Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto was brought up in a conservative family. His family was neither rich nor poor, but his upbringing was old-fashioned. A home with no television meant Miyatomo had to go out, explore his surroundings, be creative, and use his imagination. The rural village of Sonobe gave Miyatomo the opportunity to think of adventurous games. As a kid he always had a creative mind and always managed to find his own twist for games. It was mentioned that Miyatomo created games from wood sticks and strings. In his adventures, he stumbled upon a mysterious cave that was hidden behind shrubs and bushes. Although the article does not mention that this was the direct way Miyatomo found inspiration for the creation of “Mario” I feel that it had a big impact on him as a child. Miyatomo grew up to create many of the video games that Nintendo has become notoriously known for. Some examples of those games are; Zelda, Mario, Star Fox and Pikimin. Most of the video games he created or helped create still are very popular and continue to be played.

I grew up in a similar childhood as Miyatomo. My family was also a very modest family, we never had the worries of growing up poor, but as well we never had splurged with massive amounts of video games and televisions. Most of the games I had owned were given to me by my older brothers so I always had the hand me down original games. Most people would rather receive the top of the line new release video game, but I preferred the original games such as; Donkey Kong, Mario, Pac-Man, and Tetris. All these games were enticing and gave you the sense of being challenged.

This article gave me a slight more understanding of video game design in the past. The present method of video game design is much more complex and instead of adventurous paths in mysterious caves, video game designers now use older games for inspiration. The genius thoughts of Miyatomo have definitely made a great impact in the video game world. Without him who knows were our video games direction would be in and what different types of games would have been created.