Kenji Eno (creator of D, Enemy Zero) passes away at 42 years old.

[Kitsune Sniper]

http://www.asahi.com/obituaries/update/0221/TKY201302210302.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Eno#Games

The guy created the D series and worked on a ton of other games. He died due to hypertension. The dude was taken too young. Rest in peace.

[recorderdude]

So sad to hear...he made some amazing games. RIP Kenji.

[Graham Mitchell]

Oh my, what a shock! That's terribly sad news. He had such a unique voice in video games. I'd been hoping for a warp comeback for years.

I'm actually quite saddened by this.

[Daltone]

It's a terrible shame. A warp comeback would have been great, I guess it is not to be.

[wingzrow]

Isn't hypertension caused by high blood pressure? He didn't work himself to death did he?

[c2000]

Really sad to hear, one of the great minds of the industry :(

[Kitsune Sniper]

Isn't hypertension caused by high blood pressure? He didn't work himself to death did he?

Probably not. High blood pressure isn't just caused by stress, sometimes it's due to other illnesses. My brother has high blood pressure due to a congenital valve defect.

[FrankSerpico]

RIP I remember seeing ads for Enemy Zero in old game mags and wanting to play it reeeeal bad before Sega pulled the plug on a US release. I may cop D2 for my dreamcast in his memory

[VACRMH]

RIP I remember seeing ads for Enemy Zero in old game mags and wanting to play it reeeeal bad before Sega pulled the plug on a US release. I may cop D2 for my dreamcast in his memory

They didn't pull the plug :) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Enemy-Zero-Sega-Saturn-1997-DISKS-COMPLETE-/170992931277?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item27cff911cd

[Queen Of The Felines]

D was awesome. The twist is one of the rare "Wait, she did WHAT?!" moments I've had while playing game.

[T2KFreeker]

Man, some of the worst news I have seen in a long time. I adored WARP. I still play D and Trip'd regularly. So young.

[Hawksmoor]

This is awful news. Mr. Eno never quite got the recognition and stature I feel he deserved. Definitely underrated. RIP.

[Damaramu]

Man, 42 is way too young! This really is a loss. RIP Kenji! :(

[Wraith Storm]

This is incredibly sad news. When I saw the title of this thread I was just in shock.

Kenji Eno has always been an inspiration for me. He just seemed like such a passionate person and had his own unique way of doing things.

1up featured this interview with Kenji Eno (http://www.1up.com/features/kenji-eno-breaks-silence) years ago and it is one of the most engaging interviews I have ever read. But maybe I got more out of it than most because of my respect for the guy.

I remember the first time I played a Saturn. My buddy Andrew brought it over to my house with a copy of "D". We turned out all the lights and were just engrossed (and scared shitless a few times).

Eventually I got my own Saturn and I remember the anticipation for Enemy Zeros release. Magazines would show pictures and release little bits of information over the months and it seemed like it took for ever to come out. Eventually it did. I remember my parents taking me to Toys R Us so I could buy it. We came home and I was glued to the t.v. screen for hours. I played Disc 0 (the combat training scenario) for a long time and thought I was ready to tackle the actual game, but I was so wrong. Nothing could prepare me for when you encounter your first Enemy Zero in the basement/cargo area.

I was trying to make it to someones room I believe, and had to make my way through a maze of crates, equipment, barrels and the like. Then I heard the dreaded sound for the first time. "ping". My heart skipped a beat. "ping...ping..." "Oh, god," I thought. "Is this for real." There was an Enemy somewhere nearby and it was invisible. It was then I realized all the combat training that I did earlier was pointless, because now I could die. I had actual game time at stake and to make matters worse, in Enemy Zero, you have a finite number of game saves AND game loads. Suddenly EVERTHING mattered. My characters life really mattered. I began to look around trying to pinpoint the direction of the sound. PING... PING... PING! It was louder and faster than before. The Enemy was closing in on me. My heart was pounding and my hands were sweating. I panicked and began to run while attempting to fire a shot from my gun, but it was no use. I ran straight into the jaws of the Enemy Zero and it was game over.

Years later D2 finally came to fruition on the Dreamcast after the unreleased M2 version and scrapped Saturn version. I snagged it on release day and took it to my friend Andrews house. Where as D was an FMV puzzle game, Enemy Zero began to meld genres like FMV, Myst style puzzles with that of a FPS, D2 took it to a whole other level. Was it an RPG, a hunting game, a survival horror game, a puzzle game, a snowmobile simulator? There were so many different genres that had been brought together within D2 that is really stood apart from anything else we had played before. But none of that would have worked if the games engine had not been up to par. It was one of the most versatile game engines I had ever seen up to that point and it still amazes me to this day. It handled 3rd person exploration, 1st person exploration, First person shooting and sniping, snowmobile driving, Myst style puzzles, cinematic cutscenes etc. It was a unique game from a unique man.

R.I.P Kenji Eno. Your passion, determination and imagination will be missed.

[FrankSerpico]

My bad, I could have sworn Enemy Zero never got a US release. Was it super-limited or something?