Hideo Kojima Admitted That Without 'Super Mario Bros' He Would Never Have Become a Game Developer

The creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding revealed which game pulled him into the industry — and it's definitely not what you'd expect to hear.

Hideo Kojima, whose games are famous for cinematography and complex plots, began his path in game development thanks to Super Mario Bros, which came out in 1985. In an interview with Wired Japan, Kojima recalled how as a student he skipped classes for a whole year for Mario.

What hooked the future auteur in a simple arcade? Despite primitive pixel graphics and a plot at the level of "save the princess from the monster," the game gave a feeling of real adventure.

Interestingly, now the maestro himself can no longer play Super Mario. After all, it's a side-scrolling action game where Mario just goes from left to right and mainly jumps.

Additionally, Kojima named directors who influenced his work: Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Akira Kurosawa. But John Carpenter, director of Halloween and The Thing, influenced him most of all. He didn't recognize genre boundaries, and that's what Kojima values most.

Earlier, we discussed the true message of Metal Gear Solid 2 and shared impressions of the "genius" on the third Avatar.