Shigeru Miyamoto: Games Allow Adults Access to Their Sense of Play

Shigeru Miyamoto (b. 1952) is one of the most respected and influential video game designers in the world. A Nintendo wunderkind during the 1980s and for the past few decades a vaunted producer, Miyamoto has created some of the most enduring characters and franchises in all of gaming: Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, F-Zero, etc. At the core of Miyamoto’s success is a strong allegiance to play and wonder as feelings to be shared by a game’s developers and players alike. Time magazine has called Miyamoto “the [Steven] Spielberg of video games.” It can be argued that Nintendo’s success over the past three decades stems categorically from Miyamoto’s work.

“Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals; that’s all.”

Source: Next Generation Magazine (Wikiquote)

Photo credit: Vincent Diamante via CC BY-SA 2.0