G4 Icons Episode #37: Yuji Naka

[@AWISECROW]

I wish Nintendo still had Sega as an equivalent hardware competitor to compete with nowadays. They would be better for it. Competition is good for us, the costumers.

[@dest151]

thank you Yuji Naka ..sonic was a big part of my childhood and it was kickass

[@imrankasen5872]

You probably dont care but does anybody know of a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid forgot my password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me.

[@ericibrahim8871]

@Imran Kasen Instablaster ;)

[@cville991]

Just a reminder, that credit goes to Naoto Ohshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara, who were the ones for the franchise’s creation. Yes, Yuji Naka is one of them, but it was all three of them. Ohshima created Sonic, Naka programmed the game, and Yasuhara was the game’s designer for gameplay.

[@FYCY]

Wow the creator of Balan Wonderland!

[@HolyAarom]

Balan Wonderworld

[@kirkhinkson8040]

Childhood was great to have yuji naka on videogame professional, congrats! In everything yu du,))))))

[@sirubisan698]

This just in he's been arrested for insider trading

[@dejaalston8672]

Yuji Naka is a brilliant and creative individual that created a character that has the ability to warm the older and newer generation hearts with his unique and inventive gameplay, graphics, and levels as it was something new and fresh in the platforming genre as Sonic is a true blue ultimate cultural icon in the video game industry. 😍😎💯👍🏻

[@nonanimeprofilepic]

without this guy there would be no chris chan

[@xXSpongeBroBrownPantzXx]

Haunted Astolfo bean plushie actually without Chris Chan’s mom their would be no Chris Chan.

[@ashleywhite8888]

he'd just be a pokemon fan tho sonic is only half of sonichu edit: i got yo bitch on a leash imma just call her verlisify

[@NobleGases2014]

"has a lot of child like qualities, which I think translates to his games" ahem, Shadow the Hedgehog....

[@zaidhikmet4799]

This game (along with other reasons) is why he left

[@rainehappy7097]

06 made him leave which was right after this. But now he's making games with Square Enix.

[@blitz4506]

@@rainehappy7097 shadow the hedgehog was mostly responsible by izuka

[@rainehappy7097]

@@bowserbarre8462 He dropped out because of the stress. If he had stuck around and had Sega and Microsoft allowed him to work on it like how Sega of America did back in the Genesis era, it would have been debugged better and we might have gotten a more complete game.

[@rainehappy7097]

@@blitz4506 SA2 didn't screw it up. But Heroes, Shadow, and 06 ruined him.

[@BenJabituya]

9/17/2019 - Happy Birthday, Naka-San!!

[@ProjectShinkai]

nights into dreams made me want to be a game designer

[@crews-lj3ph]

I miss dream cast

[@HectorGonzalez-qx9nk]

Sadly Yuji Naka hasn’t had the best track record lately. Balan Wonderworld, it being revealed that he’s kinda an asshole by those that worked with him at Sega, and being arrested for insider trading.

[@timothycrawford3476]

2024 and I'm still happy I chose Dreamcast over PlayStation

[@rturner4205]

Wow, Never knew he worked on Phantasy star 1-4. That was awesome!

[@rainehappy7097]

He made PSO also. Not the sequel though. PSO 2 was after he left SEGA. Betcha there wouldn't be any issues with the game if he had stuck around. He's a master programmer, but also a notorious hothead.

[@rturner4205]

@@rainehappy7097, That's also pretty cool. Also wasn't expecting a reply to a 3 year old comment.

[@BlueBlur2003]

Yuji please come back

[@MetalPersonJ]

7:44 this gives Bob Chipman PTSD

[@ChaostotheVII]

Does anyone know what Star Trek 2.0 was about? Its fun seeing ads for old shows popup lol

[@blueboston318]

I MISS G4!!!😭😭😭

[@rainehappy7097]

it's coming back next year.

[@blueboston318]

@@rainehappy7097 R-really?

[@rainehappy7097]

@@blueboston318 Yep. they have a KZbin and twitter with a trailer saying next year.

[@blueboston318]

@@rainehappy7097 Awesome. Bro awesome.

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

As an Indie developer and a Sega kid, Yuji has been such an inspiration for my games, his games I still play over and over again even today! I hope to be the next great company along with Sega Nintendo and Sony (Fuck Microsoft) I know I'm probably going to have many failures along the way, tho for each fail I will make a win, I may not be quite the Sega or Sony or anything as I'm looking towards PC exclusive development, but with Steam I can get somewhere and get noticed, although I am considering developing for consoles too, and perhaps even making my own console, but not like an average console, I have some very interesting ideas to make the console user friendly but powerful

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

referral madness Sega don't have the funds to release any consoles and I have non on Steam as of yet

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

referral madness Making any console isn't cheap and the hardware for the DreamCast hasn't been in production for years so they would have to get it specifically ordered it's not possible unless it was a very limited run

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

referral madness But that would suck since some people would not get one

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

referral madness It would have to be a pretty special thing, maybe like HDMI out since fumbling around with VGA boxes is somewhat annoying

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

referral madness You clearly know nothing about hardware manufacturing making a DreamCast that can render games at 4K would be impossible without emulation it would either be HDMI that outputs 480p or an internal scaler that scales the DreamCast resolution up to 1080p, it wouldn't be native HD unless it was emulation I bet you don't even know the exact resolution of 1080p and 4K

[@handlethis78]

"And Sonic gets a sidekick." (Doesn't bother mentioning his name)

[@MysterKey]

Sad they still didn't make another console release after discontinuing dreamcast back in 2001, to make it felt like Rushed/Dumped of the era years. i wonder how?

[@brzilla1235]

Is that the @gaminghistorian at 5:40 ?

[@jimbo1722]

BrettZilla2000 dunno. Is he?

[@germanname1990]

I heard there was supposed to be an episode about Sonic himself, but it never came to pass. Even so, as a huge Sonic fan, this is my favorite episode of Icons. Besides, I'm also interested in Sonic's history, so much so that I am a proud owner of a copy of Girl's Garden, and last month, I got an SG-1000 II to play the game on. As a big SEGA fan, I'm currently trying to collect every platform SEGA has created.

[@dest151]

Could u mash episodes running a couple hours? Would be awesome

[@kotalee2106]

with just a dash of insider trading lolllll

[@Sonic33340]

Yuji naka is the best programmer I've ever met

[@Gladson]

And now he's in jail. What a downhill.

[@NinteSegaRarew]

Ikr like it's a sad, sad shame! What's also really disappointing was when he blacked out Naoto Ohshima in his picture with the Nights Into Dreams team, which he tweeted on Twitter.

[@janx7104]

Izuka will never live up.

[@christophersmith2068]

Is there an episode of David Siller?

[@edgelordgokublack1240]

who made sonic.exe?

[@PusoPimpOVER9000]

It was written by a fellow named MrJCHyena

[@edgelordgokublack1240]

thanks but it dosnt make sense is it like a parody of sonic games or something

[@TailsKitsune7]

Yup. Its a mod/parody

[@DennisPulido]

While I enjoyed this documentary, I felt it actually didn't focus enough on Naka, and devoted a huge chunk of time on Sega as a company.

[@bluecorp8557]

haven9270 That's because Naka devoted 80% of his life to Sega.

[@werknemerful]

Fan characters, roleplaying ruined it to be a fan

[@AndersonTenecela]

And now he’s been arrested…. Twice

[@praystation]

really? I guess i was lucky growing up with both md and sfc.

[@supermariof0521]

8:01 Actually it was the other way around. The SNES outsold the Genesis by 49 million to 30 million respectively.

[@johncruz5388]

Sonic The Hedgehog IS SEGA!

[@Elayzee]

Considering the "quality" of games that his Bargain Bin Studio "Prope" puts out, it makes me wonder just how "great" he must've actually been. I don't think he's had a single success after leaving Sega's Sonic Team. The is the guy the gaming media once claimed was "Equal to Shigeru Miyamoto". God, i hope they were joking when they believed that. :/

[@SonicDragon-em5qp]

I think it was the fact that Sonic Team did better when Yuji Naka was a part of it, like all their creative minds meshed together and pumped out hit after hit. Yuji Naka is creative, sure, but nobody is challenging his vision or shaping it into something better. That is the problem with most indie studios. Everyone thinks they are the next Miyamoto, instead of working as a team. I know Yuji Naka lost it a few times, or else he would have never left Sega, TWICE. Oh yeah, they didn't mention that Naka was sick of Sega after Sonic 1 and Tom Kalinske had to drag his butt back to Sega of America for Sonic 2. If it weren't for Tom, Sega would have dropped Sonic, and there would be no PSO or Billy Hatcher, or even Ristar.

[@Feelin_DanDy]

It's sucks to be a fan of Sonic myself where 80% of his games are bad imo Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles are my jam. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 gets a pass because of nostalgia.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Ness Kirby Personally, I don't trust the opinions of anyone who says they are a Sonic fan. If you're a Sonic fan, you have absolutely no taste in gaming. Rather than being a fan of Sonic, I am a fan of a small number of individual Sonic games. But to love Sonic unconditionally is what gives us fucking Sonic '06 and Sonic Warewolf.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Elijah Toombs All of those are so-so Sonic games. Not bad, but kinda flawed-but-we-like-them-anyways Sonic games. Sonic CD in particular has a special nostalgia factor for me, as I begged my dad to get a Sega CD back in the early 90s and one Christmas it turned out along with Sonic CD and a collection of Genesis games like Golden Axe and such. But objectively speaking, Sonic CD has a lot of problems in the way it executes it's design concepts. The time travel element is kinda haphazardly implemented as you literally need to be in the right place at the right time to make any difference, and the difference you make is only cosmetic. It's a really cool concept that should be revisited and done properly. It's also a great example of how Sega of America and Sega of Japan were both doing totally different things, as seen in the wildly different soundtracks. To say one is better than the other is to deny the brilliance of the other.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Elijah Toombs Like virtually all most NGPC games, Sonic Pocket Adventure is a hidden gem. It was the sort of portable Sonic game that should have been on the GameGear in the early 90's. It's better than anything Sega ever put on the GameGear, including Sonic Chaos and Triple Trouble.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Elijah Toombs The one thing so many gamers forget about is that videogames exist to make profit - gaming is a business just like film, television, novels, cars, and so on. Why are there so many similar Sonic and Mario games, or for that matter, Call of Duty, Madden, Halo, or Assassins Creed games? because they're guaranteed to sell, making them self investments for companies to develop and flood the market with. Critically acclaimed cult classics such as Shenmue or Valkyria Chronicles were commercially unsuccessful money sinks, so the prospect of making expensive sequels makes no business sense. And with games like Metroid - which would sell - still are not commercially viable since unlike Mario, Metroid only sells to a select group of gamers and only in certain countries. Japanese gamers have never especially cared about the Metroid series and sales there have been sluggish for all of them, including Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. It's the same reason we haven't seen an F-Zero game in over a decade. 99% of the time, when Nintendo designs a game, they do so with the intention to maximize the appeal globally so the frachise will be popular everywhere and appeal to the widest demographic possible. this is why we see so many Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Kirby games and why Metroid, F-Zero, and even Star Fox are second tier. I would love to see Shenmue 3. Valkyria Chronicles 3 remade on PS4 or Vita, Megaman Legends 3, and so many other games. But the reality is that they would be sequels to games that didn't sell well enough to justify the cost of development. Money is what is ultimately dictates what games get sequels and how quickly.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Elijah Toombs Huh? What specifically are you referring to when you say "sa3"? And Super Mario Bros. 4 is the Japanese subtitle for Super Mario World, which came out in 1990.

[@kaiokendo]

why so serious i also believe that is a genius really

[@charlieduffney138]

They don’t make good games anymore like they use to.

[@kaiokendo]

19:07 goood engurishh yooyee nukuh

[@jeradpaulson771]

kaiokendo 19:07

[@johncruz5388]

19:07

[@daminmancejin]

sonic just doesn't go with a platformer at all it takes away his speed

[@daminmancejin]

hills more loops s tunnels should have been more like it

[@daminmancejin]

I still enjoy all these old classic games like NES,SNES,GENESIS but the games we got todays I don't wann play or buy them they not as fun like those classic

[@LazyPirate8]

+daminmancejin its more of an adventure then a plat former. this is what people are not getting.

[@sendingpostcardsfromaplane3314]

+daminmancejin What are you talking about? Sonic's always been about running and jumping.

[@bluudevil4483]

Sonic utopia says hi

[@Dave175]

Well this is awkward

[@NinteSegaRarew]

I know why. Because he got arrested twice for insider trading, which eventually resulted in him getting sentenced to prison. What's also really disappointing was when he blacked out Naoto Ohshima in his picture with the Nights Into Dreams team, which he tweeted on Twitter.

[@MadMakishimu]

AHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHA

[@bluecorp8557]

Why did Yuji Naka leave? Seriously, if he cared so much for his work with Sonic why? He left in middle of production of Sonic 06? That sounds like a coward that didn't want bad publicity.

[@zaidhikmet4799]

Because : 1- SEGA are a bunch of assholes! Naka was always mad at how they treated him by not giving credits to his team and always rushing them every year 2- the way sega looked at sonic... Naka didn't make sonic to be sega's mario, he hated the fact that there is a console war between sega and nintendo....naka and shigeru miyamoto (the guy who made mario) are really good friends and they talked a lot about their games...they also met each other before naka made sonic...look up their conversation it's really fun seeing them complementing each other

[@bluecorp8557]

Zaid Hikmet Even if Sega were assholes, you shouldn't disown your creation. Looking at what Sonic has become now, I would come back to save it.

[@zaidhikmet4799]

stevenzoid he did come back he participated in the 20th anniversary game and i think he will also participate in the 25th anneversary game too

[@bluecorp8557]

Zaid Hikmet That's the thing, he shouldn't only show up at anniversary titles. I bet if he participated in Sonic Lost World it would have been better. He probably wouldn't have allowed Sonic Boom to exist or let it be that bad. He needs to be involved in every Sonic game because it's his creation. If he wants to participate in other things, that's fine but don't let Sega spit out bad Sonic games.

[@LoliconSamalik]

He left because he didn't want to stick to making Sonic titles all his life. He wanted to make something new. That's why he left to create Prope. They'd work on mobile games until Naka got tired of that as well and wanted to go back to creating mascot platformers as they would partner with Kadokawa Games to create Rodea the Sky Soldier which was a combination of NiGHTS and Sonic.

[@lee-fc5bu]

8 years later he would go on to make the worst video game evah made

[@FeiTheVillain]

No, Sonic 06 is still around.

[@NobodyLovesLife]

This episode was released in 2004...

[@madyellow8027]

''sanic the hedgehog.exe''

[@you900001]

man segas lost its balls

[@rainehappy7097]

still true, but fans are slowly fixing that.

[@you900001]

@@rainehappy7097 oh God this post is 7 years old

[@rainehappy7097]

@@you900001 alot has changed since then.

[@LifeAndDeath17]

Sega stole mordecai and rigbys console!

[@alinzsko8947]

I hate g4 lol