Nintendo Legend Takashi Tezuka Retires After 40 Years Shaping Mario, Zelda, and Yoshi

In a PDF on Personnel Changes quietly attached to Nintendo's latest fiscal report, the retirement of one of its most prestigious directors, Takashi Tezuka, was announced. Takashi Tezuka is best known for his involvement in the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Yoshi, and Pikmin series at Nintendo. He was assistant director on the original Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, then went on to direct Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, as well as A Link To The Past and Link's Awakening. His last design credits were Yoshi's Island and Super Mario 64, but since then he's remained involved as a producer or supervisor for major Nintendo releases, including the Mario Maker games and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Outside of game design and development, Tezuka also collaborated with Illumination for The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, considered a core Nintendo creative for both of those projects.


To say the least, Nintendo is losing one of its greatest talents once Tezuka formally leaves the company on June 26th. Tezuka has been putting in time for Nintendo since 1984's Devil World (a Famicom-exclusive title best known as an Assist Trophy in Smash Bros.) Along with Shigeru Miyamoto himself and composer Koji Kondo, Takashi Tezuka has been a core creative behind many of Nintendo's greatest games. Even directing just one of these games, like Super Mario World or The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, would have earned him a position among all-time greats in the gaming industry. Fortunately for Nintendo fans everywhere, Tezuka didn't stop there, and put in over four decades of work at the company.

It's bittersweet news, but we wish Tezuka luck in his retirement after so long in the industry. And considering the fact that Tezuka spent the latter half of his career training and guiding the next generation of developers at Nintendo, we're sure fans of those respective series still have plenty to look forward to. I consider Super Mario World to be a genuine contender for the best 2D platformer of all time—and to this day, it remains my favorite of the 2D Mario games.