{"id":106149,"date":"2019-12-24T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/12\/best_of_2019_the_most_important_people_in_nintendo_history"},"modified":"2019-12-24T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T18:00:00","slug":"best-of-2019-the-most-important-people-in-nintendo-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/12\/24\/best-of-2019-the-most-important-people-in-nintendo-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Of 2019: The Most Important People In Nintendo History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From now until the end of 2019 we’ll be celebrating the coming year by looking back and republishing some of our finest features from the past twelve months, in addition to our regular output. This article first appeared on the site back in March. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

In September 2019 (Monday 23rd, to be exact) Nintendo celebrates its 130th anniversary. Founded back in 1889, it famously started out as a manufacturer of playing cards. Eventually, the company went into the toy market with the Ultra Hand<\/a>, an extendable arm developed by an employee in his spare time. Those gadgets quickly led to the development of more sophisticated electronic toys.<\/p>\n

The Ultra Hand\u2019s creator, Gunpei Yokoi, would go on to develop the Game & Watch<\/a> handhelds (where the D-pad debuted) and the all-conquering Game Boy. For these reasons, Nintendo fans are familiar with his name, as well as that of a certain student who joined the company in the mid-’70s, working under Yokoi as Nintendo took its first tentative steps into the realm of arcade and home video games.<\/p>\n

As the father of Mario, that student \u2013 Shigeru Miyamoto \u2013 has become synonymous with \u2018Nintendo\u2019 to an extent. However, as the celebrated figurehead behind some of the greatest video games in the medium, he is often credited for successes that he had only a cursory hand in developing. Back in the 1980s, employees at many Japanese companies were treated as mere \u2018salarymen\u2019 and credits (if the game had any) often used pseudonyms, meaning reliably identifying who did what can be difficult. Couple this with the managerial structure, games with multiple directors and cross-pollination between disciplines \u2013 and the inevitable toll time takes on the memories of those involved \u2013 and piecing together exactly who worked on some of the biggest video games of all time can be tough.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Nintendo\u2019s history is more storied than many of the companies developing games in the era. Many of the company\u2019s luminaries are still there after thirty years or more, and the Iwata Asks<\/a> series of developer interviews conducted by then-President of the company Satoru Iwata provided valuable insight into that bland-looking building in Kyoto, its personnel and development processes. Gotta love those Nintendo overalls.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this feature, as well as looking back at the well-known contributors to Nintendo\u2019s success, we hope to acknowledge some of the lesser-known employees as well, highlighting a broad spectrum of talent that has worked to bring us the games we\u2019ve loved. Of course, any<\/em> selection of this kind is bound to omit key figures in the rich history of the company and its games; with so many departments and divisions involved in making video games, it would be impractical to list every significant person, and this selection is large enough already.<\/p>\n

Large as it is, the almost total lack of women on this list is startling to see in 2019, perhaps reflecting the corporate culture prevalent at the time of its rise to the top, and the lack of opportunities for women in engineering back then. Happily, that appears to be slowly<\/em> changing; Nintendo recently highlighted the diversity<\/a> that characterises the company nowadays and, hopefully, we\u2019ll see the fruits of that reflected as it continues to evolve.<\/p>\n

So, while the history of Nintendo is a tapestry made up of hundreds<\/em> of important contributors, it\u2019s difficult to imagine it being in the position it is today without the following roster of people. For better or (sometimes) worse, it\u2019s these<\/em> people who have steered the good ship Nintendo into our gaming memories, so let\u2019s take a look at some of the big hitters and a few of their notable achievements over the last 130-ish years…<\/p>\n

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Fusajiro Yamauchi<\/h2>\n