Sonic X-Treme - What Happened?
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#mattmcmuscles #whahappun #sonicthehedgehog - Hry
Saturn Homebrew Development Footage By Emerald Nova: czcams.com/channels/Lwdwj0wK4RotV0Dmh0DXlQ.html
To clarify, that's not development footage of Sonic Xtreme, but of my game: Seniriu. I live stream Saturn homebrew programming. If you want to get into Saturn homebrew, there are many resources and tutorials linked on emeraldnova.com . Also, we have an annual Saturn homebrew competition with cash prizes. The Sega Xtreme community is always willing to help new people get into game development.
Free the homie sonic!!!
I'd like to get into homebrewing one day. Not for Saturn, but rather Dreamcast. Dunno anything about the process yet, but I'll be sure to look into it once I've got a good computer to do so on.
Why do people hate fisheye ? I wouldn't mind playing this. It actually looks easy in the eye while being able to see what's coming forward in a distance ON A SIDE SCROLLER.
The problem is the crapy level design that plays like Croc and definitely doesn't suit sonic. I think people'd die mostly due to depth appréciation than actual level difficulty.
And i didn't know fisheye effect was so easy to do in real time that it ran on saturn ! Why don't we have curvy feild of view in modern games instead of that wide angle perspective crapp that actually shrinks the center of the screen and prevents you to see what you need to see ?
Sorry but I got a bit confused, what is the game shown at 2:30? is that and super super early versions of Sonic "4"?
Man, knowing one of the devs literally moved into the studio and some of them nearly died devoting their entire lives to a game that never released is absolutely heartbreaking.
Honestly if i were in their shoes i would have quite, they were put in no conditions that anyone should have to work under. Thrown under the bus by superiors CONSTANTLY.
That is exactly why crunch culture is toxic
@@TheHuskyK9 crunch helps finishing game faster
-Bad Game Director
@@flow185 If one woman can produce a baby in nine months, that means three women can produce a baby in three months, right?
Yeah that made me really sad.
Sega Japan: We need Saturn Sonic ASAP
Sega America: OK, SDKs and a 3D engine would be nice.
Sega Japan: Who are you?
Kids were busy thinking about Nintendo vs Sega, but the real battle was Sega Vs Sega.
Which somebody should do, because former Sonic 2/Spinball devs and STI where more than happy to talk about in the early 2000's.
@@Oh-Ben There's a book called Console Wars that details the war between Sega and Nintendo during the 16-Bit Era. It also talks about how Sega of Japan constantly sabotaged Sega of America
Sega of Japan: New phone who dis?
@@Snake4985 but why, why kill your own branch of your tree when you fucking own it?
@@Snake4985 Is that the one by Harris? I was interested, but reviews are saying it’s less of a 3rd person, documentary-style look at the facts of the situation and more of a biased, novel-like story with made-up dialog and other weird stuff.
“Yuji Naka threatened to leave if the team used his technology”
Wow, all of a sudden I don’t feel bad that Balan Wonderworld flopped
"His" technology... Whatever you create when you work for a company belongs to that company.
@@chrismanuel9768
Honestly, same.
If the last few years can teach us something, is that neither Sonic nor SEGA need Yuji Naka in order to succeed.
Sega was a terrible influence on the man. His luck only got worse when Kadokawa sabotaged Rodea the Sky Soldier. The final straw was his overconfidence with Balan Wonderworld. Seriously his fall from grace all leads back to the same thing, corporate douchebaggery. 😔
@@garretts6678 npcs have this weird complex with Japanese "developers" like yuji Naka, tetsuya Nomura, masahiro Sakurai, that they're somehow better than the average suit. They're really not, yet when they mess up people feel like their heart is being ripped out of their chest. Like they just found out Santa isn't real except instead of milk and cookies it's soy and crickets
@@garretts6678 SEGA hasn't been an influence on Yuji since 2006, and so far, he hasn't done anything but producing mediocre to terrible games.
Don't blame on SEGA if Naka doesn't know how to make games anymore.
Let me get this straight, Sega of America didn't have Devkits to develop the game of their main mascot, to their own platform? Sega of America and Sega of Japan looked like they were not only at a cold relationship, but almost at a civil war.
They where at war with each other. Sonic 2's development was a nightmare. They hired new talent for the project. Zero experience in games (this was seen a plus back then) so they knew how nothing worked. The Japanese leads taught them how it worked, but nothing beyond that. The computer they used would straight up delete files if the files name started with a lowercase "s". This was apparently known by the senior staff. If anything got scrapped, it was more than likely something the US staff made (Hidden Palace). The final game only featured a handful of designs made by the US staff (These people WHERE HIRED TO WORK ON THIS GAME). They went on to Sonic Spinball and alot of their scrapped designs were used there. Sonic 3 only had 1 or 2 Americans working on it. They couldn't even be proud that SoA made 2 and 3 because they technically had nothing to do with it. (How Yuji Naka ended out in SoA is another story, lets just say it wasn't his choice). So the seed was set here. SoA felt that its management of Sonic and its success was due to their marking, which it was, and Sega of Japan did not respect them for their efforts, which they didn't. At no point did the Japanese staff help the US branch. Japan was almost actively sabotaging SoA's games, while SoA was trying to make sure SoJ's games would sell in a western market, something SoJ still care to think about. Mind you in Japan, the Mega Drive was not a success and still isn't seen to fondly to this day, outside of Sonic, Japan cannot name alot of MD games, they loves the SNES that much. SoJ wasn't convinced the next generation was going 3D, while the American branch was trying to secure deals with graphics companies, SoJ was working on making sure the Saturn could perfectly port the best Arcade games. SoA was able to secure a good deal with one company, because like any realistic person knew what the future of video games was. At some point, Sega saw a working demo of a Nintendo game or PlayStation game and shit their pants. They made whatever last minute changes to get the Saturn to run 3D games. This is why the Saturn was a nightmare to program 3D games for, it wasn't designed for it (Sonics model in Sonic R, his torso and legs model are stored separately from each other as an example). Guess what, remember that deal SoA worked out, who needed it, they went with a rival instead. Most of SoA was gone by the time the Dreamcast hit due to the terrible mismanagement of the Saturn.
Imagine if Nintendo and Sony both made games for the Playstation. 2 rivals working on the same console, that is what Sega of America and Sega of Japan was like.
@@Oh-Ben I remember watching a video about that hardware deal! If I remember correctly those people came to Sega of America because they were personal fans of the sega brand. The president of sega of America made an appointment and everything to show off the graphical power of what they were trying to sell and Sega of Japan treated them like shit, even going to an extent of saying they weren’t impressed with that technology. That same company than went to Nintendo and Nintendo made the N64 with their hardware while the sega saturn flopped. Sega of Japan had way too much pride.
@@GAPSYO3O1 poor Kalinsky, the only man with a brain at Sega
Man if both sides worked together and have no issues with the Saturn they probably would've still made consoles to this day.
@@GAPSYO3O1 that’s insane, if sega would’ve developed using that hardware, it wouldn’t smoked every other console on the market at the time because it would be n64 technology with a disc drive.
This sounds so Sega: Being their own worst enemy.
Sega infighting
Sega: Shoots one foot, second guesses itself and then shoots the other one.
If they cooperate together, Sega could be a force to be reckon with and give Nintendo a run for their coins in the gaming world but no.
Because the best way to fight your competitors is start an internal civil war between your employees.
@@hashimr.5473 Tbh SEGA is doing better than ever when it comes to video games. They have Persona series, The Yakuza series, Hatsune Miku series, PSO2 etc. And whenever the hell Bayonetta 3 releases it gonna be great. Its just The Sonic series they're taking a shit on.
So Naka has been Sabotaging developers since the 90's? What a surprise...
Welp, he got he got a taste of his own medicine with Balan Wonderland.
Oh, Yuji Naka.
You’ve... You’ve gone insane.
You and Oshima. That’s what happens when you give up on Sega and let them almost rot and die with no remorse. I know that was a long time ago but have they really CHANGED since then?
When i was a kid I looked up to Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima. Now I don’t even know what to think. None of us do.
Based Naka
Let's be real here, nothing Naka could offer would save this game. I don't blame him for not wanting his work associated with this crap. Sega's bullshit organization or lack thereof was the real problem.
I mean that engine is probably his only redeeming quality.
I feel this story is the best example of why Sega lost the console wars. Internal fighting, office politics, the kind of blind pride that dictatorships are known for, and multiple members of the company intentionally sabotaging other branches and themselves for seemingly petty reasons. It's no wonder Sega went on such a downward spiral.
You see it was never really Sega vs Nintendo. It was Sega vs Sega.
Sega does what Sega don't
@@isaacbear7115 No one will really agree with me but at the time in the 90s, people were more naturally inclined to buy Sega than Nintendo. It's just when Sega got dysfunctional, Playstation took it's spot in pop culture.
"An empire toppled by its enemies can rebuild. But one that crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."
Nintendo won all along. I mean they are Nintendo after all. Not even Sega could beat em. They cannot beat it.
Yuji Naka threatened to quit because Sega wanted a bit of Sega's own tech? And you say this killed Sega of America?
**Looks at Balan**
Huh. I guess karma finally caught up with him.
Hardly. Naka knew was a disaster this game was and wanted nothing his team developed attached to it. It would've just made them look bad. The incompetence of both Sega at large and the divided teams were responsible for this failure, not him. They had no united idea to make anything work.
Ooooo ouch yeah that's how it be
Kinda like happened with Mighty No. 9 as Inafune might also tried to light Capcom on fire
Sega of Japan had been practically trying to kill Sega of America ever since Sega of America managed to actually be successful over here. You know, a NORMAL company would be elated to have a popular video game system in the USA. Whereas Sega of Japan became petty and spiteful and actively sabotaged Sega of America on more than one occasion (for example: killing Eternal Champions so it wouldn't take attention away from Virtua Fighter).
You would THINK a company started by American businessmen in Japan wouldn't be so hostile to it's own American branch.
@@OptimumTaurus
Yeah, that's something that never really made sense to me; you'd think that the lure of big $$$ would transcend petty pride.
This coming out the same week as the news that Yuji Naka has left Square Enix seems slightly poetic considering that fiasco with the NiGHTS Engine.
I'll never understand why Square hired him in the first place. You'd think that when interviewer asked can he make an rpg or a game with a story and he got a deer in headlights look, he should said no.
Yuji Naka can suck it for being so possessive of an engine (Nights) that was the property of his employer and that absolutely should have been shared and reused for the good of everyone in development. What a spoiled brat.
He deserves all the egg on his face from BANAL wonder-butt. He probably ran Sonic '06 into the ground and vamoosed when he realized that he screwed the pooch.
@@teranokitty Tbh, looking at how Yuji Naka is going right now, maybe he was one of the issues for Sonic 06's downfall, he did leave right in the middle of development. And if we look at the fan remake, P-06, that game doesnt change level design. All it does is just give Sonic actual momentum to his movement and adds in moves that weren't able to be added in the original and it actually becomes a fun game.
@@amazaine8743 yuji naka was lead programmer at sonic team forever. every post-genesis sonic title he worked on got increasingly jankier with each new release. i think it's safe to say he's not a very good programmer and likely a big reason why every 3d sonic game before colors/generations is awful
Can you lot be worst assholes?
The absolute kicker to the story about Naka throwing a tantrum over the NiGHTS engine is Yuji Naka visited an American team making a rail shooter game for Dreamcast. He turned to some execs from SoJ and said, in Japanese, take the engine they made and use it in Sonic Adventure, then cancel the American game and fire everyone.
He didn't realize someone from the American team knew Japanese and heard him.
What a douche, Iizuka is the real guy that cares about Sonic and is not a dick
Douchébag. The man is a douchébag.
That sounds so cartoonishly evil I have to believe it
8:26 is extra funny for me cuz apparently saying "good luck" to someone in Japan has the alternate meaning of "you're screwed".
Pretty much the same here in America half the time.
It depends on what phrase was used. "Good luck" could easily be "ganbare" and that phrase's connotation is closer to "do your best" than "you're screwed".
Yeah, I’ve definitely told someone “good luck” as a nice way to avoid saying “it looks like you are figuratively driving off a cliff and I have no idea how to help you other than to hope you get away with only minor repercussions and I know that isn’t actually being helpful” a few times before. Basically, when someone is meant to be giving advice and they can only say “good luck”, you’re pretty much screwed lol.
"You're on the road to Ruin. I wish you all the best of luck."
That's a universal thing. You never want to hear 'good luck' when your coworker is clocking out while you clock in.
Sega sabotaged themselves back in the 90's? That's unpossible!
They never stopped.
And they never will.
Haha, 32x & saturn!
The day Sega consciously makes a good business choice and learns from it is the day the universe ends.
@Merlin the M.S. Empathizer Sonic Forces: But I exist!!
Lol. The mismanagement, petty and egotistical higher ups and developers as well as mistreatment of employees, people wonder why Sega went bankrupt only to be saved by a miraculous kind man
The level of Sega's 90s dysfunction was insane. Just... everything about this is so utterly *classic sega*.
@@THB192 Specially the second half of the 90's.
@@N12015 No, even in the first half of the 90s. In the second half it all started coming apart, but even early on the cracks were starting to show.
SEGA didn't deserve that generous man
I really don't understand SEGA's thought process here. "We need a brand-new, genre-defining 3D debut game for Sonic that'll blow away Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot and give our new console life. Let's give it to the underequipped ancillary team we have little direct communication with, and give them barely any time to make it!"
not to mention making it to lead into the cancelled movie which i feel like would've made reviews if things had gone remotely smoothly still potentially worse due to the cliffhanger ending of the game, and who knows about how the movie would've factored in if they were gonna continue the game plot, have it tangentially related to game, or what
I believe one early name for Sonic X-Treme was 'Sonic Blue Streak' but Chris Senn commented, "That sounds like something a smurf leaves in a diaper" so they opted not to.
It sounds like a fancier way to say wet fart, quite the depresso energy title right there.
ZONE TOONS --- and also the names "Sonic Boom" and "Sonic Doom" we're consired too.
I wish they'd just done it. That final bit of iconoclasm would have been a cherry on top.
@@falendemo546 One of them was about Sonic being poisoned and each act was timed and the final boss called “The Chaos Doom”
Sonic Forces you to come up with a better name.
Ah Sega, the company that could've easily been at the top of the gaming industry if they'd just managed to keep their heads out of their asses for more than 5 minutes
Once again, Sega's worst enemy is itself.
90s Sega is gonna 90s Sega
Sega of Japan did a lot of that leg work. Especially when it comes to the release of the Saturn in America.
And Yuji Naka
90s SoJ had gone insane... and had the kind of money in the bank where they could just blow through hundreds of millions and seemingly not notice.
I recommend the book console wars. One of the major points in the book is about how Sega of Japan screwed over Sega of America and in turn, fucked Sega's chances of succeeding.
Let me guess: Sega of Japan's still salty about the U.S. making better Sonic characters than they do?
@@ottagol1985 i'm not totally sure- the og sonic team is like.. gone
like, barely anybody from the original team still works at sega.
though knowing the development of mania, i know takashi genuinely was very happy to work with christian and enjoyed the work he presented to him.
@@ottagol1985 They literally made Sega of America's CEO the bad guy of a game about Sega on Dreamcast. SEGAGAGA
@@mkge7206 which is ironic since that president of sega of America was constantly trying to keep sega ahead of the game and trying hard to keep sega strong in the US. He singlehandedly made sega popular with advertising alone, He would outright tell sega of Japan how stupid their ideas were, he told them how dumb the idea for the 32x was, he told them he hated the sega CD, and he even tried to get sega of Japan better hardware for the Saturn that was then used for the N64 because Japan thought their hardware was “weak” and that they had better hardware already in development. Sega of Japan was just too prideful, they were literally given every opportunity to be successful and they refused out of spite! I mean hindsight is 20/20 but they literally had people knocking on their door to help them succeed lol.
@@GAPSYO3O1 SEGA of Japan is one of the most cynical companies there is. The fact that they jumped on the Mini cashcow and are milking it in a way that would make Nintendo blush is telling enough (not even mentioning the GG Micro). The 32x isn't even their first scam, making the SG-1000 before abandoning it one year later is telling enough of their care for customer respect.
I don't think a single one of us would blame you if you became a Sonic-tuber for half a year, the blue bastard is a gold mine of Whuhabben content
Not really.
Ehhhh, that's stretching things. Sonic hasn't actually had that many 'bad' games, and he's covered pretty much all of them.
The Sonic franchise as a whole isn't 'bad', it's just really weird due to the 'Kids franchise with cute animals that sometimes deals with edgelord stuff and romance' thing.
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 Respectfully beg to differ. As a franchise, I'd argue it had a few years of traction, got hit by a bus, then spent two decades being dragged around, occasionally finding its footing by sheer chance. I mean, they pulled that "we need to rush this to meet an anniversary deadline" bullshit again *this year* with Sonic Origins. You can't tell me they're learning.
The idiocy of 90's sega was truly beyond anyone's disbelief, how a company can sabotage itself so many times in so many different ways is something that will never stop amazing me
No no they still do this shit, don't worry.
Now I'm just waiting for Nintendo's day of reckoning to come. Granted, probably won't happen unless some *serious* incompetency infects the upper management.
@@plantain.1739 nintendo's approch, when it comes to the corperate side, is simple: play it safe.
this is the entire reason why nintendo weatherd the decade long storm between n64 to gamecube.
@@thebravegallade731Nintendo it’s been around the block and now without them worrying about the competition and going casual their worth billions and with the switch success it’s safe to say they aren’t in Sega path
It is still such a head-scratcher why Sega of Japan seemed to consider Sega of America their enemy. Tom Kalinsky had put Sega briefly on top of Nintendo during the 16-bit era and rather than give them more autonomy due to Sega of America's successes, it is like they did everything in their power to rein him in and force Japanese-market-friendly decisions on the US, despite the North America being the bigger, healthier market leading up to the Saturn's release
@@dacypher22ego my friend bitter bitter ego and foolish pride
Funny timing since Yuji Naka got his ass handed to him by SquareEnix.
"Oh god, I'm gonna have to talk about this, too!"
Every Gaming CZcamsr on Sonic the Hedgehog.
In my opinion, the most egregious move, aside from the denial of a delay, was Naka stomping his feet about his team's engine being licensed to STI
Honestly, if Naka had quit and we got just one more _sorta decent_ Sonic game in the 90s the history of the franchise would probably have been better. This entire episode is "Japanese Sega sabotages American Sega time and time again"
Matt McMuscles: "Wha happun to Sonic Xtreme?"
Me:"Wait, there was a Sonic Xtreme?"
There is even an Xbox title Sonic Extrem... Which is basically Riders before Riders was a thing.
Emilio Romero --- the game's was one of the reasons why SEGA almost got bankcrupt.
I can see why the devs suffered from motion sickness. I’ve never been one to get dizzy while playing Sonic, but the prototype footage was something else. I don’t even know how people would’ve been able to play it back in the day!
I think the developers of Mania said that they wanted that to be what a Sonic game on the Saturn could have been like. The 3D models from the special stages do look like they came from a Saturn game.
Kinda wish they had an alternate cover with the Saturn Logo on it, though I guess corporate thought the Genesis was more marketable.
I don't think I've ever seen this much actual sonic xtreme gameplay, cool
The biggest difference between Shigeru Miyamoto and Yuji Naka is that Miyamoto actually supports other teams and gives them helpful feedback and doesn't throw tantrums when a team needs to use an engine he helped make
And also doesn't get charged with insider trading.
Miyamoto isn't a hack who got lucky and found himself as the poster child of a company that babied him til he got mad and left. Yuji is basically the gambler that got lucky once and has been coasting until he got busted for insider trading
This is the most “Wha happuh” story you’ve covered so far. The game didn’t have the kind of infamous development hell as Duke Nukem Forever or the kind of fallout afterwards like Battlefront 2 or Fallout 76, but in terms of the sheer density of shit that goes wrong it outclasses everything else by far.
And the cherry on top is that it’s a Sonic game... again.
ok
I miss the 90s when everything was XTREEEEEEEEMMMMMMEEEEEEE
Yeah. Current Sonics would be called things like SONIC DEPRESSION!!!! or sonic xxxxxtreme let down
I knew Sega was dysfunctional at this point, but I had no idea just how dysfunctional. Literally shooting themselves in the foot, on purpose.
Some things never change, Classic Sega
Sega Japan and Sega America hated each other for no reason. And everyone inside hated everyone mutually. Sega was such a mess for no reason
@@janmarcoperezbatres2203 I think SoJ STILL hates SoA, I mean the fact they kinda screwed over the devs of Sonic Mania shows that.
@@URFTBOUND4LIFE well they were only paid on a developer milestone basis, and didn't get a cut of the sales, so that money ran out pretty quickly, Sega hasn't picked them up for a sequel project despite the runaway success of Mania and its DLC.
unrelated but their Kickstarter for their own project didn't succeed as well.
It really is a shame Sega didn't take them in as part of the company, or at least contracted more work to them.
@@jeremyabbott4537 For anybody curious, this NeoGaf thread has the developer’s video on the Sonic Mania payments and the failure of their Kickstarter for their next game: www.neogaf.com/threads/sonic-mania-dev-headcannon-says-hes-broke-recent-kickstarter-a-spectacular-failure.1510093/
>Makes a sonic video
>Says Sonic 2 is the best sonic
>Doesn't elaborate further
absolute power play
well sonic 2 is the best sonic :x
Facts are facts.
@@cristiadu sonic 3?
@@drobnoxius9483 Sonic 3 isn't as smooth and accessible as Sonic 2. Sonic 2 just a more buttery smooth experience.
Mania is pretty up there...
I got a Sonic Colors Ultimate commercial right before this video. I see the algorithm is working just as planned.
For once. Lol
I got an ad for wine, so I guess it's broken again.
It’s insane how all of Yuji Naka’s appearances on “What Happened?” all have connections. Here in Sonic X-treme he would deny SEGA of America the NiGHTS engine by threatening to leave, only for him to actually do so with Sonic ‘06. Then he’d go on to create Balan Wonderworld, a NiGHTS inspired game, which… yeah. Funny considering the canned live action Sonic movie’s title was “Sonic and the WONDERS of the WORLD.” What goes around comes around Mr. Naka.
Not to mention If Yuji Naka created the engine, doesn't that mean that Sega owns it too ?
**Yuji Naka considering retiring after his totally not a Nights inspired game flops**
How ironic
It’s comes to a full fucking circle. I don’t even know why he was credited for making Sonic. He was only a programmer.
@@burntpoptart853 because sega chose to keep naka for too long and didn't bother to fine more talent to work on sonic.
12:10 "Fine! I'll make my OWN Sonic! With blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the Sonic and the blackjack!" -- Point of View, probably
"he'll be the slowest thing alive!"
The OST for Sonic X-Treme is worth a listen, especially for the absolute banger "Space Queens" at 11:15
unrelated but I love your animations, dude!
My favorite song in the OST is Crystal Valley.
Some of them are actually from the Sonic CD soundtrack.
@@vurpo7080 Jade Gully act 1 is.
@@hypnospaceoutlaw3376 Crystal Valley is good as fuck. It’s a shame none of that music will ever be used.
2:36 I can hear Matt's soul die every time he realizes he's got another game to talk about on this show.
With how many times companies fuck up, he’ll likely be doing this….
[Terry Funk:FOREVER.]
Tis the life of the creator of "Wha Happened?"
Yeah, he dug his own grave at that point.
Hmm... maybe I can do something about this...
As penance for fucking over Sonic X-Treme, Yuji Naka has been arrested recently.
Good.
I'm so happy
People need to talk more about how impactful the distant and less than agreeable relationship between sega of America and sega of Japan was on the company’s product development.
This. All of it.
Saberspark has a pretty good video that goes into it a fair bit called "What Ruined Sega?" I could easily imagine a Wha Happun episode covering the 32X and the Saturn that would go into more detail on it, as that is when it started to really affect things negatively.
@@CinosTheHedgehog2000 I mean, Sega of Japan absolutely had its issues, but the Saturn was basically their best performing platform in Japan. For as many times as they fucked up, Sega of America fucked up too by completely ignoring (or more accurately, dropping the ball with) the Saturn's main franchise.
@@joeganbogan270 no they didn't. They literally didn't even have development kits. SoJ fucked SoA, as per usual.
Seeing how Yuji Naka is now, I realized he really was THAT petty.
“How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?” - Chris Sen
Here's a suggestion Matt:
"What happened: Peter Molyneux"
Feat. Larry Bundy Jr of course
Prepare for a 24 hrs video
@@000mjd he could make a new mini-serie just on Peter Molyneux XD
What happened: Don Mattrick
Kim Justice did a rather excellent job on pretty much that, I'd say.
Sonic the hedgehog 4 on the genesis, a Sonic movie in the 90s, this wha huppen revealed so much I've never heard of
The timing for this, given the recent news about Naka, couldn't have been more perfect.
Context for the uninformed: Yuji Naka has left Square Enix after the failure of Balan Wonderworld.
@@marlonmontelhiggins8570 --- I sometimes wonder why he joined Square Enix in the first place, because didn't he after disaster of Sonic '06 created a studio that was making an MMORPG?
Silvian Bruno: Naka's career declined after he left SEGA. He thought Nintendo would hire him and they weren't interested. What Naka did to Sonic in the Saturn era and 06 was just wrong
@@vulcanraven9701 what did he do with Sonic 06?
@@TheWilku22 He ditched SEGA two years into the games development. He left the game in a ugly mess with no direction.
14:38 The more I learn about Yuji Naka, the more I realize that Sonic was a success in spite of him, not because of him
And 10 years after the whole Sonic X-Treme fiasco... *he left anyway during the whole Sonic 06 fiasco.*
And the games made between the two varied from "okay" to "intolerable".
And then came the Balan Wonderworld Fiasco.
@@richardnash6111 I've never played Nights but every bit of footage I've seen of it since 2003 leaves me woefully unimpressed.
@@ikagura Well yeah, it's actually still among the best 3D platformers that've ever come out, hahaha.
@@richardnash6111 Funny thing is, Iizuka directed Nights, not Naka, so in the end Iizuka stayed loyal and, while having a hard time, made some good friendships along the way
I don't think there's a more perfect microcosm of why Sega failed.
I understand that Isao Okawa, Chairman of Sega Enterprises, was a thoroughly decent human being who moved heaven and earth and sank a significant amount of his own personal fortune in trying to make the Dreamcast a success prior to his death. It's unfortunate that, with regard to SoJ constantly chopping of SoA at the knees, SoJ comes off looking like a sociopathic monster.
Matt: "Sonic 2 is the best sonic game"
Me: *Raises Hand*
Matt: And no, I won't be taking questions
Me: *lowers hand in defeat*
@Devin S. *Mania* is the best- but it's basically just an evolved S3&K.
@Devin S. This is common knowledge
@@budwyzer77 Sonic 3K with touched up level design, then brutal difficulty
People say Yuji Naka was Sega's Miyamoto. But really he was Sega's Nic Cage. Takes so many projects he eventually gets a hit.
I thought Yu Suzuki was Sega's Miyamoto.
@@MrPoeGhost Miyamoto is in no shape or form bad. His gsmes are loved by many, even if not everyone loves it
I would love to see a What Happened ? on Gametrailers
Yuji Naka feeling strongly about Sonic and the engine he created when he was responsible for Sonic 2006 and abandoned ship on it like a coward is just pretty funny. This makes it even worse that he denied STI to work on X-Treme using the nights engine
don't forget the part where Bernie Stolar had gotten kicked out of Sony Computer Entertainment for nearly costing them RE2 on the Playstation
3d GaMeS oNlY!!
Then Bernie Stolar said: “no RPGs” and “no 2D games” for the Saturn. Which were the 2 things the Saturn was better than the PlayStation. Genius.
@@cartmann94 what were the standout RPGs for the Saturn?
@@thefreeburningspirit Guess Shining Force 3 and the Sakura Wars series?
Seeing Homestar Runner references and jokes still going strong in 2021 gives me life.
Most common subjects of What Happened; EA, Capcom, Bethesda, Sega, and Sonic
@Levi Foster You might as well include Mortal Kombat
This project is basically the definition of: "why can't we just get along?"
Is it just me or is it that whenever the sega team of Japan gets involved with the American team the project gets horribly fucked in some horrible way.
There is a documentary on paramount plus about the console war between Sega and Nintendo. Sega of Japan was apparently very jealous that Sega of America was a lot more successful than them, so they would do whatever they could to sabotage Sega of America. Sega is just consistently terrible with buisness decisions.
@@brianvaira486 Don't you mean SEGA of Japan?
@@sezunemizuhana3870 yep.
Oh Bernie Stolar... dude could have a documentary all his own.
@@Turbulation1 You do realize selling consoles at a loss is standard practice, right?
Sega almost going bankrupt wasn't because they lost money with every console sold: Sony and Nintendo also lost money on every console sold. It was because of *everything else.*
@@Turbulation1 When he was at PlayStation, he kept us from getting so many great 2D games localized. :(
What's your pfp from? If may I ask...
Controversial opinion: While Bernie had some wrong decisions over hating 2D Games, even that wouldn't have saved the Saturn, at best it would just give them a few extra million bucks in royalties, 3D was the standard since the start and people were walking away 2D games except for fighting ones.
But when it comes to the tough part of the mangament? He made every right decision, he was the one who made the call on the Dreamcast because Sega of Japan kept screwing around with the west and the console fixed the issues the Saturn had with its horrible design and tough to program for 3D graphics issues, brought a stellar marketing team that included Peter Moore and bought Visual Concepts who made the best non EA Sports and estabilishing themselves as the leaders of the basketball videogames. But it was simply too late for Sega, having abandoned the western market for a year and half made its bad image with customers.
@@arielsuarez5527 Touhou Project. Specifically, it's fanart based on the first five games.
6:02 "Well part of the plan was to hopefully steal some thunder from these guys"
(Shows picture of Bubsy, and Wild woody)
I don't think those two games had any thunder to begin with lol
um excuse me, but Wild Woody is the greatest gaming icon of all time. Do you not see his point and his eraser?
STI is such an unfortunate acronym
That acronym wasn't shared at the time, though
@@Arkouchie Yeah I get that. It's still an unfortunate acronym tho
@@Arkouchie Just an extra layer of oof for the retrospective 😅
“WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD NAME THEIR GAME COMPANY STD!?”
-James Rolfe
Matt, this has to be the Sonic Saga, complete with the final episode on “Sonic Forces”
Optimistically assuming there won't be any more Sonic dumpster fires.
I like Sonic forces. I got to make my own stupid Sonic animal it had cheesy songs about fist bumps and the power of friendship, and me and Sonic got to fight bad guys it was great. Perhaps a little overpriced for what I got from the game itself but if you can get it on sale or something it's not bad
Sonic Forces is fine though? Like, not standout but fine?
@@RainbowPowerRangerX _But how did multiple years of development lead to something so mediocre and generally disappointing to multiple people?_
@@RandomPerson-qg7yq I'm pretty sure that most people have decided how bad the next Sonic game will be before it is even out, and regardless of how good or bad it actually is won't change anything.
You should do a What Happened on the Scott Pilgrim franchise, it has a very interesting development history!
I'm pretty sure he did that video already.
@@Junkyardproduxtions no he hasn't!
I'd personally love to see an episode on hello neighbor. It was a huge game a few years ago, but evert alpha was worst than the last, and people have recently been rediscovering it and finding out how bad it is.
I'm interested!
Then donate to his pateron account, and he’ll put it in his list of franchises to tackle.
The Tails statue in Sega Tech Institute was the stuff of nightmares.
Tails had seen some shit that will turn you white.
Watching this really has made me realize just how much of a rotten bastard Yuki Naka can be.
One of the things I absolutely love about these video game history videos is the old footage. TV commercials, etc. I love it. So much stuff that likely would have been lost to time and completely forgotten about. So much stuff I've never seen before. It's truly remarkable. Thank you!
Oh boy, not this mess. I feel really bad for the developers, imagine almost dying to make a fucking sonic game.
Also how do you even get 3rd as super sonic? 16:10
Yet another episode of "Wha Happun" for a Sonic game and just in time before Sonic's 30th birthday? Never change Matt. I believe I speak for everyone when I say I love your channel and to always keep up the phenomenal work 💪
@@ikagura Come on man, Sonic's been through so much just give the guy a break.
So the main takeaway here is that this essentially was Yuji Naka's fault
after meeting the guy and what seemed to be a disproportionate ego in 2013...that about checks out. I guess life caught up to him.
And here I thought the rivalry between Capcom USA vs Capcom Japan was bad.
Not even close
Speaking of Capcom, Wha Happun should cover an episode about Sengoku Basara and Capcom's refusal to release the rest of the franchise outside of Japan.
Capcom USA & Japan had a rivalry. SEGA of America & Japan were on full nuclear warfare.
Wow, the Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories fan in me got unreasonably happy hearing the Kaiba encounter theme at 14:10, haha
Wow, good ear, I wouldn’t have noticed without this
@Buff Ringo Right??? This, the actual modern-day Kaiba duel theme, the duel themes from the modern-day tournament in general (especially "Finals Match"), Heishin's duel theme, the Free Duel theme...so many BOPS on that soundtrack.
I know that this game's failure had way more problems than just Yuki Naka's threats and that it could have probably been a success if Sega of Japan weren't a bunch of headasses (and still kinda are...), but I still can't help but feel frustrated at Naka's selfishness and stupidity based around what I'm guessing was internal Sega politics. I'm glad to see he's not getting any sympathy.
Well, I guess when all you're making now are games that nobody has either heard of, or games that are immediate flops (*cough* /Balan/ *cough*), karma finally caught up to you lol
**canon in D rock cover**
Extreeeeeeeeeme!!!!!!
Sonic X-Treme introduced a new concept into the series: motion sickness.
Love Naka saying "good luck" and then later threatening to quit after they just use their engine
I ACTUALLY shot soda out my nose from the shock upon learning that there was a Sonic/Zelda/Yoshi crossover. I can't believe I never knew about this.
You know, after hearing that he directly sabotaged the project, I have a slight feeling Yuji Naka's "Good Luck" to STI was a little less than genuine.
To Me, Robert Morgan will Always be the REAL culprit behind Sonic X-treme's cancellation since HE was the one who REFUSED to give Chris Senn And Ofer Alon a Saturn devkit to help with the game's development. as well as bringing in his buddies from Point of View to make the Crummy build That was shown to Nakayama. Too bad a LOT of people don't know about that little tidbit, though.
8:18 - If this was Miyamoto, he would've taken measures to guide the team towards a better game, like what happened with Metroid Prime.
Naka's... not great.
It's a shame the Japanese side never ever tried to explain itself for their fuckery with the American wing of the company - it'd be pretty funny to read, if not infuriating for trying to figure out the logic.
Y'know, a NORMAL soulless company doesn't particularly care where they're getting most of their success from.. they would just keep doing what they could to be successful everywhere.
But we all know Sega isn't normal so Sega of America being successful and respected and becoming the video game company for American adults was deemed a problem Sega of Japan had to solve.
Simple, dirty gaijin had to go, glory to Japan
After this video and the recent Balan Wonderworld debacle, my image of Yuji Naka has been steadily declining...
The story of this game's history is so tragic. It was just too ambitious and ahead of it's time. I bet if Sega went ALL in on it though, it could have been amazing.
After hearing this, this makes Balan doing bad much easier to swallow.
So Yuji Naka deliberately Sabatoged Sonic Extreme’s development, then left Sega years later, inadvertently sabatoging Sonic 06’s development. Then decided to make his own game, royally fucked up with Balan Wonderworld, got kicked out of Square Enix, got exposed as a complete hack in the video game industry, and now has to retire from game development altogether. Boy, karma really bites you in the ass.
Sega of America's true enemy wasn't Nintendo of America
It was Sega of Japan
"Look, I'm trying to add some levity here, people... Things kept spiraling." That was an amazing transition lmao
Please do Insomniac's Fuse, that game was announced with style similar to Overwatch but before Overwatch and corporate wanted it to be more dude bro shooter which was a style at the time :(
Man Naka sounds like just a lovely...stooge
I bet Chris smiled when Yuji Naka released that masterpiece Balan
"They didn't have any dev kits" I'm sorry? " They didn't know the specs of the Saturn " They didn't fukkin WHAT now? I knew about Yuji Naka being a drama queen, I've always heard the stories of his work outside of sonic 1-3, but the fact that Sega's management as a whole was that neglectful was news to me. They kind of deserved to lose the console war with this huh?
@@Gatorade69 Thanks for the heads up! Will definitely check them out. But damn, thats infuriating to hear, but not surprising.
@@Gatorade69 After finding out how Sega of Japan sabotaged Sega of America I wouldn't be surprised if Sega actually gave such a bad support to third parties in order to make their games look better.
Another incredible retro-spectacle. It's always interesting to find out what happened to games that came out and were terrible or came out after some tumult but still managed to be good. But definitely my favorite ones are these where I can vaguely remember this game getting announced or teased and then it just never came out.
Surprised Christina Coffin didn't come down with some kind of spinal injuries from carrying that entire team on her back for so long.
12:25 This just makes me imagine that meme where that dude holding pizza walks into the room and everyone's fighting and everything is on fire
Years later when a Square rep visited Yugi Naka to get an update on Balan he could be heard saying good luck and leaving.
All these years later, and this games story is still truly devastating.
Everything that happened with Sega makes me sad. Hopefully we get a Dreamcast Mini or Saturn Mini... Or both
From what I remember, they said something to an extent that the technology isn’t just right yet for a Dreamcast or Saturn mini so there is hope in the future!
Hearing that one of the developers moved into the office and worked day and night is fucking horrific. I'm not surprised she became very ill from that
You just know that if that 90’s sonic movie happened; Jim Carrey probably would’ve started in it.
So, full circle?
I could see a young Danny Devito as Robotnik back in the 90's.
starred*
Unpopular opinion but I really like the fisheye lens of this game and it might have worked out in the 3D games experimental age of the 90s.
I was thinking the same. It looks like one of those Christmas globes. It could have been a very interesting concept for a small, less ambitious, Sonic game.
I love the concept too but imo it just doesn't work for sonic based on its execution. The level design seems too explorational for a sonic game. Sonic games are usually about just going from point a to point b. I don't think the fisheye lens would work for the design philosophy of sonic games. But the fisheye lens does have potential and should've been used under a new ip at least. It's a shame this concept was ditched after this game's cancellation...
@@shadowboy2818 I do agree, and from what I'm seeing, it makes plate forming really complicated, and thus, slow. That and a big lack of view for when Sonic has to move toward the camera.
@@shadowboy2818
I feel like an exploration game would be perfect for Sonic.