Yu Suzuki... Really, people!?

Yu Suzuki is a name in gaming that you don't hear that often but if you look at his work and how it's influenced gaming you'd probably be forced to re evaluate you gamer knowledge. To start, his impact can mostly be felt in the area of the arcades but considering his eventual console iterations, the man is a genius! He created the unison fully interactive controls in a 3D(not avatar 3D, Virtua Fighter 3D) landscape in Hang On, Outrun, and Space Harrier. These arcade classics used advanced arcade technology to create faux 3D experiences with 2D graphics and it even incorporated actual steering wheels and motorcycles(Hi motion controls).

Virtua Fighters looked at Street Fighter and decided to add an extra dimension and wanted to use real fighting styles and take away the fireballs. As a result, Tekken, Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, fighters found the beauty that is the side step. And yes I'm going to rant about Shenmue again! It was one of the first games to give you an entire metropolis to explore. Games like Mega Man Legends and Brave Fencer Musashi gave you this element of freedom and even a day/night cycle but Shenmue made every single character have their own voice as well as giving you full interactivity over your entire environment! Toys in vending machines, kittens, paper on a desk, EVERYTHING! Quick Timer Events were brought back into the mainstream because of him! Hell, they weren't even called that before FREE (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment. The term used to describe Shenmue's prolific engine.).

I'm sorry to tread on old subjects but 1up.com is celebrating Shenmue and Yu Suzuki. He made free roam exploration, fighting and racing on a third dimensional plane, and pseudo arcade motion controls before Microsoft event thought about making a box with mutant powers and the ability to go online(I kinda lost it here...) After seeing the innovations he pioneered, being used in every other game today and he's not getting any credit!? Really, people?! END NERD RANT...

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