Goro Abe
Goro Abe (阿部 悟郎 Abe Gorō, born 1975) is a Japanese video game designer and programmer working for Nintendo since 1999. He is one of the key developers of the WarioWare series since the first title of the franchise and directed many of the games.
Life and Work
Goro Abe was born in 1975 in Toda in the Saitama Prefecture of Japan. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Health Sciences and Nursing at the University of Tokyo. Abe joined Nintendo in 1999 and worked as one of the programmers of the game Wario Land 4 which was released in 2001.[1][2]
He took part in the development of all WarioWare titles, starting with the first game WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania released in 2003. While he worked as one of the designers and programmers of the original WarioWare, Inc., the game's multiplayer remake WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! directed by him was Goro Abe's first experience being at the head of the team.[3] Afterwards, he also directed the next titles of the franchise, WarioWare: Twisted! and WarioWare: Touched!, being the chief director of the former game while Ryuichi Nakada took this role for Touched![4][5]
Abe worked as the chief director of WarioWare: Smooth Moves, too. At the moment the Wii Remote was revealed to him, Abe got the idea to create a WarioWare game for the Wii.[6] Goro Abe was involved in everything from the initial experiments using the Wii and the Wii Remote to pulling everything together into the finished product. He decided which ideas from the staff were best for the game.[3]
Masahiro Sakurai contacted Goro Abe during the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl because of Wario's appearance in this game, asking Abe to review the Wario character design for Brawl.[6]
In the development of the sixth WarioWare title, WarioWare: Snapped!, Abe took the role of the supervisor.[7] He was also involved in the making of the most recent games WarioWare: Myself and Asobu Made in Ore.[8]
References
- ^ Goro Abe Biography at IGN
- ^ Wario Land 4 Staff Credits at MobyGames
- ^ a b Iwata Asks: Wii, Volume 1 - WarioWare: Smooth Moves (page 1) at Nintendo of Europe's Wii Portal
- ^ WarioWare: Twisted! Staff Credits at MobyGames
- ^ WarioWare: Touched! Staff Credits at MobyGames
- ^ a b WarioWare: Smooth Moves E3 Interview at Nintendo World Report
- ^ WarioWare: Snapped! Staff Credits
- ^ Iwata Asks: Nintendo DSi, Volume 1 - WarioWare: Snapped! (page 1) at NintendoDSi.com
