Nintendo Of America President Doug Bowser's Favorite Game Ever Is Not A Nintendo Title

Doug Bowser replaced the now-retired Reggie Fils-Aime as president of Nintendo America earlier this year, heading up the company at a time where the success of the Nintendo Switch has seen them go from strength to strength. Now, in an interview with his alumnus publication University of Utah Magazine, Bowser has opened up about what his favorite game of all time is. Bowser hasn't picked a Nintendo game--his choice isn't Ocarina of Time or Super Metroid, or any of the other games that are often cited.

Doug Bowser nominates the 1993 Macintosh hit Myst as his pick. "My favorite game of all time is Myst—a deep, immersive, problem-solving game with very little dialogue," he tells the magazine. "The graphics just amazed me. I finished the first three editions." However, he also can't get away without also nominating a recent Nintendo game as his favorite recent title. "My favorite game now is Super Mario Odyssey for Nintendo Switch. I’m very close to completing it and collecting all the Moons."

Myst eventually made its way to Nintendo systems, with releases on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, although these versions are not generally considered to be great ports--the 3DS version has an average score of 23 on Metacritic, while the DS release managed a 43. Myst is not available for the Switch.

Bowser also talks about his favorite movie and book. He cites The Sound of Music as his film of choice. "As a young child, I lived in Germany, and my parents would take the family to Switzerland and Austria for vacations. I loved the area. I guess that is one reason I came from New York to Utah for college." His favorite book is a very dry choice--The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, a book about the importance of maintaining your energy to increase productivity and well-being.

We gave Myst a 8.9/10 in our 1996 review of the game, and review Jeff Sengstack wrote that "the PC entertainment timeline is divided into two segments: before Myst and after Myst."