Nagoshi guides Ryu ga Gotoku to become a big hit. What kind of games did he create that led him to arrive at the Ryu ga Gotoku series?
Joining Sega in 1989, Nagoshi was assigned to AM2, the company's largest development department. He was mentored by Yu Suzuki, a game creator representative of Sega, and was involved in such games as Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing as CG designer at the dawning of 3D CG.
It was with 1994's arcade racing game Daytona USA that Nagoshi's name became known to the public. The realistic graphics of the race cars, created using 3D CG, and the exhilarating driving experience drove young people crazy.
In 1998, Nagoshi was involved in the action game SpikeOut, which could be played simultaneously by four people. The totally new style of cooperating with strangers at the game centre to defeat enemies became popular. In 2001, he worked on the family-oriented action game Super Monkey Ball. The game was incredibly simple - nothing more than rolling a ball containing a cute monkey - but was profoundly entertaining and became an explosive hit not just in Japan but also overseas. In 2003, he developed F-Zero AX/GX in collaboration with Nintendo. In 2005 he made his début as a producer on what would later become the hit Ryu ga Gotoku series. Nagoshi always took charge of games that tried to read the future. However, the plan for Ryu ga Gotoku, which dealt with a red light district very local to Japan, was uncharted territory even for him.
| 1992 | Virtua Racing (Arcade. As CG designer) |
| 1993 | Burning Rival (Arcade. As CG designer)
Virtua Fighter (Arcade. As CG designer) |
| 1994 | Daytona USA (Arcade) |
| 1996 | Scud Race (Arcade) |
| 1998 | SpikeOut Digital Battle Online (Arcade) |
| 1999 | SpikeOut Final Edition (Arcade) |
| 2000 | Planet Harriers (Arcade) |
| 2001 | Monkey Ball (Arcade), Super Monkey Ball (GameCube) |
| 2002 | Super Monkey Ball 2 (GameCube) | 2003 | F-Zero AX (Arcade), F-Zero GX (GameCube) |
| 2004 | Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (PS2, Xbox) |
| 2005 | Super Monkey Ball DS (Nintendo DS) Ryu ga Gotoku (PlayStation 2) |
| 2006 | Ryu ga Gotoku 2 (PlayStation 2) Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) |
| 2008 | Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (PlayStation 3) Super Monkey Ball (iPhone app) |
| 2009 | Ryu ga Gotoku 3 (PlayStation 3) |
| 2010 | Ryu ga Gotoku 4: Successors to the Legend (PlayStation 3) |
♦Japan Game Awards 05 - Future Award: Ryu ga Gotoku
♦Japan Game Awards 06 - Excellency Award: Ryu ga Gotoku
♦Famitsu Awards 05/06 - Excellency Award: Ryu ga Gotoku
♦Famitsu Awards 06 - Excellency Award, Dramatic Award: Ryu ga Gotoku 2
♦PlayStation Awards 07 - Gold Prize (awarded to titles shipping more than 500,000 copies and fewer than 1,000,000 copies): Ryu ga Gotoku, Ryu ga Gotoku 2
♦Japan Game Awards 07 - Future Division: Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan!
♦Japan Game Awards 08 - Excellency Award: Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan!
♦Japan Game Awards 08 - Future Division: Ryu ga Gotoku 3