Celebrate the life of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata through one of his greatest creations

By Patrick Hogan  |  July 13, 2015 | 4:53pm
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Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 55, and the gaming community is still coming to grips with the news.

Iwata served Nintendo as much more than just a corporate leader. He rose through the company as a programmer on some of Nintendo’s most well-loved games. He was a visible presence in the community, appearing in Nintendo Direct videos (sometimes in puppet form) to update fans on upcoming titles.

One of Iwata’s most revered games is the Super Nintendo classic Earthbound. Iwata is credited with helping to build the game’s moody atmosphere, and many fans are sharing animated gifs of Earthbound text boxes as a sign of how much Iwata will be missed.

Other gaming luminaries have weighed in on Iwata’s legacy using more traditional media: personal blogs, Websites, and Twitter. As a tribute, we gave some of these remembrances the Earthbound treatment, using Bill Eager’s EBtext project. You can view them below.

Shigesato Itoi, creator of Earthbound, as translated by Twitter user Cheesemeister3k.

Larry Hryb, director of programming for XBox Live, as posted on Twitter.

Hideki Kamiya, game designer at Platinum Games, as posted on Twitter.

Rami Ismail, chief executive of business and development at Vlambeer, as reported by Polygon.

Masahiro Sakurai, Nintendo game designer, as posted on Twitter and translated by Kotaku.

Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, as reported by Polygon.

Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and many other iconic Nintendo characters, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

You can make your own Earthbound text box here.

 
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