The house of Mario is celebrating its birthday today, but it’s not just any old birthday: Nintendo is officially 130 years old!
Happy birthday, Nintendo!
Now, I know what you’re thinking: vIdEo GaMeS hAvEn’T bEeN aRoUnD tHaT lOnG! Well yes, you’re right, but Nintendo actually started life as a company that made playing cards. Did you know that?
On 23 September 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi, founded Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., a company which created handmade hanafuda playing cards. In 1951, the company became known as Nintendo Playing Card Co. before become the Nintendo we all know and love in the 1970s.
Always at the forefront of innovation, Nintendo dipped its toes into virtual reality way before the rest of the world, trying (and failing) to crack VR with the 1995 console, the Virtual Boy.
Its passion for the weird and wonderful continued to impress us over the years, bringing us the three-pronged Nintendo 64 controller, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS and – of course – the Nintendo Switch.
People have been celebrating today by sharing their own messages of thanks to Nintendo on social media.
NintendoMemories writes: “It’s officially September 23th in Japan, so…
“From 1889 to 2019…
“From Kyoto to Worldwide…
“From Yamauchi to Furukawa…
“From Hanafuda to Switch Lite…
“From LCD to Polygons…
“From Donkey to Splatoon…HAPPY 130TH BIRTHDAY NINTENDO!!”
It’s basically impossible to be a gamer in 2019 and have never played a Nintendo game. From Tetris on the Nintendo Entertainment System to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo will always be such a huge part of the world of video games.
Things are only set to get bigger and better for the company. The world’s first Super Mario theme park is set to open in Japan in 2020, Pokemon Sword and Shield are launching later this year, and with the recent release of the Nintendo Switch Lite, it’s never been a better time to be a Nintendo gamer.
From the bottom of my heart: Happy Birthday, Nintendo, and thanks for Ocarina of Time! What’s your favourite Nintendo video game?
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo