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Star Fox & F-Zero Designer Takaya Imamura Announces His Departure From Nintendo Today

After 32 years of working under the Nintendo banner for what looks to be an armada of first-party games, designer Takaya Imamura announces his departure from the firm. Most notably, Imamura worked on the memorable F-Zero series alongside a handful of installments for Star Fox as well. During his time at the Japanese firm, Imamura bounced from designer to even director as his roles varied based on the project.

Outside of the noted franchises, Imamura also posed as a Art Director for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. But, of course, Imamura is credited most for his character designs for who we now recognize to be Captain Falcon and Fox McCloud.

It was on Facebook that Imamura announced his leaving from Nintendo after three decades at the company; sharing his last day before leaving the firm for good.

Today is my last day coming to work.  I took a selfie with the empty office building. It feels pretty sad to think about not coming here anymore… Hats off to myself for 32 years of hard work!

Upon dissecting the comments from Imamura’s announcement on Facebook, the now former Nintendo designer replies that his future work resides through freelance opportunities. “I’m going to have freelance activities in the future, so I’d be honored if I could do something with you again,” he issues to Tomoo Yoda, Takara Tomy A.R.T.S hobby planning department general manager in a auto-translated statement.

Unfortunately, the announcement does come at an upsetting time as many fans sit hungry for new content to arrive to both the F-Zero and Star Fox brands. With F-Zero out of the picture for nearly two decades with F-Zero Climax, the only likely release leaves Star Fox in the picture. Only four years ago did Star Fox Zero release, however, no information regarding a new installment has broke the sound barrier since 2016.

In other Nintendo-related news to beloved series facing the axe, the same can be said for Chibi-Robo. While Nintendo did not officially comment on the conjecture, it is suggested to be a very likely possibility with developer Skip closing its doors back in August 2020. You can read the full report by heading here.

What is your favorite game that Imamura worked on?

Source: Gematsu

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