Yuji Naka

Yuji Naka is a video game designer, programmer, former head of Sonic Team, a group of Sega programmers/designers, lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog and the head of Prope.

After graduating from high school, Naka decided to skip university and stay in his home town. During this time, Naka worked long hours at various menial jobs. After quitting his last job, Naka saw that Sega was looking for programming assistants. After a brief interview, he was hired and began working on a game called Girl's Garden, which earned him critical praise and fan appreciation. He programmed the original Sonic the Hedgehog game, while Naoto Ohshima designed the character and Hirokazu Yasuhara planned the stages. Naka has also produced several other titles like Nights into Dreams..., Burning Rangers and Phantasy Star Online. In early games he was often credited as "YU2" (in reference to Yu Suzuki) and "Muuu Yuji". He is one of the few famous Japanese game creators to speak fluent English.

Naka also helped develop a popular EyeToy game for the PlayStation 2 called Sega Superstars.

When asked about the famous Nintendo vs. Sega console wars of the 1990s in an episode of Icons, he states that his intentions while making the original Sonic the Hedgehog game were different than the direction it was taken, and that the comparisons between Sonic and Mario were a misunderstanding by the media. He also says that he is good friends with Nintendo and that Sega had respect for Nintendo and the Mario games which were viewed as a watermark of quality for Sega to strive.