America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 327: The True Spiritual Successor to Contra

One week later, early morning.

Despite his family's objections, Masahiro Sakurai resolutely announced his formal retirement from the academic industry and switched jobs to game development next door.

Well, perhaps all of this is just wishful thinking on his part.

No matter how confident you are in your abilities, you still need to go through the normal recruitment process.

GameFreak.

Satoshi Tajiri glanced at the meaningless resume and casually tossed it into the trash can.

"These days, all sorts of weirdos and freaks are sending their resumes to us —"

As the manpower shortage gradually eases, GameFreak has been slowly expanding its recruitment channels recently.

Whether it's liaising with Sega or handling our own business, we need a lot of manpower.

But this also gave job seekers and pilgrims an opportunity.

Almost every day, tons of resumes are being submitted.

Today was even more outrageous; someone who dropped out of college before finishing his studies came to submit his resume.

"What do you think this place is?!"

-

Even if you don't need a school with a very high deviation score, you should at least have a university degree, right?

Although the resume mentions that he has published articles in various gaming magazines, this doesn't prove anything at all.

At best, one can only say that he is indeed a hardcore gamer.

However, on Sega's side, this resume actually has a tiny bit of unremarkable value.

[Received an Excellence Award at the SEGA GAMESYSTEM Awards]

[Has extensive experience in FAMILYBASIC development]

After all, it's a development competition organized by their own company, so they should at least set a good example.

The section chief, who was already quite old, frowned as he looked at the resume in his hand, which was even a bit formatted incorrectly.

The popularity of Metal Slug exceeded everyone at Sega's expectations.

In just one week, the impact of Metal Slug was terrifying.

Not to mention the players who have gone completely mad, even job applications are piling up like mountains.

If you randomly flip through a few documents, they all show degrees that start with Waseda University.

Masahiro Sakurai's resume stood out awkwardly among the pile of prestigious universities.

"Wins an Excellence Award at the GAMESYSTEM Awards for a self-made shooting game —"

The section chief adjusted his glasses, frowned, and asked his colleague, "Tanaka-san, weren't you in charge of those event-related matters before? Do you remember this guy?"

The GAMESYSTEM Awards were a series of competitions held by Sega in the past to discover talented developers hidden among the general public.

The number of winners is very small, so if this guy actually won the award, it really does say something.

The shooting game's theme happens to match that of Metal Slug, so maybe someone in the company will actually want him.

"Let me see—Sakurai Masahiro—ah, I remember him."

After a moment's recollection, the colleague matched the handsome young man in his memory with the photo on his resume. "He was only a teenager back then, but he had a really good foundation. It seems like he handled the entire development all by himself."

"Tsk—"

The section chief rubbed his slightly throbbing temples. "Keep this one for now. Ask AM1 or AM10 if they need it and have them take a look."

What a great kid! Couldn't he have finished his studies before submitting his resume?

Leaving behind a resume like this puts a lot of pressure on you.

This kind of young genius may indeed be more talented than many people, and may actually be able to achieve something great.

However, these types of employees are often the most difficult to manage and the least obedient to discipline.

Moreover, choosing to drop out of school to make games is already a very impulsive personality trait.

Chiyoda, HAL Research Institute.

This Nintendo-affiliated game studio is developing a new title for the Super Famicom (SFC) at the direction of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi.

However, Satoru Iwata, who was engrossed in writing code, suddenly shuddered for no apparent reason.

In the depths of my being, I always felt as if some kind of luck had been stolen from me.

It seems that a powerful figure was suddenly poached without my knowledge.

"President Lin, Metal Slug is really—"

Hayao Nakayama opened his mouth, pondered for a long time, but couldn't find a suitable adjective to describe the feeling this game gave him.

How to put it—

This is a very un-Neon game.

If Nintendo can truly represent the overall style of Japanese games...

-

However, it is highly consistent with Sega's style.

The arcade rhythm and style are abandoned in terms of depth, and all the effort is put into making it more fun to play.

Just like the arcade games that Sega made themselves.

As a company that made its fortune through arcade games, Hayao Nakayama was well aware of just how incredibly valuable Metal Slug truly was.

If this thing were made into an arcade machine, there probably wouldn't be any other side-scrolling shooters left in arcades.

"I actually had doubts about its sales figures—"

Hayao Nakayama sighed helplessly.

When dealing with Gamenova, many things cannot be predicted according to common sense.

Let alone whether the sales figures will be insufficient.

Currently, Metal Slug's pre-orders have surpassed those of Genesis NEO.

What the hell is going on here??

Why would they buy games if they don't have a console?

Is it just sitting there for fun?

"After all, it is the world's first proper 32-bit console game."

Lin Lixin was relatively satisfied with this result.

After all, current sales are entirely from Japan, and sales in North America have not yet officially started.

Achieving sales of a million units during the pre-sale phase is already a top-tier achievement.

This number is already significantly higher than the older Genesis model, which has been on the market for some time.

Lin Lixin smiled; this result was entirely within his expectations.

The success of Metal Slug was inevitable.

Ultimately, it's just a complete remake of what they did during the Contra era.

Contra itself is already a perfect collection of mistakes.

Of course, for Lin Lixin, a time traveler who witnessed the entire process of Contra's rise to its peak and subsequent decline, this understanding would certainly be even more profound.

This product, which should have become another flagship IP for Konami, has almost perfectly followed the wrong path in every step it has taken since.

Perhaps this is what Konami excels at.

Until 96, Contra was still considered acceptable.

Although it has never had the terrifying influence of the original, each one can still be considered excellent.

Super Contra, Contra Spirits, Contra Force, and Contra: Hard Corps on the Sega Mega Drive.

Each and every one of them is a masterpiece among side-scrolling action shooting games.

However, in the mid-to-late 90s, the emergence of fifth-generation game consoles changed everyone's thinking.

Whether it was Sony, the absolute king of the 90s, and its PS1, or Nintendo's N64 and Sega's Saturn, they all possessed the ability to be 3D.

Sony's PS1, in particular, with its powerful graphics capabilities, directly sparked a massive wave of 3D technology.

Riding this wave of opportunity, Konami, blinded by greed, unsurprisingly fell into this seemingly sweet trap.

The 3D version of Contra: Legacy of War in 96 was poorly made, with many problems and terrible quality.

One wrong step leads to another.

After this setback, the Contra development team seemed to have had their spines broken, and they were never able to produce a decent game again.

The 98 sequel reverted to a side-scrolling format but retained the 3D rendering style. Unfortunately, the combat experience was poorly designed and unsatisfactory.

In 02, although it managed to regain some of its former flavor, it still failed to turn around its reputation.

I thought this might be the beginning of the production team figuring things out and getting back on track.

Unexpectedly, just two years later in 04, the new work was once again in 3D, and it was still a 3D top-down perspective.

The story continues...

There's really nothing more to say then.

It wasn't until a mysterious penguin from the East finally intervened that the last bit of value in this IP was completely squeezed out.

Looking at the history of Contra, it is indeed a thick collection of mistakes.

It was born in a game desert where side-scrolling action shooting games did not yet exist, and it ushered in a golden age of side-scrolling beat 'em ups.

But upon closer examination of its design, aside from its groundbreaking nature, it may indeed fall short in terms of sheer capabilities.

If we really want to find a worthy successor to it, a true spiritual successor.

Metal Slug might be the most suitable candidate.

Thinking of this, Lin Lixin's expression became slightly serious.

For an IP to thrive in the long run, innovation alone is not enough.

It must truly possess the essence that those imitators cannot learn.

"No matter what, President Nakayama, it's not time to relax yet."

Lin Lixin raised his head and looked at Nakayama Hayao in front of him.

With Super Mario Bros. and a host of excellent third-party games at its disposal, it's unrealistic to expect Nintendo to turn things around with just one title.

"GenesisNEO cannot be a Metal Slug launcher. We need to work harder to win this battle."

"I understand. I have already arranged for Sega headquarters to begin the porting process."

Hayao Nakayama nodded, neither confirming nor denying the point.

We must transfer all the games from the previous generation of consoles as soon as possible.

"Yes, that's certainly necessary, but Sega alone can't do it."

Lin Lixin stood up. "GAMENOVA has its own things to do; it can't develop games for Sega forever. But we can—poach them."

"President Lin, are you referring to a third party?"

Nakayama Hayao's expression hardened, and he had already made some guesses about Nakayama's plan.

Even if you disregard Nintendo's numerous first-party masterpieces, it remains an extremely dangerous competitor.

Because Nintendo's third-party support is just too strong.

Quantity and strength!

This is the significance of brand appeal.

Almost all of Japan's major manufacturers are under Nintendo's umbrella.

This extreme dominance is the foundation upon which Nintendo survives.

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