@beardalaxy I think people liked him because the previous president, Hiroshi Yamauchi was a complete asshole (at least from reports and interviews) and wasn't on board with Nintendo becoming a video games company. Iwata on the other hand had passion for video games and he was also familiar with game development (specifically game progamming), so he had both better connections with his employees and customers. It also helps that Iwata knew English, so there was a more direct connection to him and western audiences.

>game garage
I didn't know what this was. I was busy with finals and didn't have time to look at video game news, but at first glance it looks like you are limited to the generic robot models and what other models they provide you. It looks like you can make 2D textures though. I think we have to wait and see if this would be a viable game making tool. You might be limited to making simple arcade style games and not much more.

The way you program by connecting lines to objects reminds me of UML diagrams, but that's probably intentional as this appears to be an educational tool.