Read for Miyamoto calling The Lost Levels "Tezuka-san's directorial debut", Tezuka saying they made it "by changing the original game's difficulty and stage design", and the footnote describing the Family Computer Disk System (February 1986; floppy disks with more memory than ROM cartridges, save data, sold only in Japan). Miyamoto also says development of Super Mario Bros. 3 began after The Lost Levels in spring 1986.

Cited on

The game was aimed at players who had mastered the first. Miyamoto recalls a sticker on the package that said "For Super Players", and a note to Nintendo's NES Classic interview describes it as a tougher challenge developed for advanced players. Nintendo's page today pitches it at people who played Super Mario Bros. to exhaustion, with a higher difficulty. Iwata, interviewing the All-Stars developers in 2010, described it the same way: he said they made it for advanced players, and Sugiyama agreed.	`footnote 6`	Web
Miyamoto calls the game Takashi Tezuka's directorial debut. Tezuka says they made it by changing the first game's difficulty and stage design, and Miyamoto that work on Super Mario Bros. 3 began after it, in the spring of 1986.	`MiyamotoTezukaMiyamoto`	Interview