Happy Birthday, Shigeru!

by Ross Miller { Nov 16th 2005 at 5:15PM }

Shigeru Miyamoto, the gaming legend who single-handedly made Nintendo a household name and sparked the video game renaissance in the 1980's, is officially 53 years young as of today.

"Shiggy" Miyamoto has had a major impact on the industry as we know it; even the most professional journalists turn giddy at his presence. What do you think has been Miyamoto-san's greatest contribution to video gaming?

[via N-Sider; thanks, Ryan]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Cyberclaws @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

His committment to perfection. Go Miyamoto!!

Tesla @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Almost everytime he works on a game they don't release it early. They work until it's right. (Except for Windwaker...but you can't be perfect). Happy B-day to one of the greatest in the industry! Don't ever stop the magic that you do!

Jake @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

I share a birthday with Miyamoto!!!

bd (formerly b) @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Bloo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Happy Birthday to the Best of the Best

Nicholas @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix! Wait, did he have anything to do with it?

Tamo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Best thing would have to be showing an America that hated games, that games were fun again. You can praise all of his characters you want, but he was able to give the industry a well needed CPR.

Eli @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Way to go, Shiggy! Happy birthday!

L0uSE @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Happy Birthday Shigeru! They're all such amazing games, please don't retire any time soon!!

Jago @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

"I share a birthday with Miyamoto!!!"

I hate you...lol...j/k thats awesome.

Greatest accomplishment? Mario of course. Mario is the "Mickey" of the games industry.

Jay @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

gotta love the guy, always happy like that

mr.karmalicious @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

I wubb you Shiggy!

Jack @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Happy Birthday "Shiggy".
Greatest accomplishment, nintendo the company.

John Lucas @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

His greatest contribution?

Talk about a hard question.

I would say his imagination.
And his instinct of pure fun.

Without Shigeru the videogame world would straight SUCK. You can quote me on that.

The reason's why Nintendo's good?
Him.

End message.
John Lucas

revo4life @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

wohooooooo hes born 10 days after me
remember 10 is a complete number. he is genius.
sqaure enix come back 2 nintendo remember mario rpg

Mak @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

For me, Super Mario World, FZero ( SNES ), Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Zelda The Wind Waker. And maybe Mario Kart 64.

Noga @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

"What if everything you see is more than what you see�the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn�t? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you go inside, you�ll find many unexpected things." -Shigeru Miyamoto

I have it hung up on my bedroom door. I salute you, Shigeru Miyamoto. You are my idol.

Jago @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

lol thats an awesome quote. When did he say that? It sounds like something from the Matrix movies...lol

JulioC @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Shigeru is the greatest innovator ever in gaming..

GTA? Wow, so they copied Zelda for nin64, slapped vehicles on it and added lots of blood

Halo? Goldenye was the first great fps for consoles. Why do you think MS paid millions for the sequel to perfect dark?

Controller? Nintendo was first and the best, be it rumble pack, analog stick or wireless.

CD-rom? *remembers seeing cd rom attachment for SNES back in 93-4*

Soundchip? Nintendo had the first console to prioratise soundtracks, just play any dragonquest/ final fantasy

Japanese Rpgs? Dragon quest was released on NES first.

Kart games? Is that Pacman kart Im seeing for the PSP and Shrek swamp racing for the Xbox? *humms mario kart theme*

3D? Mode 7, Nintendo broke the 2D barrier before any console.

Just because Nintendo prefers to try new things and make sure people have fun with their games, will always make us nintendo fanboys the object of hatred. And as we celebrate his birthday, we know its good being the object of envy..

Shigeru is God

bob23 @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Zelda for sure.

Miyamoto rocks!

flashs back to that day at Nintendo World in NYC when we all were chanting YOU - ARE - GOD
as he came to the window. :P

Matthew @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Happy birthday, Shiggy. Man, where to begin. Obviously, Shigeru Miyamoto is a true genius. The reason I got into the industry was because of his games. He single-handedly, with Nintendo, brought the videogame industry back to life from a near crash back in the day. His influence is too great to be "calculated" in my opinion. He's 53 years young, wow. Well, here's to another 50 more! :)

Jago @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

"CD-rom? *remembers seeing cd rom attachment for SNES back in 93-4"

Umm...you need to go back and look at your gaming history bro. The CD attachments never saw the light of day after Nintendo burned Sony.

murderous @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

yes lets congratulate the loser on making so many games for 6 year olds.

must be really hard work making games for hyperactive 6 year olds, this guy, this post is just like nintendumb old crap and a waste of space.

wraithblade @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Mario drew out and spawned the casual gamers, the ones that would help
this industry boom into the monster that it already is. It was the
mindless addictive bliss in the livingroom.

On the otherhand Zelda was great because it was THE Game that created
a dimension of immersiveness and depth to a form of media entertainment
that was at the time stuck in the arcade and labled as shallow and
senseless penny and time wasting machines. as Miyamoto said Link was named such because he wanted him to be an actual conduit to the world of hyrule and the world of gaming.

alex @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

JulioC - I'm all for nintendo and everything... even a little bias in several areas, but... your point of view just screams annoying fanboy. That's the most overhyping of nintendo i've ever heard... none of it is even remotely unbiased. Something needed to be said... Anyways-

Despite all of the innovations nintendo has brought and might bring to the table... In my opinion their greatest contribution to gaming is the revival of it. Thank you NES.

n3rrd @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Murderous,

It is sad that you can't respect what Miyamoto did for the industry that you seem so determined to keep under the thug-life spotlight. If it wasn't for people like Miyamoto, there would be a very different game industry, if any at all.

We might as well start calling people like Tarantino and Tolkein losers because they also share the ability to bring worlds that exist only in their imagination to reality to share with us.

Yuji Tomita @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

I have to agree with n3rrd here. Excellent way to put it man. I suck at arguing even if the evidence is in my head. It truly sucks :(
"We might as well start calling people like Tarantino and Tolkein losers because they also share the ability to bring worlds that exist only in their imagination to reality to share with us"

Ross Miller @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

Just to let you know, I did hide a few comments in response to murderous' opinion. Granted, you might feel it is misplaced, offensive, or even against all that you stand for - but let's not flame each other. I left up n3rrd's rebuttal simply because it was the first, but after that I just want the comments to move away from flaming and towards praise or just simply opinionated commentary (not at each other)

n3rrd @ Dec 18th 2005 10:09PM

If my post came off sounding as though I was trying to flame murderous, I apologize. I just wanted to get the point across that, regardless of his opinion, Miyamoto is a talented and creative man.

He works hard to make a quality product; he has high standards and high production values. The man has produced some great work, and I believe that most everyone here can only hope to acheive works that they could be equally proud of at some point in their lives.

Happy birthday, Miyamoto.