Mario Artist: Talent Studio isn't the most well-known games, having been released for the N64DD exclusively in Japan in the year 2000. But, despite that, the character creation suite and movie-making tool has one of our favourite Nintendo Easter Eggs, which we're willing to bet not many people have seen before.
Should you visit the movie creation tool in the game, it's possible for players to find a hidden video clip recorded by the former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, which shows a more playful side of the famous businessman than many employees and fans never were used to.
The clip, which has been shared a few times before on YouTube, sees a 3D avatar of the former president giving a speech to the player, thanking them for buying the game before a woman offscreen interrupts him and tells him that the 64DD software isn't for sale but is instead delivered to all members of the Randnet subscription service. The former president then does another take to camera, talking about how novel the game is and encouraging the player to enjoy it with their family and friends. He then asks the director what kind of software it is (suggesting that he is still confused by the notion of Randnet).
In retrospect, it's a wonderfully self-deprecating skit and not something you'd typically expect from Yamauchi. In the past, we've spoken to many of his former workers and friends to collect stories about the legendary individual and they have all painted the exact same picture of the president — of someone who took themselves very seriously and didn't suffer fools gladly. So this seems especially out of character for him.
Speaking to Giles Goddard, who previously worked at Nintendo EAD, he recalled, "I think he was just a very typical Japanese businessman. Very, very stoic. Very kind of business-oriented. Very, very private obviously. Terrifying as well. He was a small guy but he had an absolutely terrifying aura around him. You could see how he made such a massive company because there was so much power to him."
The Tetris Company founder Henk Rogers, meanwhile, told us, "Everybody else was just kissing his ass the whole time. They were terrified of him. If you ever worked with him and you disagreed with him in a meeting, you were fired. Period. He fricking fired the President of Nintendo Europe, like bang! Everybody at the meeting already knew he was fired, because he had another idea about something. So he was very tough, and when he said something that was the law."
Yamauchi was the Nintendo president from 1949 to 2002. He passed away at the age of 85 in 2013 from complications of pneumonia.
Given his reputation, we'd love to know the story of how this easter egg originally came to be, but sadly, our inquiries so far have yielded no results. But if we do happen to track down anyone who worked on Talent Studio in the future, we'll update this piece with more information, to let you know more.