Wario Land creator Hirofumi Matsuoka has officially resigned from Nintendo Co., Ltd. Matsuoka was one of the original Nintendo R&D1 designers responsible for such classic games like Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Balloon Fight. Matsuoka's first major involvement came with the design of the Super Mario Land series for the Game Boy. The Super Mario Land series evolved into Matsuoka's most famous creation, Wario Land. Not only is Wario Land renown for being an excellent platformer, but it created Nintendo's most famous anti-hero who goes by the name of Wario.Hirofumi Matsuoka also served as director on classics like Super Mario Paint, Mario Artist: Paint Studio, Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, and Wario Ware Inc: Mega Microgame$.
Hirofumi Matsuoka has joined the development staff of Creatures Inc. Matsuoka is reunited with former R&D1 colleague Hirokazu Tanaka, who is currently the head of the company. Creatures is a studio connected directly with Nintendo Co., Ltd and The Pokemon Company. They are intimately involved in the production of artwork for The Pokemon animation series as well as the development of game software. Matsuoka will still be making games for Nintendo; he just won't be developing the games within Nintendo. Does this mean Matsuoka will be working on the next game in the Pokemon series or instead a brand new Creatures-developed title...?