Nintendo scores Sonic co-creator, Hirokazu Yasuhara

Nintendo's newest high-profile staff acquisition is the game director of the early Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Hirokazu Yasuhara has been around the industry since 1988, and will be serving Nintendo from its Redmond base in Washington, USA.

His experience extends far beyond those early days where he was a level designer for the early Sonic games. In 2000 he was with 2K Sports. In 2002 he was a senior game designer at Naughty Dog and worked on Uncharted there.

And his last role was with Namco Bandai and helped with the release of Pac-Man Party. Perhaps that's one of the games he won't be so proud to have on his CV.

In Nintendo he is working for the Nintendo NST team. Those are the guys who put together Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem and a handful of DSiWare games.