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.
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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 Twitter has revealed this rather fantastic video of what appears to be a Sonic the Hedgehog prototype that some of you may recognise from screenshots released in magazines back in 1990:
Now the real question is this; real or fake? Could someone help translate Naka-san’s Tweet to help with this conundrum!?
EDIT: Rough Translation Courtesy of Angelgotchi “It’s a version of the game that was under construction. Wondering where the ROM came from and wondering if the segment is from after the river with the rocks and palmtrees before it. Nostalgic!”
So Naka-San thinks it’s real! Curiouser and curiouser…
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.
Massive thanks to both Iizuka-san and Naka-san for taking time out of their busy schedule to answer questions from 2 crazy fanboys! An extra special ‘thank you’ also goes to Svend Joscelyne for organising this for us. We are forever in your debt!
Another year, another Summer of Sonic. Except this time, you cannot fob it off so lightly. This year’s SoS was THE SoS. Julien-K? Jun Senoue? Takashi Iizuka? YUJI NAKA!?!? It literally had everything a Sonic fan could want.
But how about a little insight from the perspective of member of staff? Well look no more!
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