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Yuji Naka Catering to Flightless Bird Niche?

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First hedgehogs, now penguins.

Seriously, what the hell.
You know, when you stop and think about it, Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty weird, and a little bit arbitrary. Why would a hedgehog be so fast? Why, for the love of jeez, is he blue? And what's up with the whole obsession with rings? Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, continues to confound with this teaser site for his upcoming untitled game. Featuring little more than a bemused looking penguin and the text "World first, the game that even penguins can play." the site offers little insight into just what the hell is going on here. Will it feature a chartreuse rollerskating Emperor penguin named Loopy on a quest to collect expired foreign passports? Will the game come packed-in with a penguin companion for co-op play? The mysteries, and poorly conceived theories, abound!

We should know a little more about this new project soon enough, as there's a countdown clock on the site with 17 days currently remaining, which is, coincidentally, right around the first day of the Tokyo Game Show. Hopefully we'll get to see this mystery project at the Makuhari Messe for ourselves.
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Sonic the Hedgehog
13 Comments
Posted by Ryan
Seriously, what the hell.
You know, when you stop and think about it, Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty weird, and a little bit arbitrary. Why would a hedgehog be so fast? Why, for the love of jeez, is he blue? And what's up with the whole obsession with rings? Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, continues to confound with this teaser site for his upcoming untitled game. Featuring little more than a bemused looking penguin and the text "World first, the game that even penguins can play." the site offers little insight into just what the hell is going on here. Will it feature a chartreuse rollerskating Emperor penguin named Loopy on a quest to collect expired foreign passports? Will the game come packed-in with a penguin companion for co-op play? The mysteries, and poorly conceived theories, abound!

We should know a little more about this new project soon enough, as there's a countdown clock on the site with 17 days currently remaining, which is, coincidentally, right around the first day of the Tokyo Game Show. Hopefully we'll get to see this mystery project at the Makuhari Messe for ourselves.
Staff
Posted by Dryker

Wow, didn't know Ryan and Jeff posted commentary this late. Wait... I guess for people like me. Okay, goodnight. 

Posted by selfdestroyer

It will be a pink sloth that is so hella slow there will be 1000 hours of game play with only 5 missions.

Posted by SamFo

Balance board game, heard it here first!

Posted by The_A_Drain

Sounds lame already... Some franchises just need to die a slow, quiet death... Or be reinvigorated with an RPG, we'll see how that turns out...

Posted by MasterSplinter

OK.. is it just me or does one of the blurry images flashing in the background of that website resemble Big the Cat, or maybe even a character from Nights? I am clueless as to how or why they would coincide with penguins, but I couldn't help but notice it after examination of the site. I think it's the purple hue, but hey I might be crazy.

Posted by jakob187

Well, here's some info for you:

1.  Looks like a countdown in the top right.
2.  It's a game being developed for the Wii.
3.  Prope is indie, so it'll more than likely end up being something extremely weird but addicting like Katamari Damacy.
4.  It probably doesn't have anything to do with penguins.  They are simply stating that the game is highly accessible, which is a world first.  = D

And in other news...who cares?

@MasterSplinter:  Yuji Naka has gone on record and stated that he has no intentions or ambitions to return to any of his previous Sega properties.  Therefore, don't expect any connection other than the fact that Sega is financing his shit.

@ahoodedfigure:  The company was started in 2006.  Doubt it's announcing the company at all.
Posted by ahoodedfigure
this link has a better preview site than the international one is, unless there's something I'm not getting on the first one.

And by digging, I guess I already know a smidgen about this little project:

"PROPE, Ltd.

"PROPE" (pronounced "pro-pe") is a Latin word which means "beside" and "near" future.

We named our company PROPE in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users,
establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment. "

This is a company, I think.  Not a game.  If I'm right, I think the English announcement might just be "game" because of poor translation.  In Japanese, words don't have a distinction between singular and plural without stating the number, so it could simply have meant "The games that even penguins could play."  It could be a game, and if there's something other than that teaser site to go on, I'd buy the argument.  Right now, it just looks like they're saying that the company exists, and that they won't be making Sonic games since Sega owns the rights to Sonic. 

I know more than that from my cusory digging.  Feel free to ask me for more or correct what I got wrong.  I don't want to make this post too big.

@jakob187: Good point
Posted by albedos_shadow

"Will it feature a chartreuse rollerskating Emperor penguin named Loopy on a quest to collect expired foreign passports?" I certain;y hope so.

Posted by Snail

I guess Sonic kinda worked cos it was a hedgehog, not the most popua fo animals, and I can't think of any other game franchise right now that involves hedgehogs. But penguins?! Come on! They appear in TV all the time and... stuff.

Posted by MrKlorox

Sonic should have been an ostrich.

Posted by Media_Master
Posted by Willy105

New IP from creator of Sonic? Cool!

Use your keyboard!

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