The D-Pad is Nintendo’s most famous innovation in gamepads. The existence of the cross arrow keys can be seen on almost every gamepad today. The history of this cross arrow key can be traced back to the handheld version of Donkey Kong by Shigeru Miyamoto, Junpei Yokoi, and the handheld version.

In order to enter the handheld market, Nintendo decided to launch a handheld version of Donkey Kong. When designing the hardware interaction, Nintendo encountered a problem: if it were to use a joystick handle device like a home console, the overall appearance would become awkward.

Nintendo's hardware designer Junhei Yokoi solved this problem with the cross key. This simple and efficient design was officially launched on G&W, the first generation of Nintendo’s handheld version of Donkey Kong, and then quickly became popular and almost became the standard for all handhelds.