Yuji Naka talks about leaving Sega and making Prope
Posted by George. Filed under George, Nintendo Wii, Sonic. Tagged with Prope, Yuji Naka.
In a interview with Gamasutra, Yuji Naka talks about why he left Sega and how he got around to making his new studio called Prope. Apparently he had a high position in Sega where he didn’t really get involve with making games, just overseeing. This is possibly the first time I heard someone complain about wanting to be demoted.
“Really, if you’re a game creator, no matter how high a position you have in the industry, you need to keep creating.”
He also says he wants to make “Let’s” type games into a series, if they sell well enough. But what about a platforming game?
Let’s Tap gameplay trailer
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, News, Nintendo Wii, Video. Tagged with Gameplay, Let's Tap, Prope, Trailer.
Sega Japan has just released a new gameplay trailer for Let’s Tap. The trailer shows off a few of the game’s different gameplay modes.
If you don’t know, Let’s Tap is a collection of (weird) mini games, but the unique thing is that you only control the game by resting your Wiimote on a flat surface (like a box) and then tap the surface. The Wiimote picks up on the vibrations you create.
I’m really looking forward to this game, possibly out of curiosity more than anything - it all looks too crazy. The Tap Runner and the Bubble Voyager look great fun though.
[Via Siliconera]
New Let’s Tap screens
Posted by George. Filed under George, Japan, Nintendo Wii. Tagged with Let's Tap, Prope, Screenshots, Yuji Naka.
Kotaku posted these up and I don’t really recall seeing them up on here (at least not all of them). So here they are, check out the nice water effects and bright balloons.Â
Let’s Tap and Let’s Catch will come out on December 19th in Japan, no release dates for the west announced. So who is going to import this?
Hit the jump for more screens
TGS 08: Kotaku get hands-on with Let’s Tap
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, News, Nintendo Wii, Video. Tagged with Hands on, Let's Tap, Prope, TGS 08.
It may have only been officially revealed a week or so ago, but the game has made it’s debut this year’s Tokyo Game Show and the Kotaku boys have given us their first impressions of the game, with one of the mini-games, “Tap Runner.”
Turns out the Wii remote is surprisingly sensitive at picking up these little taps. Get a bit too excited and you may accidentally jump. But you can also control the height of your jump by smacking the box with varying degrees of intensity.
“Tap Runner” isn’t much more than a track and field style event, full of pits, hurdles, jump pads and electrified orbs. It’s disarmingly fun and up to four players can compete head to head in a series of races (GameSpot’s Brian Ekberg and I ran a quick trio of minute-long sprints.)
The game has a nice graphical style, with “Tap Runner” having a bit of Tron aesthetic.
Check out the rest of their impressions, here.
[Source: Kotaku]
[Image from Kotaku]
TGS 08: Prope working on a Sonic like game
Posted by George. Filed under George, Japan, Sonic. Tagged with Prope, TGS 08, Yuji Naka.
I was disappointed at both games announced by Prope. I think we all expected a platforming game, not a game where you catch a ball. Well Yuji Naka spilled the beans when talking with Gamasutra at TGS:
“At Prope, we’re actually planning on making a game like Sonic right now. We want to keep trying to make various kinds of games.”
Why not just make a Sonic game? Prope, always trying to prove something! Gamasutra has promised a interview with Yuji Naka in the near future, should be interesting.
[Image Sega]
[Source Gamastura]
Let’s Catch - details and screens
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, News, Nintendo Wii. Tagged with Prope, WiiWare.
With all the excitement/mild confusion surrounding Let’s Tap we are a little delayed in reporting on Prope’s other new title, Let’s Catch. By looking at the logos, it is pretty clear that Prope are trying to establish a new “Let’s” franchise.Â
Unlike Let’s Tap, Let’s Catch is confirmed to be a WiiWare title and, quite naturally, revolves around using the Wiimote to play the game. Essentially it is a virtual game of catch.Â
Yep, for all of us out there who are afraid of sunlight, fresh air and potential rapists, we can now stand in the living room and pretend to catch a ball!
Check after the break for details on the game modes and screenshots.
First gameplay footage of Let’s Tap
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Nintendo Wii, Video. Tagged with Gameplay, Let's Tap, Prope, Trailer.
Earlier we reported on Prope’s new title, Let’s Tap. The first couple of screens wesaw were pretty blurred and it was hard to tell just what was going on. Then we very quickly got our hands on some much better screenshots of the game, and it became pretty clear that it would be a set of mini-games.Â
But we still didn’t have confirmation on how the game was to be played or why it is called “Let’s Tap.“Â Now, with this video, some of our questions have been answered.
[Updated] Prope’s new game called “Let’s Tap”
Posted by George. Filed under George, News, Nintendo Wii. Tagged with Let's Tap, Prope.
We already knew that penguins could play it, people even said it was a rythmn game. But today at Nintendo’s fall confrence they spilled the name of the new Prope game, called Let’s Tap. Its being called the first “Wiimote free” game. I’m assuming you play with the balance board?
The image above is the game running, I don’t know what to make of it. Any guesses on how this game will play? The game looks like it could be a Wiiware game.
[Update] We have some much better screens for you now, which shed a little more light on the game. After the break.
Yuji Naka’s Prope studio gets teaser site [update]
Posted by George. Filed under George. Tagged with Prope, Yuji Naka.
Sega of Japan just put up a new countdown site for Prope. All you see at the site is what I posted above. Yes, the first game a penguin can play. All I can say is that PETA is going to be pissed off. You shouldn’t be testing video games on animals, that is what Sega Nerds are for!
We still have 10 days to kill, so let’s all start guessing what this game is. How about a game about mating with penguins?
[Update: It seems that Sega delayed the announcement, and we now have to wait 17 days. I guess we will find out more about the game at TGS.]
[Image SegaXPrope]
[Thanks Yu Suzuki]
Prope - Yuji Naka’s new company
Posted by Nathan. Filed under Nathan, News. Tagged with Prope.
Yuji Naka, former head of Sonic Team, left Sega 10 months ago to form his own new development studio - Prope. So far, Prope has still not announced any titles.
They are, however, recruiting talent. A recent advertisement in Yahoo Japan’s career search service features a message from Naka. According to him, Prope will not be developing sequels to any Sega properties. No new NiGHTS, Samba de Amigo, or Sonic games, at least from Prope.
The ad clarifies Prope’s relationship with Sega. Prope is completely independent from Sega, meaning they can develop games with total freedom. Sega does have an exclusive agreement to publish all games from Prope, making them akin to “2nd-party” developers like Nintendo’s Hal Laboratories.
More details at The GHZ.