Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
As far as designers/directors/producers/programmers/etc. go, that's an easy choice for me: Gunpei Yokoi. He was effectively Miyamoto's mentor, invented the Game & Watch, D-pad, Game Boy, Virtual Boy, WonderSwan, and produced classic franchises like Metroid, Kid Icarus, Fire Emblem, Dr. Mario, Wario Land, etc. And his reward for all his accomplishments was being driven out of Nintendo, blamed for the Virtual Boy's failure, and then he tragically died in a traffic accident only about a year later. He was a creative genius as far as I'm concerned, and I can only imagine what else he could've created had he not be robbed from this world in only his mid 50s. Whenever I beat a game with his involvement and see his name scroll by in the credits, I always feel a bit melancholy.
Couldn't agree more. Yokoi-san was the unsung hero of Nintendo from the inception of the Game & Watch all the way up to his untimely death. His achievements and creations stretch far beyond merely "innovative" and go straight into "revolutionary". The work of his R&D1 team (game-wise) largely seem to make up the underdogs of the Nintendo canon; titles such as Kid Icarus or Wario Land seldom see an avalanche of entries every decade like other franchises, but maybe that's a good thing.