Founded 1986 · Kyoto, Japan · Founders: Toru Narihiro · First game: Ports and support work for Nintendo (1980s)
Nintendo's behind-the-scenes programming unit that became a creator in its own right with Famicom Wars and Fire Emblem, then added Paper Mario, WarioWare and Panel de Pon.
Intelligent Systems began in 1983 as Iwasaki Giken, a division of another company, and was established as a separate company by Toru Narihiro in December 1986. For its first years it served as an auxiliary programming team for Nintendo, porting software and building development tools. Its early credits include work on Mario Bros., Wild Gunman, Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Donkey Kong 3, Devil World, Wrecking Crew and Metroid. The studio moved into designing its own games at the end of the decade. Famicom Wars (1988) began the turn-based strategy series later known in the West as Advance Wars. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) was the first game for which Intelligent Systems led both design and graphics; it founded a tactical RPG series known for permanent character death. The company also made the competitive puzzle game Panel de Pon, Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and later the WarioWare games. Intelligent Systems is independent but works almost exclusively with Nintendo. It moved into Nintendo's Kyoto Research Center in 2003 and in 2013 relocated near Nintendo's new headquarters in Kyoto.
Many Nintendo games of the mid-1980s passed through Intelligent Systems' hands without its name being widely known. Its shift into original design produced two strategy series — Wars and Fire Emblem — that defined Nintendo's presence in a genre it otherwise rarely touched.