Miyamoto’s Characters Have Some Of The Worst Names In Gaming

Shigeru Miyamoto is one of gaming’s most iconic figures and is responsible for the likes of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and dozens of other famous Nintendo franchises and characters.

Although Miyamoto is one of the most important and highly-regarded Nintendo figures it seems his creative skills and talents don’t stretch to one thing in particular – his character’s names.

Mario’s original name is often thought to be Jump Man, but the Jump Man moniker was actually the second name chosen for everyone’s favourite plumber.

In an Iwata Asks featurette from way back in 2009, Miyamoto confessed: “I felt that I had come up with a pretty solid character, which is why I thought: ‘Right, I’ll keep using him from now on!’

“That’s why I decided a solid, imposing name like ‘Mr. Video’ would work best. But thinking back, I don’t think I should have gone with that name. If he had been called ‘Mr. Video,’ he might have disappeared off the face of the earth.”

We’d agree with you on that one…

We all know and love Mario, the most important half (sorry Luigi) of the iconic Mario Bros., but did you ever stop to think about why the duo are known as Mario Bros. when only one of them is called Mario?

Well, according to Miyamoto himself, Mario’s full name is Mario Mario.

He made the announcement during Japan’s 30th anniversary Super Mario Bros. event back in 2015, and honestly it just gets even weirder from here.

It’s not just Mario who’s been on the receiving end of a terrible name.

Before Princess Peach there was Pauline, the damsel in distress of the original Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. Now ‘Pauline’ isn’t the most Princess-y name of all time, but her original name was even less special.

Pauline originally went by the name ‘Lady,’ seeing as she was…well, a lady.

And as for The Legend of Zelda‘s Link? Not only did he not get his name in the franchise’s title, but he also was given the full name of – yep, you guessed it – Link Link.

YouTube video

Maybe that’s exactly why they chose Zelda for the title…