Last year, Time Magazine asked you to vote for the most influential people of the year. After all the votes were tallied and the dust settled, it was Korean pop star Rain that was named as the most influential person of the year, beating out countless other candidates like political satirist Stephen Colbert. That was for 2007.
The race to the top of the Time 100 for 2008 has drawn to its conclusion as well and it’s not Rain that is sitting at the top of heap. Instead, all the Nintendo fanboys (and fangirls) have a huge reason to celebrate, because Time Magazine’s most influential person of the year is none other than Nintendo head honcho Shigeru Miyamoto. Hurray for Shiggy!
Given the continued the popularity of the Nintendo Wii and hot titles like Mario Kart Wii, it is understandable that Nintendo’s top dog would be mentioned on Time’s list, but it’s great to see him on top. The motion-sensing game console has managed to get everyone playing, from grannies to soccer moms, young children to hardcore gamers. With the upcoming arrival of Wii Fit, we could lose a few pounds too.
What sucks is that is Stephen Colbert was defeated by Rain yet once again, despite his efforts to sing in Korean and do battle with Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien. He even had a book published this year! On a related note, it could be thanks to the Colbert bump that Mike Huckabee made the top ten, beating out the presidential hopefuls — Obama, Clinton, and McCain — that are still in the race.
Did the list turn out the way you expected? Did you vote Shiggy to the top?
I remember the days of Gyromite, when you had the spinning tops that you had to lift up and down so the sleeping professor could make it through the maze. They just don’t make games that good any more. Too worried about graphics and options instead of just allowing people to pick up the controller and have fun…
(Though I haven’t played Wii and I heard that system is fun… from non-gamers, so maybe they’re getting back to the formula that worked before.)
The Wii is awesome, but I’m definitely still bitter at how hard it’s been to find units to give as gifts. It’s been well over a year now, you’d think you could walk into a store and find them without trouble by now.
I used to despise George Clooney until I saw “O Brother Where art Thou.” Comedic genius.