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Hirokazu Yasuhara, Sonic co-creator, joins Nintendo at NST

Gamasutra report that Hirokazu Yasuhara, the game director for the early Sonic the Hedgehog titles, now has a new role at Nintendo.

Yasuhara will work at Nintendo of America’s NST – their most recent efforts were Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem for the Nintendo DS along with a glut of DSiWare game.

The hiring is not as crazy as it initially sounds, and it not the betrayalaton it initially seems to be, as Yasuhara has done a lot since he co-created Sonic – and has in fact not worked at Sega since 2002.

In years past, he spend a significant amount of time with Naughty Dog on the both Jak and Daxter series and Uncharted, and recently spent some time as a senior design director at Namco Bandai before the recent move to Nintendo.