Today it was announced that a great general in the video gaming world died.
Mr. Iwata became Nintendo’s president in 2002, just as the Gamecube went global, and he has helmed Nintendo since that day to now. I just want to express my gratitude for such a fun and games loving CEO at the head of Nintendo, who could have even more easily been just another suit like we see from EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft every single year.
We as gamers have the unique ability to live through his work, so we can remember how he lived through the games he and his company made. Or those hilarious E3 directs he presented. The man was not perfect, but none of us are. In the end, he was a good man, with the heart of a gamer. That’s all we can really ask for.
Zelda: Oracle of Seasons was my first video game, and my favourite Zelda game of all time. That Nintendo nostalgia, love and care lives on in all their Zelda games, and I’m sure many new fans feel the same way I feel about Oracle, about Skyward or Twilight or Windwaker. Games which he didn’t over monetize and sacrificed a lot of profits to make them as fun for gamers as possible.
So I’m not going to cry or give anymore sob stories. I’m just going to turn on my game-cube and play some Melee.
Eventually everyone runs out of 1ups, but Mr. Iwata, You made it to a Damn Good Level!
. Mr. Iwata really earned my respect. Since he was a game programmer and a gamer himself, he was actually concerned about the games and us gamers as well, not like some big shots CEO who don’t give a damn about their broken games and just care about profits.
