Kensuke Tanabe Retirement
Kensuke Tanabe announced that he is retiring in an interview today! He was a script writer who worked on A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, so let's talk a little bit about him and his career. LTTP team (via GlitterBerri):
Tanabe's first role at Nintendo was as a course designer for Yume Kōjō: Dokidoki Panic (1987), the game that was released on the NES as Super Mario Bros. 2.
He was the director for the US version -- an early sign of where his career would go!
He also did some Level Design for Super Mario Bros 3
His NEXT role was as a Script Writer for A Link to the Past.
After that was Link's Awakening. The Windfish's egg and his concept, and though he left the script of the main quest to Yoshiaki Koizumi, he himself wrote most of the odd side characters' dialog.
It SOUNDS like he may have been burnt out and struggling around that time, as he relates here, so his career took a new turn (after some more Kirby and Mario work)
And that… is how he ended up as an uncredited localization producer for Donkey Kong Country
Then came Ocarina of Time. He was credited as a Script Writer, though I have no real clues about what he actually contributed to that particular game.
That was the last, final time he ever touched a Zelda* game
*A main series one, at least…
After that his career as a Producer of external games really kicked in, and he was involved with MANY.
Metroid, Eternal Darkness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Geist, Chibi-Robo, Mario sports games, Mother 3, Red Steel, Dillon's Rolling Western, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Battalion Wars, more
He also worked on some internal games in various roles. WarioWare titles, Luigi's Mansion, the Paper Mario series, probably more I'm missing. Almost all of these roles were "Producer", but he occasionally dipped into "Special Advisor" and backup writer.
Here's where we get back to Zelda-- He often produced the games made by Vanpool. They made the Dillon games, but ALSO... the Tingle games! Yes, he produced Freshly-Picked Tingle' Rosy Rupeeland!
Including, sadly, an even WEIRDER-sounding Tingle game we never got.
That's all I got right now! His brief contributions to Zelda were nevertheless hugely impactful, and his almost 40-year career at Nintendo even moreso. I hope he really gets to enjoy whatever he does next!