Mario for Wii U may have dual-screened multiplayer, says producer

A Nintendo system is never truly born until you can play a new Super Mario game on it, and the folks in Kyoto are hard at work on the next iterations of Nintendo’s legendary game franchise. The Mario series is famous for showing the capability of the company’s new hardware, but we haven’t heard much about Mario’s first foray onto the Wii U. How will it take advantage of the Wii U’s fancy new touchscreen controller? Wired has been wondering the same thing. The magazine sat down with Yoshiaki Koizumi, who has been involved in all of the 3D Mario games since Super Mario 64.

When asked how he might use the unique attributes of the Wii U, Koizumi said that he had only just learned about the Wii U at E3, but already has some ideas. “When I think about the two screens being used at the same time, it seems like an interesting opportunity to allow us to create a console game where two people are playing at the same time but can’t see each others’ screens,” he said. “It’s certainly an interesting approach, but I have to clarify that it’s not something that we’re working on just yet.”

Imagine one player working as Mario while the other is Luigi. The two could work against each other or with one another. Of course, Nintendo could also accomplish such an idea with online cooperative play. This idea would work great in a number of different games, though it would work even better if the system supported more than one Wii U controller.

Koizumi also hinted at a dual-screened feature that was cut from  The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. We don’t know the details, but it utilized the Game Boy screen in some way. More information will be released at some point, said the game developer.

Finally, Wired also spoke with Zelda producer Eiji Aunoma, who confirmed that he was involved in the creation of the Wii U. When asked if the next Zelda will utilize the touchscreen controller for item management, as hinted in one of this year’s E3 demos, Aunoma laughed, saying “I’d like to do things that are more surprising than that.”

To learn more, check out our full guide to the Wii U.