Shigeru Miyamoto: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Shigeru Miyamoto built his career at Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters out of an unlikely toolkit: arcade shock, Popeye cartoons, Disney fairy tales, and childhood caves near Sonobe. This mix traces the industrial designer turned world-builder — the mentors who trained him, the obscure sources behind Zelda's name and dungeons, and the designers worldwide who now work in his grammar.

The Kynda mix for Shigeru Miyamoto

• Key Influence · Space Invaders by Taito / Tomohiro Nishikado (1978). Miyamoto has repeatedly described the arcade boom, and Space Invaders in particular, as the shock that made video games seem like a serious creative field to the young industrial-design graduate hired by Nintendo in 1977. Taito's game emptied Japan of 100-yen coins and pushed Nintendo deeper into arcade hardware, producing the climate in which a staff artist was handed the failed Radar Scope cabinets that became Donkey Kong.
• Influencia Obscura · Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald (1932). The Legend of Zelda's princess is named for Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the Jazz Age novelist and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald; Miyamoto has said the name simply struck him as pleasant and significant. Her only novel, a thinly veiled autobiographical account of a dancer's thwarted ambition, is the unlikely literary ghost standing behind one of gaming's most recognizable fantasy franchises, and almost no player has read it.
• Local Roots · Game Boy by Gunpei Yokoi (1989). Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters was small enough in the 1980s that Miyamoto's software teams and Yokoi's R&D1 hardware group shared the same building and culture. The Game Boy — monochrome, cheap, durable, battery-frugal — is the Kyoto design philosophy as object, and it carried Miyamoto's worlds, from Super Mario Land to the Zelda handheld line, to a global audience that never owned a console.
• Beyond the Medium · Peter Pan by Walt Disney Productions / Clyde Geronimi (1953). Link's green tunic, pointed cap and boyish silhouette derive openly from Disney's Peter Pan, and Miyamoto has cited Disney's storytelling clarity as a model for building characters that read instantly across cultures. The eternal-boy hero who never ages across sequels is a Peter Pan device, and the fairy companion tradition that became Navi in Ocarina of Time descends from Tinker Bell.
• Peer · Sonic the Hedgehog by Sega / Yuji Naka (1991). Naka and Naoto Ohshima built Sonic explicitly as Sega's answer to Mario, designed around speed and attitude where Miyamoto's platforming prized precision and discovery. The resulting console war defined the early 1990s and pushed both studios; Miyamoto has discussed the rivalry publicly, and decades later Mario and Sonic appeared together in Nintendo-published Olympic titles once Sega left hardware.
• From the Canon · Donkey Kong by Shigeru Miyamoto (1981). Handed the task of salvaging unsold Radar Scope cabinets, the young staff artist produced the first arcade game built on a story premise and cartoon cast rather than abstract targets. It introduced Jumpman — later Mario — and established the career-long method: a single verb, legible obstacles, escalating variation. Its American success funded Nintendo of America and made Miyamoto the company's creative center.
• Key Collaborator · The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Original Soundtrack) by Koji Kondo (1998). Kondo, hired by Nintendo in 1984, composed for Miyamoto's games for four decades, writing the Super Mario Bros. and Zelda themes and inventing adaptive scoring techniques at Miyamoto's prodding — famously rewriting the Mario theme to match the feel of the jump. Ocarina of Time goes furthest: the ocarina makes music a verb, turning Kondo's melodies into the player's instrument for altering the world.
• Legacy · Ico by Fumito Ueda (2001). Ueda has cited the Zelda games, particularly the hand-holding escort structure and wordless environmental puzzling, as formative for Ico, which strips Miyamoto's design language down to two characters and an unexplained castle. The lineage ran both ways in esteem: Miyamoto publicly admired Ico's restraint, and its minimalist storytelling influenced a generation of designers who read Zelda through Ueda.

What influenced Shigeru Miyamoto

• Space Invaders by Taito (1978). Space Invaders inspired Miyamoto to enter the video game industry. (also via Donkey Kong) “Then, in 1978, Space Invaders came out and it was very popular, and I drew some remixed pixel art versions of those sprites. That was my first time drawing characters.” (game maestro volume 1, translated by shmuplations)
• Gunpei Yokoi by Gunpei Yokoi. Miyamoto describes receiving ideas and advice from Yokoi during his early game-development work. “After that, he continued to consult with me and gave me all kinds of ideas. He had very "unique" opinions, though, so we weren't able to incorporate all of them.” (game maestro volume 1, translated by shmuplations)
• Star Wars by George Lucas (1977). Miyamoto names Star Wars as a motivation for making Star Fox. “We wanted to build a Star Wars you could experience for yourself, to give today's kids the same real-time excitement our generation had. That was our main motivation for making Star Fox.” (Hippon Super, translated by shmuplations)
• The Black Onyx by Henk Rogers (1984). The article attributes The Black Onyx as an influence on Miyamoto. “Miyamoto was also influenced by The Black Onyx and Ultima , saying that he found the character's process of gaining strength to be fun.” (Wikipedia)
• Ultima. The article attributes Ultima as an influence on Miyamoto. “Miyamoto was also influenced by The Black Onyx and Ultima , saying that he found the character's process of gaining strength to be fun.” (Wikipedia)
• Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado (1978). Miyamoto said Space Invaders led him toward a video-game career. “Miyamoto—the creator of Donkey Kong , Mario , and The Legend of Zelda —commented that the game incited his interest in video games, leading him to pursue it as a profession.” (Wikipedia)
• Game & Watch: Ball by Gunpei Yokoi (1980). Game & Watch: Ball (Gunpei Yokoi) — titan for Shigeru Miyamoto “Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, supervised the project.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki) — culture for Shigeru Miyamoto “Artists from Pixar and Aardman Studios signed a tribute stating, "You're our inspiration, Miyazaki-san!" He has also been cited as inspiration for video game designers including Shigeru Miyamoto on The Legend of Zelda and Hironobu Sakagu…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald (1932). Save Me the Waltz (Zelda Fitzgerald) — ghost for Shigeru Miyamoto (openlibrary.org)
• Space Invaders by Taito / Tomohiro Nishikado (1978). Space Invaders (Taito / Tomohiro Nishikado) — titan for Shigeru Miyamoto “Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto considers Space Invaders a game that revolutionized the video game industry; he was never interested in video games before seeing it, and it would inspire him to produce video games.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Tower of Druaga by Namco / Masanobu Endō (1984). The Tower of Druaga (Namco / Masanobu Endō) — ghost for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Peter Pan by Walt Disney Productions / Clyde Geronimi (1953). Peter Pan (Walt Disney Productions / Clyde Geronimi) — culture for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Thimble Theatre (Popeye) by E. C. Segar (1929). Thimble Theatre (Popeye) (E. C. Segar) — culture for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Pac-Man by Namco / Toru Iwatani (1980). Pac-Man (Namco / Toru Iwatani) — titan for Shigeru Miyamoto

Peers and kindred spirits

• Takashi Tezuka by Takashi Tezuka. MacDonald identifies Tezuka as Miyamoto’s co-designer on Super Mario Bros. “When the Famicom came out in the US in 1985, it debuted alongside the first Super Mario Bros game, which Miyamoto designed on graph paper with co-designer Takashi Tezuka.” (The Guardian)
• The Roots by The Roots (1987). Miyamoto performed the Super Mario Bros. theme with The Roots. “Miyamoto showcased his hobby on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , while also performing the Super Mario Bros. theme on guitar with The Roots during the same show.” (Wikipedia)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Eiji Aonuma) — collaborator for Shigeru Miyamoto “For Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey he says his job was mostly to play prototypes and give feedback.” (SpriteCell)
• Hideo Kojima. Kojima helped Miyamoto guide the developers of The Twin Snakes. (also via Metal Gear Solid) “With the help of Hideo Kojima , he guided the developers of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes .” (Wikipedia)
• Argonaut by Argonaut Games. Miyamoto describes partnering with Argonaut during Star Fox’s development. “Right around that time, we heard of a UK company called Argonaut that had polygon tech, so we decided to partner up with them. From there to completion, Star Fox took two and a half years.” (Hippon Super, translated by shmuplations)
• Katsuya Eguchi. Miyamoto and Eguchi designed Star Fox together. “Using this new hardware, Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi designed the Star Fox game with an early implementation of three-dimensional graphics.” (Wikipedia)
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Miyamoto acted as a producer of the film. “Nintendo co-produced an animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie alongside Universal Pictures and Illumination , with Miyamoto and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri acting as producers.” (Wikipedia)
• Illumination by Krzysztof Zanussi (1973). Miyamoto worked as a producer on a film made by Illumination. “In 2018, it was announced that Miyamoto would be working as a producer on The Super Mario Bros. Movie based on the Mario franchise by Illumination .” (Wikipedia)
• The Legend of Zelda. Miyamoto produced The Legend of Zelda. “Miyamoto produced the game, and Tezuka wrote the story and script.” (Wikipedia)
• Sheriff. Miyamoto developed Sheriff alongside Takeda. “Sheriff , also known as Bandido in some regions, marked the first original video game made by Nintendo, and was published by Sega and developed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto .” (Wikipedia)
• Will Wright. Miyamoto and Wright worked together on the console adaptation. “During this development time, Miyamoto would work alongside Wright to develop means to bring the game to the console.” (Wikipedia)
• Toshihiko Nakago. Miyamoto designed Super Mario Bros. while Nakago largely programmed it. “Super Mario Bros. was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka of the Nintendo Creative Department , and largely programmed by Toshihiko Nakago of SRD” (Wikipedia)
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Original Soundtrack) by Koji Kondo (1998). The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Original Soundtrack) (Koji Kondo) — collaborator for Shigeru Miyamoto “This followed the philosophy of series creator and designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who demanded that audio for the game be made "with substance" and synchronized with elements of the game.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Yoshi's Island by Takashi Tezuka (1995). Yoshi's Island (Takashi Tezuka) — collaborator for Shigeru Miyamoto “Tezuka assisted designer Shigeru Miyamoto on the platformer game Super Mario Bros.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Game Boy by Gunpei Yokoi (1989). Game Boy (Gunpei Yokoi) — geography for Shigeru Miyamoto “Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, supervised the project.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa) — geography for Shigeru Miyamoto (themoviedb.org)
• Street Fighter II by Capcom / Akira Nishitani (1991). Street Fighter II (Capcom / Akira Nishitani) — geography for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Out Run by Sega AM2 / Yu Suzuki (1986). Out Run (Sega AM2 / Yu Suzuki) — peer for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Final Fantasy by Square / Hironobu Sakaguchi (1987). Final Fantasy (Square / Hironobu Sakaguchi) — peer for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Sonic the Hedgehog by Sega / Yuji Naka (1991). Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega / Yuji Naka) — peer for Shigeru Miyamoto

Who Shigeru Miyamoto influenced

• Satoshi Tajiri by Satoshi Tajiri. Miyamoto mentored Tajiri during the creation of the first Pokémon games. “Shigeru Miyamoto mentored Satoshi Tajiri , guiding him during the creation process of Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (released in English as Pokémon Red and Blue ), the initial video games in the Pokémon series.” (Wikipedia)
• Daikatana. Daikatana’s main character was named in homage to Miyamoto. “The name of the main character of the PC game Daikatana , Hiro Miyamoto, is a homage to Miyamoto.” (Wikipedia)
• Dr. Wright. The SimCity adviser Dr. Wright is described as inspired by Miyamoto. “Dr. Wright was inspired by Miyamoto, at time known to fans as "Dr. Miyamoto", and Nintendo had come to recognize the value of cartoonist mascots for games, leading to Dr. Wright's creation.” (Wikipedia)
• SimCity 2000. The article reports Gingold’s view that Wright’s time with Miyamoto influenced SimCity 2000. “According to Chaim Gingold, a former Maxis employee, he believes that the time Wright spent with Miyamoto helped to influence the direction of SimCity 2000 .” (Wikipedia)
• Metal Gear Solid by Hideo Kojima (1998). Metal Gear Solid (Hideo Kojima) — legacy for Shigeru Miyamoto “With the help of Hideo Kojima, he guided the developers of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Ico by Fumito Ueda (2001). Ico (Fumito Ueda) — legacy for Shigeru Miyamoto
• Braid by Jonathan Blow (2008). Braid (Jonathan Blow) — legacy for Shigeru Miyamoto