Sega Hopeful For Sonic's Future, Says What They've Got Planned Is 'Brilliant'

Tweet

We all know the story of Sonic, the blue hedgehog who stole our hearts in the early ’90s only to become somewhat of an abusive partner in recent years (what’s that – human-hedgehog relationships?). But regardless of where he came from or where he’s going, today is his 20th birthday. Yes, on June 23rd, 1991, the original Sonic the Hedgehog was released on the Sega Master System and man was it great.

Sega’s taking the day to look forward to the mascot’s future, as well addressing where they fell off the path with the Sonic series. In an interview with Eurogamer, Sega West’s Mike Hayes singled out the Xbox 360 and PS3′s Sonic the Hedgehog “reboot,” from 2006 as the worst of worst. “[That] was probably the worst Metacritic that we’ve got,” he said. “We kind of didn’t really know where to put it and we probably tripped up a bit.”

“The thing we’ve subsequently found – and it’s not rocket science – is that we have two very distinct audiences for Sonic,” he continued. “We’ve got us lot sitting around the table that’s the original fanbase, which is huge, and then we’ve got a younger audience that just sees Sonic as a good icon but they want a game that’s relevant to them.”

He says that not having a clear understanding of who their target audience was resulted in the Sonic slump we’ve only recently seen the series start to crawl out of. However, Hayes promises no more awkward Sonic games that just seem to be a mishmash of platforming elements and half-hearted stories now that Sega has a firm grasp on what needs to be done.

“Now the development teams are very clear where they need to try and craft their games going forward. And actually now they’ve got the bit between their teeth, it’s quite a single-minded process for them to try and improve on that,” he said.

Sonic Generations, of course, sets out to prove that. Sonic began to bounce back with Sonic 4: Episode 1, and the critical success of Sonic Colors now has Sonic fan chomping at the bit to see if Sega can keep the success going with Sonic Generations. Hayes doesn’t think that will be an issue.

“I think we’re in a very strong position knowing what’s coming next with Generations and Mario & Sonic London. The vision we’ve got for Sonic beyond is brilliant,” he said, adding, “I think Generations, for the loyal fanbase, is going to be highly regarded.”

Well, I don’t know if I’d consider the Mario & Sonic series brilliant, but I am rather excited for Sonic Generations. If you want to check it out, there’s a demo on Xbox Live and PSN today, and what better way to spend Sonic’s 20th birthday than by playing through a re-imagined Green Hill Zone?

Did any of you play the demo yet? If so, what do you think – is Sega on the right track, or is it just more of the same? Sound off in the comments section below!