Nintendo veteran Hideki Konno seemingly quietly left the corporate final 12 months, it has emerged.
As noticed by customers EAD Ninja and LeoSukaze on the Famiboards discussion board, and verified by VGC, Konno’s Fb web page famous that he left Nintendo again in July, with no announcement or assertion from both Konno or the corporate.
Konno, aged 60, was a veteran designer and producer at Nintendo who joined the corporate in 1986, the place he was assistant director on each Doki Doki Panic / Tremendous Mario Bros 2 and Tremendous Mario Bros 3, the place he additionally labored on degree design.
After working because the map director and a degree designer on Tremendous Mario World, Konno went on to direct a lot of much-loved Nintendo video games together with Yoshi’s Island, SimCity and Luigi’s Mansion.
It’s maybe his work on the Mario Kart collection the place he’s greatest identified, nonetheless. Konno directed the unique Tremendous Mario Kart and its sequel Mario Kart 64, and was producer on Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart Tour. He was credited with ‘Particular Thanks’ in Mario Kart World.
Whereas it seemingly got here first, the invention of Konno’s departure follows final week’s announcement that one other Nintendo veteran was leaving the corporate after almost 40 years of service.
Kensuke Tanabe – who, like Konno, additionally joined the corporate in 1986 and labored on Doki Doki Panic / Tremendous Mario Bros 2 and Tremendous Mario Bros 3 –advised Nintendo Dream journal that Metroid Prime 4 was his final sport at Nintendo, and that producer Risa Tabata would doubtless succeed him ought to one other Metroid Prime sport be made.
Tanabe moved right into a producer function within the ’90s, overseeing most of the externally developed titles Nintendo collaborated on, similar to Pokémon Snap, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, and Everlasting Darkness.
Within the trendy period, he’s greatest referred to as the long-time producer of the Metroid Prime and Paper Mario collection. In complete, Tanabe is credited in additional than 150 video games.
At 60 and 62 respectively, Konno and Tanabe are simply two of many distinguished Nintendo creators from the Famicom and Tremendous Famicom period at, or approaching, retirement age, together with Tremendous Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (72), Tremendous Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto (65), Mario designer Takashi Tezuka (64), composer Koji Kondo (63), Zelda boss Eiji Aonuma (62), and Tremendous Mario Kart designer Tadashi Sugiyama (66).
