Hiroji Kiyotake
Hiroji Kiyotake (清武 博二 Kiyotake Hiroji, born 1961) is a game designer for Nintendo, and also the original designer of Wario.[1] Kiyotake is one of the directors and graphic designers of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, making him to one of the key people for the introduction of the character Wario and the Wario series. He was also involved in the development of further Wario games as a designer; for Virtual Boy Wario Land, he acted as a director again. However, 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. For example, during the development of Wario: Master of Disguise, Kiyotake supervised the numerous forms of disguised Wario designed by SUZAK.[2]
Games
- Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins – Director, Graphic Designer
- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 – Director, Graphic Designer
- Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! – Graphic Designer
- Virtual Boy Wario Land – Director
- Wario Land II – Character Designer
- Wario Land 3 – Designer
- Wario Land 4 – Designer
- WarioWare series – Wario (Original) Design
- Wario World – Advisor
- Wario: Master of Disguise – Wario Supervisor
In the credits of many sports and party titles of the Mario series, he is mentioned as one of the character designers.
Trivia
- Hiroji Kiyotake's Mii in the credits of WarioWare: Smooth Moves is one of the few Miis wearing purple overalls, a yellow shirt, and green shoes like Wario. This is an obvious reference to the fact that Kiyotake is the original Wario designer.
- Kiyotake is also responsible for designing characters in the Metroid series, including Samus Aran.[3]
