Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto turns 70

The creator of iconic game series Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda turned 70 today

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of some of the most iconic video game series of all time, turned 70 today.

Regarded as "the father of modern video games", throughout his prolific career at Nintendo, Miyamoto launched some of the company's most acclaimed and best-selling franchises, including Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and The Legend of Zelda.

Born on November 16, 1952, he joined Nintendo in 1977 and helped create the art for the arcade game Sheriff as one of his first big jobs at the company. Later he was tasked with creating a new arcade game which eventually became the 1981 arcade hit Donkey Kong, best-known for introducing Mario for the first time, as an unnamed protagonist, initially referred to as Jumpman.

One of his most groundbreaking creations, designed together with Takashi Tezuka, came in 1985, when Super Mario Bros. for the NES launched. The game is widely seen as one of the greatest of all time and is credited with reviving the video games market after the 1983 crash.

Super Mario Bros. also helped popularize the side-scrolling platformer genre for decades to come.

The following year saw the release of The Legend of Zelda, co-created by Miyamoto, which launched one of Nintendo's most popular action-adventure series.

Later on, he would repeat his success with Super Mario Bros. 3, which was a significant improvement over the original game and set the rules of how all platformers should play going forward. 

On the SNES, he designed the launch game F-Zero, produced two major Mario games for the system, Super Mario World, also a launch game, and Super Mario RPG. 

For the Nintendo 64, he helped create three of the platform's defining games – Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

In the last two decades, he added even more innovative games to Nintendo's portfolio that launched new series or expanded existing franchises, including Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, and Super Mario Maker for the GameCube.

He also played a significant role in designing the Wii console and its most popular launch title, Wii Sports.

Most recently, Miyamoto has been co-producing The Super Mario Bros. Movie, coming from Illumination and Universal Pictures on April 7, 2023.

Happy birthday, Miyamoto-san!