What companies or individuals make games that you will buy just because their name is on it? Vinnk and Sean examine the perils and the pitfalls of Developer Worship, and wonder aloud if there’s really anything our favorite personalites and companies can do to make us hate them. We list some of our favorites: Harmonix, Square and Enix (before they were one company), BioWare, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda 51 and more! Which ones are your favorites, and why?

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Click “more” for the show notes!

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In New Super Mario Bros Wii, Nintendo has brought back the long dormant “Koopalings.” These seven characters are supposedly Bowser’s children and appear as stage antagonists in several Mario games. It is said that during the production of Super Mario Bros 3, Shigeru Miyamoto based each of them on a member of the design team.
But when Super Mario Bros 3 was released in 1988 to Japan, the kids were not given names. Only a year and a half later when Nintendo Of America released the game did they get names. The localization team did their best to match their appearances with some obvious, and less obvious names. See how obscure they get!
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Even though Nintendo had no official presence at Tokyo Game Show, Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto made a surprise appearance, stealing the show on the first day open to the public. 4cr and Powet.TV were there, which means you get to be too! Virtually, anyway.

…but just barely. Shigeru Miyamoto comes in at #92 in Time Magazine’s list of the most influence people of 2006. Who can blame them for including the Father of Modern Video games? As one of the main creative forces behind the phenomenally popular Wii, Miyamoto has secured a spot on the list by making video games less threatening and more accessible to everyone, (especially to the senior set, they can’t seem to get enough of the system at assisted living communities).

Although ranked #9 by the public, the fact that a game maker was even included on the list during the newly revived, post Virginia Tech, video game “witch-hunt” really says something about the power of the medium.

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SpikeTV’s GameHead took their entire episode this week to honor Shigeru Miyamoto. In addition to Geoff Keighly interviewing the man himself, they also took comments from the editors of Kotaku and GoNintendo, the cast of Mega64, and the GameJew. Charles Martinett, the voice of Mario, provides narration between segments.

Its an interesting retrospective, but the secretive Nintendo hero doesn’t give much of a look forward other than the tease that a once cancelled game may still see release.
Watch now: Quicktime / WMV