As you might have heard, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata passed away July 11 of a bile duct complication. Iwata’s history with Nintendo had been long and storied, from the way he was able to re-program Pokemon Gold/Silver so effectively they were able to include the entire first game in the code, to his various creative meetings with Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi.
Included in this history is a long list of production and programming credits on several well-known HAL and Nintendo titles including New Ghostbusters 2 (it’s better than you might assume!), the first two Mother games, and one of my all-time personal Nintendo favorites, Kirby’s Adventure. I can’t say I knew the man, but Iwata strikes me as the sort to not want people dwelling on his passing with any sadness, so I propose this: on Friday, July 17th, let’s hang out and play Kirby’s Adventure, huh? It’s one of the most cheerful, imaginative, and frankly delightful games I can think of, and I can think of few words better to describe Iwata and his career.
So on Friday at 10 PM Eastern, let’s meet up here, I’ll stream Kirby’s Adventure, and we’ll swap some stories about our favorite Iwata games and try to stay cheerful about the whole thing. I’d be more than happy to take everyone back through Dreamland, and I’m sure he’d be glad to see us celebrating instead of mourning.