The island Shigeru Miyamoto dreamed of and brought to life in the sequel to one of the best-selling games in history
Three generations of Nintendo consoles ago, Miyamoto built a paradise straight from his imagination.
Shigeru Miyamoto needs no introduction. Nintendo’s brilliant mind has stories to spare, from the reputation he earned among internal teams to the difficult decisions he had to make in certain situations, such as during the development of ‘Twilight Princess.’ Another highlight of his career was an idea he had been envisioning for years, which couldn’t be realized until the Wii era.
The idea Miyamoto had for over ten years: turning a setting into a character
In a 2009 ‘Iwata Asks’ interview, the developers of Wii Sports Resort discussed how the idea for a sequel stemmed from an “Island Concept” that Miyamoto had been dreaming about for “more than ten years.” “One part of Nintendo’s business has been creating a whole host of characters which we have then licensed out. But I’ve always thought, seeing as we are a games company, that in addition to characters resembling people, why couldn’t we also turn the actual stages of games into characters?” the creative shared.
At the time, Iwata picked up on this idea, referring to the Miis: they turned human characters into faces with shared identities and features. What Miyamoto wanted to do next was take a setting and adapt it into a video game.
This is how he explained it at the time: “It’s called Wuhu Island, but the concept is more or less the same [as that of the Wii Fit Island]. We really polished up the island, turned it into a resort and actually made the location into a kind of character.” Miyamoto noted at the time that his idea was to build a franchise around the island. Although he didn’t succeed, there were several attempts to feature it in other spin-off products.
Wuhu Island served as inspiration for a multitude of later elements. It was featured as a location in Wii Fit Plus, the sequel to Wii Fit. It served as the playground for Pilotwings Resort on the Nintendo 3DS, and it also had its own Grand Prix in Mario Kart 7, the first in the Flower Cup. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe included it as a battle stage. Other nods to the island appeared in one of the mini-games in Wii Party and as a battle stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
The sequel few expected but almost everyone bought
Wii Sports Resort emerged from a collection of ideas shared between Miyamoto and the new blood on Nintendo’s teams at a pivotal moment for the Wii, with the arrival of Motion Plus. No one expected a sequel to Wii Sports, and yet the public responded enthusiastically.
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While the original ranks among the best-selling games of all time, with nearly 83 million copies sold, its sequel achieved impressive sales figures for the Wii. It was the third best-selling game for the console, with 32,990,000 copies sold. It is surpassed only by its predecessor and Mario Kart Wii, which sold 36,830,000 units.
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