You’ve written before that most, if not all of Nintendo’s greatest games were inspired by western storytelling like Alice in Wonderland (Super Mario Bros.), The Lord of the Rings and Ultima (Legend of Zelda), and Alien (Metroid). Now, oddly enough, you can add Batman to the list:
Interviewer: What made you decide on creating F-Zero in the first place?
Isshin Shimizu, Director: It all started with Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race. It was a top-down racing game, and I made a part 2 for it, so I went to America and had the staff at Nintendo of America check it out. Then they completely criticized it…
Interviewer: So the game you put such effort into wasn’t well-received.
Shimizu: They said “This isn’t a racing game. Racing cars are cooler than that.” To make matters worse, they even said “It’ll never sell,” and that really ticked me off.
Interviewer: And that’s what lit your fighting spirit? [laughs]
Shimizu: Yes [laughs]. I thought to myself “If you’re going to go there, then how about I just make something cool then.” During my visit to the United States, it just happened to be the time that the Batman film was all the rage.
Takaya Imamura, Designer: That was Batman (1989, featuring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker) directed by Tim Burton, right? That was around the year I entered the company.
Shimizu: So during my stay in America, I bought mountains of Batman comics and went back to Japan.
http://www.siliconera.com/2017/09/08/batman-criticism-nintendo-america-led-heated-creation-f-zero/
This is a great find.
I also think it should be highlighted about the designer’s response. People who have the personality that they want to win get ticked off when they lose. They go, “Now you’ve done it. I really want to win now!” Then they go and kick your butt. This is what he did. The criticism he got for his sequel pissed him off to go make F-Zero. This is why criticism exists.
Iron sharpens iron.