The Great Video Game Creator: Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto and his greatest creation.
Shigeru Miyamoto is the creator of some of the best video games in history. He is the creator of Super Mario Bros., The Legend Of Zelda, Kirby, and the very first Nintendo game, Sheriff.
Over time, he has also been involved in so many Nintendo games, from Super Mario 64, to Smash Bros. Melee, to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, all the way to Pikmin 3 Deluxe, which came out recently in 2020. He helped Nintendo become the gaming giant that it is today. He is the main reason we have games like The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.
A lot of Shigeru’s inspiration comes from real life, such as his gardening, which was the inspiration for Pikmin. But before we talk about Shigeru himself, let's talk about some of his work.
Nintendo at first was a small trading card company. However, when they started going into the gaming industry, they made a lot of really bad games. But Shigeru started working there in 1977 and so on, but then made a game that started a long line of well acclaimed games. It was known as Donkey Kong.
Originally, Donkey Kong was going to be a game based off of the Popeye series, but they replaced the characters (Bluto turned to Donkey Kong, Olive Oyl became Pauline, and Popeye became Mario). The “Donkey” in Donkey Kong was used to portray a short temper or anger. However, this led to the creation of one the best video game series ever, Super Mario Bros..
The original Super Mario Bros.
Mario was first introduced in Donkey Kong, and then became wildly popular when Super Mario Bros. was released worldwide. He has not only become one of the most popular game characters, but has a movie in the works, a manga, and more than one game on each Nintendo system. Had he not been invented, Nintendo of America would not exist. He basically is the Avengers of the gaming industry. When it comes to his games, he is inevitable.
Speaking of inevitable Nintendo games, The Legend of Zelda is another one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, and like Pikmin, it had inspiration from Miyamoto’s childhood. He bravely explored a cave in Sonobe, Kyoto when he was about seven or eight, and this was the beginning of The Legend of Zelda. These adventures spawned some of the best games ever. It took a while to release, but it was very well received with its great dramatic music and storyline.
Like with most games back then, The Legend of Zelda had a manual only for use if you were having a hard time, which was almost always disregarded. Honestly, I’ve played it, and I really enjoy it. It shows me that even back then, games were still super cool. But enough about games. Let's talk about the main focus of this article, Shigeru Miyamoto.
The award-winning The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Shigeru Miyamoto has been and is one of the most important game designers in history. When he made Donkey Kong, there was a lot of weight on him, the main reason being that Nintendo of America's fate rested on his shoulders. Radar Scope, an old Nintendo game, wasn’t selling well, which could have pushed Nintendo to the brink of bankruptcy.
However, when it came out in arcades, Donkey Kong was a big hit, saving Nintendo of America from bankruptcy. From then on, he made more games that would continue to impress the world. However, one of the main games that he made that helped Nintendo skyrocket to where it is now is Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo Entertainment System. That's why Nintendo is the gaming giant it is, because of him. He makes some of the most enjoyable games ever, and as gamers and non-gamers, we can be thankful of that.
He has been working at Nintendo for forty-three years and while he isn’t working on other Nintendo games currently, he is doing work on the upcoming Super Mario Movie by Illumination. One of his famous quotes is, "Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll."
He has two adult children, 26 and 28 and a wife.
Fin.
References:
The Legend Of Zelda Developer Interview by Akinori Sao, 2016
Super Mario Bros Interview by Akinori Sao, 2016
Shigeru Miyamoto Article on the FANDOM Nintendo Wiki











