What do you mean your modem says no?
Let me know the details and we will fix if there is a problem... (or do you just mean " too slow" ?)
Here is a transcript of that interview for you though:
Q) Can you tell us about Billy Hatcher, just how it originated basically
and how you came up with the idea?
A) Initially we where trying to make a four player game, a fighting game.
Professionally, they use only the shooting and the punching for the
fighting games. But I wanted to make some other unique object, so you' re
thinking about the ball, and on top of that, we really wanted to solidify
the story which can be used on the single player game too. Over the course
of it' s evolution, we thought of egg. Because egg kind of draws out the
imagination of the players, I thought this would be very interesting.
Q) How much involvement did you have in designing the puzzle elements in
the game yourself? From what we' ve played so far there' s some really quite
well thought out puzzles.
A) They are going to use the creatures out of the egg, or they will just
use the egg its self to clear the many kind of puzzles. So I think quite a
bit of the puzzle part has been mostly completed.
Q) Do you have any kind of gameplay or story surprises in Billy Hatcher
later in the game that will add to the replay value of it?
A) Actually Billy Hatcher is a totally different action game. The user has
to move the egg all the time. And also the player mode, this is a four
player game, and you can change the mode in various ways. So I think this
one has a totally different angle to other action games. So I think that
part is very interesting for users.
Q) Why choose to go exclusively on GameCube, is there a plan to make it
for other systems later?
A) The reason is because the user of the GameCube is very close and very
appropriate as the audience of our action game. So basically I would like
the release of Billy Hatcher only on GameCube.
Q) Any plans for an Xbox exclusive game, or a PS2 exclusive game?
A) Actually I' ve been thinking about being exclusive, especially with
experiencing the E3 show this year and it' s not really so desirable. So in
the future I would like to make it more general, I feel that' s going to be
more desirable. As a creator, our goal is to make it for the largest
audience. If the children can' t play my game because they don' t have a
certain hardware, it' s very sad. At that point, exclusive is not really so
desirable for users.
Q) Would you say that Sonic Heroes is a proper sequel to Sonic Adventure
2? Or is Sonic Adventure 3 another game that will appear in the future?
A) The adventure series is completed with Adventure 2. So the adventure
Heroes is a brand new thing. Storywise there are some parts that continue
on, however this is a brand new style of game.
Q) The three characters that you control simultaneously in Heroes, in the
first level of the game we' ve seen there at the show, it' s not that easy
to see how this element of gameplay would be utilized in later levels
where it might become less of a gimmick and more of a function. Can you
tell us anything about how that will function in later levels?
A) You can really change formation depending on what you like. You can
really make a formation within the three characters, you can go to various
places, new places, and you can really choose your function. You can fly,
or you can fight, or you can be empowered or get more freedom. You can
find hidden places to go.
Q) Do you get any special rewards for searching around and finding the
secret areas?
A) I suppose that the reworked system is quite similar to the previous
Sonic games in the form of points or you can collect more rings and so on.
With this game we tried to provide more of variety of game style by
providing team action. The user can really make more styles in the game.
Q) Sonic is a character that has obviously been around for over 10 years,
while other characters have come, gone and failed. Why has Sonic lasted so
long and what are your feelings on that?
A) Well to last for a long time you have to have a very good fan. You have
to sissify the user, and the user has to be happy. I can tell only after a
game has sold well and if a fan likes a game that I can keep going. So the
only reason is because our user, you know many children, really like
Sonic.
Q) What' s your favourite game over the past year that you' ve been playing?
A) I don' t really have any specific title. But I like racing games.
Basically I like cars and racing, and I myself participate in real racing.
So my racing game time is vastly reduced. My car is the 360 Spider and I
was in the Suzuka race, also there' s about ten races I participate in
during a year.
Q) Would you like to make your own racing game?
A) I' ve been racing for three years, but if I can make a game based on my
real experience, it would be really nice.
Q) You' ve had a chance to look at the other games at the show, have any
caught your eye?
A) When I look at the floor, I can see so many number two, and number
three of the original titles and I feel very sad. I didn' t see so many
original titles this year. Among all those, we release many new games, and
new styles. So I think ours was the best.
Q) Can I ask how Sega plans, as a whole, to use it' s back catalogue of
games released in the past, how it plans to use them in the future?
A) Well we released the Mega Collection this year. Also in the Adventure
series are hidden GameGear titles, so we' ll make an effort and even the
new audience can really enjoy the old titles.
Q) What was your role in the original Sonic titles? A lot of people have a
different understanding about what your actual role was.
A) As for the original titles, I was involved from the beginning of the
creation of the game. So the character was born in the kind of stream of
creating a game. So I was involved from the beginning of the character,
and I gave the game a direction. I was a main programmer also, so I was
involved in every aspect of the original Sonics. Some of the details, such
as making the maps, was done by the guy who' s involved in Jak & Daxter 2
right now. For your information the guy who is now involved on Jak &
Daxter 2, actually he was involved until Sonic 3. After that, for eight
years, he didn' t do anything in Sega so we really didn' t need him. So it
wasn' t really so comfortable for us.
Q) Do you miss, or does your team miss, creating games for proprietary
Sega hardware platform?
A) Yes I miss that very much. When Sega was a little more idolized, and is
ready to do with it' s own proprietary hardware then I will really
definitely want to work on it.
Q) Do you think that will happen?
A) I will try hard. In order to realize that I' m working really hard.
Q) Supposing that didn' t happen though, and Sega' s medium term fate was
some kind of merger activity, how would you like to see Sega end up if
that was the case? Who would you like to see them merge with if they had
to merge with a company?
(The PR person seems to step in at this point, preferring Yuji not to
answer that one)
Q) Just wanted to get some reaction to Sony' s announcement to PSP. Some
thought on it perhaps, and just what you think the potential could be?
A) I think I' m very interested in the portable stuff. As for the media
they are using, the optical disc, and target cost and lead time, it' s
going to be very interesting and exciting.
Q) Where you enthusiastic about working on the N-Gage platform from Nokia?
A) It was really exciting at the beginning, but the release time kept
being delayed. They told us they where going to be starting to sell it in
the Spring, but the game it' s self was completed a long time ago and they
haven' t really started to sell yet, so it' s kind of disappointing.
Q) Do you think the N-Gage' s price is too expensive for most people at
$299?
A) Comparing to what I thought, it' s much cheaper, they did a really good
job on that price.
Q) Are you still as passionate about games as you ever where? Do you still
get to play games for leisure time?
A) Right now I really don' t have much time to play other peoples games. I
have just enough time to play my games. If I have a little free time I
play really easy games, where you don' t have to invest so much time, such
as Mario and Wario. Maybe Wario. That kind of game is very suitable to me,
if it' s portable, even more so. Currently in Japan, we are making around
30 titles of games that are utilizing Java. Also every month we update
games. So when you have a game on the cellphone, you can really enjoy the
game very easily. So if this kind of thing can be done overseas, it would
be great.
Q) Many Sega fans would like to see a sequel to NiGHTS, and I was
wondering if that is possible, and perhaps some explanation as to why it
hasn' t happened sooner?
A) Well our team has about 100 team members, and within the resource we
have to make Sonic, Phantasy Star Onlines, and the brand new titles such
as Billy Hatcher. I think we get a lot of requests for a consecutive title
but we just simply don' t have enough resources, don' t have enough
personnel to do that.
-- Ok thanks for that chaps, thank you very much.
A special thanks once again to Adam from
https://www.kikizo.com/ and Yuji
Naka for this interview. To see the interview in its original Video form,
all 16 and a half minutes in a 21mb high resolution video can be
downloaded from Kikizo!