Shigeru Miyamoto is a powerhouse of creative brilliance within the video game world. This singular entity created some of the greatest video games ever, including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda. So how did this great man come to create some of the most iconic video game characters of all time? We can look at his life for the answer to this question.

                Miyamoto was born in the rural town                 of Sonobe, Japan on November 16th, 1952. His surroundings as a child would greatly influence his later work. Sonobe was surrounded by forest, and his willingness to explore the areas wilderness was part of what made him a great success. Some of his childhood hobbies included painting and reading. Later, he attended the Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial arts, graduating in 1975. He had no job waiting for him when he graduated, and practiced as a freelancer for a time.

             In 1977, Miyamoto began working for Nintendo, and was part of the design team for the first coin-operated arcade game, which was titled Sheriff. At this time Nintendo was having good success in the Japanese market, and was trying to break into the North American market, but had little success at first when Radar Scope, an arcade game that Nintendo developed, had flopped. The President of Nintendo, at the time, entrusted Shigeru Miyamoto, under the supervision of Gunpei Yokoi (head engineer), to create a new arcade game from the unsold units. Working with a small team of designers, they were able to create this new arcade game, which turned into Nintendo's first smash hit. The arcade game that had been created was none other than Donkey Kong, an incredibly simplistic game that involved latters and saving a princess from a crazed Monkey.

             As Miyamoto's career continued, he worked on countless other Nintendo hits, including Ice Climbers, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Bros, and The Legend of Zelda. His continued focus on developing games that were played for the fun and enjoyment of playing them as opposed to playing for high scores were what made his titles unique and memorable. In 1990, the seperate departments for research and developments merged, with Miyamoto as the head of the department. He has had a hand in creating many successful games since, and to this day, Nintendo's success is synonymous with Shigeru Miyamoto's ideas!