The Road to Nintendo Fame Volume One
-Ever wonder who created Super Mario Sunshine? Well the programming staff comes from mostly a younger group of programmers. The lead programmer of the game goes by the name of Koichi Hayashida. Hayashida actually got his start at Nintendo while he was still attending school. Nintendo and advertizing partner Dentsu were promoting a game development seminar where young upstarts were given the opportunity to create software and then compete against each other. Hayashida came up with the concept of creating a hybrid RPG-fighter featuring mechs. Hayashida created the concept and handled lead programming with a supporting programmer named Kouichirou Eto. Hayashida ended up winning first prize at the Nintendo Dentsu Game Seminar , and his pet project became a full fledged game being tweaked in the EAD department. Hayashida's game Joy Mech Fight was released quietly (to rather low sales) in 1993. Unfortunately Nintendo never released the game outside of Japan. Since then Hayashida basically spent the majority of his time working on tools and libraries for the various Nintendo software and hardware groups. In the end, Hayashida's work paid off. Hayashida is not only a full fledged NCL employee but he's also finished his first major work for the company. What better honor can be bestowed than being allowed to program Miyamoto's treasure Mario franchise.
-EAD director Masamichi Abe most probably really enjoyed creating such a peaceful and relaxing game like Pikmin. Especially after having worked on polar opposite titles in his carreer. Abe is used to fast paced, edgy , uptempo, turn it up a notch software. Software like 1080 Snowboarding... and even software like Tekken 2. Truth be told Masamichi Abe was formerly a Namco employee who left the company shortly after finishing his director role on Tekken 2. Abe joined Nintendo, and was assigned to the EAD division where he directed his first game under Nintendo, 1080 Snowboarding. Abe most recently finished Pikmin for the Nintendo GameCube, and is most likely reprising his role as director for Pikmin 2.
-Satoru Iwata. The current president of Nintendo. The executive producer of all Nintendo Co. produced software. What exactly did he do before working for Nintendo?? Well he worked for Nintendo. Iwata entered the game industry as a software programmer and was employed to Nintendo for a short stint. Nintendo's classic Balloon Fight was one of the games Iwata helped program. Satoru Iwata ended up leaving Nintendo for greener pastures at HAL Laboratory. Oddly enough Nintendo and HAL would form a development partnership that reunited Iwata with Nintendo. Nintendo's partnership with HAL grew and eventually led to Nintendo buying into the company. Iwata's experience as a programmer, designer and businesman (Iwata ran HAL's top executive position) thrusted him into the lead candidate position of Nintendo's future president once Hiroshi Yamauchi retired.