Nintendo Quotes

“A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.”
― Shigeru Miyamoto

“Dear Nintendo, We need a new Mario game, where you rescue the princess in the first ten minutes, and for the rest of the game you try and push down that sick feeling in your stomach that she’s ‘damaged goods’, a concept detailed again and again in the profoundly sex negative instruction booklet, and when Luigi makes a crack about her and Bowser, you break his nose and immediately regret it. When Peach asks you, in the quiet of her mushroom castle bedroom ‘do you still love me?’ you pretend to be asleep. You press the A button rhythmically, to control your breath, keep it even.”
― Joey Comeau , Overqualified

“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.”
― Satoru Iwata

“Just like the notion of "Internet natives", who have never known a world without Internet access, we, who have lived our entire lives with video games, can be known as "video game natives.”
― Alexei Maxim Russell, The Classic Gamer's Bible

“The other [video game] franchises let you experience the adrenaline and horror of war, or deep fantasy worlds, or pro sports. A Mario game lets you pretend to be a middle-aged chubster hopping onto a turtle shell.”
― Jeff Ryan, Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America

“He was skilled----at the end of the level, he could make Mario land at the top of the flagpole, something Sadie had never mastered. Although Sadie liked to be the player, there was a pleasure to watching someone who was a dexterous player---it was like watching a dance. He never looked over at her. He cleared the first boss battle, and the words BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE appeared on the screen.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“What are you giving him?"

Nicola Vileroy tilted her head... " Something to mesmerize and delight him. Something absolutely ethereal that would capture his imagination and not let go. "

"Ooh, Nintendo, how lovely!”
― Daniel Nayeri, Another Faust

“When my dad was young he shot marbles. When I was young I played Marble Madness on my Nintendo Entertainment System.”
― Kevin James Breaux

“So basically, you get to play Super Mario all you want, any time you want, for FREE !"

"That is the single most amazing thing I've ever heard.”
― Gene Luen Yang, Level Up

“Minoru and Yoko spent many evenings at video arcades. They looked over players' shoulders until it made young kids nervous. "What the fuck's your problem, mister?" one kid in a Kiss T-shirt barked at Minoru. Arakawa asked him, "Would you like a job?"
He watched kids stand in front of the machines, transfixed, their hands melded to controllers, their bony arms like umbilical cords joining human and machine. He asked the kids questions about what made a game good. Arakawa realized that the most successful games had something the players couldn't articulate. The words used to describe them were those usually reserved to describe forms of intimacy between people. It was as if the players and the game itself somehow merged.”
― David Sheff, Game Over, Press Start to Continue: How Nintendo Conquered the World

“At our annual March Madness Mario Kart Tournament---along with the twins and Javy, Maggie and Juliet---when Lou's Toadette nearly upset the top-seeded Yoshi in the second round but got blasted by a blue shell right before the finish line, and Lou started swearing and couldn't stop. Farfar couldn't stop grinning, his hands folded behind his head, the rest of us crying from laughter.
(I was in seventh grade when I realized March Madness had anything do with basketball.)”
― Jared Reck, Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love

“He told them he regretted that he had missed an early opportunity to invest in Nintendo in the 1970's. "They were just a playing-card company," Watanabe-san said, with a self-deprecating laugh. "Hanafuda. For aunties and little children, you know?" Nintendo's most successful product before they made Donkey Kong was, indeed, a deck of hanafuda playing cards.
"What's hanafuda?" Sam asked.
"Plastic cards. Quite small and thick, with flowers and scenes of nature," Watanabe-san said.
"Oh!" Sam said. "I know these! I used to play them with my grandmother, but we didn't call them hanafuda. I think the game we played was called Stop-Go?"
"Yes," Watanabe-san said. "In Japan, the game most people play with hanafuda is called Koi Koi, which means..."
"Come come," Marx filled in.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“El momento en que Sony mató al SEGA de consolas y puso en sendos apuros por una década a Nintendo, fue cuando en plena E3 de 1995, se subió al escenario el presidente de Sony America, y dio el discurso más efectivo y corto en la Historia, diciendo: 299. Se refería al precio de venta de la PSX, la primera consola de la compañía PlayStation, $299 dólares. Por comparación la N64 salió $199 y la Saturn, primer clavo en el ataúd de SEGA, $399. Me parece que no hace falta decir cómo resultaron las cosas.”
― Byron Rizzo

“Okay, Gubben, this time you have to pick your least-favorite character with your least-favorite vehicle."
I picked Peach, to which he raised his eyebrows.
"You hate Peach, Gubben? Seems a little...misogynistic."
"What are you talking about? Princess Peach is a horrible representation of women---how many times does she wait for Mario to save her?" I realized I sounded a little like Lou. You know, if Lou's rants ever extended into classic Nintendo characters.
Farfar picked Toad.
"Seems a little... mycogynistic, doesn't it?"
He just chuckled. "Stupid mushrooms."
I picked the Super Blooper for Peach, Farfar picked the Booster Seat for Toad, and we spent the next hour laughing and yelling disparaging things at the screen.”
― Jared Reck, Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love

“Have we discussed the birds and the bees, Gubben?" Farfar said, just as we started our third lap on Wario's Gold Mine, the one track I hated almost as much as Rainbow Road.
"Uh... I'm pretty sure that was covered in online health."
I launched my red shell, which he deftly blocked with the banana peel he'd been holding on to.
I finished fourth after getting hit by a stupid ricocheting green shell, Farfar's Yoshi already halfway through its victory lap.”
― Jared Reck, Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love

“What is the Wii U, Gubben?" Farfar said, unable to keep the grin off his face as he balled the wrapping paper in his hands and stared at the box in his lap. "Don't we already have a Wii?" Then, more concerned, "How much did you spend on this?"
"Not too much," I said, grinning back. "It's refurbished."
"And old," Jorge added helpfully.
"And old. Nintendo's already moved on to newer systems. Plus," I said, tossing a second present onto Farfar's lap and picking up his blue Wii remote from the coffee table, strumming the rubber bands holding the battery cover in place with my thumb. "This system's backward compatible."
I watched Farfar peel back the paper one his unauthorized second present and nod to himself. He let out a sound like a deeply satisfied bear.
"Oh, god," Maggie said, laughing.
"Let's hook it up, Gubben."


"They released a deluxe edition for the newer system," I explained, leading to our lengthy, highly technical discussion of Mario Kart 8 for Wii U vs. 8 Deluxe for the Switch, while I hooked up the new system to the TV”
― Jared Reck, Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love

“The first Nintendo tape cartridge I tried was Ghosts N Goblins. As soon as the game began, I was immediately ambushed by zombies. I'd jump around aimlessly, tossing javelins, but was I'm a skeleton. Dead. It was over so quick, I couldn't even mentally process what just happened.”
― James Rolfe, A Movie Making Nerd