Hello everybody. I've been a fan of Sega Racing games (Daytona USA 1/2, Scud Race, OutRun 1/2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, etc.) ever since I first played Daytona USA 2 in the arcade around 2002. I like them and try to promote them as much as I can. Let everyone know about the magic that is Sega Racing Games!!!
"The three that ate up most of my coins where Scud Race, Daytona USA and Indy 500, my goal is to recreate the feeling these games evoked from players by maintaining the colorful, vibrant look and sense of speed but with modern visuals and car handling models."
Do you hear anyone talk like this anymore!?!?! Besides me!?!?!
Without a moment's hesitation...
Here, take my money. Take 80 GBP ($127). I pledged THAT MUCH and I'll pledge more if I have to. It's not just for the "in-game billboard" I get, it's cause I want the game to be good (for what it's worth, the billboard can be 128x512 or 256x512). I'm still sitting on my "Lousy Internship Stash Cash" and am now playing the role of "Sega Racer Philanthropist," giving out cash to racing game devs who don't suck ass (in addition to handing out copies of Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed to strangers).
Just for fun, it's worth pointing out the aquarium is from Scud Race's Beginner Day course. And the T-Rex is from Daytona USA's Advanced course. Wait, you say this game was done in the UNITY engine? Genius? I've done two games in Unity before for FIEA. You can make driving games in it like this. The new Unity engine even works on the Wii U. This game is CASH GOLD MONEY EPIC BEAST SWAG MODE and it's too bad I got stuck with lousy Super Sprint instead, lol. The only thing amiss thus far is that the F1/Indy car looks a tad too big. I'm going to e-mail this guy soon.
Holy shit people, how fucking hard is it for game developers to MAKE GAMES LIKE THIS. CLEAN, COLORFUL, FAST, HAPPY, SKILLFUL RACING GAMES. Instead we get this Need for Speed bullshit every three months and I want to vomit.
And Kotaku does the first right thing they've done in the last 8 years and that is mention this damn Kickstarter in a post inferring "You won't get a new Daytona but you'll get this." Geez, Kotaku, just do open-heart vivisection on me already. Screw you and your lousy ass site but thanks for the hits cause this game needs all the publicity it can handle. Oh yeah, by the way, to Kotaku user GunFlame who said "Daytona wasn't a very good game" -- you're wrong, end of story.
First Model2 emulation. Then Model3 emulation. Then Daytona, Sega Rally, OutRun 2 ports. Then the Hornet in Sega All-Stars Racing. Then this. This project still needs 7,700 Great British Pounds and 25 days left to do it. Donate at least 10 quid and get a digital download of the game for free. Donate more for physical copies of the game. DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great, it's like the announcements of the Supermodel emulator, the Daytona USA XBLA trailer, and the Hornet in Sega All-Stars Racing leak all over again. How am I going to follow up a post like this? Talk about the NFL games? Geez...
Just for kicks I'm gonna play the Virtua Racing intro music...DUN DUN DUN, PICK YOUR TRACK THEN PRESS THE PEDAL IDIOT!!!
I know he's somewhere cruis'n with the girls, he must be. So many Ferraris, even the Flagman gets a ride.
It would be funny though if you raced against 900 other Ferraris and each one of them had the "Rival" arrow over them. BLING-BLING-BLING-look at them points. Hmm, let's make it a Heart Attack challenge--Keep passing cars!! Let's start!! YEEHAA!! All right!!
It also dawned on me--should there be an OutRun 3 some day, there's one more Ferrari they should put in the game:
Oh man, two Yu Suzuki games in one. IMPOSSIBRU!!!!!
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One More Thing You Guys. Anyway, I was just playing Rock Band 3 Pro Keyboards and I was bitching and whining as usual about how there's no good Keyboard charts left and all Harmonix has been releasing is crap background noise charts for songs like Shinedown, Iron Maiden, and Matchbox Twenty. Seriously, you don't buy Iron Maiden to play keyboards. So I stumble upon an old classic: Say Goodbye to Hollywood by Billy Joel. After a few tries I finally gold-starred the thing (only 10th on the leaderboard, I suck) but I noticed something that I NEVER noticed before. Skip to 0:30, 3:12, whenever the chorus is:
Sega bye to Hollywood
Sega bye my baby
Sega bye to Hollywood
Sega bye my bayyyybehhhh
I shat bricks.
We have the next PINGAS on our hands here.
3:24, best SEGA!! scream impression.
BTW, I know this is stupid but if Kotaku can post crap like this 10 times a day then I can post it at least once a day.
TGS as in "Toulouse Game Show," not "Tokyo Game Show." This was in November 2011 so this is quite recent! It's always great to hear from Yu Suzuki and this time it's nothing short of emotional. Thanks to the Shenmue Master guys who were so loyal to ask Yu the tough questions and make videos like this. There's two parts to the conference: one on Shenmue, the other on everything else. Here's the super-quick recaps since the videos are quite long.
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Part 1 (Shenmue) recap:
Intro: Standing ovation for Suzuki-San! EDIT: It's really worth saying I'm moved by his reaction to the applause. Yu still seems genuinely surprised that he's admired as much as he is. He seems so humble and quiet up there unlike others who go up there to gloat and suck up as much attention as possible. I really gotta give him props.
Making an RPG: Sega was working on the Dreamcast and they needed a killer title. No one wanted to make the RPG so Yu did it himself.
Shenmue on Saturn: It was a prototype for the Dreamcast version. The rendering, development of characters, cities, and quests were just tests for the real thing.
XBL/PSN Ports: Are they possible some day? Yu nods his head and doesn't say anything.
Martial Arts: Does Yu practice martial arts? He want to China and learned a lot. Went to the Shaolin Temple and got beat up. He's not very strong but he just wanted to see it for himself.
QTE's: He likes that other games are using QTE's. Not much to say.
Shenmue Gai (Town): It was developed for Japanese mobile phones. It's possible to Westernize it.
Title: Why the title "Shenmue"? It's the name of a tree. "Mue" means "tree." "Shenfa" means "flowers that grow on the tree." Very old story about the Shenfa.
Shenmue III again: Yu says he wants to work on Shenmue III again, ha. People want to donate money for him to finish Shenmue III. Yu says thank you and everyone cheers.
Jokes: Yesterday, have you seen a black car? Takes a while for him to get it.
Popularity: Shenmue was a catastrophic commercial failure (jeers from audience). What do you think of the difference between the excellent quality of your games versus their low popularity? Because of his enthusiastic audience, he denies there is no lack of popularity (cheers from audience).
French words: What do you think of French translation of Shenmue II? Yu is confused and cannot answer. Fans begin a sing-along for the Happy Birthday of Shenmue II's European release. These people are nuts passionate!
Shenmue III yet again: Despite opposition to Shenmue III questions, people still asked 'em anyway. Is it still possible to see Shenmue III someday? "If I can have the opportunity, the chance, really, I would make it. Like today, to be requested by so many people on 'Please bring us Shenmue III!', I think that I really must do it!"
Favorite game he made: Shenmue. Naw, really?
Wow, I don't know how big of a crowd this was, but just these thousand or so fans really moved him. Great show so far.
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Part 2 (everything else) recap:
Hang-On: Rode a lot of off-road bikes in the past. Had an urge to make a bike game but thought an "off-road" game wouldn't sell well (say that to Trials HD) so he created an "on-road" game.
OutRun: He wanted to create a "driving game," not a "racing game." Driving with the radio on, girl in the seat, checking out the view, it's just cool.
Look, it's a radio.
Cars: We love all cars, even small ones! Drifting is a lot of fun.
Ports: Watched over the arcade ports. Had to work hard since console technology was inferior to his superb arcade technology.
Virtua Racing: First 3D Sega game. Could only get 300 polygons at first. But because Yu is such a racing game pro, that's no problem. Wanted to model 3D living beings but that was too complicated hence a car game instead. Player models in Virtua Racing were the basic models for Virtua Fighter. Looking back, it looks more like robots or walking boxes!!!
Arcades: Some of his best memories. Going to 3D was most exciting. Release new technology early but not too early.
Social Games: Interested in them, particularly smart phones which is the "future."
Development Tools: He had to create his own. Yeah...
Virtua Fighter 6: Since Virtua Fighter 5, he's entrusted the series to AM2.
Japanese Creativity Crisis: Doesn't think there is one. Many original games have come out of America & Europe so it's all good.
Psy-Phi: Designed in 2005 but canceled. Was too ahead of its time. Used a touch screen like Tom Cruise from Minority Report (his words). Would be more suitable now. When asked about it, he teased releasing the game for iPhone (for obvious reasons). Learn more about the game here.
If this game came out for the Kinect, I'd kick my own ass.
Sega: Can't speak of what he's doing there--it's confidential. He does give advice in arcade games' production. Still maintains a good relationship with Sega and mentions if he had the Shenmue license, he could do something with it...!!!
Nintendo: Has worked with Nintendo before! Doesn't mention anything else.
Future Plans: In Yu's words, "It is certain that I would make Shenmue III if I had the chance." Also thinking of other projects include one in which "monsters and other animals fight together." Raise your monsters and send them to fight. Wait--what??? Is he talking about Monster Rancher??? That's it--we take over Tecmo and pool our efforts into a Monster Rancher fighting/RPG game. We have Virtua Fighter/Dead or Alive expertise under our belt. If Capcom and Namco want to play footsies then so can Sega and Tecmo.
Then hhows a picture of a cat kicking a dog and everyone laughs. No one knows if he's joking or serious. These things draw inspiration for new games.
What's your favorite game???: Easy games. Effortless games that you can play with kids. Like Animal Crossing from Nintendo. Yes, he actually says "Animal Crossing."
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Anyway, it's super-encouraging right now to see Yu Suzuki speaking to the fans. He looks humbled by his standing ovation. He's a good man looking out for his games. He also has a contagious smile. Wish we had more game devs like him nowadays.
School's occupying a lot of my time so don't expect a whole lotta posts in the future but here's a quick one since I got the time.
Thanks to anonymous poster "-1" for finding this video. Now create a Google account and subscribe already. But the video's fun AND educational! It's about Virtua Racing. Though it's mostly blabbering up until 2:00 minutes:
It rehashes on a couple of things I didn't know before (or forgot), such as the fact the game was a prototype and not meant to be released and the giant Joypolis 32-cabinet setups. It was the first 3D racing game (Hard Drivin' doesn't count since it's a "simulator"), first 16:9 arcade game, and first racing game to feature four camera views.
This game doesn't get enough credit because of OutRun & Daytona but come on man, give Virtua Racing props. It even has funky music:
Who's the guy who goes "kkhhaann??" Oh, it's Captain Kirk.
Ok, I want to knock this out now since it's really cool. Everyone at FIEA (the gaming school I go to), gets a desk with a laptop docking station. I've already been here a month so I've got mine setup. Mine is out of the way (which I don't mind...I hate being in high-traffic locations anyway) but it looks really cool.
Yes, I actually got my Sega racer pics up! Awesome!!!
This is my big wall. As you can see, there's Sega AM2, Daytona USA 1/2, OutRun 1/2, Scud Race, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, Yu Suzuki, and Toshihiro Nagoshi (calling him useless).
A lamp illuminates my glorious shrine, as you can see here. Also, there's my super laptop...a Dell, lol.
My computer. When you plug in the laptop, the screen is tranferred to this monitor/keyboard/mouse combo. And there's Sonic and *GASP* Mario right there. Get this--that Mario figure was on my birthday cake when I turned six (give or take two years).
This is also hokey, but I put up some pics of my Counter-Strike maps...I don't care, I like 'em. And that Game Creation book...rofl.
Now everyone at FIEA got a nameplate complete with some personal info as you can see here. This is what mine says. NOTE that I'm not about to reveal my face to the Internet...yet. My Internet career becomes a whole different ball game once everyone knows what you look like.
Ok, you wonder how much of an interest I may have stirred by my setup. Well, not much. Some people have assumed I like Sega & racing games, but none have actually referred to any game like Daytona & OutRun specifically. No one noticed Yu Suzuki or Toshihiro Nagoshi either. Also, no one has said anything about the Counter-Strike maps.
Interesting news; I've made over 365 posts which means I've exceeded one post per day for the first year of my blog (started July 21, 2010) so that is AWESOME, BABY!!
This is a continuation to my Yu Suzuki Steps Down post. I didn't want to clutter that post any further. Check out this 11 minute video from 2005. It's originally in French but has English subtitles.
* Sega was the only place that would hire him...wow, that's sad...like the Tom Brady story, no one loves me but I'll prove the haters wrong!!
* Hang-On (1985) was the first game he worked on. Tilt the bike back and forth to steer.
* OutRun (1986) was a classic. It used parallax scrolling which projected "3D scenery" with just 2D sprites. This was also used in Space Harrier and After Burner.
* Virtua Racing (1992) was supposed to be a rally game but was made into a F1 game instead. The animations on the tires and the pit crew served as the basis for Virtua Fighter. Obviously, the models were low-polyand the tires were more like hexagons than they were actual circles. EDIT: He also was able to implement multiple camera angles which were fascinating at the time.
* He talks about the differences between the developer and the average Joe player...he takes a cup for example. If the character picks up the cup but his fingers clip through it (bad animation), then the developer cringes but the player is like "OH WOW THAT'S AWESOME!!"
* Yu Suzuki is satisfied that he was the first to make a 3D fighter in Virtua Fighter (1993). Without it, the fighting genre may not have been the same. He wasn't able to add textures to polygons just yet so he had to emit a certain level of detail through plain colors alone.
* Fast forward to Shenmue 1 (2000) and 2 (2001). First, he wanted to implement Virtua Fighter's gameplay into Shenmue but that wasn't necessary. The purpose of the game was to show the beautiful Asian landscape and to allow the player free-reign over the game (as oppposed to being funneled down the same path like many RPG's). QTE's were inspired by the Simon electronic game and allowed you to do complicated things you couldn't normally do with a controller. Brilliant game but it obviously didn't sell well. A $70 million budget was put into Shenmue 1 (both the Saturn & Dreamcast versions) so when it didn't pay off, Sega was pissed.
* Finally, and this is weird, a developer shouldn't always take the advice of cohorts. The game will turn out like every other game...like a rose without any thorns is just a carnation. Try to do something different.
Of course this video was in 2005 so people were probably expecting a Shenmue 3 at any moment but now it is 6 years later and no such thing exists...
10. Victory Run (Turbografx-16)
9. Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road (Sega Genesis)
8. Marauder - Rock & Roll Racing (Sega Genesis)
7. Battle Cars (SNES)
6. Jaguar XJ220 (Sega Genesis)
5. Zero 4 Champ RR (Super Famicom)
4. Super Mario Kart (SNES) 3. Virtua Racing (Sega Genesis NOT 32X)
2. F-Zero (SNES) 1. OutRun (Sega Genesis)
Might I remind you that I contributed nothing to the votes. Lessseeee here...you got Nintendo juggernauts Mario Kart & F-Zero. And then here comes Outrun and Virtua Racing (the GENESIS version, remind you) which top 'em. Well done, voters!!! Cartoon go-karts and space racers may be interesting in a fantasy setting, but in the end, it's all about the work of modern artisans and technicians that hits the pavement...
Holy crap, look at the people at :36...it's Gumby!!
Not the flashiest version of OutRun...
These are on the measly Genesis so give them a break. And there you have it, Sega racers score more points out there.
Today is the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 race (despite the fact this is the 95th race). Anyway, it's a pretty big deal because it's part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, also including the Monaco GP and the 24 Hour LeMans. No Daytona 500 because no one likes NASCAR (except for rednecks).
Some funny observations from this race. You see there's a golf course around and inside the track with go-karts around so...there's people golfing during the race? They are also playing that Go-Daddy "naked commercial shoot" again, recycled from the Superbowl three months ago... Then some guy popped a tire so he just cruised into the pits and they just swapped it out. Very nice.
EDIT: Oh, forgot this one part--a guy enters the pit. Guys change four tires. He drives off and a second later his rear left tire just pops off into the air. Pit crew forgot to screw in the nuts. Car's still driving with just three wheels, AMAZING!
But there's two stupid things going on. One, this is the fifth race of the IndyCar season when you'd think it was the first...because they advertised the heck out of this race like they did with the Daytona 500 which is the first race of that season. Second, it's the same day as the Monaco Grand Prix? What the hell--I missed that??? Why???
But anyway, there's an Indy 500 Sega Model2 arcade racer released in 1995. Now this game is nowhere near as popular as the rest of the Sega racer lineup, but it's a rugged little racer--one that certainly deserves more credit. It has a 0% chance of receiving a sequel which is actually kind of sad.
Alright, so let's talk about more than just IndyCar...there's also Formula 1 which is basically the European version of IndyCar. Now I'll tell you about this old game I used to play for the PC--Microprose Formula 1 Grand Prix--also known as World Circuit. This game was released in 1992 and it was actually pretty sweet at the time. EDIT: No, it wasn't just sweet, it was THE SHIZNIT at the time and still is today.
And then there's Virtua Racing. The original arcade version also came out in 1992, but this is the PS2 version, part of the Sega Classics Collection. This game's pretty good--it has six tracks and cars and is arguably the only decent game on the whole disc. There's no telling if this is supposed to be Formula 1, IndyCar, CART, who cares...Sega racers know no bounds.
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And finally, my opinions on Formula 1 and IndyCar...(I know nothing about CART other than that it merged with IndyCar in 2008). Well, racing is racing so I like them all. IndyCar can get boring because the loops. Formula 1 has all technical courses, some legends like Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka while IndyCar has a couple of street courses. Anyway, I presume Indy cars have slightly higher top speeds but who knows...they're all the same to me. If you want to learn more about IndyCar & Formula 1, you can check out this site.
But there's something about Formula 1 that's strange. For the last couple of F1 seasons I've checked out, there's no American drivers or tracks. I'm not sure if it's because they have a hate-on for America...I certainly hope not. Maybe it's because we're a bunch of rednecks who watch NASCAR...gimme a break. At least IndyCar is kind enough to have races in Brazil, Japan, and Canada as well as a diverse crowd of drivers. But there have been drivers who have won in F1 and IndyCar so there can't be that big of a difference between the two after all. No, please don't take this as "I hate F1," cause I don't.
Either way, NASCAR is more popular than the two and that's a fact. There's many more races in the NASCAR season than in the other two. Maybe that's where all the good American drivers are--driving stock cars. Love it or hate it, that's the way it is. And don't give me that "NASCAR takes no skill" nonsense because Tony Stewart won three IndyCar races before his NASCAR career so you can win at both of them. They hardly play IndyCar or F1 on TV (in America) so that's the breaks. Check out Versus and Speed channel.
One of my favorite things about Formula 1 is The Chain music...it's awesome. One of my most favorite songs of all time.
I could talk more about F1 but I'm done, that's it for now. I also watched some World Rally Championship in Italy (on HD Theater) and there's the Coca-Cola 600 later, so good day for racing!!
Now, let's play pretend for a second. Let's say that, in the near future, Sega announces a new "Daytona USA" game. It'll have content from Daytona 1, Daytona 2, Scud Race, and Virtua Racing in it. The game is released. How will it do?
Part of the reason I say this is because games NEED to sell well to be worthwhile. It's not just about good reviews from Gamespot, Giant Bomb, etc. People need to like it. Now I remember a while back how in that IGN Crazy Taxi review where he slammed the game because there exists the stark contrast between it and "ten years of real racing innovation." I know this is IGN we're talking about, but still, I can tell that more people feel the same way about this game. Also, look at OutRun 2. Didn't sell well. OOA is getting taken off XBL in 2012. Sega Rally Revo is a bust. Et. al...
About this new Daytona game, there is VERY LITTLE CHANCE that Sega's going "all-in" and revamping the whole entire game (much less add new cars/tracks) so it's going to look outdated. Sega just can't exert that much energy on anything nowadays (unless it's Sonic). Look at all the Sega ports on XBL--bare-bones or rushed. Consider that OutRun 2006 didn't have that much more content than the original arcade cabinet and Sega rode OR2 for such a long time (many re-releases). Like here's what Daytona 2 really looks like under the hood:
Please bear in mind that this game is 13 years old. This isn't like taking a NFS game from 2010 and rehashing it in 2011, this is old ass crap we're talking about. Now Daytona 2 has managed to defy modern-day graphics for a long time because of its framerate and other slick, innovative designs (thanks to the Model3 board), but you're starting to notice the difference these days. Like compare this 13 year old game to this 1 year old game (Forza 3):
Let's compare Daytona USA to the big boys now, shall we? Here's the good:
* MOTORSTORM: APOCALYPSE!!! 8.5 REVIEW ON GAMESPOT!!! So awesome to drive around an earthquake-ridden city--never mind the fact that people have died in real-life earthquakes like those in Japan, Chile, Haiti, and New Zealand!!! Run over those foot soldiers!!! Kill, crash, and scrape your way to the finish line!!!
* NEED FOR SPEED...MY GOODNESS, CRITERION AND ELECTRONIC ARTS ARE GODS!!! Now they're coming out with another NFS game called "The Run(s)!"
No way, I've never played a game like this before! You run from the cops and drive cross-country, just like in Cruis'n USA or, better yet, OutRun 2: SP!! Story mode galore as you flip over on railroad tracks and try to avoid getting killed!!! BRILLIANT!!! Just like Ridge Racer: Unbounded where you get to crash into stuff in exotic sports cars too!!!
EDIT: * MARIO KART!! It's Super Mario. And It's Nintendo. No debate there, folks. Overpowered Bikes and Snaking? No worries cause haters gonna hate.
* TRACKMANIA 2!!! Uh, it's looks kind of cool, not gonna use my sarcasm on this one cause it reminds me of San Francisco Rush.
* SPLIT/SECOND!!! BURNOUT!!! FAST AND THE FURIOUS!!! Oooooooohhh yyeeeaaahhh!!!!
And now for the bad:
* These niche racers that have come out that try to retain some sanity--oh man, these suck. NASCAR 2011? Crap. F1 2010? Crap. Test Drive Unlimited? Mega crap. Days of Thunder? No one cares. Hey, blame it on gamer bias or the devs stinking it up, but that's just the way it is.
* DAYTONA USA...eh...what the hell is this. Now I remember playing this in the arcades once, but damn, what the hell's going on here. Game is too bright and the cars slip and slide too much. Why am I driving a stock car? NASCAR sucks cause all you do is turn left!! The graphics suck!! This game is too hard and you can't even die in the game!! Boooo!!! Don't you people at Sega know that racing games have undergone great innovation in the last ten/fifteen years? GET OUT OF HERE!!! Now, where's my Mountain Dew...
So here's how Sega should improve Daytona USA:
* Tone down the color saturation a few notches. Colorful games are BAD, remember?
* You do drifts to get NITROUS boosts, just like in Ridge Racer.
* Add cool hip-hop/punk music and funky announcers.
* Make it so you can total cars (yours and others) to the point they can't drive anymore. When you blow up, you respawn back on road.
* Increase the car's skidpad ratings so you can take every turn at full speed--no skill required. Hey, it defeats the purpose of drifting, but who carez?!?!?
* Get rid of the race timer!! We want to drive forever and don't want to be held back because we were sucking so bad.
* Add police cars/chases. Add a monetary counter to display how much money's worth of damage you've dealt to yourself and your environment. Add explosions. Add oncoming traffic.
* Get rid of all stock cars--remember, NASCAR sucks and is redneck garbage. Replace them with generic sports/luxury cars (not like Scud Race's ones, but over-the-top Burnout stuff).
* Add a story line. You're a cool dude who's trying to avenge your father's death or win an underground race tournament to make some money and pick up chicks. You must compete against snotty Europeans and witty Asian guys as they try to set up death traps to take you out. Hire a bunch of Hollywood writers to churn out the next big Spike VGA's winner!!
* Trash the whole entire game together and just get EA/Criterion to make another Burnout.
...
...
Screw it. I know that there's a sleeping giant out there who wants a good wholesome racer that has variety, intensity, and brings something new to the table. Graphics be damned--look at this GameFAQs poll on 4/28/11 about graphics: 48% say story/gameplay is much more important; 38% it's somewhat important; and 14% say it makes or breaks the game. So what is it? You are stoked about highly-detailed environments and rich cutscenes, but when it comes to the gameplay, you can't help but grieve over every minute detail.
Hopefully, the success of Sega Rally Online Arcade will be just a start. We can do it, guys.
Now, I said this on the OOA board, and I'll say it here. We're getting a new Daytona USA game in 2014. Why? Cause it's the 20th anniversary of the original (1994). And if Sonic can get a special release every anniversary, why not Daytona USA get at least one? I'm going to prod Sega with a stick until they do. The end.
Well this is certainly interesting news because it gives me something to talk about.
Not as tan as Nagoshi
Now my buddy model3 always gets these stories out right away so check out his stuff: Yu Suzuki GDC 2011.
SEGA® Corporation is proud to announce that Yu Suzuki will be the recipient of the Pioneer Award, a Special Award presented as part of the 2011 Game Developers Choice Awards and one of the highest honors in video game development.
He will receive the award on March 2, 2011 during the Game Developers Conference 2011 in San Francisco.
Also in 2003, he became the sixth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science’s “Hall of Fame.”
Game Series: OutRun, Space Harrier, Hang-On, After Burner, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, Virtua Cop, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Shenmue, etc...
He started Sega Racers! Without OutRun and Virtua Racing, where would we be? Without the Ferraris, the gameplay, the music, the sense of speed, the parallax scrolling, the blast processing, etc.? Sega arcade games is where it's at. Also, you gotta give props to the Lockheed Martin-inspired Model 1 board which led to Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter as well as Model 2 and Model 3 boards (new Daytona games!!!). And Shenmue which is a damn fine story-driven series that doesn't rely on bishounen or guys with WMD's!!
It's a shame that Virtua Fighter isn't as well-respected nowadays and Virtua Cop has somehow vanished off the face of the earth. And of course, the non-existence of Shenmue 3.
So I'm looking at Kotaku again and they called Suzuki the "Mother of Video Games." Of course that sounds weird cause Suzuki is man, not a woman. Then I'm looking around and there's some people who diminish the work he's done. I'm not calling out names here cause it is what it is. Suzuki was prolific, but how much? Well, probably not as much as, say, Shigeru Miyamoto, but look at it this way. I'm not one of those pinheads who tries to scientifically tier every single game, company, designer, and so forth into who's the "best" and who's not (see Greatest Games Ever Made by me). I don't care about that stuff. All I know is that me and many other people have reaped the benefits of what Yu Suzuki has done and that's all that matters.
Oh look, it is Suzuki and Miyamoto!
Maybe Suzuki can give you tips on making a good racing game (Mario Kart doesn't count)!
And then there's Daytona USA. Yu Suzuki is to OutRun as is Toshihiro Nagoshi is to Daytona USA. Now I've come on here plenty of times and called Nagoshi a bum cause that's what he is. Now whatever influence Suzuki had over Daytona USA, whether direct (sat there working on the design) or indirect (influence leading others to make more racing games), there is SOMETHING there should we should be grateful for.
That's about it, I'm gonna go eat a hamburger now.
I'm gonna post this too because I just thought of it and you guys have to see this.
There's this guy I used to follow on YouTube called Howard Cneal (or Kolibiri). He has is a load of game roms for all kinds of systems and he plays each one for three minutes while talking about it from a reviewer's standpoint. His dry humor, unbridled enthusiasm, and stream of consciousness style makes this so great. Sometimes he'll review a Japanese RPG that he can't even get started with before he calls it crap and gives it a "1 out of 10."
Sega 32X Virtua Racing:
Sega 32X Virtua Fighter:
EDIT: Other good Howard Cneals (if you are remotely interested):
