Archived on 2019.07.23
The King of Pop passed away 10 years ago from this day. Upon reading an article about the close relationship Michael Jackson and SEGA had, Yuji Naka-san recalled his memory about him.
マイケルジャクソンさんが亡くなって10年になるんですね。この記事ってセガがチェックして許可を出してるんだと思うのですが、色々と懐かしいですね。一緒にパワードリフトを遊んだのは本当に良い思い出です。ちなみに僕を蹴ったのは違う人ですよ(^^)https://t.co/rwVoA9NPNb @denfaminicogame— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) June 25, 2019
🔵Naka-san on an article about Michael Jackson and SEGA:— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) June 25, 2019
"It's been 10 years since Mr. Michael Jackson passed away. I think this article was checked and approved by SEGA; many of its contents are nostalgic. It's a good memory that we played Power Drift together. By the way, - https://t.co/yxbYEiJ7n3
- the person who kicked my seat was a different person."— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) June 25, 2019
*It is explained in the article that as Michael Jackson visited SEGA HQ with his children and played Power Drift, Naka-san was ordered by Hisashi Suzuki-san to let MJ win. So Naka-san acted a thrilling race well, but -
- right in front of the goal MJ did a mistake on control and crashed so Naka-san won. Then somebody kicked Naka-san's seat in anger. The author of the article thought it'd most likely be Suzuki-san, but Naka-san clarified in his tweet above that it was somebody else.— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) June 25, 2019
To add-on, in the article it is stated that as Naka-san realized what happened (and got kicked in the seat by somebody), he couldn't stand up from his seat for a while...
Well, the strict rule of 'clients first' must be followed... The article doesn't state any negative afterstory of this, so I assume MJ left SEGA happily despite this incident. Pfew!
Michael Jackson was known as a huge SEGA fan. Whenever he visited Japan, he'd visit SEGA HQ and let Hisashi Suzuki-san, who was a very good friend of him, show him new games in developments and give advices for making them better since he, too, was a creator and entertainer.
It is still very memorable that Michael Jackson brought his own project of making a game about himself and made it happen while actively contributing to it. (Fun fact: this game was once shown in a popular Japanese TV show「トリビアの泉 (Fountain of Trivia)」, in which trivias and not-so-useful facts of everyday life were posted by audience. So apparantly many people (at least, non-gamers) in Japan didn't know about its existence.) The rhythm game 'Space Channel 5' series also has his cameo appearance. And not to forget, he also worked on the music of Sonic 3.
His legacy in SEGA games shall be passed down the generations.
Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk
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