Shigeru Miyamoto is Japanese artist, video game designer and game director who is well known for his work with Nintendo. He was born in 1952 in the city of Sonobe, Japan. Graduating from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts in 1970 with a degree in Industrial Design, he originally intended to design for toys and landed his first apprentice job at Nintendo in 1977.
Inspired by nature and natural surroundings and by living close to Kyoto, he was able to go on expeditions through caves, forests and bodies of water which ultimately led him to create the famous The Legend of Zelda (1987) video game.
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While Zelda wasn’t the first game he created, there are other prominent games he’s designed over the span of four decades that included titles like Donkey Kong (1981), Mario Bros. (1983), Starfox (1994), and Pikmin (2001); all of which have been very successful with numerous sequels made.
With all the video games created while working for Nintendo, a once, small toy and novelty company, Miyamoto was able to transform Nintendo into one of the most well-known video gaming companies, along with other giants like Sony and Microsoft. Not only has he made video games that everyone of all ages enjoys, he also had a role in designing gaming systems. He has a multitude of patents that range from how these games were played all the way down to the hand-held game machines to the design of saving in games and the controllers’ configuration for the gaming consoles. These consoles range from the NES (1983), Gameboy (1989), Gamecube (2001), WII (2006), and currently the Nintendo Switch (2017).
Miyamoto is considered to be a pioneer of the video game industry and to some, known as the “father of modern video gaming”. With this title, he was able to receive various awards in recognition of his work. These include being the first person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame in 1998 and having a star made for him on the Walk of Game, in San Francisco’s Metreon Center in 2005.
Works Cited
Burns, Jan. Shigeru Miyamoto: Nintendo Game Designer. KidHaven Press, 2006, pp. 6-8.
DeWinter, Jennifer. Shigeru Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, the Legend of Zelda. Bloomsbury Academic, an Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2018, pp. 1-27.
“Miyamoto, Shigeru.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, 2019, www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/miyamoto-shigeru.
“Shigeru Miyamoto Biography.” TheFamousPeople, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/shigeru-miyamoto-8697.php.
“US7762891B2 – Game Apparatus, Recording Medium Having Game Program Recorded Thereon, and Game System.” Google Patents, Google, patents.google.com/patent/US7762891B2/en.
Miyamoto Shigeru is a legend. He even chose his work over his family. Our world would be definitely different without him.