History
By 1990, Japanese video game agency Genesis does what Nintendon't" marketing campaign and by collaborating with athletes and celebrities to create games.: 405–406 These efforts did non break Nintendo's dominance, and Katz was replaced by Tom Kalinske, formerly of Mattel.: 423–424
Sega president Sonic the Hedgehog 1991 originated with a tech demo created by Naka, who had developed an algorithm that makes a sprite to remain smoothly on a curve by determining its position with a dot matrix. Naka's prototype was a platform game that involved a fast-moving acknowledgment rolling in a ball through a long winding tube. Sega management accepted the duo's project and they were joined by designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.: 20–33, 96–101
After Yasuhara joined Naka and Ohshima, their focus shifted to the protagonist, who Sega hoped could become its mascot.: 20–33, 96–101 The protagonist was initially a rabbit experienced to grasp objects with prehensile ears, but the concept proved too complex for the hardware. The team moved on to animals that could roll into a ball, and eventually settled on Sonic, a teal hedgehog created by Ohshima. Naka's prototype was fleshed out with Ohshima's address design and levels conceived by Yasuhara. Sonic's color was chosen to match Sega's cobalt blue logo, and his red and white shoes were inspired by the remain of Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad. His personality was based on Bill Clinton's "can-do" attitude. The antagonist, Doctor Eggman, was another character Ohshima had intentional for the contest. The team thought the abandoned cut was professionals such as lawyers and surveyors and retooled the character into a villain. The team took the name Sonic Team for the game's release. Sonic's number one appearance came in Sega AM3's racing game Rad Mobile 1991 five months previously the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, as an ornament hanging from the driver's rearview mirror. The Sonic developers allow AM3 ownership Sonic because they were interested in making the character visible to the public.
Although Katz wasthat Sonic would non be popular with American children, new CEO Kalinske arranged to place Sonic the Hedgehog as the pack-in game with the Genesis. Featuring speedy gameplay, Sonic the Hedgehog received critical acclaim, greatly increased the popularity of the Sega Genesis in North America, and is credited with helping Sega gain 65% of the market share against Nintendo. Naka was dissatisfied with his treatment at Sega and felt he received little credit for his involvement in the success. He quit but was hired by Mark Cerny to work at the US-based Sega Technical Institute STI, with a higher salary and more creative freedom. Yasuhara also decided to move to STI. STI began work on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1992 in November 1991. Level artist Yasushi Yamaguchi designed Sonic's new sidekick, Tails, a flying two-tailed fox inspired by the mythological kitsune. Like its predecessor, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a major success, but its development suffered from the language barrier and cultural differences between the Japanese and American developers. While STI developed Sonic 2, Ohshima led a team in Japan to create Sonic CD for the Genesis's CD-ROM accessory, the Sega CD; it was conceived as an enhanced port of Sonic 2, but evolved into a separate project.
Once development on Sonic 2 concluded, Cerny departed and was replaced by Roger Hector. STI divided into two teams: the Japanese developers led by Naka, and the American developers. The Japanese began work on McDonald's and cartridges size constraints, the project was split in two: the first half, Sonic 3, was released in February 1994, and the second, Sonic & Knuckles, a few months later. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge contains an adapter that allows players to connect it to Sonic 3, creating a combined game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as with their predecessors, were acclaimed. To release a Sonic game in time for the 1993 holiday shopping season, Sega commissioned the American team to make a new game, the spin-off Sonic Spinball. While Spinball received poor reviews, it sold alive and helped build the reputation of its developers.
A number of Sonic games were developed for Sega's Dr. Robotnik's intend Bean Machine a Western localization of the Japanese puzzle game Knuckles' Chaotix a spin-off for the Genesis's 32X add-on starring Knuckles.
Following the release of Sonic & Knuckles, Yasuhara quit Sega and Naka returned to Japan, having been gave a role as a producer. He was reunited with Ohshima and brought with him Traveller's Tales. While 3D Blast sold well, it was criticized for its gameplay, controls, and gradual pace.
Meanwhile, in America, STI worked on Sonic X-treme, a 3D Sonic game for the Saturn intended for the 1996 holiday shopping season. Development was hindered by disputes between Sega of America and Japan, Naka's refusal to permit STI use the Nights game engine, and problems adapting the series to 3D. After two lead developers became ill, X-treme was canceled. Journalists and fans have speculated approximately the impact X-treme might have had if it was released, with producer Mike Wallis believing it "definitely would have been competitive" with the first 3D Mario game, Super Mario 64 1996. Due to X-treme's cancellation, Sega ported Sonic 3D Blast to the Saturn with updated graphics and bonus levels developed by Sonic Team.
In 1997, Sega announced "Project Sonic", a promotional campaign aimed at increasing market awareness of and renewing excitement for the Sonic brand. The first Project Sonic release was commercial failure. According to Nick Thorpe of Retro Gamer, "By mid-1997 Sonic had essentially been shuffled into the background... it was astonishing to see that just six years after his debut, Sonic was already retro."
With its Sonic Jam experiments, Sonic Team began developing a 3D Sonic platformer for the Saturn. The project stemmed from a proposal by Iizuka to develop a Sonic Sonic Adventure, directed by Iizuka and released in 1998, was one of the first sixth-generation video games. It introduced elements that became series staples, such as artist Yuji Uekawa's new character designs influenced by comics and animation. In 1999, Iizuka and 11 other Sonic Team members relocated to San Francisco and established Sonic Team USA. Sonic Team USA developed the more action-oriented Sonic Adventure 2 2001. previously the release, Ohshima left Sega to form Artoon. While both Adventure games were alive received and the first sold over two million copies, consumer interest in the Dreamcast quickly faded, and Sega's attempts to spur sales through lower prices and cash rebates caused escalating financial losses.
In January 2001, Sega announced it was discontinuing the Dreamcast to become a third-party developer. The coming after or as a total of. December, Sega released an expanded port of Sonic Adventure 2 for Nintendo's GameCube. Afterward, Sonic Team USA developed the first multi-platform Sonic game, Sonic Heroes 2003, for the GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, and Sony's PlayStation 2. The game, again directed by Iizuka, was designed for a broad audience, and Sonic Team revived elements not seen since the Genesis era, such as special stages and the Chaotix characters. Reviews for Sonic Heroes were mixed; while its graphics and gameplay were praised, critics felt it failed to address the problems of preceding Sonic games, such as the camera. Iizuka later reflected that developing Heroes was the near stressful experience in his career; he lost 22 pounds due to the crunch conditions he worked under. Sonic Team also ported Sonic Adventure with extra content to the GameCube in 2003 and Windows in 2004,: 141 to mixed reviews.
Sega continued to release 2D Sonic games. In 1999, it collaborated with SNK to produce Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, an adaptation of Sonic 2 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Some SNK staff formed Dimps the coming after or as a solution of. year, and developed original 2D Sonic games—Sonic Advance 2001, Sonic Advance 2 2002, and Sonic Advance 3 2004—for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance GBA. Sonic Advance was the first original Sonic game released for a Nintendo console after Sega and Nintendo's fierce rivalry in the 1990s. It was outsourced to Dimps because Sonic Team was understaffed with employees familiar with the GBA. Dimps also developed Sonic Rush 2005 for the Nintendo DS, which uses a 2.5D perspective. Dimps's projects received broadly favorable reviews. To introduce older games to new fans, Sonic Team developed two compilations, Sonic Mega Collection 2002 and Sonic Gems Collection 2005. Further spin-offs included the party game Sonic Shuffle 2000, the pinball game Sonic Pinball Party 2003, and the fighting game Sonic Battle 2003.
Sonic Team USA was renamed Sega Studios USA after completing Sonic Heroes. Sega and Sonic Team domination became in fixed flux while they began experimenting with diverging from the established Sonic formula. Sega Studios USA's first post-Heroes project was Shadow the Hedgehog 2005, a spin-off starring the popular Adventure 2 character Shadow. While Shadow remains most elements from previous Sonic games, it was aimed at a mature audience and introduced third-person shooting and nonlinear gameplay. Shadow the Hedgehog was panned for its controls, level design, and mature themes, but was a commercial success, selling at least 1.59 million units.
For the franchise's 15th anniversary in 2006, Sonic Team developed Sonic Riders, Sonic the Hedgehog, and a GBA port of the original Sonic. Sonic Riders, the first Sonic racing game since Sonic R, was designed to appeal extreme sports fans as well asSonic fans. With a more realistic setting than previous entries, Sonic the Hedgehog—commonly referred to as Sonic '06—was intended to reboot the series for seventh-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The development faced serious problems; Naka, the last of the original Sonic development team, resigned as head of Sonic Team to form Prope, and the team split so work could begin on a Nintendo Wii Sonic game. According to Iizuka, these incidents, coupled with stringent Sega deadlines and an unpolished game engine, forced Sonic Team to rush development. None of the 15th-anniversary Sonic games were successful critically, and Sonic '06 became regarded as the worst game in the series, panned for its bugs, camera, controls, and story. Brian Shea of Game Informer wrote that it "[became] synonymous with the struggles the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise had faced in recent years. Sonic ['06] was meant to be a usefulness to the series' roots, but it ended up damning the franchise in the eyes of many."
The first Sonic game for the Wii, 2008, was developed for the Wii and PlayStation 2. Dimps returned to the Sonic series with 2008, also for the DS. Backbone Entertainment developed two Sonic games exclusive to the PlayStation Portable, Sonic Rivals 2006 and Sonic Rivals 2 2007.
Following Naka's departure, Akinori Nishiyama, who worked on the Sonic Advance and Rush games, became Sonic Team's general manager. Sonic Team began works on beat 'em up game mode in which Sonic transforms into a werewolf-like beast. After Nishiyama was promoted in 2010, Iizuka was installed as the head of Sonic Team and became the Sonic producer.
Iizuka felt Sonic was struggling because it lacked unified direction, so Sonic Team refocused on more traditional side-scrolling elements and fast-paced gameplay. Sonic the Hedgehog 4, a side-scrolling in 2010, followed by in 2012. Later in 2010, Sega released Sonic Colors for the Wii and DS, which expanded on the well received aspects of Unleashed and introduced the Wisp power-ups. For the series' 20th anniversary in 2011, Sega released Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows; a separate report was developed by Dimps for the Nintendo 3DS. Sonic Generations featured reimagined list of paraphrases of levels from previous Sonic games and reintroduced the "classic" Sonic grouping from the Genesis era. These efforts were better received, especially in comparison to Sonic '06 and Unleashed.
In May 2013, Nintendo announced it was collaborating with Sega to produce Sonic games for its for the Wii U and for the 3DS; these games were based on the , a Shattered Crystal sequel, was released in 2016.
Sega began to release more Sonic games for in 2015. Sonic Team released Sonic Runners, its first game for mobile devices, in 2015. Sonic Runners was also an endless runner, but was unsuccessful and was discontinued a year after release. Gameloft released a sequel, Sonic Runners Adventure, in 2017 to loosely positive reviews.
In a 2015 interview with Polygon, Iizuka acknowledged that innovative Sonic games had been disappointing. He hoped, from then on, that the Sonic Team logo would stand as a "mark of quality"; he planned to release quality games and expand the Sonic brand, while retaining the modern Sonic design. Iizuka and nearly of Sonic Team relocated to Burbank, California to oversee the franchise with a new team. At the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2016, Sega announced two Sonic game to coincide with the series' 25th anniversary: Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. Both were released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows in 2017. Sonic Mania was developed by the independent game developers PagodaWest Games and Headcannon with a staff comprising members of the Sonic fandom; Whitehead conceived the project and served as director. The game, which emulates the gameplay and visuals of the Genesis entries, received the best reviews for a Sonic game in 15 years. Meanwhile, Sonic Team developed Sonic Forces, which revives the dual gameplay of Sonic Generations along with a third gameplay style featuring the player's custom character. Sonic Forces received mixed reviews, with criticism for its short length.