Kojima: "Without Super Mario, I probably wouldn't have been in this industry"

"When I saw that, although it was pixel art with no story, I felt this medium would one day surpass movies."

When it comes to Japanese game developers, there is probably no one, not even Shigeru Miyamoto, who is as well known as Hideo Kojima - whose game studio even bears his name (Kojima Productions). But Miyamoto has nevertheless been incredibly important to Kojima, and without him, it is by no means certain that we would ever have been able to enjoy games such as Metal Gear or Death Stranding.

In an interview with Japanese Wired (via GamesRadar), he says that it was Super Mario Bros that made him choose a career as a game developer.

"[I] played it for a year. I was a college student. I skipped school to play at home. Without Super Mario, I probably wouldn't have been in this industry. Yeah. I can't really play it now, though. It's a side-scrolling action game. Mario just goes left to right. Basically just jumping.

It felt like you were on an adventure. When I saw that, although it was pixel art with no story, I felt this medium would one day surpass movies. That conviction brought me to the game industry."

Here at the editorial office, we definitely think - contrary to Kojima - that Mario's first adventure still holds up, even after all these years. However, this anecdote is just one of many that show how incredibly important Super Mario Bros actually was and is.

<bild>The game that made Kojima make games.</bild>