Hiroji Kiyotake

Japanese game designer

Hiroji Kiyotake 清武博二
Born	(1960-12-21) December 21, 1960 (age 63) Kagoshima Prefecture
Other names	Kehiroji
Occupation(s)	Game designer, developer
Years active	1983-present

Hiroji Kiyotake (清武博二 Kiyotake Hiroji, born December 21, 1960, in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan^[1]) is a game designer for Nintendo and has been a part of the history of Nintendo since 1983.^[2]

Education

Kiyotake graduated from Kyoto Seika University with a BA of Visual Design and was part of the rugby club.^[3]

Career

Kiyotake started his employment at Nintendo in 1983, working in the Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Product Engineering Departments, and is currently a member of the Planning and Development Department.

Game design

Metroid

Hiroji was a designer for Metroid, which was originally designed for the Famicom Disk System. Hiroji is the character designer of Samus Aran and named the Metroid character after Pelé, but he later found out that Pelé's full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, not Samus Arantes. Hiroji and Yoshio Sakamoto and the rest of the team decided at the end of Metroid to reveal that Samus was a female character, making Samus Aran one of the first female protagonists in a video game.^[4]

Wario series

Kiyotake is the original designer of Mario's rival Wario^[5]^[6] and one of the key people in the Wario series. Kiyotake and Takehiko Hosokawa were the directors and graphic designers of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.^[7] For Virtual Boy Wario Land, he acted as a director, and for Wario games released after Wario Land 4, his role is mostly limited to the Wario design and advising, according to the staff credits of the respective games. During the development of Wario: Master of Disguise, Kiyotake supervised the numerous forms of disguised Wario designed by SUZAK.^[8]

Games

Pinball (Game & Watch) (1983) - Graphic Designer
Bassmate Computer | Probe 2000 (1984) - Designer^[9]
Duck Hunt (1984) - Graphic Designer
Wrecking Crew (1984) - Graphic Designer
Metroid (1986) - Character Designer (as Kiyotake)
Kid Icarus (1986) - Assistant (as Kehiroji)
Famicom Wars (1988) - Design (as Kehiroji)
Tennis (Game Boy) (1989) - Graphic Designer
Dr. Mario (1990) - Director, Graphic Designer
Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991) - Director, Graphic Designer
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) - Director, Graphic Designer
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994) - Director, Graphic Designer
Super Metroid (1994) - Samus Original Design
Wario Blast (1994) — Graphic designer
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! (1994) - Graphic Designer
Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995) - Director
Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium (1997) - Technical Support
Wario Land II (1998) - Character Designer
Tetris DX (1998) - Director
Mario Party (1998) - Original Character
Super Smash Bros. (1999) - Original Game Staff (Samus Original Design)
Mario Golf (Nintendo 64) (1999) - Original Characters
Mario Golf (Game Boy Color) (1999) - Original Characters
Mario Party 2 (1999) - Original Characters
Wario Land 3 (2000) - Designer
Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64) (2000) - Original Characters
Kaijin Zona (2000) - Nintendo Staff
Mario Tennis (Game Boy Color) (2000) - Original Characters
Mario Party 3 (2000) - Original Character
Mobile Golf (2001) - Original Characters
Wario Land 4 (2001) - Designer
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) - Original Game Staff (Character Design: Samus)
Mario Party 4 (2002) - Original Characters
Metroid Fusion (2002) - Samus Original Design
Mario Party-e (2003) - Original Characters
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (2003) - Wario Original Design
Wario World (2003) - Advisor
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003) - Character Design
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! (2003) - Wario Design
Mario Party 5 (2003) - Character Design
Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) - Samus Design
Mario Golf: Advance Tour (2004) - Character Design
WarioWare: Twisted! (2004) - Wario Design
Mario Power Tennis (2004) - Character Design
Mario Party 6 (2004) - Character Design
WarioWare: Touched! (2004) - Wario Design
Mario Party Advance (2005) - Character Design
Mario Party 7 (2005) - Original Character Design
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006) - Wario Design
Wario: Master of Disguise (2007) - Wario Supervisor
Mario Party 8 (2007) - Original Character Design
Zekkyō Senshi Sakeburein (2007) - Supervisor
Mario Party DS (2007) - Original Character Design
WarioWare D.I.Y. (2009) - Wario Design
Metroid: Other M (2010) - Concept Art
Pushmo (2011) - Special Thanks

Interviews

Super Mario Land 2 - 1992 Developer Interview (Shmuplations)
Nintendo Dream: Famicom Disk System
Metroid Developer Interview - NES Classic Edition

References

^ Roschin, Oleg (22 June 2012). "Hiroji Kiyotake". Moby Games. Moby Games. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
^ "The Complete History Of Metroid". Now Gamer. 31 August 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
^ "Hiroji Kiyotake". kyoto-report.wikidot.com/hiroji-kiyotake. Kyoto Report. Archived from the original on 2020-08-18. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
^ "NES Classic - Metroid Developer Interview". Nintendo.com. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
^ Stuart, Keith. "Super Mario Bros: 25 Mario facts for the 25th anniversary | Games". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
^ Famicom Disk System: The More You Play It, the More You'll Want to Play [Disk 1], Nintendo Dream, Vol. 118. (Translation available at Metroid Database)
^ Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins official Shogakukan game guide (translation provided by "Shmuplations", accessed September 10, 2016)
^ "Yutaka Hirata on Wario: Master of Disguise - Interview". SPOnG.
^ Voskuil, Erik. "How the Bassmate Computer came to be". blog.beforemario.com/. Retrieved 15 March 2021.