Nintendo’s franchises are so iconic and genre-defining that it’s sometimes easy to forget that these trendsetters also once relied on various sources of inspiration themselves. Nintendo Producer Shigeru Miyamoto, for example, took the name “Mario” from a landlord at Nintendo Washington’s property warehouse named Mario Segale, according to the book “Game Over, Press Start to Continue.”
According to an Iwata Asks interview, the reason the Star Fox series stars an anthropomorphic fox as the main protagonist is because Miyamoto enjoyed visiting Fushimi Inari Taisha, a head shrine in Kyoto. It was a 15-minute walk away from his office, and in the shrine, foxes are regarded as messengers that carry keys in their mouths.
As for The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto once again used real-life inspiration, this time from the film industry.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s action-adventure classic Raiders of the Lost Ark released in theaters in 1981 to overwhelming critical and commercial success, beginning a highly acclaimed movie trilogy starring adventuring icon Indiana Jones. To this day, it remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and the cultural impact it has had in cinema can not be understated — an impact that was not lost on Miyamoto.
In an official Nintendo developer interview promoting the release of the NES Classic Edition, when asked why he decided to create the original 1986 Legend of Zelda game, Miyamoto immediately acknowledged the Indiana Jones movies that were so popular in the ’80s. “I wanted to bring that sense of adventure to a video game,” he explains.
As a persistent archaeologist, Indy regularly embarks on perilous adventures in order to obtain rare artifacts, raiding ancient temples, tombs, and catacombs. With this in mind, Miyamoto says, “I decided to make an adventure game based on treasure-hunting, and that was the beginning of The Legend of Zelda.”
Source: Movie Screencaps
So, why did Miyamoto give Link a blade rather than a bullwhip and a fedora? “People playing computer RPGs back then were bragging about how strong their swordsmen had become and were calling each other at night to exchange information. When I noticed that, I thought it was an interesting milieu.”
Indiana Jones also seemed to spark inspiration for another popular video game series, Tomb Raider. Before the series’ protagonist evolved into the Lara Croft we now know and love, designer Toby Gard originally envisioned the character as a male lead with a whip and a hat.
A fifth installment in the Indiana Jones film series is reportedly in the works and currently scheduled for 2022, with Harrison Ford set to reprise his iconic role. Just as Indy hasn’t yet hung up his hat decades later, The Legend of Zelda series continues to be a driving force in the games industry. If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the last 40 years, it’s that gamers and moviegoers alike just can’t refuse a call to adventure.
