Yuji Naka Expectedly Leaves Square Enix
A few years ago, Sonic creator Yuji Naka took up residence at Square Enix to make his next game. Naka, for anyone who doesn’t know, is the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and the director of the Blue Blur’s first few games, as well as a few other Sega classics like Nights Into Dreams and Billy Hatcher. There was high anticipation for what he was about to create next. Naka set up an internal studio at Square called “Balan Company” and began work on a project meant to revive a dead genre: the 3D mascot platformer. A noble goal — this reporter misses them terribly. Unfortunately, what he ended up creating was one of 2021’s biggest bombs. Balan Wonderworld, as it came to be called, released its demo earlier this year. We played it and were massively disappointed. The environments, despite having a colorful and creative design, felt empty and lifeless. The tasks you had to perform felt simplistic and boring. And the framerate was incredibly bad, dipping into the
