Nintendo veteran behind Mario, Zelda and Yoshi announces retirement
After spending 42 years at Nintendo, one of the company’s most influential game designers and directors, known for working on classic arcade games like Punch-Out!! and for creating Mario’s dinosaur best friend, Yoshi, Takashi Tezuka will retire from Nintendo on June 26, 2026. Tezuka joined Nintendo in 1984 and helped shape several key video game franchises during the company’s early, transformative years.
The news was revealed in a personnel update included in Nintendo’s earnings report on May 8, 2026. Many Nintendo fans and loyalists have dubbed Tezuka’s retirement the end of an era from Nintendo’s golden age of video game creation. Tezuka served as Shigeru Miyamoto’s right-hand man and quietly worked on numerous classics for the NES and SNES.
Tezuka initially created sprites for games like Punch-Out!! Later, he moved up the company ladder and took on assistant director roles on many of Nintendo’s foundational video game franchises.
He worked closely with Shigeru Miyamoto on the very first Super Mario Bros. game, as well as on The Legend of Zelda. Super Mario Bros. sold 40.2 million units on the NES, and The Legend of Zelda became one of the first NES titles to sell over a million units on the home console, topping out at 6.2 million units.
Later, he went on to direct Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and the true sequel to the original Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Tezuka is also credited as the co-creator of Yoshi and went on to direct Yoshi’s Island.
In 2015, Tezuka served as the producer of Super Mario Maker in the lead-up to the game’s release. He later worked on Super Mario Maker 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Pikmin 4.
Beyond the realm of video games, he played a key role as an executive director for both Super Mario Bros. movies, bringing Nintendo’s iconic Italian plumber to the big screen.
Miyamoto often received the spotlight and served as the public face of Nintendo’s creativity. Tezuka, on the other hand, was a consistent, loyal, and reliable collaborator who put in the hard work to turn wild ideas and concepts into polished products and games, helping define the childhoods of many gamers from the late ’80s, early ’90s, and 2000s.
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