'Mario' video game guru strives to stay ahead

By Deborah Porterfield
Gannett News Service

Shigeru Miyamoto, 48, the legendary Japanese video game designer, introduced "Mario Bros." in 1985. Gannett News Service

Even Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Japanese game designer who created Mario in 1985, isn't sure 100 Marios is a good thing. But he still thinks it's an experiment worth trying.

"I try to stay ahead of the game and come up with new ideas," said Miyamoto with the help of an English translator during a recent visit to New York City.

Other projects he and his design team are working on include creating a TV device that can read data on collectible trading cards and finding more ways to make Nintendo's GameCube console and portable Game Boy Advance compatible.

During his 25-year career at Nintendo in Japan, Miyamoto has created some of the gaming world's all-time favorites: "Super Mario 64," "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," and more recently, "Pikmin." Two new GameCube titles, "Mario Sunshine" and "The Legend of Zelda," are expected later this year.

While some designers are eager to use the latest technology to make their games look like movies, Miyamoto, 48, said he prefers creating fantasy worlds that entice players to join in the fun.

"I think that because people get so immersed in these games that their own imaginations play a role in it as well," he said. "It's kind of the same way as when you pick up and read a book, you don't just get the words on the page but you get with your imagination a world that is above and beyond what is written on the page. I think with my games as well, that when people sit down and play them, they are getting more than what I have just created but really their own addition to that."

Miyamoto, a father of two children 14 and 16, is cautious about encouraging youngsters to follow in his footsteps.

"I think it's very important for kids to experience things outside of games and broaden their horizons," he said. "I think that making a game is very hard, and so rather than just focusing on trying to make a game, I think it's great for kids to try to focus on making something, on being creative. Even if it's just drawing pictures in a book, writing a story or building a little something and showing it to somebody. Honing your creativity and being able to create different things, that's really important."

Miyamoto, a graduate of Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts and Crafts in Kyoto, also offers reassurance to parents who worry that their children play too many video games.

"When I was a youngster I spent a lot of time reading comic books. I mean a LOT of time reading comic books," he said with a laugh. "My parents worried that I spent too much time reading comic books, and they actually told me not to read comics so much."

But Miyamoto says it all worked out for the best because his love of comic books inspired him to start drawing. "Because I got started drawing, I ended up doing what I'm doing now," he said. "So I think playing too much isn't necessarily a bad thing."