Nintendo legend Takashi Tezuka is retiring from his leadership role at Nintendo after more than 40 years at the company, where he helped design some of the Japanese giant’s most beloved games.
Tezuka’s departure was announced in an official document outlining upcoming personnel changes at Nintendo as part of the company’s quarterly earnings release. Now serving as the company’s Executive Officer, Tezuka joined Nintendo in 1984, when he was initially brought in part-time to aid with the development of Punch-Out!!. Tezuka was famously not a big gaming enthusiast at the time, to the extent that he apparently hadn’t even come across Pac-Man when he started at the Kyoto company.
But it didn’t take long for the Osaka-born designer to learn his way around a controller, as before long he was assisting Shigeru Miyamoto on the development of Super Mario Bros. for the NES, in what would become an enduring creative partnership. He later helped Miyamoto design the original The Legend of Zelda, which he directed and wrote for.
Tezuka’s early career also saw him direct Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Yoshi’s Island. He was also an assistant director on Super Mario 64 and supervised development of the early 3D Zelda entries on the N64.
Tezuka has worked on countless Nintendo games in his four decades at the company, and joined the board of directors in 2018. His most recent credits include Super Mario Wonder and its 2026 DLC Meetup in Bellabel Park, Princess Peach: Showtime! and Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
It’s not clear if Tezuka will have any kind of role at Nintendo going forward, but he’s just one of a number of the company’s old guard that it is presumably preparing for a future without. At 65, Tezuka is actually eight years younger than Miyamoto, who’s still very involved in Nintendo and its increasing number of extra-curricular ventures. But the Mario creator will obviously depart eventually, while the likes of composer Koji Kondo and Eiji Aonuma, who heads up the Zelda series, are also approaching their mid-60s, typically the ballpark retirement age for executives at Nintendo.
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