Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team and famed lead programmer on the original Sonic the Hedgehog game for Mega Drive has joined Square Enix’s game development staff. Naka’s own announcement reveals that he aims “to develop an enjoyable game” but there is currently no word on what project Naka will be working on.
Naka had previously left SEGA in 2006 to found his own games studio called Prope. It is currently unknown if Prope will continue to develop games without Naka. The studio’s social media pages haven’t updated since June 2017 so it could be the case that Prope have also closed their doors, however we have no solid information at this time.
While Rodea the Sky Soldier won’t be published in the West by SEGA, the game’s origins lie with ex-SEGA developer Yuji Naka. His new studio Prope developed the original Wii version of the game before it was shelved. The game was then remade for Wii U and 3DS but limited edition versions of the Wii U game will now come with Prope’s original Wii version which varies slightly to the Wii U and 3DS games. The Wii version has a greater score attack focus (similar to Naka’s NiGHTS into dreams…) which is at odds with the Wii U and 3DS’ focus on exploration. You can now watch a large section of Wii gameplay below:
Rodea the Sky Soldier is released in the West on the 25th of September through NIS America. Day one editions of the Wii U version will come with the Wii game as a bonus disc.
Prope’s NiGHTS-like Wii and 3DS game Rodea the Sky Soldier is still due for release despite being announced in 2010. We even spoke to Yuji Naka back in 2011 and he confirmed that the finished game had been submitted to Kadowaka Games which meant we all assumed it was almost time to go gold.
Yoshimi Yasuda who is the president of Kadowaka Games has revealed that Kadowaka who are porting the Wii version to the 3DS were having trouble adapting the control scheme. Yasuda also said that the version is about 70% finished and that there will be more information in the near future.
Yuji Naka, the man behind Sonic the Hedgehog and his own Prope studio has re-released the rather charming Ivy the Kiwi? for iOS.
Obviously this isn’t a SEGA published game, but that same SEGA charm runs through it thanks to Naka-san’s involvement. The game is available now for £1.99 from the UK App Store.
Yuji Naka’s Prope studio have just revealed a new fishing game for the Wii appropriately named Family Fishing. The game’s main focus is obviously fishing, but you are given free reign to explore the resort using different vehicles. There also appears to be a new fishing rod peripheral available to use with the game.
The game is to be published by Namco Bandai and not SEGA and is due for release August 4th 2011 in Japan. There’s currently no word on a Western release.
In a post on Yuji Naka’s twitter today, the legendary programmer of Sonic the Hedgehog revealed Prope Discoverer for iOS devices. The game uses the Unreal Engine and looks remarkably similar to Epic Citadel; a tech demo for iOS that also uses the engine. Check out some screenshots below:
The premise of the game is to discover hidden cards to give you access to different portions of the castle. It can be downloaded from the UK app store now for £1.79.
Prope, the studio funded by SEGA and lead by Yuji Naka, have announced Rodea: The Sky Soldier. The game will be released for Wii and 3DS but no date has currently been set.
The game is meant to be the spirtual successor to NiGHTS into dreams… and follows a similar gameplay style based on flying. Rodea also adds an on-rails shooting element to the gameplay which is also very reminiscent of the Panzer Dragoon games.
There is currently no word on whether SEGA will publish the game or not as SEGA opted out of publishing Prope’s last game, Ivy the Kiwi?
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