Yu Suzuki

 One of, if not the greatest creators in video gaming history. He certainly was one of the biggest reasons why I love video games especially Sega during my youth and his name is Yu Suzuki.

I was watching an old episode of G4tv Icons when it was talking about the career of Suzuki from his time when he joined Sega to the current time which was around the mid 2000s.

And it just simply amazes me how much of an influence Suzuki was to the success of Sega he was and how much I was able to relate to him in someways. Like for example, Suzuki is basically a renaissance man, he paints, makes games, just somebody who is full of creative. Which is something I truly inspire to be like because I myself really enjoy the arts whether it be painting, drawing, music and of course writing. I really hope to be like him someday.

But that is enough about silly little me, let's get back to Yu Suzuki. One of the things I learned about him was he was a major factor for Sega's success during the arcade days back in 1980s. In fact, what made those game so incredible was the simple fact of how realistic his games were.

Games like After Burner, Hang On, Space Harriet, Out Run were and still are so much fun to play. Heck! What I enjoyed most about those games were the giant machines used to play these games on. For example, After Burner, you are in this cockpit like machine and your flying around in a fighter jet taking out bad guys, the machine goes with every movement you make. You can literally be flying upside. It was insane!

Of course my personal favorite game that Yu Suzuki ever created was a little thing called Virtua Fighter. This game was amazing because it was one of the first games that came out in 3D. You heard me right, games weren't always in 3D back in the day.

I also loved the fighting mechanic in the game because each character had his or her own style of fighting. And just when you thought you had someone beat, they quickly counter your offense or simply knock you out of the ring for a a ring out which can be annoying at times lol.

Here is an incredible fact for all of you. In 2003 Suzuki inducted into the Academy of Arts and Science for contributions to gaming. His work is literally works of art to people and should be praised. 

Another fun game I was playing that was created by Suzuki was Shenmue, which came out on my favorite gaming system of all time which was the Dreamcast. One of the reasons why I loved playing this game was it was one of those games that I enjoyed playing along with my twin brother Chad and my big brother Cody. The story was Shenmue is just incredible which honestly, I may end up writing another blog post about them in the future lol.

But overall, I can't thank Yu Suzuki enough for being a major influence on not just my writing but in my life as well. I never got to meet the man in person, or even spoken to him. But I am extremely grateful to be playing his amazing games and I pray that someday my stories can be an influence to someone like he has me.

God Bless you Yu Suzuki! Keep up the good work!

Until next time!