Yoshio Sakamoto

Yoshio Sakamoto is a Japanese game designer who works for Nintendo. He is the co-creator of the Metroid series having worked as director, scenario designer, or script writer for many of the titles.

Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange". The company hired him in 1982 when he came out of art college. Recruited by Shigeru Miyamoto, his first position was as designer on the team behind Donkey Kong Jr.. He turned to the Nintendo Entertainment System afterwards, helping design Kid Icarus and directing Metroid, both 1986.

Following the original Metroid, Sakamoto has directed all Metroid games produced internally by Nintendo except Metroid II: Return of Samus. These are Super Metroid (1994), Metroid Fusion (2002), and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004). He also supervised the production of Retro Studios's Metroid Prime (2002) and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004).