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'Sonic' designer Yuji Naka joins Square Enix
Here's a game industry move you probably weren't expecting: Sonic the Hedgehog co-designer Yuji Naka has joined Square Enix. He'll continue to pursue game development, but he isn't exactly dropping many hints as to what's next. Naka wants to make an "enjoyable game," which sounds like a good goal to shoot for. It's not clear what will happen to his game studio, Prope, with the change in career path.
Ivy the Kiwi? springs onto iOS, free and paid versions available now
Ivy the Kiwi?, the Wii and DS game by Sonic creator Yuji Naka, is now available on iOS. The iOS port of PROPE's chirpy platfomer arrived on the App Store today in paid and free versions. The paid version is on sale for a limited time, slashed from $4.99 to $2.99.Naka's game came to Wii and DS as a perpetual motion platformer, so an iOS port makes total sense. As before, the startled newborn sprints forward of her own accord, so it's up to players to guide her safely to her destination. This is done by drawing vines across the screen, done via a simple swipe. Vines can be used as ramps and bridges, and they can also be twanged to catapult the flightless chick through the air.There are 50 levels in the iOS version of Ivy the Kiwi?, the same as the DSiWare 'Mini' edition released two years ago. The retail Wii and DS versions have 100 levels. The free version of the iOS release comes with ads and has a limited number of levels. As the above video shows, the game is compatible with iOS 6's Game Center challenges.
Prope reimagines three little piggybanks in FlickPig for iOS
Meet FlickPig, the latest from former Sonic Team bossman Yuji Naka and his team at Prope. This iOS title tasks players with – can you guess? – flicking pigs across three lanes, while avoiding obstacles, gathering coins and ... chasing down wolves? These three little pigs are really piggybanks who lived in a brick house, so instead of blowing it down a pack of wolves broke in and stole their coins. Out of their bodies! While we find it difficult to believe the pigs didn't wake up during this surgery / looting, they did eventually awake and give chase. That's where you and your finger come in – collecting coins not only gives you a feeling of moral victory, but you can use those coins to buy items to help your progress. This hard-boiled tale of robbery and revenge can be yours for just $0.99, and will work on just about any recent iOS device, post-iPhone 3G. And for those of you lucky enough to have both an iPhone and an iPad, FlickPig will support iCloud data transfer, so your progress will be beamed across devices.%Gallery-141355%
Prope invites Buddy Monster to iOS and Android
Yuji Naka's company, Prope, whose most recent game is Fishing Resort for Wii, has a new iOS/Android game on the way in conjunction with the newly merged Marvelous AQL. Buddy Monster sounds like a Monster Hunter sort of thing, with just a dash of Pokemon. Your knight is partnered with a creature, which will help you fight giant monsters in the field, but also requires your care. Taking care of your monster builds a bond between the two of you. Marvelous intends for this to be "the greatest social RPG in history," which we can only take to mean you'll be interacting with other humans, and not just fictional critters.
Reel in Prope's Fishing Resort this fall
XSEED is continuing its cozy relationships with both Bandai Namco (which has resulted in Retro Game Challenge, among other things) and developer Prope (whose Ivy the Kiwi? was published by XSEED), announcing a North American release of the Wii fishing game from Yuji Naka's company, Fishing Resort. It's a third-party Wii game in 2011, and thus a rarity. The Wii game puts equal emphasis on both the "fishing" and "resort" aspects -- of course you'll be able to cast for over 200 varieties of fish (and play fishing-related minigames), but you're also given the choice to explore your island surroundings at your leisure, finding spots in different locales from which to fish. And should you develop some skill at the art of virtual fishing, you can take part in competitive play for up to four, and tell the world an incredibly accurate fish story via the leaderboards.%Gallery-128972%
Yuji Naka describes Prope's canceled 'Haunted Tower' for Wii
During an Iwata Asks interview about Wii Play: Motion, Prope's Yuji Naka offered details about a Wii game that he once worked on, but eventually put away. "When Nintendo announced the Wii MotionPlus accessory in the spring two years ago, I suggested to Nintendo a project called Haunted Tower. You defeated monsters outside the screen, so the living room was the scene of the action." This game was never finished, but when Wii Play: Motion came around (a project for which Nintendo recruited several small teams, including Chunsoft and Skip), Prope started working on it again as a potential minigame. The minigame turned out to be too similar to "Spooky Search," the prototype contributed to Wii Play Motion by Naka's former Sonic the Hedgehog collaborator Naoto Oshima. "But in the two weeks left for prototypes," Naka said, "we made 'Trigger Twist,'" the shooting game included in Wii Play: Motion.
Yuji Naka's 'Rodea the Sky Soldier' in motion
At first, you'll probably be underwhelmed with Rodea the Sky Soldier, Yuji Naka's airborne Wii/3DS game, thanks to the anime stereotypes and mid-90s CG look. But as soon as the gameplay starts up in this trailer, it gets more impressive, looking like a high-speed NiGHTs with rail shooter elements.
Yuji Naka unveils 'Machinist of the Sky Rodea' for Wii and 3DS
Here's something refreshing: 3DS news that isn't from a Nintendo event. The latest Famitsu magazine unveiled a new 3DS and Wii game by Yuji Naka and Prope: Machinist of the Sky Rodea, published by Kadokawa Games. Machinist is an anime-style flight game in which you control a character's flight by pointing (with the Wii remote, at least) and shaking, then pressing B in mid-air to fly in different directions. The A button fires projectiles or launches spinning attacks Naka, of course, is no stranger to flights of fancy, having produced NiGHTS into Dreams for Saturn. And, in fact, according to Andriasang, Rodea is designed to "allow players to experience free flight through the skies" without complicated controls.
Let's try Let's Tap's Free Style mode
A year after Let's Tap game's release, Sega has revealed the code to unlock the game's "Free Style" Mode, allowing you to manipulate the Wiimote any way you like instead of setting it down on a flat surface and tapping. Let's ... Shake? Swing? Throw? Wait -- not that last one.
Sonic project lead discusses canceled Kinect / Move titles
At the Eurogamer Expo in the UK this week, Prope head and Sonic the Hedgehog creative lead Yuji Naka spoke of two canceled PlayStation Move/Kinect games he worked on that "unfortunately didn't come out." GamesIndustry.biz reports Naka as saying, "I do enjoy working with new hardware, so I am hoping to create something exciting using those new technologies." He then added, "Actually, I worked on two games which unfortunately didn't come out, but those games were using those two technologies," referring to Sony and Microsoft's motion peripherals. He also spoke to the recent, repeated comments from Capcom global head of production Keiji Inafune regarding Japanese development in comparison to Western development, saying, "You could say that Japanese developers today are behind Western competitors in terms of technology. But at the same time, Japanese developers still come up with new game ideas and styles that are very much different from Western counterparts ... so I do agree with [Inafune's] comments to some extent, but I believe Japanese games technology has its own strong areas to compete with Western titles." In light of Mr. Naka's humility, we'd also like to point out that his team used the Nintendo Wii's motion controller in a completely unique way with Let's Tap, so the thought of them working with Move and Kinect is absolutely thrilling.
Review: Ivy the Kiwi? (Wii)
Prope's Ivy the Kiwi? is a simple game. It has a simple story: a newborn chick, still half-stuck in an egg, searches for her mother. It has simple gameplay: draw vines on the screen to propel Ivy through mazes, avoiding enemies and hazards. But despite (or maybe thanks to) its simplicity, it thrives: the presentation is almost unfairly charming, and Ivy is just plain fun to manipulate in the world. Besides, for such a simple game, it's not easy.%Gallery-100202%
Interview: Yuji Naka on Ivy the Kiwi and life after Sonic
Yuji Naka grew to fame within the game industry as one of the founders of Sega's Sonic Team, the core group of designers and programmers that created the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In his tenure at Sega, Naka produced titles like Phantasy Star Online, Chu Chu Rocket, and Samba de Amigo. He has since left Sega and formed his own company, Prope, who immediately began developing games to be published by ... Sega. Now, with Ivy the Kiwi?, Naka has emerged from the grasp of the great blue hedgehog, with a game published in Japan by Namco Bandai and in America by XSEED. We spoke to Naka about the design of the game, side-scrollers, and the unique circumstances behind seeing your own game on display in someone else's booth.
Preview: Ivy the Kiwi?
For some reason, I thought of Prope's Ivy the Kiwi? as a mellow title, a generally relaxing and lightweight game -- at least that's what I thought before actually playing the game. To my surprise, I was presented with a challenging, often chaotic arcade game instead of a frothy, low-impact diversion. It's just the kind of game I seek out, actually -- a game whose challenge comes from mastering a single, unique gameplay mechanic. %Gallery-95742%
Yuji Naka talks Ivy the Kiwi, teases new action game
In a Gamasutra interview, Prope founder and former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka mentioned that his new company is at work on a new action game -- but not the "game like Sonic" on which the studio was once working. "Unfortunately, we had to stop development for the time being for the 'Sonic-like platform game,'" Naka said. "However, we are in the process of developing another action game right now." As for the company's latest game, the DS- and Wii-bound Ivy the Kiwi?, it came from an experiment by some Prope staffers. "I really felt some great potential in the concept as a game so we decided to make it as a company project and it evolved into Ivy the Kiwi." The project was first released on Windows Phone in Japan, Naka explains, because its touch screen was more stylus-friendly than the iPhone's. "However, Windows phones now have electrostatic type touch panels too and users ended up playing Ivy with their fingers anyways, so maybe we should release it on iPhone as well." %Gallery-92221%%Gallery-92220%
XSEED publishing Prope's 'Ivy the Kiwi?' this summer
click to see more screens?XSEED has acquired the North American publishing rights to Ivy the Kiwi? for Wii and DS, the latest game from Yuji Naka's post-Sega studio, Prope. The puzzle game, presented in a unique "storybook" art style, stars a baby kiwi trying to navigate her way back to her mother. The player uses the stylus or pointer to stretch vines to bounce Ivy through levels and around obstacles. Along the way, players can attempt to pick up optional orange feathers for extra challenge -- that is, if they don't mind keeping a baby bird separated from her mother even longer, the monsters. In Japan, the game was originally released on Windows Phone, with console releases published by Namco Bandai. XSEED is planning a "summer 2010" release -- there's still a question mark on the specific date. %Gallery-92221%%Gallery-92220%
Wii and DS versions of Ivy the Kiwi? revealed
Prope and publisher Bandai Namco sent out the first screens and footage (after the break) of the new Wii and DS versions of the once-Windows Mobile exclusive Ivy the Kiwi?, thus forcing us to fill another post with question marks? Okay, we didn't need that one. The presentation on the console versions of the game is identical to the original, with the unusual sepia-tone color scheme and hand-drawn backgrounds. Both new versions double the number of levels, bringing the game up to a total of 100. And both new versions have multiplayer: local download play on DS and splitscreen on Wii. And, of course, the DS has a map screen. Why not?
Prope's Ivy the Kiwi? migrating to Wii and DS
In November, Yuji Naka's studio, Prope, revealed a new original IP, Ivy the Kiwi? ... for Windows Mobile. The latest Famitsu reveals that the developer is porting the game to some game consoles! Namely, DS and Wii. Namco Bandai will release Ivy the Kiwi in Japan on April 22 -- it's the first Prope game to be published by someone other than Sega or (in the case of the Windows Mobile version) Prope itself. However, despite its origins as a mobile game, and its simple pick-up-and-play gameplay (which involves stretching and bouncing drawn lines to move a bird through a maze), Ivy the Kiwi is destined for retail on consoles, at a price of ¥3,990 ($43). %Gallery-78174%
Prope announces Ivy the Kiwi? for Windows Mobile?
This could be really big news. Yuji Naka's studio, Prope, revealed what is likely to be the "Sonic-like" game mentioned last year. And Ivy the Kiwi?, the studio's new game (the question mark is part of the title), has some interesting mechanics: the game uses drawn lines to propel a character, sort of like Kirby's Canvas Curse or Wireway, but lets players anchor one side of the line and move the other endpoint around while Ivy's on it, for finer control of the character's movement. However, it's for Windows Mobile (or, as the platform is being called in Japan, Windows Phone). Not what you'd typically think of as a major gaming platform. This game is part of a move to change that -- it's a launch title for Japan's Windows Mobile Marketplace and will be out in December. %Gallery-78174%
Let's tap on our iPhones to play Let's Tap on our iPhones
If you've got an iPhone -- and a really secure case to protect it -- you'll be able to play Prope's quirky Wii debut Let's Tap soon. Prope has started releasing individual games from the Wii collection, with the first, Let's Tap: Tap Runner, available on the App Store today for $4. Gem Game will follow on September 25 for .99, with Silent Blocks, Bubble Voyager, and Rhythm Tap coming after that.In case you don't want to risk tapping your phone right off the table, the games offer a "touch" mode in which you can control them by tapping on the screen, or a "free" mode in which you can tap any part of the phone. Let's watch a trailer after the post break![Via GameSetWatch]
Laser Floyd 2K9: Let's Tap used as music visualizer
We're actually kind of surprised we didn't put this together earlier. Let's Tap features a "visualizer" mode that translates your percussive taps to pretty, swirly effects on the screen. SquidTV's Rick Mears got the bright idea to set the Wiimote on top of a speaker, crank up some Pink Floyd (the go-to band for freaky visual effects), and let the movements of the speaker provide the tapping. See for yourself after the break.The result, once it really gets going, is an impressive, abstract display that moves to the beat. And now that we think about it, this must have been Prope's intent all along, as a music visualizer makes so much more sense than ... just a visualizer. Of course, who are we to try to make sense of a game that requires you to keep the controller out of your hands?%Gallery-33707%
