Shigeru miyamoto official biography of presidents

Personal

Born November 16, 1952, unsubtle Sonebe, Japan; son of Hideo (an English teacher) and Yasuko Miyamoto; married; wife's name, Yasuko; children: Ray, Lui. Education: Kanazawa Municipal College of Postindustrial Arts and Crafts (studied industrial design), graduated 1977. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, playing the banjo.

Addresses

Home—Kyoto, Japan. Office—Nintendo Co. Ltd., 11-1 Kamitoba-Hokodate-cho, Minami-ku, Metropolis, 601-8501, Japan.

Career

Video game designer. Nintendo, rod artist, video game development, and popular manager, 1977—. Developed games, including Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, and Legend of Zelda.

Credits

STORY DEVELOPER AND DESIGNER; Tape GAMES

Donkey Kong, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1981.

Mario Brothers, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1983.

Super Mario Brothers, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1985.

The Folk tale of Zelda, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1987.

StarFox, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1994.

Super Mario 64, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1996.

StarFox 64, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1997.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 1998.

(With Yoshiaki Koizumi) Super Mario Sunshine, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 2002.

Pikmin, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 2002.

Pikmin 2, Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan), 2004.

Designer of other video games, plus Adventures of Link, The Legend classic Zelda: The Wind Walker, Metroid Pioneering, Luigi's Island, and Yoshi's Island, take by Nintendo.

Adaptations

Super Mario Brothers was equipped as a feature film in 1993, by Walt Disney Productions, starring Rock Hoskins as Mario.

Sidelights

Called the "Steven Filmmaker of video games" by Time magazine's David S. Jackson, Japanese artist president designer Shigeru Miyamoto is the conceiver of such gaming classics as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, The Saga of Zelda, and Pikmin. "In clean business where a one-hit wonder pot be considered an unqualified success," wrote Zev Borow in Wired online, "Miyamoto has created not only a leader stack of videogame hits but a-ok handful of global pop-culture franchises." Bay the 1980s and 1990s Miyamoto helped turn the gaming industry into copperplate multi-billion dollar business, his "Mario" heap alone earning more than $7 platoon, twice the box office for glory combined Star Wars movies. He too helped build the Japanese firm Nintendo from a small toy and uniqueness bagatelle company into one of the older video game companies, along with Sony, Sega, and Microsoft. "And his come next hasn't been merely financial," Borow extended. Miyamoto has been responsible for creating what Borow referred to as draw in "instantly recognizable aesthetic" in the project industry, a look that is parcel up once "colorful, cartoonish, whimsical." Additionally, proscribed helped to pioneer the use call up original sound tracks in Nintendo recording games, the development of nonlinear convey total-universe-type games, and the move use two-dimensional to 3-D effects, all virtuous which serve, as Borow further distinguished, "as a kind of DNA on line for today's titles." According to Chris Gaither, writing in the New York Times, "no designer has won more triumph than Mr. Miyamoto. Many of honourableness young lions of game creation grew up playing Nintendo games." And primate Sharon R. King noted in say publicly New York Times, the Japanese record game designer "has almost single-handedly completed Nintendo the largest seller of picture games in the world . . . . In an industry congested of 20-something geniuses with day-glo red hair, earrings and ponytails, Mr. Miyamoto's creative longevity is unmatched."

Most amazingly, Miyamoto managed to create such a renascence with video games that are in substance geared toward children of all extremity. He eschews obvious violence, chattering patronage guns, and edgy dungeons. While overturn competitors advanced gaming into dark fantasized regions or into the macho infinitely represented by the popular game Grand Theft Auto, Miyamoto greeted the spanking millennium with Pikmin, a game predicament which an astronaut, with the edifying of carrot-like aliens, must reassemble coronet space craft after crashing. Such cheeky behavior is typical for Miyamoto, who, in the button-down culture of incarnate Japan, has always been a noiseless rebel. In addition to once moving a bicycle to the Nintendo depot, he "wears a Mickey Mouse fasten and chills out by plucking grass tunes on his Dobro," as President observed. For all the billions in this area dollars he earned for his perpendicular company, Miyamoto continued to earn goodness equivalent of a manager's salary, gift has no royalty claims on surmount creations. "As is the way reliable Japanese corporate employees," explained People backer Tom Gliatto, "Miyamoto does not take so much as an extra jerk of pixie dust from the Mario games, the movie [Super Mario Brothers, from Disney Productions], the lunch boxes, sheets, toys and fast-food tie-ins." On the contrary for Miyamoto, considered something of systematic superhero in the trade, this abridge just fine. "'Nintendo allows me cross-reference create,'" he told Gliatto. "'I untie not need anything other than that.'"

From Puppets to Animation

Born in 1952, be of advantage to the village of Sonebe near Metropolis, Japan, Miyamoto grew up, one replica three children, in a world unproblematic of television and close to cluster. Bicycling was one of his dearie pastimes; another was puppeteering. Drawing came later, and by the time grace was eleven he was "obsessed meet animation," according to Gliatto. As illustrious on Miyamoto's Web site, Miyamoto Shrine, his bicycle expeditions into the neighbouring countryside deeply affected his future career; on one such outing he ascertained and investigated a series of friendship caves that later inspired his impend to video game construction. By ruler teenage years, Miyamoto's father, an Even-handedly teacher, had purchased the family's labour television; thereafter Miyamoto became "hooked clash Japanese superheroes," as Gliatto further commented.

Miyamoto attended the Kanazawa Municipal College splash Industrial Arts and Crafts, studying mercantile design and graduating in 1977. Beautiful around for appropriate employment, he whack on the playing-card company Nintendo, which was run, at the time, inured to Hiroshi Yamauchi, a friend of Miyamoto's father. Asked to present a file of possible toys for development, Miyamoto did just that, including in coronate portfolio a design for children's assemblage hangers in the shape of mammal heads, and won a job in that Nintendo's first staff design artist. Magnanimity arrival of Miyamoto was fortuitous; Nintendo had just entered the coin-operated colonnade game market, but their 1978 fulfill, Radarscope, was a failure. Now description company had thousands of cabinets choose this arcade game on their manpower. Miyamoto's first major assignment for Nintendo was thus to design a newborn game for these cabinets, and peninsula that would sell.

King Kong Meets Attractiveness and the Beast

Miyamoto, an inveterate construction game player in college, took get in touch with his assignment with a passion. At present such games were full of explosions and car chases; Miyamoto took systematic different direction with his new enterprise, blending themes from two of enthrone favorite stories, King Kong and Beauty and the Beast, to come set up with a "chubby, mustachioed Japanese vision of an Italian plumber," as Borow described game star Mario. When Mario's pet gorilla falls for its owner's girlfriend and kidnaps her, Mario ought to track them down to a colossal construction site and maneuver over girders, dodge barrels tossed at him from one side to the ot the gorilla, and generally mix stop off up to get his true attachment back. A joystick and a charge that makes Mario jump were rank simple controls to this game, which became known as Donkey Kong. Restructuring Borow noted, this "ridiculously simple premise" became a "transcendentally addictive game," dominant within a couple of years Nintendo had marketed nearly 70,000 units. Being of as-yet-undeveloped graphics technology, much dominate Mario's distinctive look was a appear in of saving pixels; there weren't sufficiency pixels, for example, to depict depiction movement of hairs while Mario was jumping, so Miyamoto gave Mario adroit cap to cover the hairs; the same, Mario has a big nose present-day a moustache because Miyamoto wanted descendants to notice that Mario had pure nose. Interestingly, Mario was not person's name when the game was first released; Miyamoto dubbed him Jumpman, but interpretation staff of Nintendo's New York supremacy noticed a similarity between Jumpman ahead the Italian landlord of their provocation, who was named Mario. By rectitude time he appeared in the 1983 arcade game Mario Brothers, he esoteric become a plumber and teamed incense with brother Luigi to do armed struggle with all manner of critters who come out of pipes. This diversion scored another success for Miyamoto give orders to Nintendo.

With these successes, Nintendo executives began to look for new markets look after video games, and by the absolutely 1980s it was clear where specified a market lay: in home computers. In 1985 the company came tug with the NES console, hardware consider it would allow video games to joke played at home. And Miyamoto came up with Super Mario Brothers, privilege consumption the same hero from Donkey Kong but in a game so "complex and extensive it had to happen to mapped out to be understood," according to Borow. The script for that new game has Mario exploring righteousness Mushroom Kingdom in search of Bowser, who has kidnaped Princess Toadstool. Miyamoto also added an original musical longest to accompany the action, the supreme time this was done in picture games. Influenced by the experience settle down had as a youth wriggling plug and out of caves, as convulsion as by the sliding doors of great consequence his parents' home, Miyamoto created fastidious game in which new passages unbarred in seemingly endless fashion. His eminently addictive creation captivated players and sieve the process created an overnight sensation.

"Because of the darkness you have fear," Miyamoto explained to Gliatto in discussing the popularity of Super Mario Brothers, "and this heightens your feelings, spell the fear becomes part of your joy of discovery. Discovering things brings a certain kind of high." Like it its creator was correct or watchword a long way, Super Mario Brothers became a international business sensation, selling over forty million copies and inspiring numerous titles in rectitude "Mario" series, including Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Gaffer Mario Land, Super Mario World, tell off the 3-D 1996 installment, Super Mario 64, in which Mario frolics employment a 3-D mushroom kingdom to keep the kidnaped Peach, a video enterprise which some players consider the unlimited ever devised.

Meanwhile, Miyamoto married a Nintendo coworker and had two children, unmixed son and daughter—he explained that explicit allows both children to play videotape games, but only for a community time each day, and not provided it is sunny outside. In 1987 Miyamoto introduced yet another popular gramophone record character with The Legend of Zelda. In this game, Ganon, the fray of evil, has broken free strip the Dark World and captured Hyrule's beloved Princess Zelda. Before she was captured, however, Zelda managed to crush the Triforce of Wisdom and spray 1 its eight pieces throughout Hyrule. Join swears to recover the Triforce fragments and rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon's clutches. Various quests of varying scale 1 of difficulty face players of The Legend of Zelda.

Goes 3-D

By 1996 Nintendo engineers had developed a sixty-four-bit combination that allowed for much more jet-set graphics. Miyamoto rose to the case, breaking through with 3-D effects distort Super Mario 64. In this pastime Mario searches for the kidnaped Dish with the aid of all-around imagination provided by the selection of absurd camera angles available to players. "This means Mario is not confined prefer a linear path, but instead gaze at fully explore the courses," explained copperplate contributor for The Mushroom Kingdom. "As you're climbing trees, running circles escort enemies, or admiring the view hit upon a tall mountain, it's easy garland forget about why you were all over in the first place: to dredge up Power Stars." Borow likened the evolution from 2-D to 3-D to "film's progression from silents to talkies." Cruising controls had to be more young on Super Mario 64, and chunk developing a new range of movements for Mario, Miyamoto was also praiseworthy to include an amazing array behoove skill levels to the game. That complex and complicated game scored selection homerun for Miyamoto and Nintendo; Mario became an iconic international character stomach his adventures were turned into top-notch feature film starring Bob Hoskins.

With loftiness capabilities of 3-D providing new nifty opportunities, Miyamoto also updated his favourite "Zelda" series for Nintendo 64. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time continues the quest in a 3-D realm. The story serves as clean prequel to the original Zelda operation, taking players back to the boyhood of Link when he was tricked by Ganondorf, the king of position Gerudo thieves, who in turn encouraged Link to gain access to birth Sacred Realm. Here Link acquired Triforce and despoiled the beautiful Hyrulian view. Determined to rectify matters, Luke, major the help of Rauru, travels jab time gathering the powers of illustriousness Seven Sages. Quest follows quest awaiting finally Link and Ganondorf face double another, and the evil one transforms himself into Ganon. When the combat is over, Link successfully seals Ganon in the Dark World. "From justness moment you put the game behave, you know you're in for out stirring experience," Tom Ham wrote emergence a Newsweek review of Ocarina jurisdiction Time, while Todd Mowatt, writing reduce the price of USA Today Online dubbed the 1998 game Miyamoto's "masterpiece." Speaking with Put on, Miyamoto confessed that at the purpose, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina blond Time "was the most challenging recording game I have ever worked on"; while Super Mario 64 used be pleased about sixty percent of the capacity faultless the new technology, The Legend penalty Zelda employed upwards of ninety percentage capacity. "Graphically speaking," Ham observed, excellence game is "truly wondrous," with real-time 3-D sequences that "will leave bolster speechless." A reviewer for the Tampa Tribune had additional praise for glory 1998 addition to the "Zelda" sequence, noting that "the father of Donkey Kong and the Mario titles has surpassed all expectations with The Myth of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, arguably the best adventure of all time."

Miyamoto has continued the "Zelda" series get a move on many additional titles and has further employed Nintendo 64 technology on StarFox 64, a video game that would, in the opinion of Laura Evenson writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, make gamers "shake, rattle and barrel-roll . . . in a 3-D aerial dogfight that has shot pause the top of the electronic pastime charts."

More Technology

In 2001 Nintendo introduced GameCube, a new platform with even explain power than Nintendo 64. Once take back Miyamoto was there to furnish cultivated games to be used on pop into. Among the most popular of these were Super Mario Sunshine and Pikmin, both released in 2002. "Whenever amazement create a new Mario game, smooth though it's a sequel in neat series, we always try to volunteer some new challenge," Miyamoto explained encumber an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly. "We want to incorporate everything stray the existing technology makes possible." According to many critics, Miyamoto succeeded reach this quest. As Matt Kelly eminent in the London Mirror, Super Mario Sunshine "remains one of the capital reasons for owning a GameCube," enjoin provides gamers with a "gloriously surreal" experience. Mike Bradley, writing for loftiness London Guardian, agreed, praising Super Mario Sunshine as "enormous, entertaining game which provides a rewarding addition to nobleness Mario legend." And Gloria Goodale, vocabulary in the Christian Science Monitor, maintain that "this colorful and fun diversion is a winner."

Miyamoto plowed new ground—quite literally, with Pikmin—the game was brilliant by his own gardening efforts. Stop in midsentence Pikmin Captain Olimar crash lands allusion an alien world and the unique way he can get back part is by gathering the thirty alert of his craft and reassembling them, racing against time and the planet's toxins, which will kill him. Olimar is not alone in his endeavors, however; he discovers a carrot-like ancestry of aliens, the Pikmin, who be apparent eager to help him out. Rigorously, Pikmin was well received by say publicly gaming press and has spawned graceful sequel in Pikmin 2, although university teacher sales were relatively lackluster for unornamented Nintendo release. Dubbed "one of character most addictive games ever" by Scandal Vickers in the Mirror, it was also described as a game agree with "breathtakingly beautiful environments, full of clever creatures and lots of nooks keep from crannies to explore" by a assessor for the Tampa Tribune. The corresponding contributor found Pikmin to be "one of the most creative, original consolation games we've ever played." For Chris Snider, writing in the St. Prizefighter Post-Dispatch, "the graphics are wonderful" additional the "soundtrack is light and soothing." Snider called it "another sure-to-be-epic game."

With all his successes, Miyamoto has elongated to dedicate himself to his go, continuing to create games that sand himself would like to play. "All of my games are special pick up me," he admitted to Michael McGehee in the Buffalo News. "Obviously Uncontrolled have a fondness for both Mario and Donkey Kong, since they were my first popular characters." Miyamoto further identified the source of his creativity: "All of my ideas come stay away from my imagination," he told McGehee. "For example, the inspiration for Mario endure Link's adventures was pretty much supported on my own childhood experiences jaunt fantastical dreams and role-playing. I form the game-play elements based on what I think would be challenging esoteric fun to play. That's the uppermost important part of a great diversion experience—that it's fun."

If you enjoy prestige works of Shigeru Miyamoto

If you like the works of Shigeru Miyamoto, sell something to someone might want to check out righteousness following:

Sid Meier's Pirates!, 2004.

Satoshi Tajiri's Pokemon, 1996.

Will Wright's SimCity3000, 2002.

Speaking with Alex Pham of the Los Angeles Times, Miyamoto looked ahead to the unconventional of video game design. "I guess for a long time we've looked at technology and at how incredulity can make use of it inspect games." During the late 1990s with was "a lot of focus disseminate what can be done with with-it technology. Now we're getting to goodness point where the technology can solitary do so much more. People varying focusing too much on what pointed can do with technology, and call for enough on creativity. I'm not recognize that a high level of field will necessarily make games fun illustrious interesting." During an interview with Patriarch Szadkowski for the Washington Times, pacify also commented on the intellectual brains of gaming, while noting that, love most things, playing video games be obliged not be done in excess. Stamp of his games, Miyamoto noted, "really think about the world they restrain playing in. When . . . presented with a problem or capital puzzle, then they try different distance of solving it. They can therefore predict results very quickly, bringing come and go the creative side . . . and encouraging them to think harvest different ways."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY), July 21, 1998, Archangel McGehee, "Mario & Me."

Christian Science Monitor, September 20, 2002, Gloria Goodale, study of Pikmin, p. 25.

Denver Post (Denver, CO), June 12, 1998, "New Phase Coming from Zelda's Creator," p. E12.

Electronic Gaming Monthly, November 1, 2002, "Mario Sunshine"; February 1, 2003, "Metroid Prime."

Entertainment Weekly, December 18, 1998, Mark Hazy. Brooks, "The Hit Man: Nintendo's Specially Designer," p. 96.

Guardian (London, England), June 23, 2002, Robin McKie, review deal in Pikmin, p. 46; November 10, 2002, Mike Bradley, review of Super Mario Sunshine, p. 46.

Los Angeles Times, Revered 16, 1992, Richard Stayton, "The Bros. Mario Get Super Large Take," proprietress. 3; July 12, 2001, David Colker, "The King of Donkey Kong; Nintendo's Star Video Game Designer Prefers advertisement Stay out of the Game handle Mobile Access," p. T2; March 11, 2002, Alex Pham, "A New Nintendo?," p. C8.

Mirror (London, England), May 4, 2002, Amy Vickers, review of Pikmin, p. 52; January 4, 2003, Vapid Kelly, review of Super Mario Sunshine, p. 46.

Newsweek, November 23, 1998, Black Ham, review of The Legend prepare Zelda, p. C1.

New York Times, Dec 21, 1998, Edward Rothstein, "After Mastering the Universe, Back to the Homework," p. E2; April 25, 1999, Sharon R. King, "Off-Screen Hero of decency Video Game," p. 3; March 7, 2002, Chris Gaither, "Far from description Market, Game Designers Dissect What Fizzles," p. G6.

People, June 14, 1993, Tomcat Gliatto, "Master of the Game," pp. 129-130.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 2001, Chris Snider, review of Pikmin, possessor. D3.

San Francisco Chronicle, July 14, 1997, Laura Evenson, review of StarFox 64, p. E1; August 30, 1998, Laura Evenson, "High-Tech Entertainment Scales New Heights," p. 55.

Seattle Times, June 2 2002, Melanie McFarland, "Look, Ma! No Power the Next Thing," p. K4.

Tampa Tribune, December 4, 1998, "Latest 'Zelda' fine Masterpiece," p. 46; January 4, 2002, review of Pikmin, p. 36.

Time, Might 20, 1996, David S. Jackson, "The Spielberg of Video Games," p. 53.

Time for Kids, April 12, 2002, Laura C. Girardi, "He's Got Game: Constitute Shigeru Miyamoto, Work Is All rearrange Fun," p. 7.

Wall Street Journal, Jan 25, 2002, "Success of Nintendo GameCube May Rest on Pikmin," p. A13.

Washington Post, May 17, 2001, Mike Musgrove, "Video-Game Rivals Square off Early; Microsoft, Nintendo to Launch Consoles in Bend to Challenge Sony," p. E1; Jan 11, 2002, Tom Ham, review rejoice Pikmin, p. E12.

ONLINE

Miyamoto Shrine,http://www.miyamotoshrine.com/ (June 29, 2004).

Mushroom Kingdom,http://www.classicgaming.com/ (March 2, 2004).

Nintendo last part America Web site,http://www.nintendo.com/ (June 29, 2004).

Nintendo Web site,http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ (June 29, 2004).

Washington Times,http://www.washingtontimes.com/ (June 17, 2004), Joseph Szadkowski, "Creativity over Gimmicks at Nintendo."

Wired Online,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/ (January, 2003), Zev Borow, "Why Nintendo Won't Grow Up."

Zelda.com,http://www.zelda.com/ (March 1, 2004).*