The Very First Pitch
“The first time I made a presentation of the game [to Sega management], it was a huge success! We had such a big laugh! But they did not think that I was actually serious about making the game! So the presentation ended as a huge success, but with no budget. Then I had to go for a second try: “Actually, guys – that was not a joke. I really want to make it, and I would like a budget for it!” [Sega president Hisao Oguchi] gave me some money and then I entered the ‘underground’ phase of the project, spending two years in secrecy to develop it, unnoticed! When those two years came to an end I finally brought the finalized version of the game to a meeting – and that triggered tons of issues! At that time Sega’s situation had changed dramatically, and it was believed that such a game would not hurt the company.”

Being A Sega Fan
“Many people thought this game was a pure parody, a crazy idea we had. Well, that’s true, in part. Many think SGGG is indeed a game which makes a fool of gaming and the industry. I’m not at Sega because I love the company. I’m not making games because I love gaming. No, at the end of the game I make things clear by explaining why I’m at Sega and why I like to be there. I think it would be very difficult for anyone who does not understand any Japanese to get the message out of this game, but from a Japanese user’s perspective, it was well understood. My SGGG really starts and really delivers its meaning after the hero is fired from the company. The fact that we did not have a single angry criticism from Sega fans – or ‘Sega Shinjas’, as some people call them – is certainly because there is no bigger fan of Sega than myself.”

Development Difficulties
“The hardest thing was to keep the project secret. I believed that there would be very little anyone could do about it once the game was completed, but up to that moment, anything could have happened if someone found out about the game’s development. I’m basically a mangaka [comic artist], so in a way I know about direction. In that sense I was able to put many of my own personal skills into this title knowing the limited scale of its development, which went well because I had no opportunities to ask for anyone else’s help inside Sega.”

The Meaning Of Segagaga
“It was a name that I just wrote on my early game design document. There is no special meaning. There is absolutely no relation with the song Radio Ga Ga! In my memo note, the two names that remained to title the game design document were ‘Sega Sega’ and ‘Segagaga’. I was advised to put Sega in the game title but I didn’t think it was too cool to do so. I chose the one which included the reference to Sega but in addition a touch that made the ‘Sega factor’ less intrusive.”

Taking Charge
“Let’s say that I was the project! More seriously I was involved in every aspect of the game. I designed the game but also supervised the program, the sound, the graphics – everything. I was director, producer – everything from just one being: me! I was also in charge of promoting the game. You have to understand that we – no, I – had just about ¥30,000 (£142) to promote this title! I used ¥20,000 (£94) to get a mask made that I could use to go and promote the game everywhere! This mask was made by a true professional pro-wrestler. In many ways, the game established some industry firsts in terms of budgets alone!”

Little Fixes
“[After my first presentation to Sega management] I had a ton of changes on my hands – almost 300 issues to fix. I tried to narrow down those fixes to about 100. So you could think of the version that went to consumers as a light version of the original one. For example, one big fix was the opening, where I wanted to feature [Saturn-era Sega marketing character] Segata Sanshiro, but because of copyright issues we could not secure that. The ending had to be changed as well because we used a character that was the property of a magazine here in Japan. I had to change that character to the Get Bass fish! Oh yes, I also had to change the red Ferrari which symbolized AM2 to… well, the only red thing that I could come up with was a shrimp! In Japanese, ‘car’ is ‘kuruma’, and there is a very popular shrimp, or ‘ebi’, that we eat here in Japan which is named ‘kuruma ebi’! It was too bad – I wanted so much to see that Ferrari flying!”