Kotaro Hayashida (小太郎林田 Kotarō Hayashida), also known by the psuedonym Ossale Kohta (オサール・コウタ) is a Japanese video game creator best known for being credited as the man behind Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
History[]
Kotaro Hayashida joined Sega in 1983 as a then graduate college student after seeing a job advertisement in the local papers. He knew of Sega through arcade cabinets at junior high, but applied due to wanting to try his hand at creating games, and set out the very next day using the Shinkansen to Sega's original headquarters in Ōta, Tokyo.
However, he got lost on the way as it turned out the map showcasing Sega's offices was far more complicated than he initially thought and he ended up accidentally at Sega factory #2 instead. An employee drove him to Sega's head offices where he made it in time for his interview and Sega offered him an informal job on that same day. He also had a job interview scheduled for Namco, but accepted Sega's offer and joined Sega.[1]
After joining Sega, Kotaro and his small team of ten were given two games to work on; Chain Pit, an arcade title that ended up not releasing and Hustle Chumy, a SG-1000 title starring an adorable rat gathering food in the sewers whilst avoiding predatory cats, gators, bats, ninjas and mecha dinos.
Although Chain Pit never ended up releasing, the game Pit Pot was made as a sequel to it.[1]
Kotaro went on to work on many titles for Sega including My Hero, TransBot, Pit Pot, Pitfall II and Ninja Princess before starting work on a Dragon Ball title for the Master System which Sega had obtained the license rights for.
However part way through, Sega had lost the license rights and then Sega CEO, Hayao Nakayama, told the team to start from scratch on the project. [2] Some time during development, Sega realised they'd need a competitor to Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and tasked Kotaro and the team to create something that could sell as well as Mario.
Kotaro is credited as being the man behind the recreation of the game and transforming Goku into Alex Kidd(who just so happens to be the brother of Pit Pot's protagonist Egle) creating Alex Kidd in Miracle World and in doing so creating the very first rival of sorts to Super Mario Bros, although the team purposely made several changes to differentiate Alex Kidd from Mario, such as swapping the buttons around for jump and run, having power ups selectable at any time and having a focus on punching rather than stomping on enemies.
After the success of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Kotaro went on to become the chief planner behind Phantasy Star, being credited by his nickname of Ossale Kohta.
He continued to develop games for Sega until 1996, at which point he left the company to work for Game Arts, working there on games such as Grandia, Gungriffon Blaze and Bomberman Generation.
In 2006 he left Game Arts and formed Liber Entertainment Inc. where he works as a representative director to this day.
Games[]
| Game | Year | Console | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hustle Chumy | 1984 | SG-1000 | Sega | |
| Chain Pit | 1984 | Arcade | Sega | (unreleased) |
| Champion Pro Wrestling | 1985 | SG-1000 | Sega | |
| Zoom 909 | 1985 | SG-1000 | Sega | |
| Pitfall II | 1985 | SG-1000 | Sega | |
| Great Soccer | 1985 | Master System | Sega | |
| TransBot | 1985 | Master System | Sega | |
| Pit Pot | 1985 | Master System | Sega | |
| My Hero | 1986 | Master System | Sega | |
| Ninja Princess | 1986 | SG-1000 | Sega | |
| Pro Wrestling | 1986 | Master System | Sega | |
| Alex Kidd in Miracle World | 1986 | Master System | Sega | Planner, credited as "Kotaro" |
| Woody Pop | 1987 | Master System | Sega | |
| Zillion | 1987 | Master System | Sega | Planner, credited as "Ossale Kohta" |
| Alex Kidd BMX Trial | 1987 | Master System | Sega | |
| Phantasy Star | 1987 | Master System | Sega | Scenario and supervision, credited as "Ossale Kohta" |
| Tensai Bakabon | 1988 | Master System | Sega | |
| Super Racing | 1988 | Master System | Sega | |
| Space Harrier II | 1988 | Mega Drive | Sega | Planner, credited as "Ossale Kohta" |
| Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle | 1989 | Mega Drive | Sega | |
| Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom | 1990 | Mega Drive | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "Ossale Kohta" |
| Putter Golf | 1990 | Mega Drive | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "Ossale" |
| Pyramid Magic | 1991 | Mega Drive | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "Ossale" |
| Phantasy Star II Text Adventures | 1991 | Mega Drive | Sega | |
| Shining Force | 1992 | Mega Drive | Sega | |
| Phantasy Star IV | 1993 | Mega Drive | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "K. Hayashida" |
| Space Harrier | 1994 | 32X | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "K.Hayashida" |
| After Burner Complete | 1995 | 32X | Sega | Special thanks, credited as "K.Hayashida" |
| Surging Aura | 1995 | Mega Drive | Sega | Scenario Writer, credited as "Ossale Kohta" |
| Grandia | 1997 | Saturn | Game Arts | Production manager, credited as "Kotaro Hayashida" |
| Gungriffon II | 1998 | Saturn | Game Arts | Assistant director |
| Gungriffon Blaze | 2000 | PlayStation 2 | Game Arts | Director, credited as "Kotaro Hayashida" |
| Bomberman Generations | 2002 | Nintendo GameCube | Game Arts | Director, credited as "Kotaro Hayashida" |
Trivia[]
- Kotaro Hayashida is known to be media shy, very rarely showing his face on camera
- Kotaro Hayashida's favourite games include Pengo, Space Invaders, Zaxxon and Dig Dug[1]
- Kotaro Hayashida admits he left the boss battles in Alex Kidd in Miracle World as Jankenpon matches because he wanted to see how audiences would react to something so unusual.[1]
Gallery[]
