Miyamoto’s Midlife Crisis

Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong: these names have long been revered among the gaming community.  They are all great, and they all share one man in common: Shigeru Miyamoto.

Donkey Kong and Mario both debuted in the arcade game Donkey Kong in 1981.  Mario was then known as Jumpman, though (the popular Pac Man had started a trend of naming characters as something-man).  The arcade game was a sensation and is still hailed by many as one of the best of all time, as evidenced by the 2007 movie The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters.  And while games are built by a team, it would be no exaggeration to say that the man responsible for such a game was Shigeru Miyamoto.  He not only crafted an incredibly challenging, smart, and addictive game; but he also was the first to ever incorporate the concept of a story in a videogame (read Chris Kohler’s Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life).  Donkey Kong captures the damsel, Jumpman must then rescue her.  Simple as it was, it was a story, and the first one in videogame history.

Mario came to be better loved than his apish counterpart, though (mainly because Mario was the character controlled by the player, and Donkey Kong the bad guy), and soon got some games of his own.  Most memorable among them is 1985’s Super Mario Bros., which is currently still the best-selling game of all time (over 40 million copies to date).  It’s simple mechanics yet deep gameplay were an instant hit, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it alone restored the videogame industry from its ashes after the death of Atari.  Miyamoto had done it again.

Then came The Legend of Zelda.  The original NES game, while popular was too difficult (at the time) to become as mainstream as other Miyamoto franchises, but it was nontheless great.  But after SNES’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and of course, N64’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, currently the best rated game of all time, Zelda had become a juggernaut all on its own.  Through the Zelda series, Miyamoto has crafted a timeless gameplay formula with a timeless story to match.

But what of Miyamoto now?  Since the inception of the Wii into the industry, Miyamoto has dedicated his time to such projects as Wii Fit and most recently Wii Music, the latter of which has sold under 81,000 copies in October (according to GameSpot).  Truly he did also give us Super Mario Galaxy (curently the third best rated game of all time), but titles like the Marios and Zeldas of old are becoming few and far between.  Miyamoto’s (and Nintendo’s) current projects are constantly leaving something to be desired.

Where do Miyamoto and Nintendo wish to head?  The industry has changed drastically in the last few years, and Miyamoto seems to have changed with them.

Miyamoto is acting as if though he’s hit a midlife crisis.  He’s trying new, unwieldy videogame designs; he’s leaving behind the things he’s most known for; he seems out of focus; he’s even dressing like a midlife crisis (a tacky combination of colorful T-shirts with a sports coat on top).

Regardless of what is driving Miyamoto (and Nintendo) right now, it is clear he must refocus.  We owe most of what the videogame industry is right now to him and his franchises, and we can’t afford to lose him.  Sure, we’ll have Calls of Duty and Gears of Wars for some time to come, but where will the Marios, Donkey Kongs, and Zeldas be?

The industry needs you, Miyamoto-sensei.  Please, come back to us.