[Review] Ask Iwata: A charming and welcomed peek into the life of Nintendo’s legendary president

In the realm of the video game industry, there are many people who have earned the highest level of respect among both professionals and fans. The late Satoru Iwata was and is one such person. His contributions to HAL Laboratories, Nintendo, and the industry as a whole were nothing short of remarkable. But his business and programming gifts aside, what he gave the gaming world that made the most impact was himself. He was a man who cared. He cared about games, cared about his companies, and simply cared about people.

During his tenure as president of Nintendo, Mr. Iwata took part in many interviews where he discussed his thoughts on game design, the industry, business practices, and life in general. The new book Ask Iwata is a project that seeks to share Mr. Iwata’s discussions with the world in a way that can be remembered and enjoyed far beyond the typical lifespan of an online interview. There is much that Mr. Iwata can teach us, so they put those teachings, along with some of his closest friends’ favorite memories of him, into something people can hold and treasure with their hands.

Ask Iwata is organized into seven chapters that focus on and highlight specific topics about Mr. Iwata. These range from stories about his early days as a programmer and all of the life lessons that inspired and motivated him, to his views on leadership and what he thought his role was as a company president. Each chapter follows a clear pattern, and they are also broken into multiple sections, making it easy to absorb the full context of what Mr. Iwata is talking about in each one. This also helps with the pacing of the book. It’s very easy to start reading one chapter and then feel the urge to keep going onto the next one and the next one after that.

Each chapter also ends with a segment called “Iwata’s Words of Wisdom.” These sections contain tidbits of quotes from Mr. Iwata. They pertain to the topics discussed in the chapter. Some partially repeat what was included in the actual chapter, but these words of wisdom are a great inclusion as they make it feel as though Mr. Iwata is there, naturally dispensing his knowledge and insight to the reader.

As mentioned, each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of Mr. Iwata’s life or career. Though these chapters originated as interviews, Ask Iwata does a fantastic job of reorganizing the content to read much like an autobiography.

The structure of Ask Iwata is a technical highpoint of the book. Mr. Iwata had so much wisdom to offer during his lifetime, but as mentioned in the book, he had no real desire to write and publish a book of his own. This book is the greatest chance that most people will ever have to learn as much as possible both from and about Mr. Iwata.

From the first few pages of the book, it is clear that Mr. Iwata was a man who worked hard and always strived to find the solution to any problem. These were traits that served him well during his days as a programmer. Originally self-taught on his Hewlett-Packard calculator, Mr. Iwata earned a degree in computer sciences and joined the newly-formed Hal Laboratories after graduation. He had always achieved the most success when he approached a problem with the attitude that a solution for it does exist. And this approach proved invaluable to him during the years when he shifted to his leadership roles.

Leadership is what the book and Mr. Iwata focus on next. As a manager, Mr. Iwata was fixated on the idea that people can bring their best to their work and solve any problem if they know they are listened to and are part of a team. One way he showed this was by having one-on-one interviews with every single staff member to learn as much as he could about them. And as he rose in position at both HAL and Nintendo, he never lost sight of what was important. Mr. Iwata knew that the happiness of both the employees and the customers was paramount.

And that was one of Mr. Iwata’s best traits: He loved to see people happy. He loved to know that what he and his companies were doing was having a positive effect on people. This level of consideration often seems like a rare and disappearing trait in executive-type people, especially in larger, international companies. But as many of his fans know from his most famous quote, he never lost sight of the fact that he was a gamer. He was like everyone else, and he didn’t want it any other way.

These are just a couple of examples of the insight into Mr. Iwata’s views that Ask Iwata offers. There’s much more to learn, and in the latter half of the book, the reader can also find a chapter from the points of view of Shigeru Miyamoto and Shigesato Itoi, who were close friends with Mr. Iwata. The first part of the book explains how Mr. Iwata thought and what he strived to be and do, and this later section gives testimonies of the positive effects his life had on others.

Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Iwata were a dynamic team. Many games and projects, including many The Legend of Zelda titles, flourished under their collaboration. And each man also has had a profound level of respect for the other. As explained in the book, Mr. Iwata was often impressed by how Mr. Miyamoto could look at a problem and find a solution for it that solves multiple other problems along with it. “A good idea is something that solves multiple problems in a flash,” as Mr. Miyamoto told Mr. Iwata. This was an ideal that Mr. Iwata took to heart and shared with many other people time and time again.

And Mr. Miyamoto respected Mr. Iwata’s ability to summarize and organize ideas and make them work for a project or Nintendo in general as a business philosophy. Mr. Iwata was keen to motivate the employees to enjoy and thrive in their work, as Mr. Miyamoto saw. Both men saw the value in each other’s skills and approaches to work issues, and it made them better friends.

Mr. Itoi and Mr. Iwata met each other when Mr. Iwata was brought on to help with the development of Earthbound. The game’s development had been struggling tremendously, which risked the game being canceled, but Mr. Iwata’s direction and advice were able to help Itoi’s team finish the game in a timeframe previously thought impossible.

What stood out to Mr. Itoi the most about Mr. Iwata was his attitude, both in general and in how he approached his work. Mr. Itoi recognized Mr. Iwata’s technical and programming skills, but it was Mr. Iwata’s modesty and kindness that mattered most. They made it easy for Mr. Itoi to trust him. Long after Earthbound had been published, the two men remained close friends and would meet and spend time with each other whenever possible.

Again, as with the lessons shared in the first part of the book, these thoughts on Mr. Iwata from Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Itoi are only samplings, but they prove the point that Ask Iwata is a valuable book. It is the reader’s direct viewpoint into the impact Mr. Iwata had on the people close to him, and how that influence then inspired what Nintendo has done for fans and consumers the world over. Having this insight compiled into a short yet potent book is a remarkable gift for those who want to know as much as they can about Mr. Iwata.

Anyone who is a fan of Nintendo, particularly the games and systems that were developed and then thrived under Mr. Iwata’s direction, and anyone who wants to understand how Mr. Iwata was such a successful and respected leader would do well to read Ask Iwata. Mr. Iwata died on July 11, 2015, at the age of 55 due to complications from Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). His sudden passing was mourned around the globe, but his life and achievements were also celebrated at the same time. They say that the good ones die young. That might be true of the good ones, but the truly great ones never really die. The positive impact they had on people allows them to live on. And Ask Iwata now serves as an endearing and inspiring testimony to this fact.