Life without Miyamoto

Video games are relatively young in the entertainment world. It seems like in only the past several years it has finally become accepted by the mainstream masses as more than just for children – entire families are playing together.  Being so young, this industry has yet to experience the loss of one of its greats while in their prime. Imagine how music could have evolved if the plane crash that took the lives of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper never happened.

For many of us, the work of Shigeru Miyamoto is the sole cause of our undying love for video games. Having his hands in such a wide range of genres and genre-defining games, he is arguably the single most influential person in the industry.

Some of the innovations made in the industry that were a direct result of his efforts would have probably come to fruition at some point but we would currently be in a completely different situation otherwise. Most notably, the way we interact with games.

If it weren’t for Miyamoto’s success with Donkey Kong, Nintendo would have never made it past the decade that gave us leg warmers, parachute pants and the totally tubular Max Headroom.  With Nintendo out of the picture, they wouldn’t have redesigned and popularized the directional pad — which is featured on every major console since the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Furthermore, we might have gone without our virtual assault rifles rumbling the controller with every shot we take as we rush the beaches of Normandy using the analog stick.  And how would those guns fire without the shoulder buttons introduced on the SNES controller?

With the recent advent of motion controllers and 3D, it could be argued that the next logical step is total immersion in the form of a virtual world like that shown in the movie Lawnmower Man. How awesome would that be; minus the horror, of course.

But none of this would be possible today if it weren’t for Miyamoto’s constant need to innovate. Heck, if the Virtual Boy had been successful we might have been playing in our own virtual reality rooms this very minute.

I know it’s a little farfetched, but a man can dream.

Now, that’s just covering the way we interact with our games. Let’s look at the kind of games we would be missing without the mind of Miyamoto.

 Shigeru Miyamoto was the first to put the importance of the story ahead of the actual programming. As a result, one thing is for sure, we would have never experienced the koopa-squishing antics of the Mario Bros. or his childhood adventures manifested into The Legend of Zelda. We would be left with nothing more than maze and shooter games, and video games would be seen as a footnote of ‘80s fads.

Classic third-party franchises that are still made today would simply seize to exist.  Castlevania, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy; all would be gone. And I think it goes without saying that we would not have experienced newer popular franchises such as Halo or God of War.

Having been honored as the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame and most recently recognized by BAFTA at the British Academy Video Games Awards, it is clear that games would not be the same, and we would be playing them differently if it weren’t for the work of Shigeru Miyamoto.

Ultimately, it can be said that without Shigeru Miyamoto we would all have a different hobby and passion. I, personally, can’t imagine where I would be or what I would be doing if I didn’t have a video game to play at the end of the day.

What else would change if Miyamoto decided to take on a different career — or do you feel I'm giving him too much credit? I'd love to hear your thoughts.