DAY FOUR
18: Dan & Sam Houser
Funny that the ONLY picture I could find of Dan and/or Sam Houser was in the art style of their acclaimed series. The Houser Bros. finished off this time with eighteen points, collected between six votes. The Houser Bros. founded Rockstar Games in 1998. They worked to help create the Grand Theft Auto series, and were particularly influential in the creation of Grand Theft Auto III, transforming the series into one of the best-selling series ever and and forever changing sandbox-style gameplay. Today, the series has sold more than 80 million units, placing it as the seventh best-selling game series of all time. The Bros. themselves have directly worked on nearly every Grand Theft Auto title in some way, as well as some work on a few other titles. Indirectly, through having created Rockstar Games, they've has influence over dozens more games and series, including Manhunt, Midnight Club, Bully, Max Payne, and more. Today they're working on the GTAIV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony.
17: Koji Kondo
Koji Kondo. Inarguably the most influential videogame composer of all time. Mr. Kondo finished off with 19 points, amassed through seven total votes. Koji began working for Nintendo as a composer in 1984, composing the music for Duck Hunt, Golf, Famicom BASIC, and Devil World all in his first year there. In 1985, he made his breakthrough legendary composition with Super Mario Bros - the title that singlehandedly makes his music more well-known than any other videogame composer ever. The first three notes alone of the Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 theme song are enough for nearly any youth in America to tell precisely what song you're talking about. Kondo continued after Super Mario Bros. to go directly into working on the Legend of Zelda music - his second most legendary work (no pun intended :p). He has since composed music for every main-series Mario and Zelda title, as well as the wonderfully relaxing music of Pilotwings, the thrilling music of Star Fox, and much of the music for the Super Smash Bros series. His videogame compositional mastery is only rivalled by Nobuo Uematsu, but for the sheer superiority of the various Nintendo franchises' sales, Kondo is today vastly more well-known. Currently, it hasn't been officially announced what he is working on, but we can assuredly know that we will be hearing his work many more times within the next year or so, as New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the unnamed Zelda Wii all are expected to release within these time slots. Click the picture of Kondo for a treat, by the way.
16: Masahiro Sakurai
The legend behind Sora, Ltd. comes in today with 26 points collected throughout a quick four votes. Sakurai is initially known as the legend behind the creation of Kirby, Nintendo's famed pink fluffball. Besides creating the character of Kirby, Sakurai also designed most of Kirby's original games, from Kirby's Dream Land on the GameBoy in 1992 to Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube in 2003. But Kirby isn't all that Sakurai is to thank for. Oh, no. He additionally is the designer behind all three Super Smash Bros. games, having brainstormed most of the concepts used in all three titles. Thanks to their being featured in the Smash Bros. series, many classic Nintendo franchises have seen tremendous new releases. Various characters that, for a rather long time, had never seen the light of day have since had their own game releases.. He also created the 2005 Tetris-esque puzzle game Meteos, considered one of the best games ever released on the DS and, personally, the best unique puzzle game I've seen released in years. Currently, Sakurai is working with Nintendo through Project Sora, a Nintendo first-party developer also partially owned by Sora Ltd. I've got another minor treat for you guys hidden in the image.
15: Yuji Naka
Naka-san comes in today at #15 with thirty points in seven votes. You probably don't know this guy, but you know his brainchild all too well. He's fast. He's blue. He's a hedgehog. He's Soooooniccc the Heeeedgehog. He can really move! He's got an attitude! He's the fastest thing aliiiiiiive! Anyways, Naka essentially is the man that transformed two other men's ideas into playable genius. One guy designed the Sonic character, another designed the Sonic levels, and Naka took those ideas and made them gold. This game changed gaming forever. It proved once and for all that Nintendo didn't have to reign the gaming scene - a concept further enhanced a few years later with the PlayStation - and it helped create the "cooler, more mature gamer" image with its advertisements that attacked Mario. Upon its formation later, Naka became the head of Sonic Team. Besides heading up creation of most Sonic games, Naka is also responsible for production of Nights into Dreams..., Burning Rangers, and Phantasy Star Online. Naka left SEGA later to form Prope, a SEGA-funded but ultimately independent studio that, as of yet, has released two titles for Wii and two titles for the iPhone. As usual now, check the image.
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