Nintendo game director and creator of Super Mario Bros. Shigeru Miyamoto would kindly request you stop calling him the Spielberg of video games.
It's an undeniable truth that both Miyamoto and Spielberg are legends within their respective industries - the duo famously duked it out in Wii Sports back in the console's hayday. And indeed, Miyamoto has prominently been called the "Spielberg of video games" going back as far as a 1999 cover story for Time Magazine. However, in a new interview with GameSpot, he explained why he isn't a fan of the moniker. Asked how he feels about Nintendo being compared to Disney, Miyamoto had this to say:
"As you said, I've also been called the Spielberg of the game world, but I actually don't like that," Miyamoto said. "I'm Miyamoto. Miyamoto is Miyamoto and Nintendo is Nintendo. However, I do feel very honored to be compared with Disney. But with that said, rather than comparing Nintendo to Disney, I feel that Disney to some extent, especially for families, [represents] a sense of reassurance for families."
- A Zelda movie is finally happening, but Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto used to adamantly oppose the idea even "if Steven Spielberg himself" wanted to do it
- Before Nintendo hired Shigeru Miyamoto, it tried to patent the kid's toy he made and brought to his interview: "I remember thinking, 'this is a shrewd company!'"
I'm merely taking a stab at interpreting Miyamoto's true meaning of the word "reassurance" in this context, but it sounds like he's saying Disney movies are a source of comfort for people and that he feels Nintendo can provide something similar.
"I feel like Nintendo is well known for video games and usually video games don't equate to reassurance very much. But Nintendo is associated with video games and the fact that Nintendo is then being compared to Disney really gives me the [confidence] that we've gotten to a point where we can bring Nintendo to the concept of reassurance and perhaps [give that] reassurance. So that's something that I really feel like we were able to achieve and I'm happy about."
In honor of the great Miyamoto, here's our ranking of the best Mario games ever made.
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