The director of games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and A Link to the Past is retiring from Nintendo

For over a year now, there has been a steady stream of true industry pioneers - who helped define Nintendo - leaving the company, mostly to retire. Some examples include Kensuke Tanabe, Hideki Konno, and Goro Abe, and today we have the sad duty of adding yet another name to the list.

This time, it's Takashi Tezuka. He helped create the very first Super Mario Bros. alongside Shigeru Miyamoto back in 1985, and he served as game director on legendary titles such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as well as producer for Animal Crossing. He also co-created Yoshi and has since played key roles in countless Nintendo classics, including serving as supervisor on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and producer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. We were lucky enough to interview him at Gamereactor during Gamescom 2023, and you can watch the interview below.

Next month will be his last at Nintendo, and it will certainly be no small task for the company to fill his shoes, as it announces that Takuya Yoshimura, Katsuhiro Umeyama, and Keiko Akashi are also retiring. It is thus clear that the old guard that created and defined Nintendo's gaming ventures (before they started with video games, they mainly made toys and board games) is rapidly on its way out.

Fortunately, there are many signs that Nintendo has prepared itself and has a lot of talented younger people ready to take over, but regardless, an era is coming to an end.