Oi! You! Get your sorry butt back here, ye of little faith. I saw the way you threatened to exit this tab when you saw Yuji Naka’s name in the title, you sly dog. Don’t think I didn’t.
The poor guy gets a bad rap; lest we forget, he was the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, a franchise still alive (ish) and kicking (ish) to this day! Sure, his most recent big-budget endeavour in the gaming world, Balan Wonderworld, was, erm, strange – but still! That’s no reason to tar all his projects with the same brush. I’m sure that whatever it is Naka has come out with next will have all the originality and technical innovation that we used to associate with – what’s that? Oh. It’s a rudimentary puzzle game. On mobile. Built in Unity. As you were.
Yes, it seems that in the wake of Balan Wonderworld being, and let’s not mince words here, a complete and monumental balls-up both critically and commercially, the SEGA legend has chosen to dial back the scale of his work a tad. Of course, this is by no means inherently a bad thing. Lots of the most fantastic games on the market have been made on shoestring budgets, those limitations serving to encourage more creative solutions. The project in question from Naka, then, is called SHOT 2048. It’s a number-puzzle title that optimistically believes we’ll all still be around 27 years from now.
As NintendoLife reports, this is the first game he’s made “completely by himself,” as in without any corporate fatcats or other team members breathing down his neck, in 37 years. Naka announced SHOT 2048 on Twitter, and it can be downloaded this very moment by fans of all things numerical and polygonal on the App Store and Google Play.
Yuji Naka’s official statement
Naka had the following to say about the game: “The purpose is to shot [sic] the same number to make 2048, but aim for more. Tap to move the number left or right, and release your finger to fire the number. If you hit the same number, they will be combined and the numbers will be added. The game is over when the numbers stop in the red ‘game over’ area in the foreground.”
The graphical style sort of reminds me of those subpar bowling alley animations, and in that sense there is a certain charm to it. And hey, I’m sure there are some folks around who’ll say they had more fun with this than poor ol’ Balan. I didn’t mind him. Too much.
Will you be playing SHOT 2048? Let us know!
Via, NintendoLife.
