Within the introduction to Tremendous Nintendo: How One Japanese Firm Helped the World Have Enjoyable, Keza MacDonald makes a easy promise: over the course of the following 12 chapters, you may learn one thing you did not already know.
It is the sort of gauntlet-laying that may have any self-respecting Nintendo fan click on their knuckles and shut their Bulbapedia tab in a ‘problem accepted’ sort of manner. And but, 250 pages later, I can actually say that it rang true.
‘Tremendous Nintendo’, to convey it down from its correct title, is the story of the corporate that everyone knows and love; it is also the story of us, people, and the way we play. The Guardian‘s Video Video games Editor and former Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku UK compiles interviews with nearly each Nintendo inventive you possibly can consider (and those you possibly can’t) to elucidate how a few of the business’s most iconic collection got here to be, whereas additionally reflecting on why these collection are necessary in wider tradition.
It is complete however by no means too dense, informative however approachable, and full of an unwavering ardour for Nintendo that I might wager even the corporate’s greatest detractors would discover infectious. Briefly, if you wish to study Nintendo, that is the e book to do it.
Strictly talking, this is not a chronological walkthrough from A to B. It begins with the toy manufacturing of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s and ends with the event of Splatoon, however every game-focused chapter in between serves as a jumping-off level to elucidate one thing bigger concerning the firm as an entire.
A chapter on Donkey Kong delves into the early design processes of a little-known artist referred to as Shigeru Miyamoto. A Metroid part additionally serves to dissect gender illustration in each Nintendo video games and the broader business. Animal Crossing acts as a chief case examine demonstrating Nintendo’s behavior of sticking with an concept till its viewers finds it.
Be it the story of smash-hit successes like Wii Sports activities, or the corporate’s extra off-the-wall moments like LABO (no, LABO wasn’t only a fever dream), the e book presents the Home of Mario not as an organization that is out of contact with opponents, however one which’s at all times seeking to what’s subsequent — even when ‘subsequent’ is a cardboard piano.
The Nintendo fanboy in me at all times likes viewing the corporate in relation to the bigger business, and MacDonald does a pleasant job of balancing the micro particulars of recreation growth with the larger image. There are many locations that you could search for deep dives into particular titles and their growth, however Tremendous Nintendo actually shines in showcasing the non-public touches.
Take the chapter on Kirby, which is used as a manner into discussing the much-missed Satoru Iwata. It is a poignant and heartfelt tribute shining the sunshine as a lot on Iwata the person as Iwata the designer — the company president, laptop programmer, and gamer, to paraphrase his iconic introductory quote. By compiling phrases from Miyamoto, Itoi and others near him (primarily from Hobonichi’s great e book, Ask Iwata), MacDonald balances Iwata’s industrial and private impacts. It is becoming that the chapter ends on Miyamoto’s recollections of their late-night meals and shared sweets slightly than spectacular gross sales figures for Wii and DS.
The e book is constructed on one of the vital complete collections of interviews that I’ve seen in a very long time, many from MacDonald herself. The veteran journalist throws out tidbits from her chats with Miyamoto, Aonuma, Tezuka, and others, pulling from different works when she did not have an opportunity to sit down down with the inventive in query. Tremendous Nintendo threads every perspective collectively right into a cohesive complete, and it feels such as you’re getting a peek behind the wizard’s curtain, catching a glimpse of all of the previous builders turning wheels and flipping switches whereas the top outcome appears to be like like magic from the surface.
There are many little inner-working nuggets peppered all through the e book, and I do not wish to spoil them right here, but it surely’s thrilling to listen to a few of the firm’s longest-serving designers discuss anecdotally about their perceptions of choose merchandise lengthy earlier than they launched. Shinya Takahashi has a listing of manufacturing credit so long as your arm, so studying about his pre-launch worries concerning the Change, about how he wasn’t absolutely on board with the attraction of the design till the primary time he moved a prototype from docked to handheld, is fascinating.
Effectively-worn tales of Miyamoto’s Zelda inspiration stemming from his time exploring forests as a baby are blended with lesser-known particulars, like Koizumi confessing he designed Mario Sunshine‘s splashy give attention to the again of his recollections of summer season holidays spent by the water. You will discover numerous these anecdotes elsewhere, however I extremely doubt that you have learn all of them.
By threading them into the story of the corporate, Tremendous Nintendo proves to be a really satisfying abstract of an organization that’s ever-changing and ever-growing. If this e book places one factor above all others throughout, it is that Nintendo’s sense of enjoyable, and our sense of play, will endlessly be its most interesting characteristic.
Due to Faber for sending a sophisticated copy. Tremendous Nintendo: How One Japanese Firm Helped the World Have Enjoyable launches in North America on third February 2026 and within the UK on twelfth February 2026. It’s accessible now to pre-order.
