Fact or Fiction: Nintendo

Question: Nintendo’s translated name means “Persevere and Win.”

Answer: No one, not even the great-grandson of the founder of Nintendo, knows the reasoning behind the company’s name. There is some speculation based on the direct translation of the kanji making up Nintendo’s name, which is “Leave Luck to Heaven,” but there is no proof that this is what the founder of the company intended. So for now, Nintendo just means Nintendo.

Question: Nintendo was founded in 19th-century Japan and started out by making playing cards.

Answer: Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyōto, Japan. The company started out by making hanafuda cards (playing cards that are smaller than Western playing cards and have drawings on the face instead of suits and numbers).

Question: In order to make a new character with limited system memory, Luigi is a combination of Mario and Yoshi.

Answer: Luigi is a combination of Mario (general body shape, with additional height to make him slightly different) and Koopa (the green-and-yellow color palette were used to make Luigi’s signature overalls and green cap).

Question: Nintendo became the yakuza’s number-one card manufacturer.

Answer: Nintendo wasn’t always the family-friendly gaming company that we know today. In the 17th century, traditional playing cards and other forms of gambling were banned in Japan. In the 18th century, hanafuda cards emerged and were not banned because they had no numbers on them, so the gangsters known as the yakuza created new gambling games with these cards. Nintendo, then a playing-card company, needed to make profits, so they started creating hanafuda cards. Consequently, Nintendo became the number-one supplier of game cards for the yakuza.

Question: Nintendo’s first protagonist was Mr. Game & Watch.

Answer: Nintendo’s first ever protagonist was Sheriff, the main character in the game of the same name. The game was released a year before Game & Watch and two years before the creation of Mario and Donkey Kong.

Question: Kirby’s original name was Tinkle Popo.

Answer: The loveable character’s name was set to be released as Tinkle Popo in Japan, but Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata ultimately changed it to Kirby when he realized Tinkle Popo wouldn’t sell in America.

Question: The original name for the Nintendo DS was Nintendo Traveller.

Answer: According to a patent filed by Nintendo of America, the official name may have originally been intended to be City Boy instead of DS, apparently in order to keep the Game Boy brand alive.

Question: Mario Kart is Nintendo’s best-selling game as of March 2021.

Answer: Surprisingly, Wii Sports is Nintendo’s best-selling game as of March 2021, outselling Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros., and Super Smash Bros. combined! It holds that distinction most likely because it comes with the Wii game system.