"Donkey Kong" was successful. Miyamoto started to work on sequels "Donkey Kong Jr." in 1982 and "Donkey Kong 3" in 1983. In the next game, he changed the "Donkey Kong" character Jumpman into Mario. He gave him a brother: Luigi. He named the new game "Mario Bros." Yokoi convinced Miyamoto to give Mario some special powers, namely being able to fall from any height without getting hurt. Mario's look in "Donkey Kong"—overalls, a hat, and a thick mustache—led Miyamoto to change parts of the game. He changed it to make Mario look like a plumber instead of a carpenter. Miyamoto thought that New York City would be the best setting for the game. He thought it was the best place because it has a "maze of subterranean sewage pipes". The two-player mode and other parts of gameplay were influenced by an earlier video game called "Joust". To date, games in the "Mario Bros." series have been released for many consoles. Shortly after, Miyamoto also drew the character sprites and game design for the "Baseball", "Tennis", and "Golf" games on the NES.
Nintendo released its first home video game console, the Family Computer (released in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System). While this happened, Miyamoto created two of the most famous games for the console and in the history of video games as a whole: "Super Mario Bros." (a sequel to "Mario Bros.") and "The Legend of Zelda" (an entirely original title).
In both games, Miyamoto decided to focus more on gameplay than on high scores. This was different from most games at the time. "Super Mario Bros." was a linear game. The player moved the stage by running, jumping, and dodging or defeating enemies. Miyamoto used nonlinear gameplay in "The Legend of Zelda". This requires the player to think their way through riddles and puzzles. The world was big and and it seemed to never end. It had a lot of different choices and depth never seen before in a video game. With "The Legend of Zelda", Miyamoto wanted to make an in-game world that players could relate to. He said it was like a "small garden that they can put inside their drawer." He was influenced from his time as a boy around Kyoto. When he was a boy, he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves; each "Zelda" title has this feeling of exploration. "When I was a child," Miyamoto said, "I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to find it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, finding amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this." He recreated his memories of becoming lost in the maze of sliding doors in his family home in "Zelda"s maze-like dungeons. In February 1986, Nintendo released the game as the first game for the Nintendo Entertainment System's new Disk System.
Miyamoto worked on different games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. These games included "Ice Climber", "Kid Icarus", "Excitebike", and "Devil World". He also worked on sequels to "Super Mario Bros" and "The Legend of Zelda".
'Super Mario Bros. 3" was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development; the game took more than two years to make.
A merger between Nintendo's different internal research and development teams led to the creation of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (Nintendo EAD). Miyamoto was the head of it. Nintendo EAD had about fifteen months to develop "F-Zero", one of the launch titles for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Miyamoto worked on different games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. One of them was "Star Fox". For the game, programmer Jez San convinced Nintendo to make an upgrade for the Super Nintendo. This upgrade would allow it to be able to show three-dimensional graphics better. This upgrade was the Super FX chip. Using this new hardware, Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi designed the "Star Fox" game with an early use of three-dimensional graphics.
Miyamoto produced two big "Mario" titles for the system. The first game was "Super Mario World". It was a launch title. It was included with Super Nintendo Entertainment System consoles. It had an overworld as in "Super Mario Bros.". It had a new character, Yoshi. Yoshi would go on to be in many other Nintendo games. The second "Mario" game for the system was "Super Mario RPG". It was different than most "Mario" games. Miyamoto led a team that was a partnership between Nintendo and Square Co.; it took almost a year to develop the graphics. The story takes place in a newly rendered Mushroom Kingdom based on the "Super Mario Bros." series.
Shigeru Miyamoto helped Satoshi Tajiri. Miyamoto guided him during the creation of "Pocket Monsters: Red and Green" (released in English as "Pokémon Red" and "Blue"), the first video games in the Pokémon series. He was also the producer for these games. Miyamoto worked on social gameplay ideas such as trading. Pokémon would become one of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world, spanning video games, anime, and other merchandise.
Miyamoto made several games for the Nintendo 64. Most of these games were from his previous franchises. His first game on the Nintendo 64 was "Super Mario 64". He was the main director. In developing the game, he started with character design and the camera system. Miyamoto and the other designers were unsure of what the game should be like. It took months to decide on a good camera view and layout. The first idea used a fixed path. This would have been similar to an isometric-type game.They decided on a free-roaming 3D design. He changed the design of the Nintendo 64 controller to fit with that of "Super Mario 64".
Using what he had learned about the Nintendo 64 from developing "Super Mario 64" and "Star Fox 64", Miyamoto produced his next game, "". He led a team of several directors. Individual parts of "Ocarina of Time" were developed by multiple directors—a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. However, when things progressed slower than expected, Miyamoto returned to the development team with a more central role. He was helped in public by interpreter Bill Trinen. The team was new to 3D games. However, assistant director Makoto Miyanaga remembers a feeling of "passion for creating something new and never done before". Miyamoto went on to produce a sequel to "Ocarina of Time", known as "".
Miyamoto worked many "Mario" series spin-offs for the Nintendo 64. These included "Mario Kart 64" and "Mario Party".
Miyamoto produced many games for the GameCube. This included the launch title "Luigi's Mansion". The game was first shown at Nintendo Space World 2000 as a technical demo. It was designed to show off the graphical power of the GameCube. Miyamoto made a short demo of the game concepts. Nintendo decided to make it a full game. "Luigi's Mansion" was later shown at E3 2001 with the GameCube console. Miyamoto made more "Mario" spinoffs in these years. He also produced the 3D game series "Metroid Prime". This was because the original designer Yokoi, a friend of Miyamoto's, died. In this time he developed "Pikmin" and its sequel "Pikmin 2". These games were based on his experiences gardening. He also worked on new games for the "Star Fox", "Donkey Kong", "F-Zero", and "The Legend of Zelda" series on the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance systems. With the help of Hideo Kojima, he helped the developers of "". He helped with many games on the Nintendo DS. The games included the remake of "Super Mario 64", "Super Mario 64 DS". It also included the new game "Nintendogs", a new franchise based on his own experiences with dogs.
Miyamoto produced "Super Mario 3D Land" and "" for the 3DS, and "Pikmin 3" for the Wii U.