To his fans he's a knight in shining armour; a creator of fantastic
worlds where plumbers rescue princesses and young boys become
sword-wielding heroes. But now Shigeru Miyamoto has become a real life
knight himself, of the 'Order of Arts and Letters'.

The title (which doesn't make him 'Sir Shigeru', sadly) was
bestowed upon Mr Miyamoto in Paris this week by the French Ministry of
Culture. Miyamoto, along with Michel 'Rayman' Ancel and Frederick
'Alone in the Dark' Raynal, became the first videogame designers in
the world to receive such an award.

The accolade is further recognition for Miyamoto's lifetime of work
that has brought pleasure to millions (and led Time Magazine to call
him "The Spielberg of Video Games"). Also, for a game designer to
be honoured for his contribution to the arts is great news for the
whole games industry.

We joined Miyamoto in Paris after the ceremony where we got a glimpse
of his shiny new medal (check out the pics in the Images gallery),
drooled over his Nintendo DS Lite, and played with his new Nintendog: a
Dalmatian called Luigi.

Helped by his interpreter we first ask Miyamoto how it feels to be
given such a prestigious award, and in his trademark style he remains
as humble and down-to-earth as ever.

"My feeling is that I have received this on behalf of many other
people who have been working together with me to create videogames,"
he says. "And in a much broader sense I think it's very important
for the industry that we can receive this kind of award."

So does Miyamoto think videogames are now becoming culturally
acceptable, like movies and literature?

"Videogaming has only about 20-25 years of history; in comparison
movies have over 100 years, and literature has a lot longer," says
Miyamoto. "We have just come to the stage where everybody recognises
videogaming, so I think we have just passed the first phase. I think
videogaming is going to go forward in an exciting way. We are expecting
a number of different new technologies that affect our industry, and
the ability of people to deal with new technologies is going to be a
vital part of how the videogame industry is going to evolve."

Listening to Miyamoto speak in his easy-going way, we forget for a
second that we're sitting in a posh Paris hotel, surrounded by
journalists from across Europe who are clamouring to interview the
legend himself. There's no doubt Miyamoto is a massive star - but
does he feel like one?

"Well, you know I used to commute to work by bicycle until
recently," he says, laughing. "But because I am now one of the
executive board members, the company ordered me not to, for the sake of
'risk management'!"

So what is a typical 'day in the life' of Shigeru Miyamoto?

"As for the morning, I'm afraid to tell you that I am not a very
punctual person," he laughs. "But every day I have to work until
very late at night. People report to me via email the progress of
software in development and I am always looking into what's happening
with each game and sometimes, if it's necessary, I add my own
opinions and advice. That takes up about half of my working time and as
for the remainder of the time I visit each developer to see what kind
of progress they are making. I often become a tester myself so that I
can touch and get a feel for the project they are working on."

So what about his latest project, New Super Mario Bros. (coming to
Europe this summer)? Why did he decide to bring back Mario in the
classic side-scrolling style?

"We are always challenging ourselves to make something really new and
this new Super Mario Bros. game is going to be very important. Nintendo
DS has been hugely successful, especially in Japan, and we owe a big
part of the success to a software line-up called 'Touch
Generations'. People who have never played videogames before are
purchasing Nintendo DS as their very first game machine.

"When we launch New Super Mario Bros. for DS this could be the very
first videogame these people play. Of course we already have Super
Mario 64 DS but it is a more advanced version of Mario. With New Super
Mario Bros. we are going back to the basics. It's going to be simple
enough to control but yet have sophisticated enough content. We have
been working hard to make the best Super Mario game we can."

We're intrigued. Can he reveal what the game's story will be, for
instance?

"That's rather interesting because a number of our staff members
came up with a number of different stories," says Miyamoto, smiling.
"I told them that we really don't need any story behind this new
Super Mario Bros. at all. I have narrowed down the whole story to about
half of what my team originally came up with. Peach is kidnapped, Mario
has to go and rescue her from Bowser and the Koopa Kids. That's about
all you need to know for the story!" he laughs. "But what you
really need to know is that in the quest you are going to encounter
some unprecedented play ideas."

'Can you give us some examples of these ideas?' we ask.

"Well, we have drawn everything from 3D graphics," explains
Miyamoto "so that from time to time you are going to encounter
something really astonishing visually but as far as the gameplay and
control is concerned, that is going to be very simple.

"When it comes to Mario, sometimes you may be able to do an ultra
super jump and you are going to see a very unique and unprecedented
jumping style. In terms of Super Mario, everybody already expects him
to become bigger but this time, with the help of a Super Giant
Mushroom, Super Mario can become gigantic, taking up almost all the
screen, and he can destroy everything."

'And Mario can also become very small, by using another type of
mushroom, right?' we add.

"Right," says Miyamoto "and that's not all. For example, two
players can play as Mario and Luigi at the same time, in the
multiplayer mode. Sometimes you have to compete with each other to
reach the goal, and sometimes they can fight against each other. You
remember the game Mario Bros.? In that, Mario and Luigi could sometimes
cooperate, sometimes compete. I think it's more fun to have two
players play simultaneously in this New Super Mario Bros.

"And you remember in Super Mario 64 DS we incorporated a number of
minigames? Each of these minigames is going to be available in New
Super Mario Bros. In each minigame both Mario and Luigi can compete
against each other. Some you can play in two-player or four-player mode
with one cartridge."

Sounds great! But hang on, didn't Miyamoto mention Koopa Kids a
second ago? We haven't heard from them in a while. We inquire if the
new game has the same kind of 'Level, World, Fortress, Boss'
structure as in Super Mario Bros. 3.

"Unfortunately I am not in a position to tell you anything further,
sorry, but basically yes you are right!" says Miyamoto, chuckling.

OK, consider our appetites whetted! So New Mario Bros. is a classic
style game, therefore, we want to know, are there going to be classic
style cheats, like warp pipes and the old 'walking along the top of
the screen' trick?

"Well, there will be many people who play New Super Mario Bros. that
have never played a Mario Bros. game before," he tells us. "But at the
same time we want to evoke a kind of nostalgic feeling in those people
who used to play with the past series, so we are now trying to
incorporate as many old tricks and tweaks as possible into this new DS
version."

OK, time to switch to Miyamoto's other famous creation: Zelda.
What's the latest on Twilight Princess?

"I would say that we are progressing well with completing it," says
Miyamoto. "And one of the most important features is that, because
Revolution can run GameCube software, when you play Twilight Princess
on Revolution you can take advantage of the Revolution controller."

We press further but Miyamoto is remaining tight-lipped on specifics.
So, speaking of Revolution, what kind of cool software has he seen so
far?

"You know, the DS is a very good example when we talk about
Revolution software. Nobody would have expected brain training software
or puppy communicating software when we were originally talking about
the concept of the Nintendo DS. People would never have imagined that
line-up of software could ever be as successful in the marketplace as
it is now.

"In the case of Revolution, there is going to be a lot of software
that are so-called 'sequels' to the existing type of games, however
what is going to be the most attractive point about Revolution is the
other applications. These kind of applications are going to make
Revolution something really important for any ordinary household; more
specifically catering for each type of family member in the house."

So when can we expect to find out more about Revolution? For instance
will everything be revealed at E3?

"Almost everything," he laughs. "I don't know about the pricing
at the moment or anything like that but, yes, basically at E3."

And with that tantalising answer hanging in the air, we're told our
time is up. Mr Miyamoto is about to be whisked off to catch the
Eurostar to London, for more interviews and also to record a special
webcast in which he answers questions sent in by you.

So if you fancy pumping him for more details about those Koopa Kids, or
want to know what his Brain Training 'brain age' is (clue: it's in the
20s) you can submit your question at www.webchats.tv. If it's a good
one, Miyamoto will answer it personally on the webcast this Friday.

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