Having recently returned to after leaving Team to form Prope (his own independent game studio) in 2006, Yuji Naka announced his first game at TGS last year, launching exclusively on the Wii. Let's Tap is ostensibly the world's first controller-free game, boasting the innovative new control method of tapping on a box while the remote reads the vibrations. Having already won the 'Future Award' for Let's Tap, we caught up with Naka-san, who was dressed in a rather fetching orange tie, handkerchief and socks ensemble, chatted to us about his exciting new party game.

Your new game Let's Tap is a great new concept. Can you tell us a bit about where the idea came from?

Originally Prope was developing an game and we were doing some experiments with different control systems, one of which involved testing the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii remote. We'd get a reading from just holding the remote in your hand and while I was talking with one of the developers, I accidentally tapped the Wii remote that was on the desk and it showed quite significant readings on the screen. So, we tried tapping the desk next to the one that had the remote on it or stomping on the floor and it still read the vibrations from these movements, so realising the sensitivity of the Wii remote this then became the main idea for using vibrations as an input for the game.

Are there any other applications outside of Let's Tap that you can see using this revolutionary control method?

Unlike the digital input of zeroes and ones or on and off, this reads a variation that at this point is only weak, medium and strong so using this reading I think it's maybe possible to develop games or possibly a new Sonic game using the input. Although Prope won't develop the Sonic game, there's always the possibility of using this input for a new Sonic title.

The visual style in the game is very bold and distinctive. Can you tell us more about where this came from?

In creating this completely new kind of game the idea was that it would appeal mainly to teenagers and above, so the visual style was developed with this kind of audience in mind - especially people who would appreciate something a bit more alternative.

You mentioned that the idea for Let's Tap originated while you were working on an action game. Does this game still exist or has it since been scrapped?

The game never made it to and it's unlikely it'll ever come out.

Should Let's Tap be successful, have you formulated any ideas for the sequel - such as different game modes?

If it is successful and there's the possibility for lots of new game modes, then yes there will be some new different modes in the sequel, although there's nothing specific in mind at the moment.

With the current trend in rhythm action games such as Wii Music, can you see the tapping input method eventually finding its way into this kind of game? Have you thought about a way you could maybe combine the control method with the Wii balance board somehow?

We have a mini-game in Let's Tap called Rhythm Tap, so if Let's Tap's new method of interacting with the game proves popular than I'd love to make a whole game devoted to just using that to make and maybe use their favourite tunes. Your suggestion about using the Wii balance board - I'd never actually thought of that! At this point it's pretty hard to imagine but I find it a very interesting idea that I'll definitely think about!

You heard it here first...

Let's Tap is due for a summer 2009 release in Europe.

By Richard Walker

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