Shigeru Miyamoto
      Though this humble Japanese game designer is relatively unknown in the United States, he is a star of immense popularity in Japan. As Nintendo's lead designer, he has been responsible for the birth of such characters as Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, and Metroid. Miyamoto started designing games at Nintendo in 1981 when he created Donkey Kong, a game that was unique for its platform-style gameplay and human protagonist. Every platform game created since then, on the PC or consoles, owes some credit to the influence of Miyamoto's first game.

After this revolutionary arcade game, Miyamoto designed his next most famous game, Super Mario Bros., for the 8-bit Nintendo console system. After that, he went on to create the legendary Zelda RPG series and the Metroid sci-fi shooter series. All three franchises heavily influenced many PC game designers, especially action game designers like John Romero and Tom Hall.

Even now, Miyamoto is churning out influential games like the revolutionary Super Mario 64 and Star Fox 64.

At number 7...