Ask Iwata was finally translated into English--and we were lucky enough to receive an early copy
for review, which you should totally check out if you haven’t already.
And while it’s primarily about Iwata’s philosophy and the lessons he learned as Nintendo
President’s, there are quite a few cute, fun, and informative details scattered about
that you probably didn’t know--heck, we didn’t.
So Without further ado, let’s checkout our nine fun facts from Ask Iwata.
Number 1: It all started with a graphing calculator.
Though Iwata might have gotten his hands dirty on plenty of games before being promoted to
Nintendo CEO, his first game ever was designed on a device never intended for them: an HP
programmable calculator, which he eventually submitted to HP in Japan.
Without that calculator and his friend being his first “customer,” it’s possible
his entire career could have turned out differently!
Number 2: Satoru Kirby?!
Iwata liked eating candy so much during meetings that he earned the nickname of “Kirby,”
as he would inhale all the sugary sweets he could find that Nintendo staff left nearby.
Which is pretty fitting considering that Iwata was once president of HAL laboratory, the
makers of the Kirby character!
Kirbywatta, anyone?
I’ll show myself out...
Number 3: It Just Clicked One Day Did you know Pokemon Snap wasn’t always
about...Pokemon?
It wasn’t until the developers of a photography game hit a roadblock that Iwata realized the
part that mattered most what was you were taking pictures of.
He then suggested to Miyamoto that Pokémon should be the stars, and so Pokémon Snap
was born.
Phew, could you imagine if it had just been called Snap?!
Number 4: Smashing Success Started Small Smash Bros.
Ultimate might not be the first game in the series to claim that title, as Iwata jokes
that the original Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64 was actually the “Ultimate Indie
title.”
This is because the entire prototype was designed by just 3 people over the span of several
weekends, which is all the free time they had.
Iwata handled all the programming, while Sakurai tackled the game design, alongside a 3rd person
who handled the sound.
Though speaking of Ultimate, he had never imagined the series could reach such heights.
And he was generally opposed to adding more content to a game just for the sake of it,
but Smash Brothers was the rare exception where he felt it was right to cram in as much
as possible.
Number 5: Saving Earthbound Iwata might just have saved Earthbound.
Because after four years of development, the game was still stuck in developmental hell--or
The Cave of the Past, as you might say.
But Iwata knew he could help, but didn’t want to step on any toes.
So he offered Two plans of action to get the job done: Either work with what they have
and finish it in 2 years, or reboot the game from scratch, throwing away much of what they
had, but be done in half a year.
Thankfully, they chose the half a year option, and Iwata came back a month later with a revised
version of the game--and a new scrolling map feature--and energized the team enough to
finally finish the game within a year.
Number 6: Take a Break Speaking of Earthbound, do you remember how
Ness’s dad would occasionally call to check in and suggest that you take a break if you
played Earthbound for too long?
Well, Iwata says this helped inspire the Wii’s unique ability to record how long you spent
playing every game.
Though interestingly, that isn’t quite how it started.
Originally, the plan was to have the Wii turn off automatically once a pre-set amount of
time had passed, as set by parents.
But after heated debates and technical issues, such as how to save an in-progress game before
shutting down, the play history feature was the end result.
That certainly beats an automatic Game Over, doesn’t it kids?
Number 7: A Challenge Speaking of the Wii, during its development,
Iwata issued a mandate to the team that the system should be no thicker than a stack of
3 DVD cases...before he even knew if it would be possible.
Although he knew it would be difficult, he pretended it wouldn’t be a challenge when
presenting it to the team, going off his “We’ll work it out” philosophy.
And hey, they did work it out--so Iwata was right.
Number 8: Miyamoto’s #1 Fan Iwata is a Miyamoto fanboy...or in his words
“Miyamoto’s #1 follower” He often would try to figure out the secret to Miyamoto success,
which lead to the realization that Miyamoto would kidnap...err, borrow, Nintendo employees
constantly to playtest his games for feedback.
Iwata even remembered quotes that Miyamoto himself had forgot, such as “A good idea
is something that solves multiple problems in a flash!”
The two constantly wound up going out to lunch once a week for 20 years, always splitting
the bill.
Number 9: It Was a Metaphor!
The Nintendo DS mi ght have started off as a joke...sort of.
Because Yamauchi recommended to Iwata that they make a game console with two screens.
But Iwata understood this to be more of a metaphor, meaning to think outside the box
and come up with something new.
But after bouncing ideas off Miyamoto for a while, they made it literal by realizing
a two-screen setup would work perfectly with one being touchscreen, and thus the Nintendo
DS was born!
And that’s it for our top nine interesting facts about Iwata’s amazing legacy and what
he contributed in the Ask Iwata book.
If you liked this, we recommend checking out the full Ask Iwata book yourself and our review
of it which you can find on the right or in the description below.
Do you have a favorite Iwata moment like Directs, let us know in the comments below, and stay
tuned to GameXplain for more on Nintendo and other things gaming too.