Shigeru Miyamoto

“What if, on a crowded street, you look up and see something appear that should not, given what we know, be there. You either shake your head and dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than we think. Perhaps it really is a doorway to another place. If you choose to go inside you may find many unexpected things....”

—Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto with Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong stuffed toys.

Shigeru Miyamoto (November 16, 1952 – ) is the man who invented Mario and various other video game characters born in November 16, 1952. He grew up near his current home of Kyoto, about ten blocks from Nintendo headquarters. He rides his bike, or walks to work each day, usually with his wife, whom he met on the job (She was general manager in when he joined a job he now has.). He joined the industry as a designer for character art in 1977. He has worked on many famous Mario games, and the well known Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, Doki Doki Panic.

Miyamoto was born and raised in the small, rural town of Sonobe, Japan. His home lacked a television, so he would spend a large amount of his time exploring the surrounding countryside. One time, he discovered a large series of caves. He returned with a lantern and spend the summer spelunking.

Miyamoto wanted to make things that would astonish the world. He considered becoming a puppeteer, a painter, and later made toys. He decided to study industrial design at Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts in 1970. He only attended class half the time, so it took him five years to graduate.

Miyamoto was 24, and had shaggy hair when he had his father contact an old toy company friend, named Hiroshi Yamauchi. The company's name was Nintendo. Yamauchi requested to see some toy designs, to which Miyamoto responded to by returning with a bag of goodies, and an amazing portfolio. Miyamoto became Nintendo's first staff artist. This was in 1977.

Three years later, in 1980, Nintendo of America was looking fror a hit to establish themselves in the arcade market, they ordered a large number of units of an arcade game called radar scope but by the time the machines arrived the intrest in the game had bombed. Nintendo needed a game to use in the machines that could be converted into them easily. Yamauchi called Miyamoto into his office, as he was the only staff member available at the time. He questioned Miyamoto about his knowledge on this new concept. Miyamoto claimed to have loved video games in college. After some licenses fell through, Donkey Kong was born.

With Donkey Kong's success, Miyamoto was given his own team: R&D 4, later known as Nintendo EAD. They would go on to make some of Nintendo's most memorable games, including Mario.

Despite being an influential figure in video games and responsible for multi-million dollar franchises, Miyamoto is said to be very humble, insisting on settling for an average income.

Awards and Honors

• Inductee to the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame
• A star on the Walk of Game
• French Order of Arts and Literature
• Featured in Time Asia's "60 Years of Asian Heroes"
• GDC's Lifetime Achievement Award
• Subject of an episode of Icons

Trivia

• Miyamoto did not attend his college classes half the time, causing him to stay a full five years.
• Miyamoto is ambidextrous. He favors his left hand and likes to make characters that are left-handed. For example, Mario and Link are left-handed.
• Miyamoto can play both the guitar and banjo.
• He starred in a Mega 64 sketch about New Super Mario Bros.
• When Shigeru was in Elementary School, he wanted to be involved in puppet shows and wanted to be making puppets, designing sets, and writing stories for puppet shows.

Quotes

“Who knows what Mario will look like in the future. Maybe he'll wear metallic clothes!”

—Shigeru Miyamoto, 1995

“Videogames are bad for you? That's what they said about rock 'n' roll.”

—Shigeru Miyamoto

“A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.”

—Shigeru Miyamoto

External links

• Miyamoto Shrine: A website dedicated to Shigeru Miyamoto
• Retro Nintendo's Scan
• Gamehiker