Miyamoto: Would have been nice to release Pikmin 3 closer to Wii U launch

Apparently, I'm not alone in the sentiment that Pikmin 3 should've been a launch title for the Wii U. Speaking with Time, Shigeru Miyamoto expressed his desire for Pikmin 3 to be a launch title, while explaining the game's long development schedule. Miyamoto said:

If you look back at the launch of Wii, we were able to prepare a game like Wii Sports, which at the time was clearly a new game, and launch that alongside a Zelda game. With the Wii U, we took a similar approach by launching Nintendo Land as well as a Mario game — though we're working on Zelda for Wii U, that's going to take us a little bit longer.

From my perspective, I think ideally it would have been nice if we’d been able to release Pikmin 3 closer to launch, but the Wii U — though it shares the Wii name — is obviously a brand new system, with new chips and graphical capabilities. It can do a lot more, and in the process of developing a lot of the features and functionality, the resources required to best utilize those features drew on some of the same resources that might have been spent developing games, thus we weren’t able to bring quite as robust a lineup initially.

At the same time, we still have new things to learn about how to leverage the features and functionalities of Wii U in ways that create fun and interesting new ways to play, including new gameplay systems. As we become even more familiar with the hardware, we’ll be able to do more from a software standpoint. That’s an area we’re currently devoting resources to.

Currently, Pikmin 3 is scheduled to release some time this spring or summer. It is the third installment in the Pikmin series and has been one of the Wii U's most anticipated titles. There hasn't been a ton of details about the game, but we do know that it will be more like the original Pikmin and that it will support GamePad-only play.

In Pikmin 3, players will discover a beautiful world filled with strange creatures. The mass-action strategy game will have players take command of a swarm of Pikmin trying to survive.

Miyamoto obviously thinks that the Wii U hasn't reached its full potential, and I agree. I'm among the Wii U launch adopters, and I think the Pikmin 3 will be the first great Wii U game. Meanwhile, the new Zelda game is going to be huge for the console, so it's no surprise that it's going to take a while. Zelda isn't one of those franchises where you slap the name on a box and have three games with Link in it released a year. He's no Mario. He's special.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com

[Time]