Rareware Leaves Nintendo

Rare or Rareware, was once partly owned by Nintendo, holding a 49% stake in the company. The Stamper Brothers, the company founders, who owned 51% of the company back then, wanted to sell their remaining stock to Nintendo; however, the company declined as they did not see the need to increase their ownership. As a result, the Stamper Brothers decided to sell their remaining shares to Microsoft which in turn made Microsoft the largest shareholder with voting power - Nintendo sold their shares to Microsoft shortly after the transaction.

Link's Inspiration

Link's design is inspired by Peter Pan.

Super Mario Bushes and Clouds Share the Same Spirite

To create the bushes in Super Mario Bros, the devs recoloured the top half of the cloud sprites and recycled them as shrubbery.

Super Mario Brother 2 Wasn't An Actual Mario Game

The original Super Mario Bros 2 was released in Japan which is what we in North America know it as "The Lost Levels". This happened because the game was deemed too difficult for western gamers.

Technical Constraints Led To The Creation of Luigi

During the development of the original Super Mario Bros.,the developers had problems fitting into certain elements of the game due to memory constraints. Miyamoto and other development team members got creative and found a way around these limits. They ended up creating Mario's twin brother, Luigi in the process.

30 Years Ago, Nintendo Created Games With A Team of Five to Six People

Back in the day, Nintendo was able to create one single game with only 5 to six team members. Nowadays, a team of 50 to 60 developers work on a game.

Link's Awakening Was Censored in America

In the American version of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening had the hippo's breasts removed and had taken away the sheet she was wearing.

There Was a Dedicated Zelda Handheld

Nintendo released a Zelda game in its line of dedicated LCD Game & Watch units in 1989.

Based on the original Legend of Zelda for the NES, the game is significant as not only the last Game & Watch, but as the last handheld Nintendo would release before the Game Boy.

The Japanese Versions of Zelda I and II Had Different Music

Many NES classic weren't released on the proper NES (Famicom) in Japan. Rather, they were released for a peripheral called the Famicom Disk System.

The FDS hooked up to the original Famicom and offered the ability to save games, along with a few hardware tweaks like an extra sound channel. This meant that not only did Nintendo have to put batteries into cartridges to allow for save games, many developers had to cut the music entirely.

Smash Bros Wasn't Originally Planned

Super Smash Bros. was developed by HALL aboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer during 1998. It began life as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time titled Kakuto-Gēmu Ryūō “Dragon King:The Fighting Game”), and originally featured no Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide “atmosphere” which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game, and his idea was approved. The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide.

Uri Geller vs Nintendo

In November 2000, Uri Geller, a man claiming to be a psychic who is to be able to bend spoons with psychic powers, tried to sue Nintendo for $100 million dollars claiming that Kadabra, known as Yungerer in Japan, was an unauthorized parody of himself. Besides Kadabra's use of bent spoons to enhance its psychic powers, the katakana for its name is visually similar to the transliteration of his own name into japanese.

Super Mario Bros. 3 Never Actually Happened

Game begins with curtains opening, shadows on backdrop.

Blocks bolted to the background; more shadows on skyline.

Exit stage right; end of set.

Platforms hanging from roof, sticking out through slots in backdrop running via hidden machines behind set.

Super Mario Bros. 3 never happened. It was all just a stage show. A play. Mario was never once in real danger. You were merely the audience.

Love Hotels, Toys, Cards, and More!?

Nintendo ran a chain of love hotels, created the Laser Clay Shooting System, Ultra Hand, sold Ancient Playing Cards and made the Love Tester.

Most Valuable Zelda Game

As part of a promotional advertisement campaign for their charumera noodles, Myojo Foods Co., Ltd. released a version of the original The Legend of Zelda in 1986 entitled Zelda no Densetsu: Teikyō Charumera. This game is one of the rarest video games available on the second-hand collector's market, and copies have sold for over $1,000.

Waluigi's Brotherless?

When asked whether Waluigi was a brother to Wario, Martinet stated that while he did not know, he felt that they were just "two nice, evil guys who found each other."

Nintendo's Hiding Remains?

The original founder of Nintendo (Fusajiro Yamauchi) still remains with Nintendo. He’s buried in the basement of Nintendo's original headquarters (Kyoto, Japan).

Contriversal Mario Party

Mario Party 8 is believed to be controversial. United Kingdom retailers had the game withdrawn from their shelves because some copies had the word "spastic" including in the game.

The Regginator

Reggie gained celebrity status among gamers following his appearance at Nintendo's May 2004 E3 press conference with this opening line.

"My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games."

Fils-Aime quickly shot to fame with that line as well revamping Nintendo's public relation with North America.

Not a Yamauchi!

Satoru Iwata is the first Nintendo president unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.