Hiroji Kiyotake

Hiroji Kiyotake (清武 博二 Kiyotake Hiroji, born 1961) is a game designer for Nintendo. He is the original designer of Wario and the original designer of Samus Aran as shown in the Super Metroid credits. 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 one of the key people in 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. 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. He is well-known for having invented Wario, and he may have invented Waluigi as well.

Production History

• Metroid (video game) (1986) — Character designer
• Kid Icarus (1986) — Game designer
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991) — Director, graphic designer
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) — Director, graphic designer
• Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994) — Director, graphic designer
• Wario Blast (1994) — Graphic designer
• Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995) — Director
• Wario Land II (1998) — Character designer
• Wario Land 3 (2000) — Game designer
• Wario Land 4 (2001) — Game designer
• Wario World (2003) — Advisor