14 DAY TRIAL // Gaming, along with almost all branches of the entertainment industry, has some figureheads, people who pushed it forward through their hard work and creations and made gaming what it is today, one of the best forms of entertainment.
Such a man is Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary mind behind the Mario and Zelda franchises, a man who almost single-handedly made Nintendo the huge company that it is today. He is a true pioneer in terms of gameplay and storytelling and has earned the respect of millions of gamers around the world.
Speaking with Edge magazine, the Nintendo creator tackled a very interesting issue when he was asked how he wanted people to remember him when he would retire from the industry. Miyamoto began to talk about Japanese manga (comic book) artists, who have taken the genre forward with their talent, and said that most of them were remembered because they didn't give up drawing until they had their last breath.
“If you look at the history of Japanese manga you have the very early manga artists like Osamu Tezuka, who really defined the style and continued to pioneer in that realm and draw new manga and created new styles along the way. I think the other key thing about them is that they continued drawing up until the day they died. I would be happiest if people look back some day and say this is somebody who was there when videogames first started being created and he’s somebody who was continually creating new styles of play and was bringing new ideas to games and was a pioneer up until his dying day.”
While it may seem a bit awkward, it is this kind of thinking that made Miyamoto such an innovator. He had the courage to push the limits and place quality first, and gamers respected that. Hopefully the Japanese designer will still entertain us with new creations for a long time.