Miyamoto hints at player caricature feature in Wii

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 May, 2006

Conference Tennis gag a feature?

Shigeru Miyamoto's hinted that the custom Wii Tennis characters we all had a good laugh about at E3 were more than just a conference showpiece.

Toward the end of Nintendo's pre-E3 conference, Miyamoto, Reggie Fils-Aime, Satoru Iwata and a competition winner took part in a doubles game on-stage - with the three Nintendo execs represented by tennis-playing caricatures on-screen.

Speaking to CNN/Money recently, Miyamoto said that might end up being a feature - and not just in Wii Sports, of which the tennis game is a part.

"We have some different ideas about how to take advantage of that functionality," he said, "and we will be sharing that type of functionality with third parties."

Facial mapping's been done before of course, but the quirky nature of the characters would be a lot more consistent across Nintendo's titles - you hardly need us to spell out the possibilities.

Miyamoto also shared some of his thoughts on the console's controversial name, announced a fortnight prior to E3.

"When we first thought about it, myself and others felt that the name Revolution was very appropriate to what we were doing," he told CNN/Money.

"But [Revolution] is a name that was almost threatening to non-gamers. It wasn't acceptable. So we thought [Wii] was more friendly and inviting."

The name was finally decided more than six months before its unveiling, according to the report.

Wii is due out later this year.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • drumbaby #1 6 years ago

    This is true innovation. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Kudos to Ninty!!

  • Cabelo #2 6 years ago

    Sometimes I can't even tell internet sarcasm is sarcasm :(

    Drumbaby? One hopes.
    Edited by Cabelo at 25/05/06 @ 09:58

  • jack_klugman #3 6 years ago

    I rather like the idea. Why have just a Gamertag when you can have your own transferable avatar?

  • NoCodeNed2 #4 6 years ago

    Definite sarcasm - I played a footy game that used Eye-Toy to do it - it was quite funny seeing you and your mates basically having an orgy when the goal scored cutscenes played.

  • gamingdave #5 6 years ago

    Consistant avatars over all games would be a nice feature. Im supprised MS hasnt done this on Live really, would be great to be boxing someone one minute, then seeing them line up next to you on the race track. Saying that, from playing with EAs custom character creators I have neither the skill nor the patience to make something that resembales me.

  • Carrybagma #6 6 years ago

    Anyone notice Miyamoto in the 'orchestra'?

  • Talha #7 6 years ago

    "Wii is due out later this year."

    What, is he running for US President?

  • smelly #8 6 years ago

    This is true innovation. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Kudos to Ninty!!


    Yes you're right. Having a characture of yourself which can be used in LOTS of games (not just one) HAS NEVER been done before.

  • Blerk #9 6 years ago

    Cue a million and one characters with arses for heads.