Today Is Nintendo Legend Yoshiaki Koizumi's 58th Birthday

🎉
Congrats!
Bring out the udon, KFC and strawberry shortcakes!

Happy birthday Koizumi-san! Your work and dedication towards some of my favorite games is much appreciated.

Amazing career! Here is to many more great years. 👍

Oh my gosh, I love those games! Especially Link's Awakening, that's one of my favorite Zelda games! Happy birthday, Koizumi-San!

Hooray for you, Koizumi-san! Happy birthday! 🎂 Thanks for all your hard work on some of my favorite games of all time. ❤️

Happy birthday.
When we will get new 3D Mario games with new standard like the movies version?

Happy Birthday legend! 🎉

I would love for him to take over Miyamoto's current role at some point. He studied Film, Drama and Animation at Osaka University as well as a little bit of storyboarding and if his work on Galaxy is anything to go by, then I think we'd be in good hands.

But he's current second-in-command to Shinya Takahashi leading all of EPD so I think it's probably likely he'll just step into that role. He certainly deserves it!

I always got the sense "weird" Zelda and characters like Tingle came directly from him. And when he took over as Producer for 3D Mario, suddenly the "brand-safe" era was over and they let Mario wear different skins, run around as a skeleton, etc.

It's funny... I've always wondered what he was famous for. He just seemed to pop up (to me) in the last several years. I would say now, yes, he has played a very important part to Nintendo. On that note, Happy Birthday Koizumi-san.

Happy birthday!

@Anti-Matter When I’m dead and buried. Then I’ll be ok with that👍

Happy Birthday, Koizumi-san!

I hope you get to celebrate like you're in Tostarena.

There's a lot of great games he's worked on over the years (and Super Mario Odyssey). Happy Birthday, Koizumi!

@Nintoz In a way he kind of already has. Dude is practically Miyamoto's protege at this point.

That video really hammers home that he’s still dreaming about directing a Zelda game.

Directed Galaxy and Odyssey, so he’s a king of bangers as far as I’m concerned. 🙌🙌🙌

Also…if he was responsible for making Super Mario Galaxy’s story with Rosalina and that god-tier ending, that makes him even more of a king and puts him in the league of legend instead. That small-minded coot Miyamoto could learn a thing or two from him!!! (That last bit was half sarcasm.) 🙌🙌🙌

@nintendohirethisman He didn't direct Mario Odyssey, he was the producer. The game was actually directed by Kenta Motokura.

• from your friendly neighborhood pedantic weirdo on the internet

@StewdaMegaManNerd
And I like the new standard of Mario movies.
DK Bananza is Donkey Kong going BEN 10.
I would like to see the game version of the Mario movies, I will buy them.

@N00BiSH Yeah I believe he is a supervisor on the movies but I'd love to see him get his hands dirty and maybe end up being a co-producer in the long term. I just think he'd be perfect for it!

Happy Birthday to Yoshiaki Koizumi!! So many great games he has worked on over the years.

@Dev-N I didn't know that but I am happy he did 'cause I was starting to think Nintendo had given up on making Donkey Kong games 'cause it had been so long since we had got a new one but I hope they continue and Diddy and Dixie are a bigger part of the next game 'cause my favourite Donkey Kong game has always been Donkey Kong Country 2.

Look at the man's pedigree!
It truly is something.

@N00BiSH lol I had just assumed he did with how many photos of him exist in the Mario Odyssey hat and how involved he was with its promotion. Thanks for the correction

Happy birthday!

@Anti-Matter Hopefully never.

Appy birthday
Here’s a 1UP

@Quarth
Well, hopefully it will happen.
Nothing wrong to see Mario games have voice acting, dramatic / extraordinary scenes, Peach kick some butts, Bowser has some artistic skills, Bowser Jr can be very dangerous with his dark brush, Mario & Luigi more intimate relationship, etc. That's make Mario games more alive, more humane.
My personal opinion, even Super Mario Odyssey the storyline was suck despite of the gameplay was better than older Mario games. Damsel in distress plot, silent characters, those are not interesting for me anymore.

@Anti-Matter maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think most people play 3d Mario’s for the storyline

@Anti-Matter Mario Odyssey had the most entertaining and engaging variation on the standard Mario fare and offered a lot of great smaller character moments in between, culminating in what is(imo) one of the best endings to a Mario game yet. If you think that needs to replaced with trite Hollywood cliches and poor mischaracterization, you either aren't paying attention or just don't really like these games and characters to begin with.

_{Which, tbf wouldn't be too far off consider who I'm talking to here...}

Only thing missing is the legendary moment of Koizumi in a couch in that Switch live presentation.

Happy Birthday Koizumi. You've been a great contributer and I miss you as a developer.

@AlanaHagues
"So, to say Koizumi is one of the most-influential people at Nintendo is an understatement. And to think, he played his very first video game at 21 years old: Super Mario Bros. 2."

According to this Iwata Asks interview the first Mario game Koizumi played was The lost levels (called SMB2 in Japan):

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Iwata-Asks/Super-Mario-Bros-25th-Anniversary/Vol-3-The-Developers-1-/2-First-Encounters-with-Super-Mario/2-First-Encounters-with-Super-Mario-222084.html

Iwata:
Koizumi-san, you were a high school student, weren’t you, when Super Mario came out?

Koizumi:
Yeah.

Iwata:
Did you play Super Mario?

Koizumi:
No, I knew about the Famicom and my friends were really into it, but I was more into movies and hardly had any opportunities to play the Famicom. In university, I had the chance to play The Lost Levels(21) on the Disk System, but it was too hard and I thought, “There’s no way I can do this...”
(21)Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels: An action game released for the Famicom Disk System in June 1986 in Japan.

Iwata:
Your first encounter with Mario was in The Lost Levels?

Koizumi:
Yeah. I jumped right into The Lost Levels.

Iwata:
That’s crazy! (laughs)

Everyone:
(laughs)

Koizumi:
When I heard how popular Super Mario was and tried it out, I thought, “But it’s so difficult!” (laughs)

Iwata:
Anyone who started with The Lost Levels would get that impression. I mean, it was made to be an advanced version of Super Mario.

Koizumi:
There was no way I could beat it, so I bought and played The Legend of Zelda (22) instead.
(22)The Legend of Zelda: An action-adventure game released simultaneously with the Famicom Disk System in February 1986 in Japan.

@Anti-Matter Gameplay > Story.
I don't care for the latter when it comes to Mario games.

@Quarth
I do care both gameplay and storyline.
That's my standard in judging the games.
Guess because I grew up by 3rd party games which have voice acting, my expectation bar have set really really high.

@Anti-Matter Agree to disagree.

The first Mario movie was pretty bad story wise IMO, and I bet the second one will not be an improvement from what I've heard. So I'd rather have almost no story in my Mario games instead of that.

@Quarth
In contrary, I thought both Mario movies (2023 and 2026) were great in my opinion.
8 from 10 for both of them.
I have watched Super Mario Galaxy movie for NINE times at my local cinema XXI and will try to watch again for TEN times before the digital release appear.
I'm already sold with ideas of Mario have voice acting, storyline, the plot twist, more intimate Mario & Luigi brotherhood relationship, Peach kick ass the bad guys, etc.
During watching the movies, I really really want a new 3D Mario games just like the movie version with powerful graphic level as PS5, voice acting and huge open world exploration. I will enjoy that new Mario game than the older Mario games.
Maybe because I didn't grow up by 1st party Nintendo games when I was teenager, I have different perception and expectation bar level that I got from 3rd party games I played.
If I compared Super Mario Odyssey with Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time or Rift Apart, Super Mario Odyssey storyline was suck, with typical boring damsel in distress plot yet at the end Princess Peach rejected both Bowser & Mario proposal.
The storyline from Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time was very touchy to see Ratchet lost his dad when he was young, the sacrifice of General Alister to save Ratchet, it made me have more compassion with Ratchet.
The other games like Sly Cooper 2 have very dramatic storyline which Bentley leg got crushed by Clockla giant beak and it caused permanent disability. That's the power of storyline that made me have compassion with the characters.
Meanwhile, I didn't even have any compassion with Mario from their current and older games because of lack of strong storyline and dramatic moments but I got the compassion from Mario movie version because I saw more dramatic storyline that made me like Mario more from movie version than game version.
I'm different.
That's why I don't have very strong engagement with 1st party Nintendo games because of my experience from 3rd party games that set my expectation bar really high.

@Anti-Matter Gotcha!
We want different things from the Mario games and that is fine. I prefer that the Mario games stay simple story wise and that all focus is put on interesting and fun gameplay, which they always have IMO. That's why I love the Mario games and return to them from time to time: the fun factor! Sometimes things don't need to be that deep (and the Mario movies are not very deep anyway, I just found the first one hysterical and annoying (will rate it 3/10) and I bet I will have a similar opinion of the second one).

If I want a deep and interesting story I usually read a good book or watch a good movie (which the Mario movie wasn't for me), with more mature and psychological themes. And for games, it's usually other genres that offer that, like visual novels, point and click adventures and RPG's.

Mario 64 is still my favorite game of all time. Why? Because it is so fun to explore the world Nintendo have created and tackle the platforming challenges. The graphics haven't aged that well, but the game still has style and character, the controls are still great (minus the camera) and the soundtrack just contains bangers. The story? Don't care at all. The magic is found in the gameplay and the exploration.

@Quarth
Well, the contrary things for me is I don't enjoy Mario games with no interesting storyline and weak character assignment.
I still sour with Mario Galaxy games with that stupid gimmick (lives back to 4 every time you load the game), the ridiculous and not fun stage design on some stages, the same damsel in distress again with no clear explanation. I'm already over that Nintendo antics.
Meanwhile, when came into Odyssey, I found a little bit improvement in gameplay that made the game easier to play by No Game Over penalty (Minus 10 coins every time Mario died) but the storyline was still suck with amateur storyline. I didn't really enjoy the game that much even I have finished the game long time ago because I didn't feel personality, make a sense storyline, it still damsel in distress again.
Ugh... I don't even like Mario 64.
That outdated graphic was killing me.
The gameplay also looked very gimmicky and hard to play.
I didn't even care with that game.

But when came into movie version, I really like them very MUCH because the movie version gave me the 3rd party games standard with basic voice acting, more vivid personality, more humane moments, no more damsel in distress storyline. I didn't ask for very deep storyline for Mario games just at least this 3rd party games standard.
It will amazing for having best of both world, Mario games with great storyline + voice acting + dramatic moments + fun gameplay.
I personally tired with Nintendo antic mindset which only care for gameplay but ignoring the power of storyline.
I grew up by 3rd party games from PS1 & PS2 when I was teen, really demanding those basic 3rd party standard for 3D games. I'm still looking for fun gameplay but I also expecting great storyline and great voice acting to make me get into the games.

If I compared between Mario with Ratchet & Clank and other 3D platformer games character, I still prefer Ratchet and other 3D platformer character because of their interesting looking, their personality are memorable for me. Their storyline also have some impression for me.
But when I look at Mario, I see plain boring character with no memorable storyline, no interesting moment except the movie version by ILLUMINATION that for the first time I see Mario as interesting character with his awkwardness and brotherhood with Luigi, something that I didn't see from game version.

@Anti-Matter As I said, agree to disagree. The first Mario movie was horrible IMO and I hope they keep that separated from the games.

If one wants better character representation/story from the Mario video game franchise, perhaps try the RPG Mario games, like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi. They are pretty entertaining from that standpoint. No Illumination hysteria with screaming characters and frantic pacing. The Mario movie made me dizzy.

@Quarth
But I'm different.
I still wish new 3D Mario games based on movies by ILLUMINATION.
I prefer this direction than older Mario games. That's my new standard.
If there is new 3D Mario games like ILLUMINATION movie version in the future, I will buy and play them DAY ONE.
I said again, DAY ONE.

I would love to see new Mario's outfits with futuristic style with world setting similar as Mario Galaxy but with more exploration like Ratchet & Clank. I'm already tired with his plumber outfits as default outfits, change a little bit with new outfits.
I would like to see No Damsel in distress plot again, make it something different, something dramatic like rescueing somebody then somebody sacrificed to save everyone, something more wholesome scenes, voice acting for new Mario games.
That's what I want for new Mario games.

@Anti-Matter You do you, bud.