ABSTRACT
A quiet, unassuming man who is "very content" with his modest salary and seems genuinely bemused by his worldwide celebrity, Shigeru Miyamoto was an unlikely candidate for "world's most acclaimed game designer." As he flashes his trademark smile and casually explains his original sketches for Donkey Kong, you get the sense that he is as excited today about the idea as he was more than 20 years ago. Because there was simply no one else in the company available, Miyamoto was tapped by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi to create the game, Miyamoto's first. In the most emphatic and real sense, the future of Nintendo hung on the unproven industrial design graduate and his "Stubborn Gorilla." Against all odds, the game became a smash hit, in a stroke saving the ailing Nintendo and establishing Miyamoto's reputation.
