Called the "Steven Spielberg of video games" by Time magazine's David S. Jackson, Japanese artist and designer Shigeru Miyamoto is the originator of such gaming classics as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and Pikmin. "In a business where a one-hit wonder can be considered an unqualified success," wrote Zev Borow in Wired online, "Miyamoto has created not only a tall stack of videogame hits but a handful of global pop-culture franchises." In the 1980s and 1990s Miyamoto helped turn the gaming industry into a multi-billion dollar business, his "Mario" series alone earning more than $7 billion, twice the box office for the combined Star Wars movies. He also helped build the Japanese firm Nintendo from a small toy and novelty company into one of the major video game companies, along with Sony, Sega, and Microsoft. "And his success hasn't been merely financial," Borow continued. Miyamoto...