Nintendo Designer Takashi Tezuka is Retiring - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 May 2026 / 3,506 Views
Nintendo announced veteran design and director Takashi Tezuka will be retiring from his role as an executive officer on June 26.
He directed several classic Nintendo titles that includes The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Yoshi’s Island. He was most recently the producer on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Tezuka is 65 years old, which is a typical retirement age. Earlier this year Hideki Konno, best known for Mario Kart, and Kensuke Tanabe, best known for Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Metroid Prime series, also retired from Nintendo.
Shigeru Miyamoto is 73 and is still active at Nintendo.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Sad to see him go. Producer of every Pikmin and recent 2D Mario (which includes Mario Maker), director of some of Nintendo's finest during the 1990s. What a legend!
It looks like Star Fox 64 or Ocarina of Time Remake will be the last project he is involved with (likely as a Superviser if I were to guess). Very high note to end on.
My era is rapidly ending.
For the better TBH. Looking at Nintendo during the Wii/Wii U years, back when it was almost entirely the “old guard,” versus now is really telling. Nintendo’s done a great job bringing up the youth to fill such big shoes.
You are right about them doing a good job regaining youth and the market, but my era is NES/SNES lol. Those guys are starting to fade out.
Salute to him on many jobs well done. Enjoy retirement.
Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Mario Wonder...
What a legendary run though
NES to Switch
What a career! We wish him a happy retirement.
One of the greats. Also, one of the very first game developer names many of us were ever aware of.
Shigeru Miyamoto is way overdue for a retirement....
he is pretty much retired at this point. Last game he directed IIRC was as far back as Mario Sunshine in 2002. Nowadays he’s just there to oversee Pikmin, DK, Mario, and the movies.
