Some of Mario's new abilities in this game predate their appearances in other mainstream Mario games, including the Backward Somersault that appeared in Super Mario 64, and the Wire Spin's similarity to the Super Whirl Jump in Super Mario Sunshine. According to a developer interview from the game's Shogakukan official strategy guide, producer Shigeru Miyamoto explained that he wanted to give Mario these new abilities so the player could enjoy all the things you can do in pursuit to the end of the level, and he did not want these moves to be difficult to execute akin to a game like Street Fighter II. According to director Takao Shimizu, they initially wanted the cutscenes between every four stages to be demo screens where Mario would sequentially unlock these abilities. Miyamoto shot down this idea, as he thought it would be unfair to deny all the moves to players who had trouble completing the game. Miyamoto also revealed that Mario's different death animations were meant to expand on the death animation from Mario Bros., where he would catch alight if he was touched by a fireball.