Sonic Superstars is developed by a studio under the guidance of the creator of the first games of the series
The new SEGA game about Sonic was developed by the Japanese studio Arzest, which is led by the original creator of Talisman Nuto Osima.
Osima, who is attributed to the design of Sonic and the decoration of the earliest franchise games, will return to Sonic SuperStars for its first game in the series in the series.
The Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka said in an interview with Summer Game Fest on Saturday that the company initially planned to cooperate again with the developer Christian Whitehead, director Sonic Mania, but the plans broke up.
Then Iizuka turned to Osima, who worked on the original Sonic the Hedgehog game and other games of the 90s, with a proposal to lead the next 2D group with his developers team, which is best known to create such games as Hey! Pikmin and Yoshi’s New Island.
The developers of Sonic Mania – Headcannon and Christian Whitehead – do not participate in the project, Iizuka confirmed.
When we did Sonic Mania and the game was finished, and Chris left, we had a conversation with Chris and the team about what the next 2D game should be, which we do. We had some concepts and ideas set out between the teams, but we could not launch the project. So Chris and the team disappeared for a while. I am friends with many of my old colleagues, and I had a conversation with Mr. Osayn that we should make a game about Sonic together, and he would not be interested. He is the original creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, and therefore we had a conversation about whether his Arzest will be interested in working on the game about Sonic. There were ideas with Chris and the team that failed. Sonic Superstars is really fully developed by Arzest, but Sonic Team in Japan is working with them on design and some other elements. Arzest and Mr. Osima are 100% game developers.
Iizuka explained that he feels that he could trust the Osima team because of his valuable experience in the original Sonic games. Osima is most famous as the creator of the design of the Sonic character, but, according to Jezuma, few people know that he also developed many levels.
Mr. Osima brought a classic experience with Sonic into the game, because he worked on Sonic 1 and Sonic CD. He has an understanding of how to make a real classic game Sonic. Many people think that Mr. Osima just came and figured out how Sonic would look, drew a character and everything. But he not only painted and created a character, but also engaged in level design in Sonic 1. So he has experience creating a game about Sonic, because he was engaged in level design for the original game.
In addition, Iizuka said that the composer Sonic 3 Juna Seyue will lead the sound support of Superstars.
When we are talking about people who are still nearby who worked on classic games about Sonic, there are not many people who actively create games remaining from that very small group. But there are three people: I, Mr. Osima and the third – Juna Sega, who at one time made music for Sonic 3. He also participates in the development of Sonic Superstars. Jun is a musical director of the game, and he is really focused that the game sounds like a classic. But it is obvious that he does not sit idle and does not create all this music himself: he works with the internal teams of the Sega on creating music in the classic style of Sonic, and also collaborates with some external teams, such as Ty Lopez, which helped in work on Sonic Mania.
In Sonic Superstars, players will be able to manage Sonic, Talez, Nakles or Amy Rose, and for the first time in the game about Sonic, support for the cooperative regime for four players will be implemented.
The game will be released in the fall of 2023 both in the digital and physical form on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.