The King of The Mushroom Kingdom

Today, Nintendo hosted an event for hundreds of fans to get an autograph and meet Shigeru Miyamoto. With the hopes of trying to get an interview or at least a few cool shots of Mr. Miyamoto, I found more than anything an energy inside me that kept me smiling and giddy for hours.

Mr. Miyamoto with his contagious and ever present smile was a gracious host and his presence seemed to inspire a wonder in the most diverse group of fans that I have ever seen. Mr. Miyamoto’s fans were of all ages, races, and gender. According to other sources at the scene there were something like 170 or so people in line at 4:00am this morning all who had camped outside on the sidewalk of Rockefeller Plaza. Before the 11:00am event start, there were over 500 people lined up and that line continued to grow to likely more than double that as the event continued into the afternoon. One great story I heard was of a family who evacuated their home in Texas and decided to drive all the way to New York for the event making the best of a difficult situation.

People brought all sorts of things for Mr. Miyamoto to sign. I saw DSs, Gamecubes, a Power Glove, NESs, and original gold cartridge Zelda’s for the NES and N64 to name but a few. Two of the more interesting items were a NES Controller that had been converted to a phone and a guitar that Mr. Miyamoto picked up to play a couple of cords from the original Mario Bros. game before signing.

Reggie Fils-Aime was also there interacting with the media and fans alike. He made a point to highlight that one of the primary goals of the Nintendo World Store is to host events such as this one. He described it as a place to bring people together and to experience Nintendo.

The vibe and feeling around Mr. Miyamoto made so much sense to me. He is clearly an artist who with great care constructs entertainment that results in fun, light, and happy experiences. Today, the Nintendo World Store felt like the Mushroom Kingdom and Mr. Miyamoto was certainly its king.