Neo Racer: Tetra

Neo Racer: Tetra (ネオレーサー：テトラ - Neorēsā: Tetora) was a game developed by Ocean Games (海ゲーム) and released on November 30th, 2012 exclusively for Nintendo's (任天堂) newest console at the time, the Wii U (ウィー ユー). Neo Racer: Tetra was the first Ocean Games production to be published by Nintendo since 1986's Neo Racer 2: Revenge of X (ネオレーサー2：Xの復讐).

Development
Neo Racer: Tetra was the brainchild of the famous Yoshioka Koizumi, the creator of many different popular Ocean Games series. Neo Racer: Tetra began development on January 6th, 2010 by Ocean Games' Alpha (アルファ) team for Nintendo's unannounced console at the time. Nintendo themselves had actually commissioned the large studio to make the game, with them wanting to have an Ocean Games production at the forefront of their newest launch lineup. Similar to almost every other Neo Racer game, it would be designed by Yoshioka Koizumi, plus many other fledgling designers from the early years of Ocean Games, such as Yoshiro Kamaki, the original composer of the first Neo Racer game ever released.

The game went through a pretty rocky development, with the developers not knowing how to implement Nintendo's newest innovation, the Gamepad, into the actual gameplay without making it a nuisance to the player. One designer, Masaru Yamura, proposed that in some sections the player would have to look down at the Gamepad for gameplay, and in others, the player would have to look up at the television screen. Thankfully, this idea was shot down by Yoshioka Koizumi himself, later saying that it interrupted the gameplay experience and utterly destroyed the game's fast pacing.

Another reason the game had such a bad development was the multitude of bugs that the new console had brought on. Unbeknownst to Nintendo, Ocean Games had already begun development for a new Neo Racer title which was supposed to release on the Sony PlayStation 3 and the X-Box 360, however when Nintendo offered the contract, the higher-ups at Ocean Games snagged the deal, and all of the previous work on the game had to be ported over to the unannounced Nintendo console. This would prove to be a challenge for the developers, and because of that, there were many new issues and bugs that needed to be fixed before the game released to store shelves at the launch of the Nintendo's newest console.

Another bad thing about the game's development was the short development time (for Ocean Games, at the least). The Ocean Games corporation was used to pushing out new games every 3-5 years, which gives them enough time to patch out all the bugs and make great games. However, this game's dev time was half of some other Ocean Games releases, with it being released only two years after development on the Wii U version initially began. This was a great challenge for the developers, with some working around the clock to get the game ready for the November 2012 release of the Wii U. It was so bad that some of the game's developers needing to be hospitalized mid-development. This caused Ocean Games to hire new, contract-based, developers to replace the old ones while they were getting medical treatment.

Release
Neo Racer: Tetra finally released to great reviews, with many critics citing the amazing aesthetic and beautiful soundtrack. The game sold around 1 million units in 6 months, which was slightly above Nintendo's ambitions for the project. Neo Racer: Tetra sold around 5 million units in all.