Miitomo’s Lead Developer Was Metroid’s Yoshio Sakamoto

The lead developer on the recent instant-hit Miitomo app was none other than Yoshio Sakamoto, co-creator of Metroid. This information was revealed in a new episode of the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

In the same episode, Nintendo chose not to answer questions about Miitomo’s development, such as how long it has been in development and how many developers were involved in making it. The famously secretive company also declined to share more information on their other four mobile games. However, they did discuss that Sakamoto was also head for a similar game, Tomodachi Life on the Nintendo 3DS. In both Tomodachi Life and Miitomo, you can create Mii versions of yourself, customize your Miis, and then have them interact with other Miis made by other players. Miitomo is  a smaller experience, lacking the rooms that you can also customize in Tomodachi Life.

Yoshio Sakamoto is one of Nintendo’s veteran developers, having worked for the company since 1982. He had a hand in many of Nintendo’s classic games, including Kid Icarus, Balloon Fight, X, Warioland 4, and Rhythm Heaven. He is most closely connected to the WarioWare, Metroid, and Tomodachi franchises. He created many of the characters in the Metroid universe himself, and directed and wrote Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Metroid: Other M.

While Sakamoto has seen instant success with Miitomo, the most downloaded social app on Japan’s iOS at launch, this comes when his other key franchises are not doing as well. The most recent Metroid game, Metroid Prime Federation Force, was panned by the public upon reveal, and the last WarioWare game, Game and Wario, is the most poorly critically received game in the series.

Perhaps the shift to mobile was a welcome break for veteran Nintendo developers like Sakamoto, but would you like him to jump back into a new Metroid or WarioWare game next? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.