Happy Birthday!

Miyamoto turns 70: 70 facts you didn't know about the most important figure in video games

We celebrate Shigeru Miyamoto's 70th birthday with 70 anecdotes and curiosities about the designer that helps us to know and understand him a little better.

Update: Nov 16th, 2022 14:54 EST

70 years old. Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the most important personalities in the video game industry, if not the most important, today celebrates 70 years full of creativity and joy for fans of this medium. For this reason, and as a quick tribute, we at MeriStation are going to review 70 facts of all kinds and conditions about his figure. Anecdotes, curiosities and details about a person as mysterious as vital to whom we wish to blow out the candles in the company of his loved ones. And may there be many more!

Birth. Shigeru Miyamoto was born on November 16, 1952, in Sonobe, rural Japan.
He wanted to be a mangaka. As a child, he was a big fan of comics and manga. He dreamed of becoming an illustrator when he grew up.
No TV. There was no TV in his house until he was 11 years old.
The power of imagination. The Legend of Zelda saga was born from memories of when he was a child and once explored a cave near his house with a flashlight.
Neighbors as a source of inspiration. The chained dog of his neighbor at the time is the origin of the Chain Chomp. Miyamoto says that on one occasion he tried to attack him and was only saved because he was restrained by the chain.
Education. He studied industrial design at the Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts.
Rock star. At college, he was part of a band where he played the banjo. He can also play guitar and mandolin.
Good musical taste. Declares himself a fan of The Beatles, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Doc Walson, and the Ramones. His love for music would derive in Wii Music.
He keeps the touch. Search for the following on Youtube and enjoy Miyamoto and the Roots at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, 2016.
Dog lover. Took a course to become a professional dog breeder.
From Pokémon to Nintendogs. His dog is named Pikku after Pikachu and it was he who inspired and encouraged him to make Nintendogs, the game that sold us all a DS.
Slam Dunk. He played basketball during his college days.
Athlete. In addition to basketball, he practices swimming and cycling. He enjoys sports and staying in shape. The water phases of Super Mario 64 come from his obsession for swimming.
Bicycles are forbidden. In the last years, Nintendo does not allow him for security to go by bicycle to work to preserve.
Ex-smoker. Because one thing does not take away the other.
Age at which he stopped gambling on pachinko machines and quit smoking. He wanted to improve his lifestyle and he did it by getting heavy with Wii Fit.
Family. He has a wife and two children.
No heirs to the empire. His eldest son is in advertising and his youngest wants to be a veterinarian.
Old-school father. He was one of those who forbade his children to stay at home playing when it was nice and invited them to do something outdoors. If they played more than he thought appropriate, they were forbidden to play video games.
First video game he tried. This sector caught his attention after trying Space Invaders in 1978.
He got in through the door. He got his job interview at Nintendo because his father was a friend of the boss at the time, Hiroshi Yamauchi.
First project. He started working on Color TV Racing 112, a racing game with a steering wheel controller.
Popeye changed his life. The original Donkey Kong and the idea of a hero rescuing the princess were born from Popeye, but Nintendo couldn't get the rights and had to improvise.
He didn't trust Link. Although he developed Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda simultaneously, he didn't have much faith that it would succeed because "a world of swords and magic really wasn't considered mainstream at the time."
Heretic. He made a game called Devil World that paid homage to Pac-Man and in which a character collected Bibles to defeat Satan while running through a maze with a dragon in the center. So much religious iconography made Nintendo not dare to release it in the US, only in Japan and Europe.
Disappointments. He always says they could have done more with Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but they were limited with the hardware and couldn't get around it with the usual ingenuity.
Hated Donkey Kong Country. Rare's game was so successful that for a while, Nintendo insisted that all of the company's upcoming games looked like this, putting a lot of pressure on its employees. Miyamoto went so far as to declare that "Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good," angry words that he would later retract.
Crunch. He has come to live across the street from his job in order to meet deadlines for some projects. He was obsessed and absorbed.
Composer. Although he is not usually related to this field, it was him who wrote the music for Donkey Kong's arcade and has collaborated advising in it for many of his later games.
His stomach preferences. His favorite food is ramen and the one he hates the most is liver.
Leave him alone. He hates fame and signing autographs. He affirms that he gets stopped more outside Japan than in his own country.
He is not a great gamer. He admits to not playing too many video games in his spare time because of all the hobbies he has. He prefers small and enjoyable experiences with his family.
Pac-Man’s Number 1 fan. His favorite character in the world of video games is Pac-Man.
His proudest achievements. The games he is most proud to have worked on are Star Fox 64 and Super Mario World.
Games he admires. There are many third-party works for which he has admitted to feel devotion. These are the cases of Portal, Tetris, Minecraft, Angry Birds, and Pokémon Go.
His friend Mario. The name of the character that would make him go down in history comes from Nintendo of America's landlord who was named Mario Segale and resembled the design.
His friend Donkey Kong. For its part, the name Kong comes from the attempt to make clear that Kong was just that, a donkey, a stupid.
Mario's age. For Miyamoto, the plumber is barely twenty years old and blames the mustache for making him look much older.
Movie fan. George Lucas is his idol and the main inspiration for Star Fox.
And westerns. It is said that Yoshi was born from the idea of making a mount for Mario to ride horses like the outlaws in the movies.
Yoshi was a long time coming. Although the character was in his head since Super Mario Bros., the technology did not allow his inclusion until Super Mario World.
Undecided. Before keeping the name Star Fox, Miyamoto-san couldn't decide between Star Wolf, Star Hawk, Star Sheep, and Star Sparrow.
Ego exercise. Also a fan of Hitchcock, who makes a cameo in all his movies, Miyamoto wanted to do the same by putting Mario in every game he made, but it turned out to be impossible given the prolific and eclectic nature of his career.
Good at listening, bad at speaking. He claims to have no problem understanding English, but he does have a problem speaking it. As a curiosity, his father was an English teacher.
Profession. He describes his work as "human engineering".
Ambidextrous. Although he handles perfectly with both hands, his favorite is the left, which is why characters like Link wield the sword with it.
He was the CEO of Nintendo. After the death of Satoru Iwata in 2015, he was at the company's helm during the months when they were looking for a successor. Tatsumi Kimishima would be the chosen one and Miyamoto would return to his duties, but already thereafter as vice president.
How much does he earn? In an exercise in transparency, Nintendo revealed the annual salary of its executives. Miyamoto, director and board member as Creative Advisor, is paid 1.8 million a year. 670,000 dollars base and about 1.13 million dollars in targets.
With Mario, liberties are few and far between. He admits that he only allows leeway with Mario designs in sports games and spin-offs, not in the main platformers.
Games you don't remember as his. Besides Mario and Zelda, he has been involved in other iconic names like Pikmin, Pilotwings, Excitebike, F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Ice Climbers, Metroid Prime, and Kirby.
Renegade. When someone says that video games are not good for young people, Miyamoto always remembers that the same was said about rock.
Knight. He was knighted in France back in 2006. He is the first video game designer to receive such an honor and you should refer to him as Sir Shigeru Miyamoto.
Prince of Asturias Award. The third time was the charm. He won it in 2012 after falling just short in 2011 (Royal Society) and 2010 (Zygmunt Bauman and Alain Touraine).
Fake Japanese. He has always felt more connected to American culture than Japanese, for which he often apologizes.
Order of Culture. Despite the above, in 2019 he was recognized with Japan's highest award to the world of culture, being the only video game designer to have received it.
Strange hobbies. He is known for measuring random objects and checking if his previous estimation was correct, as well as for reorganizing the layout of his house at night.
Tributes. The protagonist of Daikatana is named Hiro Miyamoto after him, and he is not the only one. For example, Ash's rival in Pokémon is named Shigeru in Japan (and Gary in the rest of the world). A nod to the creator of Pokémon, a disciple of his.
Influencer. Chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007 and 2008.
No one has sold more. The Super Mario saga is the best-selling in the history of the industry ahead of Tetris, Pokémon, Call of Duty, and GTA.
His beta-testers. He always tests his games and ideas with his friends and family. His main goal is to impress his wife.
Gameplay, against everything and everyone. Main advocate that gameplay matters more than graphics and story.
No sadness. Believes that "Complex emotions are difficult to handle in interactive media" and that's why he prefers to make games without big dramas and tragedies.
He is not a fan of RPGs. He has gone so far as to state that he is not interested in games that are "decided by stats and numbers."
The exceptions of the genre. Although not a fan of role-playing games, he has shared his admiration for Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and the Mother saga.
Finally, he is a filmmaker. He is a producer of the Mario movie to be released in 2023.
How much is Miyamoto worth? His fortune and the value of the developer is estimated at 40 million.
His favorite Mario. Super Mario World. He never hesitates.
His last job was as director. He last signed on as a supervisor in such duties on 2016's Star Fox Adventures.
He doesn't like his nickname. When they call him "the Spielberg of video games," he always defends that this nickname "starts from the erroneous premise that video games are inferior to the film industry."
What's next? The current project he is most involved in is Pikmin 4, which he has been with since 2017.

Sources | 1, 2, 3, 4