In his three decades with Nintendo, Takaya Imamura worked on some of the company’s most iconic games, including F-zero, Star Fox, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. He also designed Tingle, and we will be eternally grateful to you for that.
Today, on his Facebook page, Imamura uploaded a selfie taken outside Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto and wrote, “This is my last day of work. I took a selfie with the empty office. I don’t think I’m coming in here anymore. As you would expect, I will miss it. Imamura expressed its gratitude for the past 32 years.
[Note that he mentioned the company is empty because many Nintendo staffers are working from home due to the pandemic.]
Imamura first joined Nintendo in 1989 as a graphic designer, where he got his teeth on it F-zero. He continued to work Star Fox, modeling the characters after his colleagues: Fox McCloud, for example, was based on Shigeru Miyamoto and to design Tingle. Imamura also served as a supervisor Smash Bros.
We thank Imamura for all the great characters and games and wish him a happy retirement.