8 Nintendo Memories: In Memory of Satoru Iwata

Rollerball was Iwata’s very first game as producer, even though he still wasn’t part of Nintendo. This game is very much pinball but for a home console. Nothing remarkable if you check it out nowadays but it was impressive back in 1990.

Iwata’s very first game as a producer for Nintendo. This top-down golf game features Nintendo’s early mascots such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Princess Daisy. You can also select various maps around the world (well… Namely Japan, US, and UK). You can play this via the 3DS, Wii, and Wii U with a friend!

Pokemon Stadium was developed by HAL Laboratory, the studio in which Iwata was heavily involved with until his death. In this game, you go against 3D Pokemon and battle them with your moves (gameplay is very similar to the battles of the handheld Pokemon games). What’s impressive about this game is that Iwata coded the entire battle program in a week, a task which can consume countless hours!

This little (yet unsuccessful) gem of an RPG has reached cult status and fans are demanding a sequel, or even an official translation of its sequel, Mother 3. You play as Ness, who must travel around the world (setting takes place in modern American suburbs) in order to collect eight melodies and use his newfound powers to battle against an alien from the future named Giygas. Iwata was heavily involved with the programming of this game and he fixed a lot of bugs and problems that marred the gameplay. Without him, this game would have been a mess.

Not a game but one of the key things that Iwata had just introduced were the Iwata Asks videos. These videos focus on various games and reveal various developer commentaries and interviews. A lot of the core crowd were happy with these approaches, as it provided them transparencies and useful information about certain games.

The popular Super Smash Bros. features various Nintendo characters (and in the later games, non-Nintendo characters) battling against each other in a 2.5D plane. The key person to this franchise is Masahiro Sakurai, but Iwata and Sakurai developed the prototype of Super Smash Bros., initially called Dragon King: The Fighting Game, which didn’t feature Nintendo characters at all. Iwata eventually took charge of the future Smash Bros. games.

The biggest and best selling Nintendo home console reached over 100m buyers introduced the non-gamers to the world of gaming with motion controls. Iwata didn’t want to compete directly with Sony and Microsoft and wanted to focus on another market, which they successfully attracted. The Wii was the “winner” of that generation in terms of home consoles.

The Nintendo DS is considered the best selling system in the world, placing very close to the PlayStation 2, and selling a whopping 154m units worldwide. The feature attraction of the Nintendo DS was the stylus touch pad, which was, at that time, considered new and fresh. Another key feature of the NDS was the WiFi connection, which allowed users to play with other NDS users without the use of a cable, unlike the Gameboy which required one. Iwata stated that he wanted to introduce a 21st century gaming experience to players by adding various concepts from other portable system (such as the stylus pad seen in tablets).

What are the Nintendo games you’ll remember Satoru Iwata by? Share them with us in the comments below!