Takaya Imamura, the man who designed Tingle, is retired from Nintendo

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During his three decades at Nintendo, Takaya Imamura I’ve worked on some of the company’s most popular games, including F-zeroAnd the Fox starAnd and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. He also designed Tingle, for that, we’ll be forever grateful.

Today, on his own Facebook pageImamura uploaded a selfie taken outside Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto and wrote, “This is my last day at work. I took a selfie with the empty desk. I think I will not come here anymore. As you expect, I will miss it.” Imamura expressed his gratitude for the past 32 years.

[Note that he mentioned the company is empty because many Nintendo staffers are working from home due to the pandemic.]

Imamura first joined Nintendo in 1989 as a graphic designer, cutting his teeth F-zero. He went to work Fox star, Modeling characters after mates: Fox McCloud, for example, was based on Shigeru Miyamoto, and Tingle’s design. Imamura also worked as a supervisor of Smash Bros.

We thank Imamura for all the wonderful characters and games, and wish him an enjoyable retirement.