ADDICTING FACTS ABOUT NINTENDO

NINTENDO’S GLOBAL REVENUE HAS SURPASSED

AN ASTONISHING $5.5 BILLION ACCORDING TO FORBES

MIYAMOTO’S FIRST NES GAME NEVER CAME TO

THE UNITED STATES BECAUSE OF ITS DEMONIC

CHARACTERS. DEVIL WORLD WAS PRETTY MUCH

A PAC-MAN CLONE AND WAS BANNED BECAUSE

THE PROTAGONIST KILLED DEMONS WITH THE

POWER OF THE CRUCIFIX AND THE BIBLE

NINTENDOGS WERE INSPIRED BY A SHETLAND

SHEEPDOG NAMED PIKKU. FOR THE RECORD,

PIKKU BELONGED TO WHO ELSE? SHIGERU

MIYAMOTO, NINTENDO’S FAMOUS GAME DESIGNER

NINTENDO HAD THE SAME PRESIDENT FOR MORE

THAN FIFTY-FIVE YEARS, LONGER THAN ANY

OTHER VIDEOGAME COMPANY IN HISTORY. THE

LATE HIROSHI YAMAUCHI WAS PRESIDENT AND

CHAIRMAN OF NINTENDO FROM 1949 UNTIL 2005,

DURING WHICH TIME HE BECAME ONE OF THE

RICHEST MEN IN JAPAN WITH A NET WORTH

OF $2.7 BILLION.

THE MOST POPULAR SYMBOL OF VIDEO GAMING

THAT PRETTY MUCH EVERY MAJOR VIDEOGAME

COMPANY USES NOWADAYS, THE “CROSS” D-PAD,

WAS CREATED IN 1982 FOR NINTENDO’S DONKEY KONG

DURING THE EARLY SIXTIES ONE OF NINTENDO’S

MANY AMBITIOUS ATTEMPTS TO MAKE IT BIG

INCLUDED A “LOVE HOTEL,” WHERE ADULTS COULD

RENT ROOMS BY THE HOUR AND YOU KNOW . . .

HAVING SOME FUN BEFORE GAMING WAS COOL

ALSO DURING THE SAME DECADE, NINTENDO

TRIED TO IMPORT THE CLASSIC WESTERN

GAME TWISTER TO JAPAN BUT THE WHOLE

PROJECT FAILED MISERABLY

IN 2007 A RADIO STATION IN SACRAMENTO

LAUNCHED A CONTEST WITH THE CATCHY TITLE

“HOLD YOUR PEE FOR A WII.” THE CONTEST

REQUIRED LISTENERS TO DRINK AS MUCH WATER

AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT USING THE BATHROOM.

THE WHOLE THING ENDED TRAGICALLY WHEN

TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD JENNIFER STRANGE

DIED OF WATER INTOXICATION