Game Informer Chats With Nintendo World Championships 2015 Winner

Game Informer has published an engrossing interview with John Numbers, who you might know as the winner of the 2015 Nintendo World Championships. John Numbers, whose real name is John Goldberg, discusses the challenges he overcame taking on a number of games including Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8 and Metroid Prime: Federation Force’s Blast Ball mode. John also talks about meeting Shigeru Minamoto, which was a personal highlight for him. He says he was star struck meeting him. Be sure to read all the interview, here.

What was going through your head when you won?

At the end of the final level when I killed Bowser, I actually didn’t expect that to be the end of the level. I thought they were going to throw some bait and switch at me and make me do more levels, especially considering how many tricks there were in the first three levels. When I won, I was really excited. I’m a little introverted, so I don’t do a very good job of physically showing my emotions very well, but I was extremely excited, don’t worry about that. It just didn’t look like I was.

What was it like meeting Shigeru Miyamoto?

When I won, I was like “Oh boy a trophy,” and I was being snarky because I knew I was getting a trophy – they said so on twitter. But it wouldn’t be any fun without some surprises, so here’s a guest: Miyamoto. And oh my gosh, I was star struck when that happened. I was floating there and I shook his hand. I was overjoyed to meet the man. I shook his hand and basically said thank you for all of the games and experience you’ve provided for us over the years. I’ve had a good time gaming with Nintendo. And he said thank you. He more or less understood what I said.