(born July 23, 1959) is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...

'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Research and Development 1 division, along with

Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of th ...

and Toru Osawa.

Career

Sakamoto is a key member in the development of the ''Metroid'' series. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he felt were inventive. The company hired him in 1982, when he graduated from art college. His first projects at Nintendo were the design of pixel art for the

Game & Watch The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 in video gam ...

handheld ''

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'', and the

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

Donkey Kong Jr. is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to ''Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to ...

'' He turned to the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

afterward, for which he designed the games '' Wrecking Crew'', ''

Balloon Fight is an action video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The original arcade version was released for the Nintendo VS. System internationally as ''Vs. Balloon Fight'', while its Nintendo Entertainment Syst ...

'' and '' Gumshoe''. Sakamoto also was the lead scenario writer and creator of Famicom Detective Club with its two entries, one of the most influential

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the 80s. Sakamoto created characters for ''

'' (under the alias 'Shikamoto'), and was a game designer on ''

Kid Icarus ''Kid Icarus'' is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and North America. It was released in Japan in December 1986, in Europe in Feb ...

''. He also directed ''

Super Metroid is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy ...

'', ''

Metroid Fusion is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2002. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous game in the series, ''Super Metroid'' (1994). Players contr ...

'', '' Metroid: Zero Mission'', '' Metroid: Other M'', and was the producer for '' Metroid: Samus Returns'' and ''

Metroid Dread ''Metroid Dread'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo and MercurySteam and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after the events of ''Metroid Fusion'' (2002), players control ...

''. Sakamoto's design work is also found in Nintendo games including ''

Balloon Kid ''Balloon Kid'' is a flying platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy on October 5, 1990, in North America and on January 31, 1991, in Europe. It is the sequel to ''Balloon Fight''. It was never released in Japan for th ...

'' (1990), '' Game & Watch Gallery'' (1997), ''

Wario Land 4 ''Wario Land 4'' is a 2001 platform game developed by Nintendo and released for the Game Boy Advance. Wario has to gather four treasures to unlock a pyramid and save Princess Shokora from the Golden Diva. Gameplay The gameplay of ''Wario Land ...

'' (2001), and ''

WarioWare is a video game series, a Spin-off (media), spin-off of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise. It comprises various video games created by Nintendo, starring the character Wario. The series began with ''Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3'', th ...

''.

Philosophy

Sakamoto has stated that he wants to live up to public expectations of Nintendo to deliver products similarly unique to those of his youth, describing ''WarioWare, Inc.'' as an example. Regarding his professional relationship with Nintendo producer

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

, he believes his mission is not to compete with but to "always come up with something very different from what Mr. Miyamoto is likely to do".

Works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Yosio 1959 births Japanese video game designers Japanese video game directors Living people Metroid Nintendo people Video game writers