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Wii designer Shigeru Miyamoto, "father" of modern videogames
2008-11-08
PARIS (AFP) - Japan's Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong and global best-seller Super Mario Bros, releases his Wii Music in Europe next week, his latest work in 30 years of inventive videogame design for Nintendo. Aged almost 56, the games genius from central Japan steps up as usual in T-shirt and jeans. Named "most influential man in the world" by Time magazine readers last year, Miyamoto talks little about his life and remains tight-lipped about his projects, saying simply that the new game, releasing in Europe November 14, is about playing musical instruments for fun. "Wii Music was designed for players who are not musicians," Miyamoto told AFP. Miyamoto is often described as the Stephen Spielberg of the game world for his visionary design work, and Super Mario Bros has been rated as the best selling game of all time, with more than 40 million copies sold worldwide. "With the Wii we wanted from the start to explore three channels, sport, health and music," said the head of R&D4, Nintendo's internal design studio and the source of most of its games, notably Wii Sports and Wii Fit. "Today we have achieved this with games that have a genuinely innovative approach." Born in Sonobe in Kyoto, Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 after studying industrial design. A lover of both design and music, his first success was in 1981 with the launch of Donkey Kong, in which a scaffold-climbing carpenter rescues a young woman from a gorilla. In 1986 he came up with The Legend of Zelda. Described as a high fantasy action adventure game involving the constant rescue of Princess Zelda, Miyamoto was inspired by the lakes, caves and forests around his house where he would spend hours playing. The inspiration for the more recent game of Nintendogs, in which players enjoy the fun of a puppy without the reality of cleaning and feeding it, also came from his private life, after he and his wife and two children bought a Shetland sheepdog. Indeed, so many of his game design ideas come from his private live that earlier this year Nintendo reportedly asked Miyamoto to stop talking about his hobbies, to prevent people from stealing his billion dollar ideas. Asked about future plans Miyamoto is suitably discreet, knowing that his every word will be closely monitored. A tiny hint is forthcoming however as Miyamoto mentions he is interested in Wii Motion Plus -- an accessory that improves the Wii's ability to detect movement -- for the next Mario and Zelda games. But, Miyamoto says he has "already said too much", and hurriedly retreats behind a huge, but silent, smile.
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