Shigeru Miyamoto was born November 16, 1952. When he was merely a young boy, he had quite an overactive imagination. He was heavily into exploring landscapes not too far from his house including caves, trees, lakes, and various other occurrences within nature, and he also had knack for drawing. Many of the games developed today stem from his early childhood life. Later on, Shigeru majored in design Kanazawa Municipal Art and Design University and soon landed a job at Nintendo. Some of his first hands on projects at Nintendo were board game designs and graphical designs for arcade games. His first breakthrough was with the game Donkey Kong for NES. From there, he used Jumpman from Donkey Kong (later named Mario) to create a spin off called Super Mario Brothers. This game put Nintendo on the map up until this day. Since then, Miyamoto has created other classic games such as Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, Kirby, Wave Race, Pikmin, and various others. His most recent involvement has been on a variety of Wii games such as Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart Wii. He has won various awards throughout his career including TIME Magazine’s 2007 Most Influential People of the Year, the Lifetime Achievement Award, and quite a few others.

Miyamoto was the first game developer to create an adventurous side scrolling game, known as Super Mario Brothers. This was the first of its kind. The aspect that most people loved was the fact that anyone could pick up a controller and play the game without previous knowledge. The Mario and Zelda series are the most well known games that have ever been introduced to the gaming population. These are the games that most Nintendo lovers jump to buy on the day of release. What is it that makes these games so popular?

The answer to this question stems from Shigeru Miyamoto’s early childhood life. As previously mentioned, he was heavily into exploration in the various areas around his home. I feel, as many probably do, that the appeal to Miyamoto’s games is his expansion of the possible worlds. The levels that one’s imagination reaches while exploring these lands that are created in his games provide endless entertainment. Even though these games are packed with adventure and exploration, they still appeal to the audience who prefers a fight. There are still plenty of enemies and bosses that provide a challenge whence fighting them. There are still many out there who prefer a more action packed game with shooting and killing, but Miyamoto tends to shun away from this aspect in video games and keeps his games family oriented.

Some more recent examples of his works include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario 64. They both have huge worlds that need to be uncovered with various side quests and adventures. The enemies are slain is similar fashions as other games, but with less violence and gore. In Zelda, the beasts are killed with a sword, but instead of blood, they vanish into wisps of smoke. As for Mario, the enemies either turn into a coin or a star.

In an interview with Miyamoto, he stated, “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 ideas are for people to enjoy all of his games without having to resort to violence.

A small controversy erupted between Shigeru Miyamoto and David Jaffe, who has been involved in games such as Twisted Metal and God of War. Miyamoto questioned the point of having guns attached to cars, and Jaffe responded with, “You know, honestly, I’ve been too busy recently trying to figure out why the f*ck go-karts shoot banana peels.”

However, in a later interview Jaffe shows some forms of respect towards Miyamoto’s work. He calls him the father of game design, and gives him much credit for his work. Each designer has a different view on the worlds they wish to create, and Miyamoto and Jaffe contrast tremendously. Both are remarkably skilled at their jobs and create games that appeal to many people in the younger generation. As mentioned, Miyamoto creates his games with less violence and more appeal to the general public, while Jaffe’s games have that violence. Many of his games have “twisted” themes and plots, but are effective nonetheless. As mentioned in the following interview, if Jaffe created his own Mario game, it would definitely have drug innuendos throughout the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto has been known as the father of game design. He almost single handedly turned Nintendo into the best gaming corporation in the world overnight with Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers. All of his games create a new world of imagination for all ages to sit down and enjoy with little to no experience. Even when Miyamoto decides to retire, he will always be known as one of the greatest video game creators of all time, and Nintendo will most definitely keep creating all of these favorites over and over again.

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