There are many legends in the video game industry whose words we should respect and take seriously. Masahiro Sakurai is one such legend, as he’s made incredible games and was the creator of several key Nintendo franchises that are still going to this day. What you may remember from last year is that Sakurai is getting an “educational manga” about his life. Basically, it’ll tell his story of growing up on video games, to becoming a part of the industry, to heading up his own teams and such. It’ll be a very unique manga to be sure, but in an expansive interview with 47 News in Japan, he didn’t want to do it at first:
“I’ve worked hard to sell my games and make them fun, and I wasn’t really interested in selling my personality. I was personally very embarrassed to reveal myself, so when I was approached about the project, I intended to turn it down, but my editor steadily built up my achievements, and before I knew it, I was making a book.
As a result, I’m grateful that my work to date has been widely recognized, and I think it’s good for the game industry. Going forward, I think educational manga like this will become less strict and will increasingly approach Artists and YouTubers, for example. I’m glad I was able to be a part of that movement.”
Currently, the book is only set for Japan; however, it could get translated if it’s big enough. Even if you don’t think you’d want to read it, you can basically see/hear the story for yourself via Masahiro Sakurai’s “Creating Games” YouTube channel, where he talked about the various events that will be transcribed into the six chapters of the manga.
Sakurai’s humbleness aside, he really is someone to “aspire to” in regard to game development. He came in the “right way,” proved himself many times over, went independent so that he could only work on projects that he wanted to, and so on. That’s why his first title for the Nintendo Switch 2 was a new racing game featuring the character he created, Kirby, and not a certain fighting game that everyone wants him back on.
He’s always treated games as something sacred and something to build up until they are as good as they can be. Perhaps many future and current developers should read the manga so they know how things SHOULD be done in the gaming space.
