Nintendo composer and sound director Koji Kondo selected as the AIAS’ next Hall of Fame inductee
Kondo is best known for his work on the Zelda and Mario series
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Koji Kondo, the Nintendo composer and sound director best known for his work onTheLegend of ZeldaandSuperMarioBros. series, will be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ (AIAS) Hall of Fame during the 27th D.I.C.E. Awards.
The AIAS Hall of Fame honor is given to members of the games industry who’ve made a significant impact on the development of influential games, and have helped move forward particular genres of games. As such, the existing list of Hall of Fame recipients is full of iconic names, such asMariocreator Shigeru Miyamoto, Kojima Productions founder Hideo Kojima, andSkyrimandStarfielddirector Todd Howard.
“I am deeply thankful for being selected by D.I.C.E. for this important award. It is a true honor to be recognized in this way, and I am extremely humbled,” Kondo said in a statement.
“Thanks to the help from the many people surrounding me and the support from our customers and fans, I was fortunate enough to be involved in game music development for decades,” he continued. “I am grateful for everyone who helped and supported me. I will continue my efforts in the music and sound aspects of development to hopefully make everyone’s game experience even more enjoyable in the years to come.”
If you’re a fan of Nintendo games, there’s little doubt that you’ll have heard some of Kondo’s work before. His work can be heard in classics likeThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeandSuper Mario Bros. Sunshine, as well as newer games likeSuper Mario Bros. Wonder. Kondo is now a senior officer of Nintendo’s entertainment planning and development division.
In a statement shared in a press release, AIAS president Meggan Scavio called Kondo’s musical work “timeless and powerful.” She added: “For over 39 years, he has delighted all of us in the industry with sounds and songs that are recognized by so many fans and became a pop culture phenomenon. We are honored to be able to induct Kondo-san into the Hall of Fame.”
The 27th annual D.I.C.E. (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) Awards will be held on February 15 in Las Vegas. It was previously announced that across 23 categories, a total of56 different 2023 games had been nominatedfor awards, withMarvel’s Spider-Man 2receiving the most nominations (nine), followed byAlan Wake 2(eight),Baldur’s Gate 3(seven), andCocoon(six).
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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