88 Facts About Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors.

Shigeru Miyamoto originally sought a career as a manga artist, until developing an interest in video games.

Shigeru Miyamoto helped create art for the arcade game Sheriff, and was later tasked with designing a new arcade game, leading to the 1981 game Donkey Kong.

Shigeru Miyamoto's games have been flagships of every Nintendo video game console, from the arcade machines of the late 1970s to the present day.

Shigeru Miyamoto was born on November 16,1952, in the Japanese town of Sonobe, Kyoto Prefecture.

Shigeru Miyamoto's parents were of "modest means", and his father taught the English language.

From an early age, Shigeru Miyamoto explored the natural areas around his home.

Shigeru Miyamoto discovered a cave, and, after days of hesitation, went inside.

Shigeru Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design.

Shigeru Miyamoto had a love for manga and initially hoped to become a professional manga artist before considering a career in video games.

Shigeru Miyamoto was influenced by manga's classical kishotenketsu narrative structure, as well as Western genre television shows.

Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to enter the video game industry by the 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders.

Shigeru Miyamoto helped create the art for the coin-operated arcade game, Sheriff.

Shigeru Miyamoto first helped the company develop a game after the 1980 release Radar Scope.

Shigeru Miyamoto tasked Miyamoto with the conversion, about which Miyamoto has said self-deprecatingly that "no one else was available" to do the work.

Shigeru Miyamoto imagined many characters and plot concepts, but eventually settled on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a woman.

Shigeru Miyamoto meant to mirror the rivalry between comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl, although Nintendo's original intentions to gain rights to Popeye failed.

Bluto evolved into an ape, a form Shigeru Miyamoto claimed was "nothing too evil or repulsive".

Shigeru Miyamoto named "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong as influences.

Shigeru Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project, but lacked the technical skills to program it himself; instead, he conceived the game's concepts, then consulted technicians on whether they were possible.

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners, and react in various ways.

Shigeru Miyamoto next thought of using sloped platforms and ladders for travel, with barrels for obstacles.

Yokoi convinced Shigeru Miyamoto to give Mario some superhuman abilities, namely the ability to fall from any height unharmed.

Shigeru Miyamoto felt that New York City provided the best setting for the game, with its "labyrinthine subterranean network of sewage pipes".

Shortly after, Shigeru Miyamoto worked the character sprites and game design for the Baseball, Tennis, and Golf games on the NES.

In both games, Shigeru Miyamoto decided to focus more on gameplay than on high scores, unlike many games of the time.

Shigeru Miyamoto worked on various other different games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including Ice Climber and Kid Icarus.

Shigeru Miyamoto worked on sequels to both Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda.

Bowser's children were designed to be unique in appearance and personality; Shigeru Miyamoto based the characters on seven of his programmers as a tribute to their work on the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto worked through various games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, one of them Star Fox.

Shigeru Miyamoto led a team consisting of a partnership between Nintendo and Square; it took nearly a year to develop the graphics.

Shigeru Miyamoto created The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the third entry in the series.

Shigeru Miyamoto mentored Satoshi Tajiri, guiding him during the creation process of Pocket Monsters: Red and Green, the initial video games in the Pokemon series.

Shigeru Miyamoto acted as the producer for these games and worked on social gameplay concepts such as trading.

Shigeru Miyamoto made several games for the Nintendo 64, mostly from his previous franchises.

Shigeru Miyamoto guided the design of the Nintendo 64 controller in tandem with that of Super Mario 64.

However, when things progressed slower than expected, Shigeru Miyamoto returned to the development team with a more central role assisted in public by interpreter Bill Trinen.

Shigeru Miyamoto went on to produce a sequel to Ocarina of Time, known as The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Shigeru Miyamoto worked on a variety of Mario series spin-offs for the Nintendo 64, including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party.

Shigeru Miyamoto produced various games for the GameCube, including the launch game Luigi's Mansion.

Shigeru Miyamoto made an original short demo of the game concepts, and Nintendo decided to turn it into a full game.

Shigeru Miyamoto continued to make additional Mario spinoffs in these years.

Shigeru Miyamoto produced the 3D game series Metroid Prime, after the original designer Yokoi, a friend and mentor of Miyamoto's, died.

Shigeru Miyamoto worked on new games for the Star Fox, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, and The Legend of Zelda series on both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance systems.

Shigeru Miyamoto helped with many games on the Nintendo DS, including the remake of Super Mario 64, titled Super Mario 64 DS, and the new game Nintendogs, a new franchise based on his own experiences with dogs.

Shigeru Miyamoto played a major role in the development of the Wii, a console that popularized motion control gaming, and its launch game Wii Sports, which helped show the capability of the new control scheme.

Shigeru Miyamoto went on to produce other titles in the Wii series, including Wii Fit.

At E3 2004, Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, appearing dressed as the protagonist Link with a sword and shield.

Shigeru Miyamoto helped with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which featured more accurate motion controls.

Shigeru Miyamoto produced two Zelda titles for the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Shigeru Miyamoto produced three major Mario titles for Wii from 2007 to 2010: Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros.

Shigeru Miyamoto was relieved of this position in September 2015 when Tatsumi Kimishima assumed the role of the company's president.

Shigeru Miyamoto was appointed the position of "Creative Fellow" at the same time, providing expert advice to Kimishima as a "support network" alongside Takeda.

In 2018, it was announced that Shigeru Miyamoto would be working as a producer on The Super Mario Bros.

Shigeru Miyamoto was heavily involved with the design and construction of Super Nintendo World, a themed area featured at Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood and under construction at Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Epic Universe.

Shigeru Miyamoto oversaw the design and construction of the land and its attractions and acted as Nintendo's public representative on the land, hosting several promotional materials including a December 2020 Nintendo Direct in which he gave a tour of parts of the land.

Shigeru Miyamoto says that if he enjoys it, others will too.

Shigeru Miyamoto encourages younger developers to consider people who are new to gaming, for example by having them switch their dominant hand with their other hand to feel the experience of an unfamiliar game.

Shigeru Miyamoto is more focused on the game mechanics, such as the choices and challenges in the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto prefers to change his games right until they are finalized, and to make "something unique and unprecedented".

Shigeru Miyamoto prefers the game to be interactively fun rather than have elaborate film sequences, stating in 1999, "I will never make movie-like games"; therefore, the more than 90 total minutes of short cutscenes interspersed throughout Ocarina of Time deliver more interactive cinematic qualities.

Shigeru Miyamoto has occasionally been critical of the role-playing game genre.

Shigeru Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, some being considered the greatest games of all time.

Shigeru Miyamoto's games have sold very well, becoming some of the bestselling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time.

Shigeru Miyamoto has a unique and brilliant mind as well as an unparalleled grasp of what gamers want to play.

Shigeru Miyamoto's best known and most influential game, Super Mario Bros.

The Wii, which Shigeru Miyamoto played a major role in designing, is the first wireless motion-controlled video game console.

Shigeru Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, and are widely considered among the greatest of all time.

Shigeru Miyamoto's games have sold very well, becoming some of the bestselling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time.

Shigeru Miyamoto produced Wii Sports, another of the bestselling games of all time and part of the Wii series.

The name of the main character of the PC game Daikatana, Hiro Shigeru Miyamoto, is a homage to Shigeru Miyamoto.

In 1998, Shigeru Miyamoto was honored as the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Shigeru Miyamoto was made a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

On November 28,2006, Shigeru Miyamoto was featured in TIME Asia's "60 Years of Asian Heroes".

Shigeru Miyamoto was later chosen as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the Year in both 2007 and in 2008, in which he topped the list with a total vote of 1,766,424.

Shigeru Miyamoto has been interviewed by companies and organizations such as CNN's Talk Asia.

Shigeru Miyamoto was made a Fellow of BAFTA at the British Academy Video Games Awards on March 19,2010.

In 2012, Shigeru Miyamoto was the first interactive creator to be awarded the highest recognition in Spain, the Prince of Asturias Award, in the category of Communications and Humanities.

Shigeru Miyamoto was awarded Japan's Person of Cultural Merit in 2019 in recognition for his contributions towards Japan's video game industry.

Shigeru Miyamoto was the first person in the video game industry to receive the honor.

Shigeru Miyamoto is married to Yasuko and they have two children.

Shigeru Miyamoto's children played video games in their youth, but he made them go outside.

Shigeru Miyamoto spends little time playing video games in his personal time, preferring to play the guitar, mandolin, and banjo.

Shigeru Miyamoto said in a 2016 interview that when he had his own family he took up gardening with his wife which influenced other games that he was making at the time.

Shigeru Miyamoto has a Shetland Sheepdog named Pikku that provided the inspiration for Nintendogs.

Shigeru Miyamoto enjoys rearranging furniture in his house, even late at night.

Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he has a hobby of guessing the dimensions of objects, then checking to see if he was correct, and reportedly carries a measuring tape with him everywhere.

In December 2016, Shigeru Miyamoto showcased his hobby on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, while performing the Super Mario Bros.