Watch Nintendo legend Miyamoto reminisce about Pokemon's 20th anniversary
Iconic Nintendo designer talks about his contributions to the series and thanks fans for their support in new video.
Legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto, in addition to creating the Mario and Zelda franchises, also worked on the first Pokemon games as a producer. Now, Nintendo has released a nice video in which Miyamoto recalls his work on the series, shares some brief stories, and thanks fans for their continued support.
The Pokemon series celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, but for Miyamoto, it goes back further than that. He worked with The Pokemon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara for "about six years" before the release of the first games in 1996. And the reason for the lengthy development?
"The reason it took so long was because we were also working on EarthBound [released in 1994]," Miyamoto explains. "Once that was finished, we were able to move full speed ahead with Pokemon."
Miyamoto shares that his main contribution to the early Pokemon games was designing the system link feature that allowed players to battle their creatures on Game Boy systems using a link cable.
"Time flew by, and now there are Pokemon games in so many colors!" he says. "Twenty years. I almost can't believe it. Everyone, thank you for your support."
The exact 20th anniversary of the release of the first Pokemon games -- Red and Green -- was on February 27, 2016. The Pokemon Company and Nintendo have celebrated the milestone quite a lot so far, including with an ad at Super Bowl 50 and an afternoon soiree hosted by Drew Barrymore.
In other Pokemon news, the franchise's movie rights are reportedly in the midst of a bidding war. Meanwhile, the next mainline Pokemon games are Sun and Moon, coming to 3DS this year.