The creative team at Nintendo are responsible for creating some of gaming’s biggest and best-loved franchises. Many of the characters that populate these games are entirely original creations, but some are brought to life by inspiration provided by the real world. One only needs to look as far as the Pokémon series to see examples of this. Pokémon like Klefki and Mareep show how real world objects and animals can influence design choices. Some creators even take it a step further.
Whether it be through their appearance, their name or their personality, there are a host of real world people who have provided inspiration for some of Nintendo’s most popular characters. Although some of these people are no longer with us, their legacy lives on through the characters they helped to inspire.
10 K.K. Slider (Kazumi Totaka)
K.K. Slider has appeared in all of the Animal Crossing titles and is one of the franchise’s most popular characters. What many fans don’t realize however is that his full name is actually Totakeke Slider. This is a contraction of ‘Totaka K’, and refers to the video game composer and voice actor Kazumi Totaka.
Totaka has been collaborating with Nintendo for nearly three decades and has worked on some of the company’s biggest hits. He’s worked on all of the Animal Crossing games in some capacity and is responsible for composing some of the series’ best tunes. Given K.K.’s aptitude for music, it seems probable that it’s more than just Totaka’s name that inspired the character.
9 Professor Elvin Gadd (Yoshiyuki Oyama)
E. Gadd has been popping up around the Mario universe since Luigi’s Mansion back in 2001. He’s best known for coming up with wacky inventions like the Poltergust 3000 and F.L.U.D.D., but when coming up with his name, Nintendo found their inspiration through one of the character’s own designers.
E. Gadd’s name in Japanese Mario titles is Oya Mā-hakase. ‘Hakase’ means doctor or professor while ‘Oya Mā’ loosely translates to ‘Oh my gosh!’ It’s a Japanese expression that is used to show surprise. The localization team then selected an English language equivalent (‘egad’) and Professor Elvin Gadd was born.
8 Peppy Hare (Katsuya Eguchi)
Katsuya Eguchi has been working at Nintendo since 1986 and directed the first Star Fox game. According to the game’s character designer Takaya Imamura, Eguchi was also the inspiration for one of the game’s core cast.
Peppy Hare is probably best known for his oft quoted phrase, “Do a barrel roll,” but he’s also the longest serving member on the Star Fox team. As well as Eguchi, Peppy shares similarities with the Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Fox,” is lifted straight out of the original trilogy.
7 Pauline (Polly James)
Many fans will know Pauline from Super Mario: Odyssey, but her origins can be traced back to Mario’s very first outing. Back then however, she was known only as ‘The Lady.’ While Nintendo of Japan were content with this name, Nintendo of America wanted to give the character her own identity. To do this, she needed a real name.
The name Pauline came from the wife of Don James, who at the time was the Warehouse Manager for Nintendo of America. Although Japanese releases continued to refer to the character as ‘The Lady’ for some time longer, the character was eventually redesigned and renamed for the 1994 release of Donkey Kong on Game Boy. Since then, she has been known as Pauline worldwide.
6 Slippy Toad (Yoichi Yamada)
Slippy Toad is one of Fox’s oldest friends. He’s also one of the most annoying characters in all of gaming. That perhaps doesn’t give the best impression of Yoichi Yamada, who served as the main inspiration for Slippy’s personality.
Yamada was the assistant director of the original Star Fox game, although is perhaps better known for his work on the Zelda series. Interestingly, the name ‘Slippy’ was chosen to reflect the character’s clumsy nature, which may be one of the traits he inherited from Yamada.
5 Kirby (John Kirby)
After Universal hit Nintendo with a multi-million dollar lawsuit due to perceived similarities between Donkey Kong and Universal’s King Kong, Nintendo needed an ace attorney of their own. The man who was hired to represent the Japanese giant was seasoned attorney John Kirby.
Kirby was able to highlight key differences between the characters and also provided evidence that brought Universal’s ownership of the rights to the King Kong character into question. After a seven day trial, the judge ruled Nintendo’s favor. As well as his fees, John Kirby was rewarded with his name being immortalized by Masahiro Sakurai’s pink puffball.
4 Falco Lombardi (Tsuyoshi Watanabe & Carlo Rambaldi)
The inspiration for Falco actually came from two different people. As with other members of the Star Fox team, his personality is based on one of the game’s core design team. Tsuyoshi Watanabe worked as the game’s shape designer and it’s his character traits that helped to shape Falco. The name ‘Lombardi,’ however, has very different origins.
Although lead programmer Dylan Cuthbert was largely responsible for coming up with the surnames of the Star Fox team, Falco’s surname was suggested by scenario designer Takaya Imamura. Imamura was a big fan of the Academy Award winning special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi. The name was altered slightly during localization, but Falco’s Japanese name remains Falco Rambaldi to this day.
3 Princess Zelda (Zelda Fitzgerald)
Link may serve as the series’ main protagonist, but it’s Princess Zelda whose name is on the box. Her name was chosen by Miyamoto himself, who took inspiration from the wife of acclaimed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Miyamoto really liked the sound of her name and so decided to use it not only for the character, but also the game itself.
Interestingly, the late actor Robin Williams was a huge fan of the Zelda series and gave the name to his daughter, Zelda Rae Williams. He also appeared in several commercials for the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time back in 2011.
2 Fox McCloud (Shigeru Miyamoto)
Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for creating some of the biggest franchises in gaming. As well as series like Mario and Zelda, Miyamoto created Star Fox and would serve as the inspiration for the series’ main protagonist Fox McCloud.
The idea to use a Fox as the main protagonist came to Miyamoto while visiting Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine. The shrine’s guardian is a flying fox, which Miyamoto felt would be a great fit for his upcoming game. The team would then go on to use Miyamoto’s personality as inspiration when designing and fleshing out the character.
1 Mario (Mario Segale)
Mario is one of the most recognizable fictional characters ever created and has appeared in over 150 video games. He wasn’t always called Mario though. He first appeared in the 1981 arcade classic Donkey Kong where he was known only as ‘Jumpman’ in the West. In Japan, Miyamoto had dubbed his creation ‘Mr. Video.’ Thankfully, fate stepped in to provide a better alternative.
Following issues with rent payment for Nintendo of America’s warehouse, a heated argument broke out between former NoA president Minoru Arakawa and the building’s landlord Mario Segale. Although Nintendo ultimately gave Segale his rent, they ended up taking his name. With that, Mario was born and through him, Segale will live on for years to come.
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