Icon: Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer and best know for being the creator of Mario, one of gaming’s most popular and widely recognised mascots. He is also the creative mind behind well known series like The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox.

I am really passionate about video games. It is only natural for me to know Shigeru Miyamoto, for he is probably one of the, if not most, well known game designers. He is of course not the only game designer I idolise, or the most unconventional, but he has a reputation of consistent quality in his games.

Miyamoto’s games always feel like there is a lot of love poured into them. Tons of big titles like Call of Duty or FIFA get new releases on a yearly basis, and are overshadowed by clear monetisation schemes. Those games lack soul. With most of Nintendo’s games, and especially those made by Miyamoto, it is clear that the game is made not for money, but for pure unadulterated fun. His games are very much gameplay driven, so there is often little to no story involved. This results in games that are not per se beautiful, but are just really fun to play, which is kind of the point of playing video games.

The fact that Miyamoto has such a long history of phenomenal games is rather unique, seeing how he has been successful throughout his career.