Takashi Tezuka (Creator)

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The Luigi to Miyamoto's Mario at Nintendo.

When you think of video games developed by Nintendo, certain famous figures from the company might come into mind. Shigeru Miyamoto is the father of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, and his association with these franchises have endured over the decades even after he entrusted the directional and producing roles to Yoshiaki Koizumi and Eiji Aonuma respectively, with these in turn Passing the Torch of game direction to Kenta Motokura and Hidemaro Fujibayashi (again respectively). The Mario subseries Mario Kart came from the mind of Hideki Konno (who also worked on the level design of later Super Mario platformers, namely 2, 3 and World). And Paper Mario was conceived by the folks at Intelligent Systems, with the guidance of long-term Nintendo developer Kensuke Tanabe. Miyamoto, besides supervising those games, also conceived the Luigi's Mansion (Series) as well as Pikmin, so understandably those series also have an association with him.

But all those franchises and sub-series, plus others without much participation from Miyamoto like Animal Crossing and ARMS, have another thing in common, though it has gone unnoticed by many video game players (even many Nintendo fans): Much of what came to be regarding them had the input (including contributions to the primeval aspects of their creation) of another important developer. Someone who has Miyamoto's highest level of trust and regards, and with whom he aimed to train and guide the younger generations of developers hired by Nintendo.

Enter Takashi Tezuka.

Born in November 17th, 1960, Tezuka graduated from the Design Department of the Osaka University of Arts, and was hired by Nintendo in April 1984 to serve as co-director and producer of the then-upcoming major projects. Interestingly, the first such game was neither Super Mario nor Zelda (they wouldn't be ready until the next couple of years anyway): It was Devil World, with featured gameplay elements inspired by Pac-Man (one of Miyamoto's favorites); both developers wished to localize the game overseas but Nintendo of America had a strict content policy that banned religious references in video games, including those from second- and third-party games, though the game was released a few years later to Europe (the game wouldn't see a North American release until Halloween 2023, 39 years later, and for the longest time it was the only game by Tezuka and Miyamoto to present this anomaly).

Since then, Tezuka and Miyamoto would cooperate for the development of renowned video games that kickstarted the Zelda and Mario (side-scroller) franchises. In particular, he wrote the story and lore of The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, owing his inspiration to The Lord of the Rings. He was also the primary director of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, a role entrusted from Miyamoto who was busy with other projects and also needed time for his duties as a father. Tezuka would also serve as the director of Super Mario Bros. 3 (he originally suggested the usage of an isometric view for the levels, but this idea proved to be too difficult to execute on the NES), Super Mario World (for which he helped with the conception of the iconic sidekick Yoshi) and the Compilation Re-release Super Mario All-Stars (for which the graphics and sound of all four NES Mario games were revamped to exploit the capabilities of the SNES, while also adding quality-of-life features like a save system, the option to exit the current game anytime, and for Super Mario Bros. 2 the option to change the currect character after losing a life). As for Zelda, he was also promoted to director for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (for both games, he entrusted the story and lore writing to then-recently hired Yoshiaki Koizumi). His final contribution to the library of SNES games was Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which featured a unique artstyle based on crayon drawing (an idea from Miyamoto to contrast the increasingly realistic graphics that were being released at the time) and was also the formal start of the Yoshi's Island subseries.^note

From the Nintendo 64 onwards, Tezuka participated in the making of numerous video games, in capacities ranging from supervisor to director depending on the case. With the advent of new blood for the development teams, particularly for Mario and Zelda, Tezuka's overall role can be retroactively seen as more of an overseer of the projects, not unlike Miyamoto's. However, for nascent series like Pikmin and Animal Crossing, he still played a robust role as a producer for their installments. In an interview, he expressed his desire to satisfy both casual and hardcore gamers, even feeling that there shouldn't be an imposed gap between both groups; this vision, he says, is one of the reasons why he loves making games so much. Also, whereas Miyamoto gained a (sometimes exaggerated) reputation of upending the tea table with ideas and suggestions, Tezuka aimed to encourage his workmates to come up with ideas in order to make the games in development even better. Notably, for the development of Super Mario Bros. Wonder for Nintendo Switch, Tezuka actively asked the team to not restrain from suggesting any ideas, and prioritized Rule of Cool (the game was also developed without any deadline, making it so it would only be announced for release. once it was nearing completion).

Tezuka also served as the creative executive for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, making it his first non-gaming project at Nintendo.

Creator / Takashi Tezuka

Games directed, produced or supervised by Takashi Tezuka:

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Creator / Takashi Tezuka

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Games directed, produced or supervised by Takashi Tezuka:

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