No one is more closely associated with Nintendo than Shigeru Miyamoto. “Mario’s dad” and the creator of series like Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda has been with the company for decades, and his own children grew up with access to Nintendo’s game library. That’s why it’s particularly amusing that they were also big Sega fans.
Speaking to The New Yorker, Miyamoto said that growing up, his children were big fans of Space Harrier and Out Run–two classics we’ve seen on numerous systems, including Sega Genesis. They both hold up fairly well today, and you can actually play them both on Nintendo Switch via the Sega Ages series.
Perhaps that Sega love came as a result of the house’s game consoles being owned by Miyamoto himself rather than his kids.
“If they couldn’t follow the rules, then there was an understanding that I could just take the machine away from them,” he joked in the interview. Harsh! It’s enough to make anyone rebel!
Of course, Nintendo remained a giant in the video game hardware industry while Sega became a software company. They now have something of a buddy-buddy relationship where there was once rivalry, with Mario and Sonic sharing the screen in several games.
One of Shigeru Miyamoto’s biggest current projects is the design and development of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Japan. Nintendo recently gave a 15-minute preview of the park, showing off some attractions and the activities you can try out while you’re exploring. It opens in February 2021, with other locations planned later for California, Florida, and Singapore.
