Shiggy was in Milan, Italy for the grand opening of Nintendo's Italian arm. Always the target of the press, he was fired a barrage of questions from NextGame, an Italian gaming site. Check out some snippets, then click the link for the whole thing.

Nextgame.it: Talking about design, which are the ideas on which you created the GameCube?

Shigeru Miyamoto: GameCube's design is pretty peculiar, different from what we are in the habit to see in a gaming console. First thing we had in mind was the evolution of videogaming itself: the reduced size of the GameCube allows you to carry it form room to room quite easily. Every family has at least two TV-sets at home, and it is very easy to bring the GameCube from the living-room to the sleeping-room, if you want, not to consider a friend's place. We looked for simplicity and practicalness: GameCube wants to be a console that fits all the family, from the youngsters to the elders. Another main issue we considered was the gamepad: I don't want to appear self-important, but I was the first to put four buttons on the right hand of the pad, when I designed the Super Nes controller and Sega, Sony and now even Microsoft have followed that idea. I don't want to state they copied from us, but it is obvious that the four buttons became a standard.

Now I have decided to renounce this shape (I invented it and I can afford to renounce it - smiles); I wanted to focus on the immediate recognition of the main button on the joypad. In SNES it was the "A" button, in the GameCube it is the green one. It is pleasant to the touch and the player is immediately aware what button is the most important one, the main control between him and what permits him to interact, for example, with Mario. A concept linked, again, to sempicity and directness.

Nextgame.it: Let's talk about the next Zelda: why did you decide for the Cel-Shaded engine? It seems the videogamers split in two parties, and half of them didn't appreciate the idea. Are you planning to change the visual of the game because of this?

Shigeru Miyamoto: I think it's not wise to talk about something before having the chance to test it. Only playing you can judge a game and, after E3 2002, when you all will be able to play with the new Zelda, we will talk again about it.

Nextgame.it: Sega abandoned hardware to became a development team, and it is said that Sonic Team is strongly linked to Nintendo. Is in your intentions to "adopt" a character like Sonic as a Nintendo exclusive?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Our relationship with Sega is not different from the ones we have with other third parties. They develop software and in the moment we find it interesting for our console we try a way to obtain it. Nothing more.

Good read. But then again, isn't everything with Miyamoto good? Just get over there.