Many Nintendo fans were saddened when Reggie Fils-Aime retired as President of Nintendo of America, but remained welcoming when the aptly named Doug Bowser stepped in to take over. Bowser has been busy behind the scenes managing the orders of operations for games like Pokémon Sword and Shield, so he's still something of a mystery to fans.
Bowser decided to change that recently. He has taken time out of his busy schedule of convincing people that the 3DS is not dead for an interview with University of Utah's magazine, in which he revealed his favorite video games.
Being very much a loyal company man, Bowser said that his current favorite game is Super Mario Odyssey, the hit 3D platformer for the Nintendo Switch that introduced Cappy, a sentient hat that allows Mario to control other characters and objects. He must have just recently picked up the plumber's newest adventure, though, as he said he was just now getting close to collecting all the Moons and beating the game. He also liked to play Nintendo's nearly impossible to beat 80's classic Donkey Kong when he was still part of a student union. However, his favorite game of all time turned out not to be a Nintendo title after all.
It is in fact Myst, the graphic adventure puzzle game that became the best-selling PC game of it's time. The game has players travel to Myst Island, where they solve puzzles to travel to four other worlds and discover the backstory behind Myst's worlds and characters. Many PC gamers at the time were blown away by its state-of-the-art graphics, and Bowser was no exception, saying, "The graphics just amazed me. I finished the first three editions." He did not mention whether or not he enjoyed Myst's spiritual successor, Obduction, but it's probably a safe bet.
Apart from sharing his nostalgia for classic PC adventure games, Bowser talked about other favorites. His favorite film is The Sound of Music, the classic musical drama about a young woman in 1938 Austria who becomes governess to a retired naval officer's seven children while trying to survive the Nazi invasion. While that may sound like a surprising film choice for a video game developer, many film critics consider it one of the best American films ever made and one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. He also shared his favorite book, The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. This self-help book demonstrates how to manage energy and balance a healthy and happy life while enduring a high performance job, and may be the secret to Bowser's success.
Bowser admitted there were quite a few people who scoffed at his early video game obsessions when he was a student, with some people even asking, "Where will video games take you?" Well, they've taken him all the way to President of Nintendo of America, so that's pretty far.
Source: Nintendo Life