Shigeru Miyamoto

Background

Shigeru Miyamoto was born as the second child of Iijake Miyamoto and Hinako Aruha on November 16, 1952, in the rural village of Sonobe, northwest of Kyoto, Japan. Little Miyamoto had a talent for doodling, and his education frequently took a backseat to this pastime. He also stayed close to nature, exploring natural settings in Kyoto’s countryside. Such expeditions, which included discovering caves and bodies of water, later inspired him to create many of his popular video games, most notably “The Legend of Zelda.” Miyamoto enrolled at Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts in 1970 and graduated five years later with a degree in industrial design.

After receiving his degree in industrial design, Miyamoto had an interview with Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo, a Japanese company that sells playing cards, toys, games, and other novelties. Yamauchi hired Miyamoto as an apprentice in the company’s planning department after being impressed by his toys. Miyamoto eventually became Nintendo’s first artist, and in 197,9 he assisted in the development of the art for “Sheriff,” an arcade video game developed by Nintendo R&D1. The first game he worked on was the cabinet arcade game “Radar Scope,” which was released in Japan in December 1979 and worldwide in November 1980. Yamauchi tasked him with converting a large number of unsold “Radar Scope” units into an entirely new arcade game. This marked the beginning of the evolution of “Donkey Kong,” an early example of the platform game released by Nintendo on April 22, 1981. While developing “Donkey Kong,” Miyamoto prioritized story development over technical and programming aspects, marking the first such instance in video game development. The game’s massive success allowed him to work on two sequels, “Donkey Kong Jr.” in 1982 and “Donkey Kong 3” in 1983. Moving ahead, he developed a platform game, “Mario Bros.,” based on the character of Jumpman from “Donkey Kong” who he renovated as Mario giving the character some superhuman skills. He also included Luigi, Mario’s younger brother, in the game. The game was a modest success and was re-released on various platforms over the years. Next, Miyamoto created a sequel to “Mario Bros.” titled “Super Mario Bros.,” which remains one of his most remarkable creations. It was first released in Japan and North America in 1985, followed by Australia and Europe a few years later.

The massive success of “Super Mario Bros.” led to the creation of a series of sequels and an extended franchise that included an anime film “Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!” in 1986, the T.V. series “The Super Mario Bros Super Show” in 1989, and the big-screen film “Super Mario Bros” in 1993. In 1998, Miyamoto became the first video game developer to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. He was instrumental in the development of Nintendo’s home video game console “Wii,” which was released on November 19, 2006. After Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, died in July 2015, he and Genyo Takeda were appointed as acting representative directors. He was in charge until September 2015. During that time, he was also formally appointed as the company’s “Creative Fellow.” In 2018, it was announced that Miyamoto would be working as a producer on an untitled Illumination film based on the Mario franchise.