Yoshio Sakamoto

Yoshio Sakamoto (Japanese: 坂本 賀勇) is a Nintendo senior officer and a manager of Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development. He was a former member of Nintendo Research & Development 1.

Yoshio Sakamoto has worked on a number of games, as director, producer, story writing/scenario and advisor but is perhaps best known for his work on the Metroid series.

History

Yoshio Sakamoto was born in Nara City in the Nara Prefecture of Japan in 1959. He was originally a graduate of the Osaka University of Arts Design Department and joined Nintendo in April 1982. He worked under Gunpei Yokoi in the Nintendo R&D1 department. He mainly worked as a graphic designer on Game & Watch games until the Famicom released where he contributed to titles such as Balloon Fight and Metroid. He was the director of the original Famicom Detective Club games, which laid some of the foundations to the visual novel genre in Japan.

Over the 90s, Sakamoto was one of the project leaders in Nintendo R&D1, responsible for a few Game Boy projects as well as Super Metroid. With Gunpei Yokoi leaving Nintendo and Satoru Okada shifting to a more hardware-focused role, Sakamoto was selected to supervise the software side of the department. He produced the Wario titles in the starting with Wario Land 4 and became the chief director of the Metroid series. When Nintendo Software Planning and Development was founded, Sakamoto became the manager for the Production Group No. 1 which absorbed most of the R&D1 staff. On top of the existing franchises, Sakamoto would produce both Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi Collection in this role.

In 2010s, Sakamoto was promoted to Senior Officer, leaving his group management to Katsuya Yamano. He still produced titles in his series such as Miitomo and Metroid: Samus Returns. He maintains this role in the Nintendo EPD structure.

Game Works

• Donkey Kong(Game & Watch) (1982) - Graphic Designer
• Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) - Graphic Designer
• Snoopy (1983) - Graphic Designer
• Mario's Bombs Away (1983) - Graphic Designer
• Donkey Kong Circus (1984) - Graphic Designer
• Balloon Fight (1985) - Graphic Designer
• Wrecking Crew (1985) - Graphic Designer
• Gumshoe (1986) - Director
• Metroid (1986) - Graphic Designer
• Kid Icarus (1986) - Graphic Designer
• Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School (1987) - Director
• Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha​ (1988) - Director, Scenario, Original Work
• Famicom Tantei Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo (1989) - Scenario, Original Work
• Balloon Kid (1990) - Director
• X (1992) - Director
• Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (1992) - Scenario
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) - Testing Player
• Super Metroid (1994) - Director
• Teleroboxer (1995) - Director
• Game & Watch Gallery (1997) - Adviser
• BS Tantei Club: Yuki ni Kieta Kako (1997) - Producer
• Game Boy Camera (1998) - Graphic Designer
• Famicom Tantei Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo (SFC) (1998) - Original Work, Scenario, Director, Original Staff
• Trade & Battle: Card Hero (2000) - Director, Game Design & Scriptwriter
• Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu (2000) - Producer
• Wario Land 4 (2001) - Supervisor
• Metroid Fusion (2002) - Chief Director, Scenario & Story
• Wario World (2003) - Advisor
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! (2003) - Supervisor
• Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) - Director
• WarioWare: Twisted! (2004) - Producer
• WarioWare: Touched! (2004) - Producer, Game Design
• Play-Yan (2005) - Producer
• Rhythm Tengoku (2006) - Producer, Game Design
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006) - Producer, Game Design
• Picross DS (2007) - Supervisor
• Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero (2007) - Producer
• Bird & Beans/Paper Airplane Chase (2008) - Producer
• WarioWare: D.I.Y. (2009) - Producer
• Tomodachi Collection (2009) - Producer
• Card Hero: Speed Battle Custom (2009) - Producer
• Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner/Nintendo DSi Metronome (2009) - Producer
• Metroid: Other M (2010) - Producer, Director & Story
• Rhythm Heaven Fever (2011) - General Producer
• Kiki Trick (2012) - Supervisor
• Game & Wario (2013) - Game Design, Producer
• Tomodachi Life (2013) - Producer
• Rhythm Heaven Megamix (2015) - General Producer
• Miitomo (2016) - Producer
• Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016) - Special Advisor
• Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) - Producer
• Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir (2021) - Original Game Design, Scenario, Supervision, Producer
• Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (2021) - Original Game Design, Scenario, Supervision, Producer
• Metroid Dread (2021) - Producer
• Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (2024) - Original Game Design, Scenario, Production, Producer

This article is a stub. You can help NintendoWiki by expanding it.