The fact that this hasn’t been posted on the Newsboard can only mean one thing: It’s an old interview.
Shortly after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, UK publication Official Sega Magazine managed to secure an audience with Hirokazu Yasuhara. This was certainly a commendable achievement, as prior to this, Sonic Team had only given two interviews. The first was in a Japanese magazine that appeared just before the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, while the second was published in American magazine Sega Visions to promote the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After this interview, the team would remain silent until the unveiling of Sonic the Fighters in 1996.
Sadly, the interview doesn’t quite live up to its monumental significance as Hirokazu’s comments are on the flimsy side. Most of his responses can either be deduced by examining the game box (‘Knuckles is named after his large gloves’) or became common knowledge after the release of Sonic & Knuckles (‘The final Sonic 3 only contains half of the development ideas’).
There are a few interesting revelations. Beta-aficionados will be excited to learn that Sonic 3 was, at one stage, going to be produced in an isometric perspective, similar to that of Sonic Arcade. Comments from STI in the opening paragraph imply that the idea was dropped as Sega didn’t want to fiddle too much with classic Sonic formula. Hirokazu also claims that having a strong level of cooperation between Sonic and Tails was a key goal for the game. The fact that it only ended up being the rather simplistic mechanic of air-lifting suggest that more complex ideas may have been considered.
While most of the original Sonic Team no longer works on the franchise, their philosophies appear to live on. Discussing the creation of Knuckles, Yasuhara reveals that Sega feels it is important to keep Sonic’s world expanding by introducing new characters. Hopefully, next-gen Sonic will do away with such ideas, otherwise Sonic’s world will expand to the point of explosion.
The article doesn’t include a photograph of Yasuhara but does sport images of Roger Hector and a unknown Asian man. The photos almost look as if they have been taken from a video. Could SoA have made a behind-the-scenes video to promote Sonic 3, as they did with Sonic & Knuckles?
The full interview can be read here (The second page was too wide to fit on the scanner and so has been split into two parts).
^_^
Interview with Yasuhara
If i'm interpreting this right, I guess this idea finally came to frution with the Jak and Daxter series. I've never played any of them, but I hear the mission variety's been steadily increasing with each game.I, personally, would like to create more character games which are unique - as well the basic [styles] of all videogames.