Sonic Co-Creator Joins Nintendo

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sorry, didn't know where else to post this.

For reference, he is the man who directed and designed the levels for Sonic 1, 2, and 3K.

This man needs to work on a Sonic and Mario game yesterday!

[Eddy]

I hope so! Enough with the Olympics already. Give the world the Sonic/Mario platformer crossover we've been craving since 1991.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Haha, one of the rumors is that since Retro is working on some kind of action game that NST (the studio he just joined) is going to be working on a Donkey Kong Country game. If Hirokazu Yasuhara is designing levels for a 2D platformer, then we all win.

Honestly, I'm just glad he's back in the game again. He contributed to the early Sonic games, the Jak games, and the first Uncharted, and to hear he'd been wasted at Namco basically doing nothing was such a shock.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Production history

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) ? Director, Game Planner, Project
Fatal Labyrinth (1991) ? Director, Game Planner
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) ? Director, Game Planner, Object Placement, Project
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) ? Director, Lead Game designer
Sonic & Knuckles (1994) ? Director, Lead Game designer
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (1994) ? Director, Lead Game designer
Sonic 3D Blast (1995) ? Playfield Design, Saturn Enhancements
Sonic Xtreme (1996) ? Head Designer
Sonic R (1997) ? Map Design Director
The Floigan Brothers: Episode 1 (2001) ? Game Designer
Jak 2 (2003) ? Game Designer
Jak 3 (2004) ? Game Designer
Jak X: Combat Racing (2005) ? Game Designer
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007) ? Game Designer
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) ? Game Designer
Pacman 30th Lead Game Design
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011) ? Game Designer

Most unsung hero in the game world? Possibly.

[Avaitor]

Oh wow, that's a pretty impressive resume.

[Foggle]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) ? Director, Game Planner, Project
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) ? Director, Game Planner, Object Placement, Project
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) ? Director, Lead Game designer
Sonic & Knuckles (1994) ? Director, Lead Game designer
Jak 2 (2003) ? Game Designer
Pacman 30th Lead Game Design

[Kiddington]

Wow, he worked on Sonic X-Treme? Interesting. For being vaporware that was never anywhere close to being a finished product, that game still looked pretty sweet.

I must say, that's some resume. Good work by Nintendo in getting him; looking forward to see what he does with Mario if given the chance (it's such a perfect fit, they just have to do this).

[Spark Of Spirit]

I know he wasn't really given much at Namco (He probably worked on the Pac-Man stuff), but if Nintendo is hiring him for NST and truly revamping them into a great studio like the rumors say, then hopefully he gets to show his stuff. I bet if he was the lead designer and director on the Uncharted games, they wouldn't have been so scripted. The man's an expert at designing levels without funneling the player.

[gunswordfist]

Dammit, he's the guy that did the level design for the Genesis Sonic games, isn't he?