Back when you were too dumb to color inside the lines, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I don’t remember having any practical professional fantasies like most kids do - firefighters and policemen were never really my thing. I definitely idolized the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, though. I understood that it was fictional and that there weren’t really super villains that needed to be taken care of, but I knew the secret identities, terribly fake martial arts and huge mechs were for me.
What do you expect or hope for from the video game industry in the next few years?
I expect things to keep chugging along like they have been for the past couple years without much change. I think what this generation, both on the handheld and home console side, is about has been laid down, and now it’s all about perfecting it. I hope we get the first Wii game that really makes me love the controller, and I hope developers learn a thing or two from Portal and Grand Theft Auto IV.
Willy Wonka made a house out of chocolate, three pigs made houses out of bricks and sticks and straw; what would you build a dream house out of?
I’m pretty happy with how modern buildings are constructed, now that I think about it. I’d love to say something like boobs or flat-screen TVs, but if the three little pigs taught me anything it’s that the wolf will come a-blowing, and when that happens, you want a solid foundation and frame to keep you safe.
Of all the past or present television shows, which is your absolute favorite?
It’s gotta be The Adventures of Pete and Pete, which ran on Nickelodeon when I was growing up. I’ve watched it since then, both on reruns and on DVD, and as I went from a pre-teen to a teen I noticed myself going from relating more to little Pete to preferring his older brother Pete. It’s not just the heartfelt drama that gets to me now though; it still makes me laugh as much as it did when I was eight. It also has a great soundtrack and is beautifully filmed. Whenever I flip on Nick or Cartoon Network now, I feel bad for kids these days.
If you could choose one person (alive or dead) to be trapped in an elevator with, who would it be?
I’d be nervous as hell, and I probably wouldn’t really know what to say to him, but Shigeru Miyamoto. He’s done more to shape what video games are and mean than anyone else, and really, he’s been with me through my whole life, even if he’s never known me and I didn’t know who he was until I was a teenager. I also have great respect for him, because even though he’s been working on games for twenty-five years, he’s not just stayed on the forefront of the medium, he’s defined it. That’s something you can say about very few artists in any form of media.