When it do to video games , Nintendo is the quondam player in townsfolk and I have in mind that quite literally . The company inscribe the manufacture in the seventies , but has actually been around for more than 125 eld , lead off living as a calling card and toy maker long before making the jump to television secret plan . Any fellowship with that variety of seniority is bound to have some bewitching history behind it and Nintendo is no exception , to the gunpoint where anentire book was written about their competition with Segain the early 90s . Still , there ’s much more to the company ’s account than one console warfare and I ’ve collect 20 fascinating bits of trivia about the company and its games that you could pull out at the next party you go to and disaffect yourself from everyone in the room ( just kidding ! ) .
Here are 20 things you probably did n’t hump about Nintendo , starting with :
20. The Game Boy Creator Started Out as a Janitor
The late Gunpei Yokoi lived a jolly interesting life , especially when it came to his career trajectory . Believe it or not , the homo who would go onto createDonkey Kong , Metroid , and the Game Boy started working at Nintendo as a fellow member of the janitorial faculty ! He moved up into a position on the assembly line next , but was much too magnificent a mind to last out there for long . After tinkering with some gaming inventions on the side , Nintendo high - ups begin to take notice and Yokoi speedily started climb up the ranks . Over the next twenty yr , he would come up with the aforesaid mathematical product and finally service as Nintendo ’s general coach .
lamentably , Yokoi ’s life was tragically cut short in 1997 . After being take in a underage car clang , Yokoi got out of his car to assess the damage , was strike by another vehicle and died shortly thereafter . This was also not long after Yokoi suffered arguably his greatest mathematical product loser with the Virtual Boy but luckily , his bequest as an important trailblazer in the games industry dwell on to this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
19. Donkey Kong was the First Game to Feature Jumping
The ability for a reference to jump makes up the foundation of many a retro biz , but it may storm you to get word that it take intimately a full 10 after the dismissal ofPongfor a secret plan to sport this mechanic . suitably , it was Nintendo ’s colonnade classicDonkey Kongthat pioneered the move , as it was the primary ability of the game ’s playable fictitious character Jumpman , advantageously make out as Mario today(well , technically he ’s Mario and Luigi ’s father , but whatever ) .
While Donkey Kong is very simplistic by today ’s standards , back in 1981 it was a pretty telling technical exploit for a game to have a character pull off a in writing jump over hurdles , not to remark climbing ladder . basically , Nintendo created an total genre just by give Mario the ability to jump , so it ’s no surprise that the company cover to put out the best lineament platformers to this day .
18. The NES Zapper Looked Like a Real Gun in Japan
It ’s a scientific fact ( not really ) that anyone who owned the Nintendo Entertainment System also lovedDuck Hunt , which made habit of a light - gun twist called the Zapper . Everyone remembers the Zapper ’s distinctive red-faced and gray color scheme , but the original design was much more naturalistic , to the point where it looked just like a revolver . That ’s right , the Zapper that Nintendo releadonkey sed for the Japanese Famicon system could well be confused with a existent gun , which is why the peripheral was redesigned when it finally made its way to the United States . Of course , it ’s quite potential that theDuck Huntgame itself turned a whole generation of small fry against duck forever , but at least their poor parents never would have mistaken the Zapper for a unsafe weapon .
17. Miyamoto’s First Game Never Released in the US
Shigeru Miyamoto , the mastermind behind the originalSuper Mario Bros.andThe Legend of Zelda(and a host of other classics ) is deal gaming royal house at this point , but he did n’t actually get his start with either of those games . In fact , his very first game , Devil World , never even made it stateside ! Back in the day , Nintendo of America had some reasonably strict policy on content in games , especially when it come to spiritual imagery .
For model , the developers ofCastlevaniaandDragon Questwere forced to remove crosses and other religious iconography from their games , while Miyomoto’sDevil Worldwas outright banned from being sold in the US . The game itself was little more than aPac - Manclone , but with gameplay that include kill demons with crosses and the Bible . Even though it ’s made its way to both the Japanese and European Virtual Console service of process , it ’s still never been available officially in the US .
16. Nintendo Makes Miyamoto Drive to Work
As antecedently mention , Shigeru Miyamoto is kind of a bad deal at Nintendo . In fact , he ’s so important that even rumour of his retirement have caused the party ’s stock price to neglect in the past tense . As such , Nintendo has taken quantity to check that Miyamoto keeps amount in to work his magic , to the point where they ’ve really mandate that he drive to work , as contradict to walking or riding a cycle as he ’d choose , as per an in - depthNew Yorker profilefrom 2010 .
It ’s unclear if Nintendo also dictates what he can and ca n’t run through or drink but at the same time , it ’s hard to blame the company for wanting to protect one of its greatest assets in whatever way it can . At 64 , Miyamoto appears as spry and vital as ever and there ’s no understanding to think he wo n’t be making hits for Nintendo for years to come .
15. Kirby’s American Box Art Tends to Have More “Attitude”
The Nipponese and American sides of Nintendo ’s business do n’t always see heart - to - eye and one of the less noticeable , but interesting difference between the two divisions is how they present sure box art . There ’s a detectable movement wherein US box art tends to have more “ position ” than its Nipponese equivalent weight . Kid Icarus : Uprisingfor the 3DS has some insidious difference of opinion in this attentiveness , but moderately much every Kirby plot relinquish in the US alters the pink hard-skinned puffball to appear raging by arch his eyebrows .
Kirby games have traditionally not been vast hit for Nintendo in North America — although you ’d be forgive for thinking otherwise chip in the sheer phone number of Kirby games there have been — so perhaps this is Nintendo ’s way of strain to make the character appeal to an audience who tends to refuse his cutesy appearance .
14. Kirby’s Original Name Was Ridiculous
Speaking of Kirby , the pink puffball probably would have come even worse in America if Nintendo had deposit with the character ’s original name which , I kid you not , was Tinkle Popo . You truly ca n’t make this kind of material up ! This is n’t a simple urban legend either , as the recent Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed at the company’sGDC 2011 keynotethat Tinkle Popo was indeed Kirby ’s original name and that it was ultimately switch to Kirby after Nintendo realized that the name would n’t dally well with American consumers . This was probably a overbold move and also leaves the door open for a Tinkle Popo spinoff if Nintendo ever becomes so disposed .
13. Final Fantasy VII Was Originally A Nintendo Game
Final Fantasy VIIis arguably one of the most of import game ever made and helped add the original Sony PlayStation asthegaming console to go to for deep , cinematic experiences in the late ninety . However , any Final Fantasy fan will recount you that the popular RPG dealership was synonymous with Nintendo for quite some time , as the first six game were all released on Nintendo hardware . Therefore , it should n’t fall as too much of a surprise to learn thatFFVIIbegan life story as a Nintendo biz and was to begin with move to be exhaust on the SNES .
So what convinced Squaresoft to jump ship to Sony ? Well , the game had to be pushed back after development onChrono Triggertook longer than expected , prompting Squaresoft to get down planning FFVII as a next - gen release . In fact , the game was first publically foretell as a Nintendo 64 title , but after learning that Nintendo was get with cartridge for the console , Squaresoft get going to Sony to take advantage of the PlayStation ’s CD - ROM data formatting , which provided extra storage for the biz ’s lengthy cutscenes and soundtrack . The rest , as they say , is history .
12. Wii Sports Golf is a Remake of NES Golf
I do n’t deal what anyone says , Wii Sportswas a fire back in the day and if you say you did n’t enjoy it , you ’re lying to yourself . WhileWii Tenniswas by far the most popular secret plan in the package , Wii Golfwas surprisingly fun as well and although it did n’t publicise it , was essentially an unofficial remaking ofGolffor the NES . Both titles were launching secret plan for their respective systems , it ’s true , butWii Golf’sconnection to its retro predecessor goes much deeper , as each of the game ’s nine hollow are recreation of the single found in the NES game , updated with cleaner graphics and movement ascendance ( see the full breakdownhere ) .
11. Cranky Kong is the Original Donkey Kong
The originalDonkey Kong Countryis notable for many reasons , but one of its greatest accomplishments is turning DK into a hero after his nefarious spell in the original colonnade secret plan . Believe it or not , the reasonableness for this has nothing to do with a change of heart , but rather because they ’re not actually the same theatrical role ! As a nice bit of world - building on Rare ’s part , the developer introduced the domain to Donkey Kong ’s belligerent granddaddy Cranky Kong , who it turns out IS the original Donkey Kong .
To be reasonable , the game never explicitly confirms this , but Cranky does make several reference to the “ dear old days , ” and even bring up the Donkey Kong arcade game at several points . This would seem to indicate that Donkey Kong Jr. is the father of Donkey Kong Country ’s DK , but it ’s unclear if this is truthful or not .
10. Meet Diskun, the Failed Nintendo Mascot
Mario has been Nintendo ’s mascot for decades but before the portly plumber come along , the troupe tried out a few unlike ideas . One of these fail mascots was Diskun , aka Mr. Disk , a chickenhearted character who represented the Famicom Disk System ( which explain why American hearing likely have no idea who he is ) .
9. The Nintendo 64 Got a Disk Drive Add-On
The Nintendo 64 had a somewhat short life span , all things considered , but that did n’t stop Nintendo from releasing all sorts of peripherals for the console . You ’re in all probability familiar with the Rumple Pak and Expansion Pak , but did you know that Nintendo made a phonograph recording drive minimal brain dysfunction - on call the 64DD ? destine to call the N64 ’s cartridge problem , the 64DD supported CD - read-only memory , thereby increase the system ’s memory importantly . However , the twist bombed in Japan and was never turn in the US .
In fact , the 64DD die so dramatically that back likePokemon Stadium , Majora ’s Mask , Paper Mario , Animal Crossing , Banjo - Tooie , and evenResident Evil 0 — which were all originally intended to be turn on it — had to be radically change in response to the 64DD being discontinued .
8. Paul Rudd Was in a Power Glove Commercial!
I ’ll be honest , I ’m just including this on the listing because it ’s awing . As it turns out , one of role player / ageless wonder Paul Rudd ’s early roles was in a 1991 commercial message for the Super Nintendo , which have him playing games likeF - ZeroandThe Legend of Zelda : A radio link to the Pastat a force back - in picture field that face like it was rend out of an 80s horror moving-picture show .
In other words , it ’s wholly awesome and you need to watch it .
7. Nintendo and Namco Had Beef in the 80s
If you were making secret plan in the late 1980s and actually wanted them to be successful , you jolly much had to free them on the NES , which was by far the prevalent cabinet on the market at the metre . Unfortunately , this also mean that you had to trifle ball with Nintendo ’s rigid guideline , which specify how many games a third - party publishing firm could release in a given twelvemonth and how many copy of each game would be manufactured . Namco played ball with Nintendo , but its executives were reasonably unhappy about the whole matter and eventually turn to American publishing firm Tengen for assist .
You see , Tengen had find a manner to make and sell NES game without Nintendo ’s approving and Namco wanted a piece of the action . intelligibly , Nintendo was not well-chosen about this and end up suing Tengen for illegally breaking the NES security system . The case was finally settled out of court , but would get friction between Nintendo and Namco for many age , although it would appear that they have patched thing up since then , reckon as how Namco make grow the most recentSuper Smash Bros.titles for 3DS and Wii U.
6. Nintendo Once Owned the Seattle Mariners
Ever inquire why there were so many Ken Griffey Jr. games on the SNES ? Well , it probably had something to do with the fact that Nintendo ’s then = president Hiroshi Yamauchi purchase a majority stakes in the Seattle Mariners baseball game squad back in 1992 . Apparently , it all had something to do with Seattle , WA being Nintendo ’s stand of operation in the US for so many years and Yamauchi wanting to show his appreciation . Weirdly , Yamauchi was n’t even much of a baseball fan , as he reportedly never went to a undivided Mariners game at any point before his death in 2013 . However , he alsobankrolled the team and prevented them from move to a different urban center , something that Mariners fan seem to restfully appreciate .
Nintendo does n’t in reality own the team anymore , as Howard Lincoln , the former Chairman of Nintendo of America , step down from his role as CEO of the Mariners in 2016 . However , Nintendo still retains a 10 % stake in the team .
5. GoldenEye’s Multiplayer Was a Last-Minute Addition
As skillful as the single - actor campaign was inGoldenEye 007 , the game is considered an N64 classic almost alone due to its addictive snag - screen multiplayer . It may come as a shock then to learn that the game almost ship without it ! In fact , if it was n’t for a few rarified employee breaking communications protocol and work on it without Nintendo ’s boon , the game would have just let in the campaign .
rarified employee Steve Ellis and a few of his coworkers created it only a few weeks before the game was due to be shipped , but make do to put it into the plot as experimentation . They had no idea how influential it would really be and it ’s safe to say that without its classic multiplayer style , GoldenEyewouldn’t be anywhere near as lovingly remember as it is today .
4. The Nintendo DS Almost Had a Very Different Name
Nintendo has given its many gaming gadget both unbelievable names and ones that just make you scratch your head ( they ’ll never experience the Wii U down ) . Fortunately , there have been times in the companionship ’s history where clear school principal have prevail and avoided giving a product an otherwise too bad name . Case in item : the Nintendo DS , which of grade suffer for “ Dual Screen , ” or “ Developer ’s System . ” It ’s dim-witted , it ’s elegant … and it ’s a Inferno of a caboodle good than the Nintendo City Boy , which is an actual name swim around for the handheld at one point ( oh god , we can just imagine the commercials determine to Journey ’s “ Do n’t Stop Believin ” now ) . Admittedly , there is some disputation as to whether Nintendo ever in earnest consider going with the City Boy name , but an prescribed filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tell otherwise .
It still would n’t have been as spoiled as “ Wii U ” though .
3. Mario + Koopa = Luigi
Most Nintendo fans know about Mario ’s line of descent ( he was named after Mario Segale , Nintendo ’s surly American storage warehouse landlord ) , but what about his brother Luigi ? Well , it turns out that Luigi was a byproduct of computer hardware limitation , as a lack of memory blank made it so that Nintendo could n’t add any new coloration to the 1983 colonnade game , Mario Bros. When it came time to design the secret plan ’s second playable character , the developers opted to reuse plus who used the same character model as Mario , but with the green color of the biz ’s Koopa turtle enemies . In other parole , Luigi is the lovechild of Mario and Koopa , which name him Mario ’s … son ? It ’s best not to think about it .
2. Nintendo Invented The D-Pad
While it ’s hard to go back now that we ’re all so used to analog control sticks , the D - Pad was an important hallmark of fairly much every early gambling controller and it was Nintendo who came up with the first blueprint . It was actually our good protagonist Gunpei Yokoi who helped design the original D - Pad , as he steer development on the Game & Watch hardware introduce in 1982 .
The squad decided to go with a cross physique and concave middle to sound control 2D bowel movement in the G&W port of Donkey Kong . Nintendo ended up patent the D - Pad design and used it in their controller conception ever since , which is why company like Sony and Microsoft have had to use different design with their own controller ’ d - pads .
1. The NES is the Longest-Lasting Gaming Console
The NES is one of , if not the most of import console ever made , so it ’s barely surprising to learn that it was on the market for a foresighted time . And when I say a recollective time , I mean that it hold the record for the longest - lasting gaming system in history . primitively set in motion in Japan in 1983 and North America in 1985 , Nintendo of America discontinued the organisation in 1995 following a ten on the mart , but the story was much dissimilar in Japan .
The NES lasted almost a full decade longer in the Land of the Rising Sun , with Nintendo finally calling it quits in 2003 , a full twenty geezerhood after it was first released ! And yet , the NES Classic was only on the food market for six months . Nintendo , what gives ?
