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Nintendo
| Overview | Game Series | Game List | Discography | Composers |
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Date of Formation: | September 23, 1889 (as card company) |
| Location: | Kyoto | |
| President: | Satoru Iwata | |
| Head Composer: | Koji Kondo | |
| Productions: | Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem, F-Zero, Star Fox Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros., Pikmin |
Nintendo's origins are as a card company set up by Hiroshi Yamauchi. After some failed adventures in the mid 1900s, Nintendo became an Arcade game producer in 1978. With Radar Scope, Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros. in the early 1980s, they were saved from bankruptcy. Nintendo released the console Famicom, known in the West as Nintendo Entertainment System, in 1985 and achieved major success. The Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, DS, and Wii eventually followed, making Nintendo the most successful video game developer.
Koji Kondo's iconic main themes for Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda are what Nintendo's music is often remembered by. Another significant early composer was Hirokazu Tanaka of Metroid, Mother, and Tetris fame. Kondo is currently sound director of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development but has composed minimally since Majora's Mask. He oversees the work of Kazumi Totaka, Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Shinobu Tanaka, Asuka Ota, and Mahito Yokota on the Super Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Pikmin, Yoshi, and Animal Crossing titles.
Nintendo EAD only represents the central developer for Nintendo. There are also large team at Fire Emblem's Intelligent Systems, Metroid's Retro Studios, Kirby's HAL Laboratory, Pokémon's Game Freak, Western developer Nintendo Software Technology, and former developer Rare. Nintendo is notorious for releasing few complete soundtracks in favour of promotional albums or no releases at all, though their titles are usually popular with game rippers.
