When I was a kid, I always joined my dad in going to Circuit City when he needed to buy electronics. He left me in those GameCube kiosks while he shopped. And the game I played the most there? Super Smash Bros. Melee. So yeah, saying he made the same impact is an understatement.
Sakurai can be certain that Smash not only made impact on people's lives by itself but also got people to know a LOT of franchises. Heck, it even changed a part of the industry itself. I wonder what would be of Fire Emblem on the West if it wasn't for Smash. I mentioned Smash but let's not forget about Kirby also
The lore episode. Sakurai probably can't even begin to imagine how much of an impact he has had on a LOT of our childhoods. A lot of hobbies and games have come and gone, but ever since I played Brawl in a CRT at my friends house, Smash has always been a constant in my life...
I started with Smash 64 and those that started with this title knew something special was gonna blossom from this amazing game. Newer fans that look back at Smash 64 probably wont understand what the big deal is since it was kind of a "you had to have been there moment" but to see how far Smash has come now shows how powerful the rock solid foundation Smash 64 laid.
I remembering hearing about Smash 64 when I was little and the concept blew my mind, as did the game when I finally got my hands on it. It only kept getting better once we got Melee, then Brawl, and so on. Absolutely helped shape my childhood.
@@Zalure first time I heard about Smash 64 was on a Pokémon magazine, I think. I was a HUGE Pokémon fan back then so everything that had Pokémon on it, I wanted to try. I remember the magazine saying it was bloodless (because Mortal Kombat was very popular back then) and that the main objective was to knock the opponent out of the arena instead of depleting HP. As a child though, what I really loved was being able to play as Link. Back then, I didn't even know that Zelda was a Nintendo franchise lol. Let alone Metroid, and that Samus was the main character of Metroid.
I always play Smash for 3ds with my friends in school. 6/30/23 we put 4 CPU players with our favorite characters to battle and see who is the best. We stayed just watching till time to go
Can you imagine a store selling computers on the front and writing the software on the back like it was some sort of kitchen? The early days must have been wild.
When he mentioned going to the store and his parents giving him change to go play games, that took me right back to my childhood. For me, it was a Pizza Hut that had a small arcade attached to it. It's how I was introduced to Street Fighter, the original TMNT arcade game, the weird Superman arcade game, and Bad Dudes.
I had an arcade called The Gold Mine in my local mall back in the day; that's where I was introduced to SF2, the original Mortal Kombat (and its first two sequels), Punch-Out!!, and a lot of other classics of the day. As for the original TMNT arcade game, I managed to play it for a few minutes every once in a while at a local convenience store whenever I had time before school. 🤣 (Man, I miss arcades.)
For me the 2 experiences like that for when we'd be out & about was me & my brother pumping quarters into Time Crisis at my local theater before or after movies (we never did beat a Time Crisis game, even when we had $20 to just pump into a machine at a hotel during a family trip. We may have liked the games but we were not that good at them) & those Gamecube stations McDonalds used to have in their play areas.
The very first video game that I ever played was Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was 2002 and I had just moved into a new neighborhood. Naturally, I didn’t know anybody and was worried. But luckily, I met my childhood best friend and went over to his house to play video games. At this point I didn’t even know who Mario was, but I will never forget the first time I heard the announce scream “SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEEEEEE” and the subsequent matches I played. It was magical. And now thanks to Smash Bros, I met all of my closest friends in college who I still keep in touch with. Thank you, Mr. Sakurai. I hope you know just how much meaning your work has had to me and many others.
When I was a kid in Phoenix, AZ, my family would sometimes do their shopping in a big Fry’s Marketplace store, which also had a special (enclosed, supervised!) section for kids to play in while the parents shopped. Every time we were there, I always gravitated towards the same thing: the GameCube… with no less than Super Smash Bros. Melee running on it. It warms my heart and blows my mind to know that Sakurai inadvertently helped to give me the exact same childhood experience that he once had!
Super Mario World, Super Mario Land, and Sonic the Hedgehog were three of my first games. Games like A Link to the Past and Super Mario RPG were pillars of my youth as some of the greatest games I ever played. Plus, Super Smash Bros. and every incarnation since the 1999 release has had me hooked and playing competitively. What's even more interesting is how many series I got into after turning 14. How Golden Sun and Fire Emblem shaped my love for JRPGs or how my 2002 discovery of Metroid Prime and Fusion caused me to try every game in the series. Many of these series have stuck with me to this day.
Sakurai lived to tell the tale of his own about how arcade games shaped his childhood is pretty sweet, especially how Space Invaders and Pong were so successful that both games made an impact to gaming throughout the years. And it all comes in circles when Sakurai's games also shaped anyone else's childhood too.
My childhood memories was me spending a week worth of saved up allowance so I have enough credits to finish Time Crisis on the local arcade. Good times.
It's nice looking back at our childhood experiences with video games. I grew up with the PS1, PS2, GBA, and so on and so forth, but I grew to appreciate plenty of old NES games later in my life! ^^
My first video game console was the Nintendo 64, playing games like Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, and Paper Mario. My favorite memory from those days was me being scared of Bowser's Castle as raised out of the ground.
There's so many absolute gems of videos from Sakurai on this channel, but this may now be my favorite, as after this I feel like I have a relatable childhood to this gaming giant. As a kid born in the late 80s in Canada, I was lucky enough to get an NES from my favorite uncle when I was 2 years old (He was my Santa Claus, literally, even looked like him... died before his time in the mid 2000s. I'm the gamer I am now thanks to him.), in the last years of its life before SNES released in 1991. But as a kid, it was still hard to be able to play as many games as possible, you had to use "tricks" like Sakurai did... and malls, gaming stores, and arcades were those tricks. In the early 90s we had an amazing store at the mall called Microplay (not sure if there's still one around somewhere), which had all the best and latest games on display, rentals that could be as generous as 3 one-week rentals for $5 irrc (maybe with coupons from pizza stores or something), and at least two arcade machines at a time - usually Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble... its BGM is like literally my childhood in musical form) and other Neo Geo or SNK games. Whenever my parents had to go to the mall for errands like going to the bank, they gave me quarters and left me at Microplay. I played mostly Bust-A-Move for as long as I could, and sometimes Fatal Fury 2 or a Neo Geo beat em up, then I spend any time I had left going through all the shelves in the store and looking at all the games I wish I could buy, including a very expensive Neo Geo console (like, the ultimate prize... still gotta get one of those). Other than that, the only other "trick" was borrowing games from relatives and friends, which is how I played the majority of my favorite NES games. I rented probably 70% of SNES's library back then, lol (and later with N64 and PS1 too). I had a Gameboy too but only ever had Tetris and Mario on it, and I don't remember ever seeing its games for rent but maybe they were and I just missed them. It wasn't until Super Gameboy and then GBC's launch that I got Link's Awakening and Kirby's Dreamland. After beating Link's Awakening, Kirby was practically glued to my GBC and I took it everywhere with me. Thank you Mr. Sakurai. But all that said, Sakurai's childhood was so much more cool...! Going back to even Pong? What's pretty much considered the first widely available video game? Sakurai was pretty much born with the video game industry! He's grown with and experienced it all. TIL that in Japan, video game developers worked in the stores where Japanese gamers bought their games!? Like watching donuts get made at a Krispy Kreme!? :D That's so awesome. What a time that was in Japan, wow. To think of this industry full of corporations now, once being as humble as that... And I love how Falcom and its games were such a big deal to some of the biggest game developers in their childhoods. As a kid, their games were written about in import gaming mags as among the jewels of the import scene, especially for RPG fans, and that so many of the top Japanese games wouldn't be the same without Falcom's early influence (including my favorite childhood RPGs - Lufia 1 & 2). It was hard to believe that Falcom games rarely released outside of Japan until the mid 2000s. Now its games are known worldwide but are seen as niche in comparison to the AAA games of these days. In their early days, Falcom were the AAA developers!
Daytona USA is what made me love video game. I was 5 and my dad bring me to the hotel's arcade and the game that I played was Daytona USA. My legs can't reach the pedals though so my dad helped me press the acceleration pedal. I was totally blown away by the bright screen, the loud music and the dim light of the room. It was first the time I realized that a place like that exists. It almost feels like a different world. Until now games arcade have a special place in my heart.
I remember when I first played Super Smash Bros Melee with my brother and cousins, where I was introduced to the existence of Kirby. I had no idea what I was doing at the time because I was still young, but at least I won as Kirby! Few years later, Kirby Super Star Ultra was announced and was advertised as bookmarks and book accessories at my school during fifth grade, when I recognized the puffball. Later that year, my brother and I got Super Smash Bros Brawl (and rented a dvd of Kirby Right Back at Ya!) and learned a bit more about Kirby Then came my twelfth birthday, when my mom and dad gave me a copy of Kirby Super Star Ultra! This was like being officially introduced to Kirby and his world, Dreamland, and my very first adventure at Pop Star! The biggest part though was when some of my depression suddenly kicked in, and I lost passion for many classic cartoons… especially Disney. But thanks to Kirby, I was able to cope with that hard time when it began, and video games became my escape from my depression ever since! Thank you Sakurai for creating Kirby, who helped me throughout one of the hardest moments in my life! ⭐️
It's hard to believe that they were really just making classics like Ys right in public in some random computer store like that lol, that would definitely never happen today. Thank you for this Sakurai, this was really fun
Sakurai talking about his childhood and the games he played back then is honestly so wholesome. Its nice to have these kinds of videos inbetween the more eduacational videos of his.
Nihon falcom being a big reason why Sakurai started developing games makes me smile. I love the Ys series and what nihon falcom has done for both the anime and game industry (employees that came from Falcom made popular anime movies and games)
Makoto Shinkai and Tetsuya Takahashi (founder of Monolith Soft) we're former Falcom employees during the mid to late 90s. Fun Fact: Shinkai-san created the iconic Falcom opening sequence.
I feel like Falcoms influence in the game industry is often overlooked, nowadays they are pretty niche and don't really make all too groundbreaking games any more, but back in the day they were probably at the top when it comes to PC games (although nearly completely unnoticed in the west). People often attribute much to the original The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, but in reality Falcom did a lot of things first with Dragon Slayer and subsequent entries.
I only recently started playing Falcom's games in the past... 3 or 4 years? But I've been very impressed with what I played, particularly the Trails series. I don't really know about their early stuff, but I can at least say they still make fantastic JRPGs to this day.
love vids like this that show their influences. My childhood was mainly NES/SNES, of course...but we were fortunate enough to get a genesis too....didn't frequent the arcade as often as I'd like, but do have fond memories of the times I got to. Some of my fondest gaming memories is punch out w/ my dad, beating SMW before school, beating Simpsons arcade solo w/ 5 bucks in quarters...at around the 4:00 mark, pretty cool seeing the evolution of games at that period. Just imagine the evolution from then to now. Lil kid me would've been blown away by today's graphics and gameplay.
Damn, being in the Nihon Falcom store sounds cool as hell. Just a glimpse of the first Ys game being developed, what a thrill you'd realise you were having with time.
Thank you for sharing! As recent as 2012, my Walmart had an arcade space where my brother and I would hang out at while our mother with wait in the checkout line,.We hardly ever played any of the games, but there was a lot of bright and colorful stuff to look at. Same goes for arcade corners at pizza places and other restaurants.
Kirby for the Gameboy was so fun when it released, then shortly along came Kirbys for the NES and it totally blew me away, I had no idea the NES was capable of such a feat. 30 years later I still marvel at its amazingness. Thanks for the fun and lovely memories.
What a lovely video! As somewhere born in 1973, in the opposite side of the world (Argentina) I'm surprised I can relate to a lot of the experiences young Sakurai had. How old we are becoming... but there's still a lot to enjoy! Sugoi! Edit: my son's (who's 19 now, btw) favourite game from his childhood is Mario Galaxy. To me, it was Galaga. We all have a special one, right?
Mr. Sakurai, you without a doubt had an impact on my childhood! All the countless hours I spent with Smash Bros. and Kirby with my childhood best friend are memories I will treasure forever, and it's thanks to all the hard work and charm you put into your games. I'll be a fan for life!
Mr. Sakurai, you have brought great joy to many gamers worldwide including myself. Smash Bros for the N64 is one of my favorite games since childhood, and it brought me a feeling like nothing else. Thank you very much for making my childhood very fun Mr. Sakurai
6-29-23 A Detail I really like about the Animation is that when the character representing Sakurai is in front of the 6 Arcade Cabinets, the Pong one is actually the way it looks like.
The first time I saw the snes star fox i was completely in awe! I’ve never seen anything like that before, I played a demo in the store and the music stuck in my mind for months until I was able to buy the game
I honestly envy those who grew up in a more interactive world than I did, arcades, hobby stores, malls, and the freedom to leave your parents and still be considered “safe”! Everything seems so… disconnected nowadays? Is that just me?
@@thecunninlynguist Phones aren’t (entirely) to blame. At least here in the U.S., there are a bunch of other factors, including (but not limited to): the Internet in general, post-9/11 paranoia, politics in general, the demonization of teenagers trying to socialize and have fun in a society that is increasingly hostile to the concept (or at least to giving them places to socialize), paranoia about child safety leading to helicopter parenting and such, income inequality and a lack of wage growth stifling the ability of people to have more free time than they do, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yeah, society and culture have changed since I was a kid-and not always for the better-but to put the blame for any negative changes on one single thing ignores all the ways society and culture changed and *why* those changes happened. Phones aren’t the root cause here. If anything, they’re only a symptom of much larger issues plaguing our society.
@@StoneStephenT It's not only USA thing, while what you listed is probably intensifying it in US, it's a global problematic trend. Japanese kids nowadays for example don't even want to go outside and Interact with others, I think social alienation is increasing worldwide.
1:16 - 1:26 You don't get moments like that any more. That was a very interesting trip down memory lane. My experience with video games was inverted. I was playing on the NES at home before I was exposed to the arcade scene after 1994. Chuck E. Cheese restaurants was the place where I would go to for arcade play. It's funny that I switched career aspirations from being an astronaut to wanting to make video games because they are a great medium for story telling and game play experiences.
My childhood was going home from elementary school and watching my dad play Paper Mario 2 and Mario Sunshine on our game cube. Being fascinated with how people play games has led me to becoming a successful indie game designer, which i’m so happy about
Sakurai wondering about the impact he's had on people's childhoods really hit me. One of my earliest memories is playing Kirby's Adventure on the NES (interspersed with my other favorite game at the time, Duck Hunt). Since that day, I've put thousands of hours into probably thousands of different games. I never really thought about it until now, but this man is largely responsible for my lifelong love of gaming 30 years later. Imagine if my first game was E.T. on the Atari 2600 instead! Thank you, Mr. Sakurai, for bringing so much joy to so many people through your contributions. I hope you share more stories like this in the future.
A Falcom mention, hm? Nice. Especially since we're just over a week away from Reverie's western release! Tio's time to shine is almost upon us once more.
Sakurai certainly has had an impact on countless people's childhoods. The OG SSB was one of the first games I played, but I was 4 or 5 at the time, so I didn't do a whole lot. While I did miss out on Melee and Brawl, SSB on the 3DS brought me back into the fold. Heck, SSBU even helped me make friends in college. On top of that, the Kirby games had a major impact on my childhood too. I didn't have a particularly good childhood, since having Autism basically sets you up for a messed up childhood. However, playing kirby super star ultra as a kid was one of the few things that brought a genuine smile to my face.
That bit at the end makes me think of my own experiences with video games growing up. As a young child, I started out playing some pre-NES consoles and computers when visiting relatives-Atari, ColecoVision, IntelliVision, and even a Commodore 64!-before my family owned the NES. As I grew up, I went through every console generation owning at least one of the major consoles of each era, as well as the GameBoy, and it was always amazing to see how graphics and such progressed over the years. From the pits of E.T. (yes, I owned a copy of that way back when) to the polygonal models of the first Resident Evil, seeing the evolution of video games has been one of the things I've enjoyed about the hobby. I'm left to wonder how the children of the present and the future will have their experiences shaped without experiencing that evolution first-hand. Yes, they can go back and play Street Fighter II on console collections and such, but it won't be the same as playing it in the arcades back when it was *the* reason to be in an arcade. That isn't to say the games of today are worse (or better!) than the games of yesteryear-i.e., the games I grew up on-but gamers who are starting off with the games of the here-and-now will alter the course of video games in far different ways than those who grew up with experiences similar to mine. The results will certainly be…interesting, to say the least.
"It could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps." Funny you mentioned that. Kirby Air Ride was among the first games I've ever played, and it quickly became the gold standard to which I held video games in terms of presentation style, content richness, and overall polish. Needless to say, I was difficult to impress growing up.
"could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps" All of my current friends are people I played Melee and Kirby Air Ride with, all those years ago
Memories. Still remember playing old Macintosh games constantly as a little kid. And whenever we went to visit our grandmother's house, I would rush down the stairs to play Super Mario 64.
When I was around 3 years old, I remember my brother and his friends sitting me down to play Super Smash Bros. Melee at some kid's birthday party. It was with Donkey Kong on Fourside. I don't remember playing that well, but it blew my mind. I'm sure my example is just one of many in terms of you shaping peoples' childhoods with your work.
Ah it's nice to hear nostalgia stories like this. Brings back memories of going to arcade by myself when I was a school kid to play games. That store+dev house combo is new to me, never thought that it's possible. Thanks for sharing Mr Sakurai!
“Could be” you have had an impact? I and so many of my friends love Kirby and the good feelings that series produces in us. My first experience with 3d games ever was with smash bros. The only reason I wanted a Nintendo 64 was that game, and it introduced me to my favorite game series of all time, Zelda, with Ocarina of Time. I know he didn’t work on that game, but without his influence, I might never have played it. Thank you Sakurai for putting your heart into everything you do ❤
I believe the first time I ever played a videogame was Mario Kart 64 with my cousin. I walked into his room, and he was playing it underneath his loft bed. For whatever reason, he already had it set up in 2P Move, with his Mario taking off, while Luigi just sat there on the Kalimari Desert starting line. So, I observed what he was doing, picked up the second controller, and started playing. I called it "Marlo Kart" for some time. Some of my other earliest gaming memories include James Discovers Math, Toy Story 2, and Frogger (1997)!
As a kid, I grew up with a Game Boy Pocket and a copy of Blue, was scared of the Chain Chomp in Super Mario 64 (to the point I was walled by Bob Omb Battlefield of all levels), and watched as my Spanish relatives played Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. Even got to visit a couple arcades at the mall and the horse racetrack and got to enjoy DDR and California Speed before those both got canned. To think that gaming has progressed so much within my 28 years of living, and it will continue to progress into the future.
My childhood friend got Super Smash Bros. for his birthday a month or so after it released in America. I was 8 years old at the time, and nearly every day we'd play on his N64 together. It was the first game that gave me a good glimpse into other series like Metroid, F-Zero, and Kirby and gave me so much inspiration that it was there where I decided I wanted to learn to make video games when I grew up. I'm in my 30s now, and while I've learned to program and made tiny little demos here and there, I've only been hesitant to enter the game industry because I value the salary I get now. The flames of inspiration still burn, though.
I have a distinct memory of talking excitedly with my sister about Super Smash Bros. (for the N64) while on a family vacation to Washington DC, and later bonding with a Japanese exchange student while playing Super Smash Bros. Melee. Those games were my first introductions to a lot of Nintendo characters!
One of my earliest memories gaming was Kirby Air Ride and going down the street to play Super Smash Bros Melee at my friends house, Around 6-7 years old. Such a massive role in my love for gaming. Definitely unforgettable. Thanks for your continued work and love for gaming Sakurai-san you’ve definitely shaped a lot of kids introduction to games.
Growing up, my grandma always brought over some Plug-n-Plays when she babysat me and my brother. I remember watching her play Ms. Pac-Man in our parents' room and one day, I asked if I could play it. I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. We also played a lot of educational games growing up, especially the ClueFinders series. Speaking of which, something me and my brother never knew until recently is the bad guy of ClueFinders 4th Grade is voiced by Charles Martinet, and if you listen to him, it's straight-up his Wario voice.
Could have? COULD HAVE?! My good sir! You have no idea on the impact you've made on practically everyone's childhood, like God damn! Having said that, it's fun to hear about what games made an impact on your childhood. A lot of them are still talked about and played to this day, which says a lot.
The Masahiro Sakurai backstory video. Lovely! As for my childhood, there was a variety of games I was exposed to. The original Banjo-Kazooie just came out in 1998, and there was also the PlayStation with Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. That being said...my earliest memory with games was seeing my siblings play an NES in 1994. I was only two years old. In terms of actually _playing_ a game, my first titles include Mario Kart 64, Yoshi's Story, and Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. To say that these video games shaped my tastes today is an understatement. Now I am a huge nerd for all things Mario. It's fun to think about how influential his franchise is! This is a good look at your childhood, Mr. Sakurai.
God I love this channel, and this man. What a great episode. I love people calling this the Sakurai "lore" episode; it's a fitting description! So much fascinating information here. It's crazy to imagine being a kid and going to a PC store and seeing workers on the other side of the counter that you know are making games right before your eyes. How fascinating! I feel like exposure has a greater impact on humans than people realize, and everyone needs more exposure to all sorts of different people, places, and activities to really flesh ourselves out.
For my part Sakurai, I can tell you, you've really shaped a lot of my growing up thanks to smash. Most of the friends I have now I've met playing smash with them, friendships that have lasted 20+ years now, also, my choosing a career in computer engineering was inspired thanks in part of my curiosity early on trying to mod music into smash haha. So, thanks, you've had a great and positive impact in my life.
Incredibly wholesome episode, and I am one of those impacted by Sakurai's games-from Kirby Super Star to Smash Bros. Brawl, been there my whole life. Of course, not just Sakurai but Nintendo as a whole (not much of Playstation or Xbox because 3rd world gotta be really picky with what console they buy) but playing Brawl in elementary/highschool, Smash 4 in highschool/college, and Ultimate in college/the endless depressive grind of worklife, mr. Sakurai has absolutely had a big impact on me.
Kirby's Dream Land definitely had a massive impact on me. It was one of the first games I ever played and definitely helped kick off my lifelong love of videogames. Thanks for that Sakurai!
4:19 "As a game creator myself, it could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps." You have! The game that made me interested in video games was Super Smash Bros. Melee. I wouldn't be who I am today without it.
Yeah! Trails of cold steel mention! thanks for all the legacy the give all this generation. my dad teach me in the videogame world in the arcade games and console games. i remember play Kirby returns to dreamland from wii with my best friend
Well this was certainly an interesting one. A lot of times I forget about the games that came before the NES, since that's what popularized home gaming.
I just smiled throughout. And I had somewhat similar experiences, twenty years later. I wasn't too big on Kirby, but my sister still had Dreamland for her GameBoy. Now she has moved on and I'm still playing. haha
My first video game I played and still own is the 1976 Atari Super Pong I got that year at age 4, got the Atari VCS (2600) for my birthday at age 5 in 1977 and did played Space Invaders at the NYC arcades in 78 at age 6.
4:25 Kirby Super Star and Super Smash Bros. Melee single-handedly formed my taste in video games and made it impossible to settle for games that have sluggish controls or bad feelings of movement.
I started with the GameCube, and I strongly believe that the games I played and enjoyed like Mario Party, Kirby Air Ride, Super Monkey Ball, and Tony Hawk just to name a few really helped to shape what I like from video games today. I love simple mechanics and ideas pushed to their absolute limit.
Sakurai got me reminiscing about those days...Metal Slug and Pang at the laundromat. Playing Yoshi's Island and Mario Kart 64 at Toys R Us. And of course I'll never forgot just how real I thought Smash Bros Melee looked and how I would just watch the intro over and over at Walmart.
seeing the games that Sakurai lists as what he played in his childhood makes you remember just how young he was when he got into the video game industry.
Ooh Sakurai lore!! :O Now, as for the games during my childhood, I mainly grew up playing the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and the Wii! Me and my brother also owned a bunch of Plug 'n' Play consoles.
Ha, I thought he was gonna dig more into specific games at first, but I guess this is cool too. A more general overview of his history in videogames... I'm a child of the 90's so I started off real young with Game & Watch as my first impressions, and moved on to NES. So while I did experience some of the arcade era they were SERIOUSLY hamstrung in Sweden by fearful politicians doing their best to limit their spread, so it was mostly consoles and PC's that ruled the roost in my country. Oddly enough that just meant the few times I DID see an arcade cabinet the experiences felt all the more engaging and I ended up being a massive FAN of the arcade games I saw... even if I very seldom PLAYED them. Living vicariously through reading about them or watching videos about them, that kind of thing.
A detail people might miss is many of the games listed on his favorites were AFTER Sakurai was already in game development himself. Devs still enjoy and get inspired by each other. Console wars and competition are a marketing concept. You should like and experience as much as you can if you want true inspiration.
It feels so real and makes us feel more connected to game developers and their games when you hear about their childhood and inspirations. Thank you so much Mr. Sakurai!
still remember the first time playing Kirby on the original gameboy was hooked immediately and have been ever since now a collector of everything Kirby related
More people could stand to have the level of joy and passion Sakurai has, not just about his work, but about his childhood and hobbies. Video games clearly mean a lot to him in every sense imaginable, and I can relate and respect that tremendously
![Development Secrets of the Original Kirby [Grab Bag]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZUY2AtBD6Sk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Development Secrets of the Original Kirby [Grab Bag]](/img/tr.png)
![Super Smash Bros. [Game Concepts]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/i3IOWaVDbx0/mqdefault.jpg)
I sometimes forget that Sakurai is 52 years old. He looks more like he’s 25!
Asian Genetics, man...! 😆 Asian Genetics...
He forgot to age
@@CherryCo.Studiossurgery
More like 40-ish. You don't know many Asian people if you'd estimate him at 25...
@@Iemonzingerum no, that's offensive.
"It could be that I've had the same impact off someone else's childhood, perhaps."
"COULD BE"
This guy is the humblest of kings
When I was a kid, I always joined my dad in going to Circuit City when he needed to buy electronics. He left me in those GameCube kiosks while he shopped. And the game I played the most there? Super Smash Bros. Melee.
So yeah, saying he made the same impact is an understatement.
[looks at all of the indie smash bros clones] lmao,
It would be difficult to argue any other singular game Dev had as much of an impact as him
Sakurai can be certain that Smash not only made impact on people's lives by itself but also got people to know a LOT of franchises. Heck, it even changed a part of the industry itself. I wonder what would be of Fire Emblem on the West if it wasn't for Smash.
I mentioned Smash but let's not forget about Kirby also
@@hikarunkuntrue kirby games after sakurai love to reference the ones he made and use gameplay elements from them
The lore episode.
Sakurai probably can't even begin to imagine how much of an impact he has had on a LOT of our childhoods. A lot of hobbies and games have come and gone, but ever since I played Brawl in a CRT at my friends house, Smash has always been a constant in my life...
I started with Smash 64 and those that started with this title knew something special was gonna blossom from this amazing game. Newer fans that look back at Smash 64 probably wont understand what the big deal is since it was kind of a "you had to have been there moment" but to see how far Smash has come now shows how powerful the rock solid foundation Smash 64 laid.
I remembering hearing about Smash 64 when I was little and the concept blew my mind, as did the game when I finally got my hands on it. It only kept getting better once we got Melee, then Brawl, and so on. Absolutely helped shape my childhood.
@@Zalure first time I heard about Smash 64 was on a Pokémon magazine, I think. I was a HUGE Pokémon fan back then so everything that had Pokémon on it, I wanted to try. I remember the magazine saying it was bloodless (because Mortal Kombat was very popular back then) and that the main objective was to knock the opponent out of the arena instead of depleting HP.
As a child though, what I really loved was being able to play as Link. Back then, I didn't even know that Zelda was a Nintendo franchise lol. Let alone Metroid, and that Samus was the main character of Metroid.
I always play Smash for 3ds with my friends in school. 6/30/23 we put 4 CPU players with our favorite characters to battle and see who is the best. We stayed just watching till time to go
Ok but what of Kirby?
Can you imagine a store selling computers on the front and writing the software on the back like it was some sort of kitchen? The early days must have been wild.
It'd be amazing to be able to see game development in action!
you can read more about in "the untold history of japanese game developers"
@@longWriterAww, I agree! ^^ It really would!
@@ArtofWEZOoh, okay, thanks for the recommendation! ^^
Ayo, who let them cook?
Sakurai lore is what the world needed today :)
When he mentioned going to the store and his parents giving him change to go play games, that took me right back to my childhood. For me, it was a Pizza Hut that had a small arcade attached to it. It's how I was introduced to Street Fighter, the original TMNT arcade game, the weird Superman arcade game, and Bad Dudes.
I had an arcade called The Gold Mine in my local mall back in the day; that's where I was introduced to SF2, the original Mortal Kombat (and its first two sequels), Punch-Out!!, and a lot of other classics of the day. As for the original TMNT arcade game, I managed to play it for a few minutes every once in a while at a local convenience store whenever I had time before school. 🤣 (Man, I miss arcades.)
For me the 2 experiences like that for when we'd be out & about was me & my brother pumping quarters into Time Crisis at my local theater before or after movies (we never did beat a Time Crisis game, even when we had $20 to just pump into a machine at a hotel during a family trip. We may have liked the games but we were not that good at them) & those Gamecube stations McDonalds used to have in their play areas.
My Pizza Hut had Toki and Snow Bros. Those were good times.
The very first video game that I ever played was Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was 2002 and I had just moved into a new neighborhood. Naturally, I didn’t know anybody and was worried. But luckily, I met my childhood best friend and went over to his house to play video games. At this point I didn’t even know who Mario was, but I will never forget the first time I heard the announce scream “SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEEEEEE” and the subsequent matches I played. It was magical.
And now thanks to Smash Bros, I met all of my closest friends in college who I still keep in touch with. Thank you, Mr. Sakurai. I hope you know just how much meaning your work has had to me and many others.
"It could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps."
Oh, you absolutely did.
When I was a kid in Phoenix, AZ, my family would sometimes do their shopping in a big Fry’s Marketplace store, which also had a special (enclosed, supervised!) section for kids to play in while the parents shopped. Every time we were there, I always gravitated towards the same thing: the GameCube… with no less than Super Smash Bros. Melee running on it. It warms my heart and blows my mind to know that Sakurai inadvertently helped to give me the exact same childhood experience that he once had!
Well this is just plain wholesome, isn't it?
Sakurai saying "Who cares?" in that tone is unsurprisingly wholesome.
Funny? Yes. Wholesome? Not sure.
*_do care, did ask_*
Something about how he said it made me feel sad
I definitely care. I’ll take all the Sakurai lore I can get.
@@xd1498 plus i love you
Hearing Sakurai talk about his childhood and how much he may have left an impect on childhoods was so wholesome. Shows how far he's come.
Masahito Sakurai Lore... Interesting.
Super Mario World, Super Mario Land, and Sonic the Hedgehog were three of my first games. Games like A Link to the Past and Super Mario RPG were pillars of my youth as some of the greatest games I ever played. Plus, Super Smash Bros. and every incarnation since the 1999 release has had me hooked and playing competitively.
What's even more interesting is how many series I got into after turning 14. How Golden Sun and Fire Emblem shaped my love for JRPGs or how my 2002 discovery of Metroid Prime and Fusion caused me to try every game in the series.
Many of these series have stuck with me to this day.
Sakurai lived to tell the tale of his own about how arcade games shaped his childhood is pretty sweet, especially how Space Invaders and Pong were so successful that both games made an impact to gaming throughout the years. And it all comes in circles when Sakurai's games also shaped anyone else's childhood too.
Sakurai's game development DEFINITELY positively impacted my childhood
It's crazy to imagine Sakurai there as a kid. He doesn't look that old.
Simultaneously, it's crazy to imagine him getting into the industry so young!
My childhood memories was me spending a week worth of saved up allowance so I have enough credits to finish Time Crisis on the local arcade. Good times.
It's nice looking back at our childhood experiences with video games. I grew up with the PS1, PS2, GBA, and so on and so forth, but I grew to appreciate plenty of old NES games later in my life! ^^
I care that the Chujitsuya got converted into a mall at some point Mr. Sakurai...
Cool telling us about your childhood Mr. Sakurai.😄
My first video game console was the Nintendo 64, playing games like Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, and Paper Mario.
My favorite memory from those days was me being scared of Bowser's Castle as raised out of the ground.
In a sense, Baby Sakurai couldn't care less about The Fabled Console Wars.
And I thought *I* was old.
My first game was Pokémon Black.
Oh man, my scare of the dark skies as the dry dry ruins rose from the sand. Definitely my favorite childhood memory of that game
There's so many absolute gems of videos from Sakurai on this channel, but this may now be my favorite, as after this I feel like I have a relatable childhood to this gaming giant.
As a kid born in the late 80s in Canada, I was lucky enough to get an NES from my favorite uncle when I was 2 years old (He was my Santa Claus, literally, even looked like him... died before his time in the mid 2000s. I'm the gamer I am now thanks to him.), in the last years of its life before SNES released in 1991. But as a kid, it was still hard to be able to play as many games as possible, you had to use "tricks" like Sakurai did... and malls, gaming stores, and arcades were those tricks. In the early 90s we had an amazing store at the mall called Microplay (not sure if there's still one around somewhere), which had all the best and latest games on display, rentals that could be as generous as 3 one-week rentals for $5 irrc (maybe with coupons from pizza stores or something), and at least two arcade machines at a time - usually Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble... its BGM is like literally my childhood in musical form) and other Neo Geo or SNK games. Whenever my parents had to go to the mall for errands like going to the bank, they gave me quarters and left me at Microplay. I played mostly Bust-A-Move for as long as I could, and sometimes Fatal Fury 2 or a Neo Geo beat em up, then I spend any time I had left going through all the shelves in the store and looking at all the games I wish I could buy, including a very expensive Neo Geo console (like, the ultimate prize... still gotta get one of those).
Other than that, the only other "trick" was borrowing games from relatives and friends, which is how I played the majority of my favorite NES games. I rented probably 70% of SNES's library back then, lol (and later with N64 and PS1 too). I had a Gameboy too but only ever had Tetris and Mario on it, and I don't remember ever seeing its games for rent but maybe they were and I just missed them. It wasn't until Super Gameboy and then GBC's launch that I got Link's Awakening and Kirby's Dreamland. After beating Link's Awakening, Kirby was practically glued to my GBC and I took it everywhere with me. Thank you Mr. Sakurai.
But all that said, Sakurai's childhood was so much more cool...! Going back to even Pong? What's pretty much considered the first widely available video game? Sakurai was pretty much born with the video game industry! He's grown with and experienced it all.
TIL that in Japan, video game developers worked in the stores where Japanese gamers bought their games!? Like watching donuts get made at a Krispy Kreme!? :D That's so awesome. What a time that was in Japan, wow. To think of this industry full of corporations now, once being as humble as that...
And I love how Falcom and its games were such a big deal to some of the biggest game developers in their childhoods. As a kid, their games were written about in import gaming mags as among the jewels of the import scene, especially for RPG fans, and that so many of the top Japanese games wouldn't be the same without Falcom's early influence (including my favorite childhood RPGs - Lufia 1 & 2). It was hard to believe that Falcom games rarely released outside of Japan until the mid 2000s. Now its games are known worldwide but are seen as niche in comparison to the AAA games of these days. In their early days, Falcom were the AAA developers!
Daytona USA is what made me love video game. I was 5 and my dad bring me to the hotel's arcade and the game that I played was Daytona USA. My legs can't reach the pedals though so my dad helped me press the acceleration pedal. I was totally blown away by the bright screen, the loud music and the dim light of the room. It was first the time I realized that a place like that exists. It almost feels like a different world. Until now games arcade have a special place in my heart.
This is adorable.
And I'm the same way; the earliest memory I can recall is watching my dad play the original Legend of Zelda.
I remember when I first played Super Smash Bros Melee with my brother and cousins, where I was introduced to the existence of Kirby. I had no idea what I was doing at the time because I was still young, but at least I won as Kirby!
Few years later, Kirby Super Star Ultra was announced and was advertised as bookmarks and book accessories at my school during fifth grade, when I recognized the puffball. Later that year, my brother and I got Super Smash Bros Brawl (and rented a dvd of Kirby Right Back at Ya!) and learned a bit more about Kirby
Then came my twelfth birthday, when my mom and dad gave me a copy of Kirby Super Star Ultra! This was like being officially introduced to Kirby and his world, Dreamland, and my very first adventure at Pop Star!
The biggest part though was when some of my depression suddenly kicked in, and I lost passion for many classic cartoons… especially Disney. But thanks to Kirby, I was able to cope with that hard time when it began, and video games became my escape from my depression ever since!
Thank you Sakurai for creating Kirby, who helped me throughout one of the hardest moments in my life! ⭐️
It's hard to believe that they were really just making classics like Ys right in public in some random computer store like that lol, that would definitely never happen today.
Thank you for this Sakurai, this was really fun
Sakurai talking about his childhood and the games he played back then is honestly so wholesome. Its nice to have these kinds of videos inbetween the more eduacational videos of his.
Nihon falcom being a big reason why Sakurai started developing games makes me smile.
I love the Ys series and what nihon falcom has done for both the anime and game industry (employees that came from Falcom made popular anime movies and games)
Makoto Shinkai and Tetsuya Takahashi (founder of Monolith Soft) we're former Falcom employees during the mid to late 90s.
Fun Fact: Shinkai-san created the iconic Falcom opening sequence.
I feel like Falcoms influence in the game industry is often overlooked, nowadays they are pretty niche and don't really make all too groundbreaking games any more, but back in the day they were probably at the top when it comes to PC games (although nearly completely unnoticed in the west). People often attribute much to the original The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, but in reality Falcom did a lot of things first with Dragon Slayer and subsequent entries.
I only recently started playing Falcom's games in the past... 3 or 4 years? But I've been very impressed with what I played, particularly the Trails series. I don't really know about their early stuff, but I can at least say they still make fantastic JRPGs to this day.
Their games now arent groundbreaking but a lot of them are still fantastic. The impact they left just kinda shot past them lol@@Mimi.1001
love vids like this that show their influences. My childhood was mainly NES/SNES, of course...but we were fortunate enough to get a genesis too....didn't frequent the arcade as often as I'd like, but do have fond memories of the times I got to. Some of my fondest gaming memories is punch out w/ my dad, beating SMW before school, beating Simpsons arcade solo w/ 5 bucks in quarters...at around the 4:00 mark, pretty cool seeing the evolution of games at that period. Just imagine the evolution from then to now. Lil kid me would've been blown away by today's graphics and gameplay.
Damn, being in the Nihon Falcom store sounds cool as hell. Just a glimpse of the first Ys game being developed, what a thrill you'd realise you were having with time.
Thank you for sharing! As recent as 2012, my Walmart had an arcade space where my brother and I would hang out at while our mother with wait in the checkout line,.We hardly ever played any of the games, but there was a lot of bright and colorful stuff to look at. Same goes for arcade corners at pizza places and other restaurants.
Kirby for the Gameboy was so fun when it released, then shortly along came Kirbys for the NES and it totally blew me away, I had no idea the NES was capable of such a feat. 30 years later I still marvel at its amazingness. Thanks for the fun and lovely memories.
This makes some reflection on everybody's life (in most of these videos I can understand myself too)
What a lovely video! As somewhere born in 1973, in the opposite side of the world (Argentina) I'm surprised I can relate to a lot of the experiences young Sakurai had. How old we are becoming... but there's still a lot to enjoy! Sugoi! Edit: my son's (who's 19 now, btw) favourite game from his childhood is Mario Galaxy. To me, it was Galaga. We all have a special one, right?
Mr. Sakurai, you without a doubt had an impact on my childhood! All the countless hours I spent with Smash Bros. and Kirby with my childhood best friend are memories I will treasure forever, and it's thanks to all the hard work and charm you put into your games. I'll be a fan for life!
Mr. Sakurai, you have brought great joy to many gamers worldwide including myself. Smash Bros for the N64 is one of my favorite games since childhood, and it brought me a feeling like nothing else. Thank you very much for making my childhood very fun Mr. Sakurai
6-29-23
A Detail I really like about the Animation is that when the character representing Sakurai is in front of the 6 Arcade Cabinets, the Pong one is actually the way it looks like.
The first time I saw the snes star fox i was completely in awe! I’ve never seen anything like that before, I played a demo in the store and the music stuck in my mind for months until I was able to buy the game
4:44 if you add Kirby then games Sakurai made add up to 23%!! Incredible :)
I honestly envy those who grew up in a more interactive world than I did, arcades, hobby stores, malls, and the freedom to leave your parents and still be considered “safe”! Everything seems so… disconnected nowadays? Is that just me?
It isn't just you. Society really was more…social even just a couple of decades ago. Shame, really.
@@StoneStephenTyup. Everyone (including me at times) stuck head down staring at phones, instead of being social.
@@thecunninlynguist Phones aren’t (entirely) to blame. At least here in the U.S., there are a bunch of other factors, including (but not limited to): the Internet in general, post-9/11 paranoia, politics in general, the demonization of teenagers trying to socialize and have fun in a society that is increasingly hostile to the concept (or at least to giving them places to socialize), paranoia about child safety leading to helicopter parenting and such, income inequality and a lack of wage growth stifling the ability of people to have more free time than they do, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yeah, society and culture have changed since I was a kid-and not always for the better-but to put the blame for any negative changes on one single thing ignores all the ways society and culture changed and *why* those changes happened. Phones aren’t the root cause here. If anything, they’re only a symptom of much larger issues plaguing our society.
@@StoneStephenT Excellent reply. Felt a thumbs up wasn't enough to express my agreement.
@@StoneStephenT
It's not only USA thing, while what you listed is probably intensifying it in US, it's a global problematic trend. Japanese kids nowadays for example don't even want to go outside and Interact with others, I think social alienation is increasing worldwide.
Nintendo was my childhood, Nintendo Wii, Wii U and 3ds. Nintendo is always near of my heart. ❤️
Seeing people say those were their childhood makes me feel like an old man, and I only just turned drinking age in the U.S.
Wii, Wii U, DS, and early 3DS (cutoff in 2016) for me.
@@CeHee123 LOL then you make me feel ancient. I've got 20 years on you
@@CeHee123 im 20 years old, im glad i dont feel old but i feel like a kid xd
@@Alex_1A okey nice
1:16 - 1:26 You don't get moments like that any more.
That was a very interesting trip down memory lane. My experience with video games was inverted. I was playing on the NES at home before I was exposed to the arcade scene after 1994. Chuck E. Cheese restaurants was the place where I would go to for arcade play. It's funny that I switched career aspirations from being an astronaut to wanting to make video games because they are a great medium for story telling and game play experiences.
My childhood was going home from elementary school and watching my dad play Paper Mario 2 and Mario Sunshine on our game cube. Being fascinated with how people play games has led me to becoming a successful indie game designer, which i’m so happy about
4:13
So great to see Double Dragon shown, even if it was only for a brief moment.
Thank you for all of your insights! This channel is a treasure!
Sakurai wondering about the impact he's had on people's childhoods really hit me. One of my earliest memories is playing Kirby's Adventure on the NES (interspersed with my other favorite game at the time, Duck Hunt). Since that day, I've put thousands of hours into probably thousands of different games. I never really thought about it until now, but this man is largely responsible for my lifelong love of gaming 30 years later. Imagine if my first game was E.T. on the Atari 2600 instead!
Thank you, Mr. Sakurai, for bringing so much joy to so many people through your contributions. I hope you share more stories like this in the future.
A Falcom mention, hm? Nice. Especially since we're just over a week away from Reverie's western release!
Tio's time to shine is almost upon us once more.
Sakurai certainly has had an impact on countless people's childhoods. The OG SSB was one of the first games I played, but I was 4 or 5 at the time, so I didn't do a whole lot. While I did miss out on Melee and Brawl, SSB on the 3DS brought me back into the fold. Heck, SSBU even helped me make friends in college. On top of that, the Kirby games had a major impact on my childhood too. I didn't have a particularly good childhood, since having Autism basically sets you up for a messed up childhood. However, playing kirby super star ultra as a kid was one of the few things that brought a genuine smile to my face.
幼い頃からマリオや他のゲームを生き返らせるプログラムを始めてくれてありがとう、君は本当に素晴らしい。!
That bit at the end makes me think of my own experiences with video games growing up. As a young child, I started out playing some pre-NES consoles and computers when visiting relatives-Atari, ColecoVision, IntelliVision, and even a Commodore 64!-before my family owned the NES. As I grew up, I went through every console generation owning at least one of the major consoles of each era, as well as the GameBoy, and it was always amazing to see how graphics and such progressed over the years. From the pits of E.T. (yes, I owned a copy of that way back when) to the polygonal models of the first Resident Evil, seeing the evolution of video games has been one of the things I've enjoyed about the hobby. I'm left to wonder how the children of the present and the future will have their experiences shaped without experiencing that evolution first-hand. Yes, they can go back and play Street Fighter II on console collections and such, but it won't be the same as playing it in the arcades back when it was *the* reason to be in an arcade. That isn't to say the games of today are worse (or better!) than the games of yesteryear-i.e., the games I grew up on-but gamers who are starting off with the games of the here-and-now will alter the course of video games in far different ways than those who grew up with experiences similar to mine. The results will certainly be…interesting, to say the least.
"It could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps."
Funny you mentioned that. Kirby Air Ride was among the first games I've ever played, and it quickly became the gold standard to which I held video games in terms of presentation style, content richness, and overall polish.
Needless to say, I was difficult to impress growing up.
4:27 I spotted my favorite game in that Magazine cover: Kirby's Return to Dreamland!
"could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps"
All of my current friends are people I played Melee and Kirby Air Ride with, all those years ago
Sakurai referencing Hylide:
I'll ignore that.
Memories.
Still remember playing old Macintosh games constantly as a little kid. And whenever we went to visit our grandmother's house, I would rush down the stairs to play Super Mario 64.
When I was around 3 years old, I remember my brother and his friends sitting me down to play Super Smash Bros. Melee at some kid's birthday party. It was with Donkey Kong on Fourside. I don't remember playing that well, but it blew my mind. I'm sure my example is just one of many in terms of you shaping peoples' childhoods with your work.
Ah it's nice to hear nostalgia stories like this. Brings back memories of going to arcade by myself when I was a school kid to play games.
That store+dev house combo is new to me, never thought that it's possible.
Thanks for sharing Mr Sakurai!
Kirby Superstar and Melee were both huge influences on me becoming a game designer.
“Could be” you have had an impact? I and so many of my friends love Kirby and the good feelings that series produces in us. My first experience with 3d games ever was with smash bros. The only reason I wanted a Nintendo 64 was that game, and it introduced me to my favorite game series of all time, Zelda, with Ocarina of Time. I know he didn’t work on that game, but without his influence, I might never have played it. Thank you Sakurai for putting your heart into everything you do ❤
I believe the first time I ever played a videogame was Mario Kart 64 with my cousin. I walked into his room, and he was playing it underneath his loft bed. For whatever reason, he already had it set up in 2P Move, with his Mario taking off, while Luigi just sat there on the Kalimari Desert starting line. So, I observed what he was doing, picked up the second controller, and started playing. I called it "Marlo Kart" for some time.
Some of my other earliest gaming memories include James Discovers Math, Toy Story 2, and Frogger (1997)!
4:35 - 4:44 That subtle little flex.
I love the illustrations/animations in these videos so much and I'm not sure why.
As a kid, I grew up with a Game Boy Pocket and a copy of Blue, was scared of the Chain Chomp in Super Mario 64 (to the point I was walled by Bob Omb Battlefield of all levels), and watched as my Spanish relatives played Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. Even got to visit a couple arcades at the mall and the horse racetrack and got to enjoy DDR and California Speed before those both got canned.
To think that gaming has progressed so much within my 28 years of living, and it will continue to progress into the future.
My childhood friend got Super Smash Bros. for his birthday a month or so after it released in America. I was 8 years old at the time, and nearly every day we'd play on his N64 together. It was the first game that gave me a good glimpse into other series like Metroid, F-Zero, and Kirby and gave me so much inspiration that it was there where I decided I wanted to learn to make video games when I grew up.
I'm in my 30s now, and while I've learned to program and made tiny little demos here and there, I've only been hesitant to enter the game industry because I value the salary I get now. The flames of inspiration still burn, though.
I have a distinct memory of talking excitedly with my sister about Super Smash Bros. (for the N64) while on a family vacation to Washington DC, and later bonding with a Japanese exchange student while playing Super Smash Bros. Melee. Those games were my first introductions to a lot of Nintendo characters!
0:40 I can't believe Sakurai was born in 1970/71 and looks like he's 30. I'm so jealous rn😢
One of my earliest memories gaming was Kirby Air Ride and going down the street to play Super Smash Bros Melee at my friends house, Around 6-7 years old. Such a massive role in my love for gaming. Definitely unforgettable. Thanks for your continued work and love for gaming Sakurai-san you’ve definitely shaped a lot of kids introduction to games.
Growing up, my grandma always brought over some Plug-n-Plays when she babysat me and my brother. I remember watching her play Ms. Pac-Man in our parents' room and one day, I asked if I could play it. I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. We also played a lot of educational games growing up, especially the ClueFinders series. Speaking of which, something me and my brother never knew until recently is the bad guy of ClueFinders 4th Grade is voiced by Charles Martinet, and if you listen to him, it's straight-up his Wario voice.
Could have?
COULD HAVE?!
My good sir! You have no idea on the impact you've made on practically everyone's childhood, like God damn!
Having said that, it's fun to hear about what games made an impact on your childhood. A lot of them are still talked about and played to this day, which says a lot.
The Masahiro Sakurai backstory video. Lovely!
As for my childhood, there was a variety of games I was exposed to. The original Banjo-Kazooie just came out in 1998, and there was also the PlayStation with Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot.
That being said...my earliest memory with games was seeing my siblings play an NES in 1994. I was only two years old. In terms of actually _playing_ a game, my first titles include Mario Kart 64, Yoshi's Story, and Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins.
To say that these video games shaped my tastes today is an understatement. Now I am a huge nerd for all things Mario. It's fun to think about how influential his franchise is!
This is a good look at your childhood, Mr. Sakurai.
Sakurai probably had the biggest impact on my childhood compared to any other person!
God I love this channel, and this man. What a great episode. I love people calling this the Sakurai "lore" episode; it's a fitting description! So much fascinating information here.
It's crazy to imagine being a kid and going to a PC store and seeing workers on the other side of the counter that you know are making games right before your eyes. How fascinating!
I feel like exposure has a greater impact on humans than people realize, and everyone needs more exposure to all sorts of different people, places, and activities to really flesh ourselves out.
Sakura talking about his childhood?! I must send this to the New York Times immediately!
This is adorable! I'm proud to say Melee was part of my childhood!
2:54 Ah Nihon Falcom. Amazing music from Ys, trails series
For my part Sakurai, I can tell you, you've really shaped a lot of my growing up thanks to smash.
Most of the friends I have now I've met playing smash with them, friendships that have lasted 20+ years now, also, my choosing a career in computer engineering was inspired thanks in part of my curiosity early on trying to mod music into smash haha.
So, thanks, you've had a great and positive impact in my life.
Incredibly wholesome episode, and I am one of those impacted by Sakurai's games-from Kirby Super Star to Smash Bros. Brawl, been there my whole life.
Of course, not just Sakurai but Nintendo as a whole (not much of Playstation or Xbox because 3rd world gotta be really picky with what console they buy) but playing Brawl in elementary/highschool, Smash 4 in highschool/college, and Ultimate in college/the endless depressive grind of worklife, mr. Sakurai has absolutely had a big impact on me.
I'm about the same age as you Sakurai, so I also have fond memories of these classic arcade games!
Kirby's Dream Land definitely had a massive impact on me. It was one of the first games I ever played and definitely helped kick off my lifelong love of videogames. Thanks for that Sakurai!
4:19 "As a game creator myself, it could be that I've had the same impact on someone else's childhood, perhaps."
You have! The game that made me interested in video games was Super Smash Bros. Melee. I wouldn't be who I am today without it.
Yeah! Trails of cold steel mention!
thanks for all the legacy the give all this generation. my dad teach me in the videogame world in the arcade games and console games. i remember play Kirby returns to dreamland from wii with my best friend
Well this was certainly an interesting one. A lot of times I forget about the games that came before the NES, since that's what popularized home gaming.
I just smiled throughout. And I had somewhat similar experiences, twenty years later. I wasn't too big on Kirby, but my sister still had Dreamland for her GameBoy. Now she has moved on and I'm still playing. haha
My first video game I played and still own is the 1976 Atari Super Pong I got that year at age 4, got the Atari VCS (2600) for my birthday at age 5 in 1977 and did played Space Invaders at the NYC arcades in 78 at age 6.
2:02 "Who cares?"
I do, Sakurai-san!
4:25
Kirby Super Star and Super Smash Bros. Melee single-handedly formed my taste in video games and made it impossible to settle for games that have sluggish controls or bad feelings of movement.
I started with the GameCube, and I strongly believe that the games I played and enjoyed like Mario Party, Kirby Air Ride, Super Monkey Ball, and Tony Hawk just to name a few really helped to shape what I like from video games today. I love simple mechanics and ideas pushed to their absolute limit.
Sakurai got me reminiscing about those days...Metal Slug and Pang at the laundromat. Playing Yoshi's Island and Mario Kart 64 at Toys R Us.
And of course I'll never forgot just how real I thought Smash Bros Melee looked and how I would just watch the intro over and over at Walmart.
seeing the games that Sakurai lists as what he played in his childhood makes you remember just how young he was when he got into the video game industry.
Ooh Sakurai lore!! :O
Now, as for the games during my childhood, I mainly grew up playing the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and the Wii! Me and my brother also owned a bunch of Plug 'n' Play consoles.
I remember when I was young whenever I went to Target going into the games section and looking at things like the Wii.
Ha, I thought he was gonna dig more into specific games at first, but I guess this is cool too. A more general overview of his history in videogames... I'm a child of the 90's so I started off real young with Game & Watch as my first impressions, and moved on to NES. So while I did experience some of the arcade era they were SERIOUSLY hamstrung in Sweden by fearful politicians doing their best to limit their spread, so it was mostly consoles and PC's that ruled the roost in my country. Oddly enough that just meant the few times I DID see an arcade cabinet the experiences felt all the more engaging and I ended up being a massive FAN of the arcade games I saw... even if I very seldom PLAYED them. Living vicariously through reading about them or watching videos about them, that kind of thing.
4:11 The Space Harrier to Star Fox to Kid Icarus Uprising timeline makes so much sense.
A detail people might miss is many of the games listed on his favorites were AFTER Sakurai was already in game development himself. Devs still enjoy and get inspired by each other. Console wars and competition are a marketing concept. You should like and experience as much as you can if you want true inspiration.
This is really cool. I also still remember my first videogames and how they shaped my videogame taste and life in general in a way.
It feels so real and makes us feel more connected to game developers and their games when you hear about their childhood and inspirations. Thank you so much Mr. Sakurai!
still remember the first time playing Kirby on the original gameboy
was hooked immediately and have been ever since
now a collector of everything Kirby related
More people could stand to have the level of joy and passion Sakurai has, not just about his work, but about his childhood and hobbies. Video games clearly mean a lot to him in every sense imaginable, and I can relate and respect that tremendously
It's Wholesome To Hear His Childhood playing video games!
It's nice hearing anecdotes like this.