In light of recent events, I was looking back over Iwata's work at HAL Laboratory and Nintendo, and was really impressed. For years prior to becoming the President of Nintendo, he had quite a list of games and accomplishments under his belt. So in his honor, I'm going to look back at some projects he helped create and what he did to help. This is more of a sampling than a full works, but it helps show how much he's touched.
Balloon Fight (1985)
Synopsis: An arcade classic that put players in the role of a man flying using only a couple of balloons. The game featured modes for a single player campaign against CPU opponents, a 2-player mode, and an endless Balloon Trip mode. The signature mechanic is mantaining control of one's flight by carefully timing button presses, sort of like a more sophisicated Flappy Bird.
Iwata's Role: He programmed the entire thing.
NES Open Tournament Golf (1987/1991)
Synopsis: A second golf game from Nintendo for the NES, this game featured changing points of view in order to allow for better player decisions. It was also one of the earliest Mario sports spinoffs. Oddly, this game featured a few distinct versions based on region and format, with the Famicom Disk System, Japanese Cartridge, and NES Cartridge each being distinct.
Iwata's Role: Chief Programmer, with two others providing assisstance.
Kirby's Adventure (1993)
Synopsis: The second Kirby platformer, this is where Kirby got his trademark ability to copy enemy powers, a series staple. Though the Game Boy original created the Kirby series, this was the one that codified it, much like how Super Mario Bros codified the existing Mario series of platformers.
Iwata's Role: Producer. Iwata would be the Producer for many Kirby games in the 90's including Dream Land 2 and 3, Super Star, and a couple of spinoffs. I also suspect that he lent some of his programming expertise, considering Kirby's Adventure pushed the NES hardware to its limit. Note that one part of the Butter Building stage had pseudo-3D graphics that could not be accurately remade in the GBA remake, Nightmare in Dream Land.
Earthbound/Mother 2 (1994)
Synopsis: A beloved SNES RPG renowned for its quirky storytelling and presentation. Stars that kid from Smash Bros who says "PK Fire!"
Iwata's Role: Producer and Programmer. According to Shigesato Itoi, the game's Director and Writer, in a 2000 interview, "I can clearly remember the amount of effort we put into Mother 2 in the beginning. We were dealing with a tough childbirth, and right when we thought we were going to suffer a stillbirth, Iwata swooped in and worked it out like SUperman. RIght when we were at a stalemate and were aiming to change the programming, he fixed it up."
Pokemon Stadium (1998)
Synopsis: A glorified peripheral to the Game Boy Pokemon titles that displayed the Monsters in glorious 3D graphics. It was damn fun though.
Iwata's Role: Re-Created the games' battle code for useon the N64 in literally a week without any documentation, despite technically being President of HAL Laboratory by this point.
Pokemon Gold/Silver (1999)
Synopsis: The ultimate sequel to one of the most popular games ever made.
Iwata's Role: Compressed thae game's data well enough to squeeze in Kanto. He basically managed to fit the original game's world as bonus content. I can't even describe how awesome that is.
Super Smash Bros Melee (2001)
Synopsis: You know that surprise hit crossover-party-fighter we just finished? Let's make it one of our leading franchises!
Iwata's Role: Abandoned his recent new position at Nintendo to go back to HAL Laboratory, a couple hundred miles away, and debug the game so that it would be released by the end of 2001 as scheduled. Three weeks were all he needed.
Prior to 2002, Iwata was already a legendary figure.
