Hideo Kojima, the legendary creator behind Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding, and some of gaming’s most cinematic experiences, just revealed the unlikely game that brought him to the industry: Super Mario Bros. In a new interview with Wired Japan as part of their Tech Support series, Kojima admitted he spent an entire year playing Nintendo’s 1985 platformer while skipping college classes, and that without Mario, he probably wouldn’t have become a game developer at all. For someone known for ambitious narrative-driven blockbusters with Hollywood actors and philosophical themes, crediting a simple left-to-right jumping game as his catalyst might seem surprising. But Kojima’s explanation reveals exactly why Super Mario Bros remains so influential four decades later.
The Year Kojima Skipped School for Mario
When asked which game he’s played the most, Kojima answered without hesitation: “Super Mario Bros., definitely.” He went on to explain that he played it for an entire year while he was a college student, frequently skipping classes to stay home and play. This wasn’t casual gaming or occasional sessions between studying. Kojima was completely absorbed by Nintendo’s platformer to the point where it fundamentally altered his career trajectory.
“Without Super Mario, I probably wouldn’t have been in this industry,” Kojima stated plainly. The admission carries weight coming from a developer whose games have sold millions and influenced generations of creators. Metal Gear Solid revolutionized stealth gameplay and cinematic storytelling in games. Death Stranding challenged conventions about what open-world games could be. MGS2 predicted aspects of digital society and information overload decades before social media made those concerns mainstream. None of that would exist without a plumber jumping on Goombas in the Mushroom Kingdom.
What Mario Taught Him About Game Design
Kojima broke down what made Super Mario Bros special despite its apparent simplicity. “It’s a side-scrolling action game. Mario just goes left to right. Basically just jumping,” he explained. “But there’s a dash button, use that and the jump subtly changes the trajectory to attack or dodge.” That observation cuts to the heart of what made Miyamoto’s design revolutionary. The game gives players just two buttons but extracts infinite possibility from how those inputs interact.
The momentum physics that change Mario’s jump arc based on whether he’s running or walking created a skill ceiling that players could spend years mastering. Speedrunners still find new optimizations in Super Mario Bros nearly 40 years later. That depth emerging from apparent simplicity represents game design at its purest. Kojima recognized even as a college student that something profound was happening beneath the pixelated surface.
Games Could Surpass Movies
The most important revelation Kojima shared was how Super Mario Bros changed his perception of gaming’s potential. “It had almost no story,” Kojima noted, “but it felt like you were on an adventure. When I saw that, although it was pixel art with no story, I felt this medium would one day surpass movies. It was the catalyst that brought me to the game industry.”
That statement is remarkable considering Kojima’s well-documented love of cinema. He frequently cites directors like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, and especially John Carpenter as massive influences on his work. His games feature Hollywood actors including Kiefer Sutherland, Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, and Lea Seydoux. The Metal Gear series draws heavily from American action movies, while Death Stranding explores themes about connection and isolation that feel deeply cinematic.
Yet Super Mario Bros, with its minimal premise about rescuing a princess from a monster, convinced Kojima that games could do something movies fundamentally couldn’t. The sense of adventure didn’t come from dialogue or character development or complex plot. It emerged from the act of playing itself: the challenge of timing jumps, discovering secrets, learning enemy patterns, and pushing further into unknown levels. That interactive element created emotional engagement that passive media couldn’t replicate.
The Long-Standing Love Affair
This isn’t the first time Kojima has gushed about Super Mario Bros. Back in 2013, he wrote that “Super Mario Bros. is the equivalent to the big bang of our gaming universe. If it were not for this blindingly spectacular creation, digital entertainment as we know it today would not exist.” He continued: “Shigeru Miyamoto not only altered the future of gaming, but actually changed the world itself.” Those aren’t exaggerations for effect. Kojima genuinely believes Nintendo’s platformer fundamentally shaped the industry.
He Can’t Really Play It Anymore
Interestingly, Kojima admitted he can’t really play Super Mario Bros now. The distance between his current work and that left-to-right jumping feels too vast. His games now involve complex systems, branching narratives, hours of cutscenes, and mechanics that require thick instruction manuals to explain. Going back to the purity of Mario’s two-button design after decades of increasing complexity doesn’t click the same way it did when he was a college student discovering gaming’s potential.
That admission speaks to how much gaming has evolved since 1985. Super Mario Bros was groundbreaking for offering analog jump arcs and smooth scrolling when competitors featured single-screen flip transitions and rigid movement. Now games feature photorealistic graphics, voice acting, motion capture, online multiplayer, and production budgets rivaling blockbuster films. The medium Kojima believed could surpass movies has arguably achieved that goal in many ways, from storytelling ambition to cultural impact to sheer revenue.
How Mario Shaped Metal Gear
While Kojima’s games don’t superficially resemble Super Mario Bros, the lessons he learned absolutely shaped his design philosophy. The idea that minimal story can create maximum adventure influenced how he approached early Metal Gear games on limited MSX hardware. The focus on mechanical depth from simple inputs shows up in MGS’s context-sensitive action button that changes function based on situation and proximity to objects.
Most importantly, Kojima’s conviction that interactivity creates emotional resonance drives everything he makes. Death Stranding tasks players with tedious walking and balance mechanics that critics initially mocked. But those systems create feelings of accomplishment, frustration, and connection that cutscenes couldn’t achieve. Players genuinely feel relief when Norman Reedus’s character finally reaches shelter after trudging through rough terrain. That’s the lesson of Super Mario Bros: gameplay creates meaning.
The Nintendo Connection
Kojima’s love for Nintendo extended beyond just playing their games. He lent his creation Solid Snake to Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii, marking Metal Gear’s first appearance on a Nintendo platform in years. The inclusion delighted fans and demonstrated mutual respect between Kojima Productions and Nintendo. Snake returned for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Switch, cementing his place in Nintendo’s crossover fighting series.
Other Influences on Kojima’s Career
While Super Mario Bros provided the catalyst, Kojima credits other formative experiences for shaping his worldview and games. In October 2024, he revealed that attending the 1970 Osaka World’s Fair 55 years earlier was crucial to developing his futuristic mindset and globalist perspective. “Without that event, my futuristic mindset and globalism would have never developed, and as a result, Metal Gear and Death Stranding would not have come into being either,” Kojima explained.
The World’s Fair exposed young Kojima to ideas about international cooperation, technological progress, and humanity’s connected future. Those themes permeate his work decades later. Metal Gear explores how nuclear weapons and information warfare connect global politics. Death Stranding literally tasks players with reconnecting a fractured America through building infrastructure and forming bonds. The ideas planted at that World’s Fair grew into the philosophical foundations underlying Kojima’s games.
MGS2 Wasn’t About AI
In the same Wired interview, Kojima addressed common misconceptions about Metal Gear Solid 2’s prescient themes. Released in 2001, MGS2 features a bizarre second half where reality collapses around protagonist Raiden as characters monologue about digital control, junk data, and information overload. Many interpret the game as predicting AI control, especially given recent developments with ChatGPT and generative AI.
“It is often mistaken for a story about AI, but it’s about digital society,” Kojima clarified. “It wasn’t about AI, but interweaving digital data gaining a will of its own. That was the story. So, well, 24 years have passed. It has become somewhat of a reality. I didn’t predict it, but rather a future I didn’t desire, but unfortunately we’re heading there.” The distinction matters. MGS2 warned about humans drowning in information they couldn’t parse, creating echo chambers and losing the ability to distinguish truth from fiction. Social media realized that nightmare scenario.
The Kojima Design Philosophy
Throughout his career, Kojima has maintained an unusual approach to game development that traces back to lessons learned from Super Mario Bros. He doesn’t alter themes or story based on feedback, as he told Edge magazine earlier in 2025. “I’m not interested in making something that appeals to everyone,” Kojima stated. He revealed that original Death Stranding playtests had around 60% calling it terrible, which he considered “a good balance.”
That willingness to polarize audiences stems from confidence that interactivity creates meaning even when mechanics seem counterintuitive or boring on paper. Just as Super Mario Bros felt like an adventure despite minimal story, Death Stranding’s walking simulator elements create genuine emotions despite sounding tedious in description. Kojima trusts that players who engage with his systems will discover the meaning he embedded in them, even if that meaning doesn’t appeal to everyone.
FAQs
What did Hideo Kojima say about Super Mario Bros?
Kojima said Super Mario Bros was the catalyst that brought him to the game industry, calling it the game he played the most. He admitted skipping college classes for a year to play it and stated that without Mario, he probably wouldn’t have become a game developer.
Why did Super Mario Bros inspire Kojima?
Despite having almost no story, Super Mario Bros made Kojima feel like he was on an adventure. The experience convinced him that video games as a medium would one day surpass movies, even though the game was just pixel art with minimal narrative.
Can Hideo Kojima still play Super Mario Bros?
No. Kojima admitted he can’t really play it anymore. After decades of creating complex games with intricate systems, returning to the simple left-to-right jumping gameplay of the original Mario doesn’t work for him the same way it did as a college student.
What games has Hideo Kojima made?
Kojima created the Metal Gear series including Metal Gear Solid, MGS2, MGS3, MGS4, MGS5, and Metal Gear Rising. He also directed Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2, plus earlier titles like Snatcher and Policenauts. He’s currently working on OD and Physint.
Did Hideo Kojima work with Nintendo?
Yes. Kojima allowed his character Solid Snake to appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Switch, marking Metal Gear’s appearances on Nintendo platforms and demonstrating mutual respect between Kojima Productions and Nintendo.
What other influences shaped Hideo Kojima?
Beyond Super Mario Bros, Kojima credits attending the 1970 Osaka World’s Fair as crucial to developing his futuristic mindset and globalism. He’s also heavily influenced by film directors including Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, and especially John Carpenter.
Was Metal Gear Solid 2 about AI?
No. Kojima clarified that MGS2 wasn’t about AI but rather digital society and information overload. The game explored what happens when humans can’t parse the overwhelming amounts of data created by the internet, a future Kojima says “I didn’t desire, but unfortunately we’re heading there.”
Does Kojima listen to player feedback?
Not really. Kojima told Edge magazine he doesn’t alter themes or story based on feedback and isn’t interested in making games that appeal to everyone. He revealed Death Stranding playtests had 60% negative responses, which he considered a good balance.
Conclusion
Hideo Kojima’s revelation that Super Mario Bros was the catalyst for his entire career offers a fascinating window into how great games inspire future creators. The fact that gaming’s most cinematic auteur credits a simple platformer with minimal story for showing him the medium’s potential perfectly illustrates what makes interactive entertainment special. Movies can show you adventures. Books can describe them. But games let you live them through the act of playing, creating emotional resonance that passive media fundamentally cannot achieve. Super Mario Bros accomplished that with two buttons, left-to-right scrolling, and a plumber jumping on turtles. No complex narrative, no Hollywood actors, no philosophical monologues about the nature of reality. Just tight mechanics that felt good to play and a world that encouraged exploration despite being built from 8-bit sprites. That purity of design taught Kojima everything he needed to know about gaming’s potential. Without that year skipping college to play Mario, we might never have gotten Metal Gear Solid’s cinematic stealth gameplay. Death Stranding’s meditation on connection and isolation wouldn’t exist. MGS2’s prescient warnings about digital society drowning in information would never have been created. The entire trajectory of one of gaming’s most influential creators hinged on discovering Nintendo’s 1985 platformer at exactly the right moment in his life. The story also demonstrates why preserving gaming history matters. Super Mario Bros isn’t just a classic worth playing for nostalgia. It’s a foundational text that shaped the medium’s evolution and inspired countless creators who went on to push games in new directions. Every time someone plays that first level, they’re experiencing the same revelation Kojima had four decades ago: this simple activity of timing jumps and dodging enemies creates something magical that transcends its apparent simplicity. For Kojima, that magic led to a career defining what games could become. For millions of others, it simply provided joy. Both outcomes validate his belief that this medium would one day surpass movies. It already has, in the ways that matter most.