Nintendo artist and character creator Takaya Imamura has now announcement his official retirement, hanging up his design tools and ending his 32-year career as a visual artist under the legendary Japanese company.
Established video gaming news and updates website IGN Southeast Asia has reported that Imamura has announced his retirement through a post on social media site Facebook, where his Facebook page post has now more than a hundred likes and reactions, as well as more than a hundred comments.
Most of the comments have expressed their mixed feelings about the announcement of the artist himself. Some are happy and glad that he will now retire and rest on being a full-time artist and creator for Nintendo, while some are also sad about hearing the news.
Imamura's post mentioned that he may not be coming anymore to the premises of the company, adding that he took a selfie "with an empty office." Yet the official translation of his post (originally being written in Japanese) also saw the lines that he will definitely miss working with the company.
Imamura's Character Creations
The career of Takaya Imamura has blossomed when he has worked on various character designs inclined with the "F-Zero" series of games which had its first release way back 1990, and the 1993 hit video game "Star Fox" that paved the way for other video games under the franchise itself as well.
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He was then the creator of some of Nintendo's most known and notable characters to date, such as the de facto mascot for the "F-Zero" series, Captain Falcon, who also made several appearances in various "Super Smash Bros." series of video games. Another iconic and sensational Nintendo character that Imamura has created was Fox McCloud, who is the gun-wielding fox hero who served as the main character of the "Star Fox" game franchise. The latter was created by Imamura along with another Nintendo director and legend Shigeru Miyamoto, as reported by geek and entertainment news website Kotaku.
Other Nintendo Creations by Imamura; Zelda's 'Tingle'
He also was responsible for directing two of the "Steel Driver" games, and as one of the supervisors for the last two installments of the "Super Smash Bros." games. But among his latest stints with the company, probably the most notable one would be his assignment as the art director for one of "The Legend of Zelda" series of games, particularly "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask." He was the one who conceptualized the actual name of the game, as well as the design of one of the most notable aspects of the game which was the eponymous mask.
Yet for his Zelda stint, mainly the most memorable thing he created for the game is the introduction of the character known as Tingle, who appeared on almost every game from the series ever since he debuted in the Imamura-related edition of the game. Kensuke Tanabe, one of Nintendo's most respected game designers and character creators has described that Tingle was created through a "very relaxed manner," yet its impact in the game franchise has really hit hard and acknowledged by the fans.
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