Yuji Naka

Yuji Naka posing

Heroes are people who affect people's lives in a positive way. They inspire people to have a goal in life. Most usually help people with their problems. A hero could be anyone, a teacher, a firemen, even your next door neighbor! Heroes help people look to the future.

My hero is Yuji Naka. He was born on September 17th, 1965 in the old provincial city of Osaka, Japan. He always had an interest in electronics. Not only did he try to get any video game he could get his hands on, but he also analyzed them to see how they worked. A couple of years of analyzing videogames and he started coding his own games. After graduating from college, he tried out for Namco, a popular arcade making company, but he was rejected. That's when he heared that SEGA was losing it's competition to Nintendo badly. He made it there and got the job. From until now, he still works on the same company to produce quality video games.

first sonic videogame (google.com)

Yuji Naka is known for two things: saving SEGA from losing their chance to confront NINTENDO and, creating the world's most popular speeding rodent. AS soon as he got to join the SEGA company,he started making hundreds of popular but simple games like Phantasy Star. While he worked on these games,SEGA realigned consumer department #3 into a new group called AM8 under Team leader Sinobu Toyoda. Then one day, the company asked Yuji to create a mascot for SEGA. At first, they had an idea for a rabbit that could grab and throw things with its ears but that was too difficult. While Yuji and his friend Oshima Nakayama were having a brainstorm session, Yuji got the idea of a hero that was really, really fast. He also wanted a creature that could curl itself into a ball. "You're talking about a hedgehog," Oshima realized. And with that, Sonic the Hedgehog was born.

present sonic (Google.com)

Everyone knows that a good hero has to have a good nemesis so they came up with Eggman, a crazy genius that wants to mechanise the world. With an I.Q. of 300, he feverishly tested Sonic's heroic capabilities in almost every video game. Yuji Naka also made random made-up characters in Sonic's fith game: Sonic 3D Blast. Then in the more present game in Sonic Heroes, they put in the same people only modified and heroic. They're called Espio the Chameleon, Charmy the bee, and Vector the crocodile. Of course, there are still newer people on to Sonic's history like Shadow the hedgehog, the upcoming Sliver the hedgehog, and many more.

I grew up playing SEGA games. They always made me curious about how video games are made and how they can make them move. That's why I've been inspired by Yuji Naka and his incredible achivements. It's both strange and it makes sense to think that he started playing video games and now, he's making them. I hope that by reading this that you've been just as inspired by Yuji Naka as I have!