Some truly heartbreaking news was broken earlier this morning, with the word of Kenji Eno's passing. He was only 42 years old. The cause of death was heart failure and took place yesterday, February 20, in his homeland of Japan.
For those who aren't familiar with the man's body of work, Wired has a nice and meaty write-up of the man. But here's the Cliffs Notes version: Kenji Eno was one of the first truly maverick Japanese game personalities, as well as one of its first high profile indie game makers. At least one of the first that us Westerners knew about.
Eno first got on the map as being of the first Eastern developers of the first 32-bit CD-ROM game system, the 3DO. His company, Warp, created some truly bizarre and esoteric offerings, which unfortunately have always been near impossible to get ahold of.
Though the most noteworthy release was D, which also came out for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation 1. It’s a horror game that used extensive use of full motion video and which remains a cult classic today. It was also the first appearance of Laura Lewis, the female lead in many of Eno’s game (he was perhaps the first game maker to conceive of the idea of a “virtual actress).
Eno was just as colorful in person as were his games. Because he was so pissed at Sony for cutting the print run of the PlayStation version of D, at a Sony event, he unveiled the trailer for his next game, Enemy Zero. But the audience (and especially Sony executives) were horrified to see the PlayStation logo morph into the Sega Saturn’s.
And at another event, he stomped on a PlayStation console and a copy of the game Jumping Flash, to permanently break ties with Sony. Meanwhile, Enemy Zero did indeed come out for the Saturn, which was a survival horror game before Resident Evil came along to popularize the genre, along with Real Sound, the pioneering audio only game that was designed for the blind.
After D2 for the Sega Dreamcast, Eno went into retirement, but emerged almost ten years later to produce a series of iOS games, plus the WiiWare title You, Me, and The Cubes.
Eno was also a noted musician. Not only did he contribute towards the soundtrack of Sega Rally 2, but his work can also be heard in various remix soundtracks for Tekken 2.
Eno leaves behind a wife and a lasting legacy that is surely never to be forgotten.
