Shigeru Miyamoto Wishes Angry Birds Came Out for the DS

In a recent interview with downloadable games-centric site HookShot Inc., Nintendo's fan favorite games designer Shigeru Miyamoto has let it slip that he has nothing but respect for the hit casual game Angry Birds and its developers Rovio, despite the game being a best seller for Apple's iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone, which are the only real threats to Nintendo's touchscreen handheld.

"There aren’t many games that I’ve played recently that have been truly convincing to me. But that said, I have very much enjoyed Angry Birds, especially the way in which it combines traditional and new game elements in exciting ways. Angry Birds is a very simple idea but it’s one of those games that I immediately appreciated when I first started playing, before wishing that I had been the one to come up with the idea first. I mean, obviously I want to be the one creating the most convincing, surprising game ideas."

Miyamoto also had some words (and praise!) regarding Angry Birds' appeal:

"In particular the control scheme is excellent. When you analyze it, the controls are actually quite fuzzy in terms of the way that it works. It takes a little while to get used to the controls, I think, but once you’ve mastered them, you have a lot of precision. To make it the interface and controls work that well and intuitively… well, I think a lot of work went into getting that right."

Of course, Angry Birds for the iPad really made a huge dent in Nintendo's business, and Miyamoto doesn't forget that fact. Still, Miyamoto is Miyamoto so even his bitterness is laced with good humor and cheer:

"Obviously, if the developer had created the game for Nintendo DS the controls would have been even better, but what can you do?"