Lowry also recalled the directive from Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi: “Our games will always be playable by all ages. There won’t be violence. There won’t be shooting and killing.”
Still, mistakes happened. Lowry bluntly admitted, “In our first year, the worst game we released was Donkey Kong Jr. Math; it was the worst game we ever sold. I think that was one game that slipped through.” Rather than the arcade’s platform-based chase to reach Donkey Kong, Jr. Math replaced action with simple arithmetic: players climbed vines and answered math problems presented by Donkey Kong. Nintendo had hoped the conversion would serve educational purposes, but consumers largely rejected it—Lowry says they couldn’t give the cartridges away.
Pokemon Legends Z-A features music from a longtime fan who’s uploaded covers to YouTube for more than a decade, earning recognition from fellow musician and Undertale composer Toby Fox.
