In a new interview with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who recently made the Time 100 list, Entertainment Weekly's Geoff Keighley asks the video game legend if he feels he's losing touch with American gamers because games like Halo often sell more copies.

Miyamoto responded, "I could make Halo. It's not that I couldn't design that game. It's just that I choose not to. One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design. I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play."

Miyamoto's approach to game design is certainly very different from his peers, but he is hopeful that other game developers will lean towards their creativity rather than constantly worrying about the risks associated with the video game business.

"With rising budgets, I understand why game companies have a great deal of concern if they don't design games in this way," he continued. "But you need to create what you want to create! In that sense, I would really like to see people develop games like I do. When I show a game to people I don't ask their opinion or give them a survey. I just watch their eyes and their face while they play. Do they smile? Do they look frustrated? So I guess I do test my games � but it isn't very scientific."

Interestingly, Miyamoto also laments the fact that Zelda: Twilight Princess has not been a huge success in Japan. "... to be honest with you, Zelda: Twilight Princess is not doing very well at all in Japan. It is very disappointing. But it is doing okay here in America," he said, perhaps indicating that although the Wii has attracted new gamers in Japan, it has failed to retain many of the hardcore players.

Miyamoto added, "I think a lot of people who bought the Wii are not necessarily the types of people who are interested in playing that kind of game. And a lot of the people who would want to play it [due to chronic shortages of the console] can't find a Wii! But mostly, I think it's that there are fewer and fewer people who are interested in playing a big role-playing game like Zelda."

Another one of the reasons for Zelda's disappointing sales in Japan may be that most gamers felt the controls were too complex. At GDC, producer Eiji Aonuma detailed his team's struggle with tweaking the controls following Zelda's E32006 appearance.

Earlier in the interview Miyamoto also talks briefly about possibly making games that carry a deeper social message, such as respecting the elderly or paying one's taxes. Check out the full interview for more.