Interview: The Past and Future of Sonic According to Sega Devs
From Sonic Adventure 2 to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and the upcoming Pico Park collaboration, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka and Pico Park creator Shintaro Shimazu discuss why Sonic has remained one of gaming's most enduring icons for more than three decades.
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Sonic Adventure Concept Art
More than three decades after his debut, Sonic the Hedgehog remains one of gaming's most recognizable characters, not because the series has stayed the same, but because it has rarely been afraid to change.
Platformers, racing games, open-zone adventures, films, television, remasters, crossovers, and now indie collaborations have all become part of Sonic's growing universe. While many long-running franchises struggle to balance nostalgia with reinvention, SEGA has increasingly embraced the idea that the blue hedgehog can comfortably exist across multiple genres and audiences simultaneously.
Takashi Iizuka
Speaking with Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team, alongside Shintaro Shimazu, PICO PARK's designer, it becomes clear that this flexibility is core to the franchise's identity. Whether discussing the upcoming Sonic x PICO PARK collaboration, the lasting impact of Sonic Adventure 2, or the future of Sonic Racing, both developers describe a franchise built around constant experimentation rather than preservation.
One of the clearest examples is Sonic's latest collaboration with TECOPARK, the creators of the massively successful cooperative puzzle game PICO PARK. Originally, the project wasn't expected to become an entirely new game at all.
Shimazu explains that after PICO PARK reached more than eight million downloads, the team began discussing ways to expand the audience. Initially, they assumed any collaboration would likely be limited to simple cosmetic additions.
When you look at what Pico Park is, it has a very simple design. It's really easy to understand. It has this really wide audience of people that think it's fun. So we thought, what other characters have simple designs but are really loved by a lot of people worldwide?
Sonic has that same appeal. Sonic is so much bigger than Pico Park; maybe I can talk to them and ask if we can do a skin or something, but I didn't think we could do a whole game. The initial plan was just to put a skin of Sonic in the game, but we actually got to collab with the Sonic IP and actually make a whole game around it.
This is Sonic entering the Pico Park world, so they wanted to make sure it really felt like Sonic was a guest in the IP and was existing inside of the IP. So when it got to the character designs, they wanted to make sure the height of the character was, you know, properly followed.
Sonic characters are the same size and shape as the Pico Park characters more or less, but we're still using the same graphic style to represent them. Just making sure everything fell in line.
It feels "Sonicy", but it also was within the world of Pico Park.
- Shintaro Shimazu, PICO PARK Designer
Sonic Concept Art
Instead, conversations with SEGA eventually grew into something much larger. On Sonic Team's side, Iizuka says the partnership succeeded because TECOPARK understood what made both games special.
It was very much a collaborative project.
"The TECOPARK team came to us with great ideas about how to integrate Sonic within PICOPARK. While they knew it would be a challenge to bring some of Sonic's iconic moves to a different genre of game, we feel that the team has done an excellent job blending the two together. We're looking forward to our partnership with TECOPARK, and we're excited to continue our tradition of collaborating with indie developers."
- Takashi Iizuka, Head of Sonic Team
Sonic Pico Park
Rather than simply dropping Sonic into another game's mechanics, the collaboration carefully reimagines familiar abilities like Spin Dash, Tails' flight, and Knuckles' glide within PICO PARK's cooperative puzzle framework.
According to Shimazu, preserving Sonic's identity required surprisingly subtle design decisions.
Instead of redesigning Sonic to fit PICO PARK, the developers imagined Sonic as a visitor inside PICO PARK's universe. That meant matching character proportions, simplifying sprites into the game's pixel-art style, and ensuring every visual element still felt authentic to both franchises.
The result illustrates something Sonic has done repeatedly throughout the franchise's history: adapting to entirely different gameplay styles while remaining instantly recognizable.
That willingness to evolve extends well beyond collaborations.
When asked why SEGA continues revisiting legacy franchises while simultaneously developing entirely new entries, Iizuka points to a philosophy that stretches back to the company's hardware era.
"Since SEGA's hardware era, our development teams have been driven to create distinctive, innovative games for players around the world. That spirit continues today. What makes SEGA unique, and what helps keep our IPs relevant, is our commitment to delivering not only sequels, but also fresh surprises and experiences for fans."
- Takashi Iizuka, Head of Sonic Team
It's an approach that's become increasingly visible over the past several years.
Alongside new Sonic titles, SEGA has revived or is in the process of reviving Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Jet Set Radio, Virtua Fighter, and numerous other legacy franchises, often treating them less as museum pieces and more as opportunities for reinvention.
Few Sonic games embody that spirit better than Sonic Adventure 2.
Asked which project remains his personal favorite, Iizuka immediately points to the Dreamcast classic, not simply because of its gameplay, but because it introduced one of the franchise's most enduring characters.
"My favorite Sonic title would have to be Sonic Adventure 2 as that was the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog, my favorite character. It was and still is a joy to see fans connect to Shadow and his darker, more emotional back story. Shadow is essentially the opposite of Sonic, and it was a proud moment seeing everything come together when Sonic Adventure 2 launched and how well-received it was by the community."
- Takashi Iizuka, Head of Sonic Team
More than twenty years later, Shadow remains one of Sonic's most popular characters, a reminder that experimentation has often produced some of the franchise's biggest successes.
Looking ahead, Sonic Team doesn't appear interested in narrowing the series' focus.
Instead, Iizuka sees Sonic's different branches, such as classic platformers, modern adventures, racing games, and collaborations, as complementary parts of a much larger ecosystem.
"Each of the different pillars contributes in meaningful ways to the Sonic franchise, and we're looking forward to what we have in store. As you saw at Summer Game Fest, we have a consistent slate of post-release content for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds... The introduction of a second season signals our long-term investment in the game. While keeping momentum in such a competitive market is always a challenge, our team remains dedicated to delivering content that stays true to the Sonic universe."
- Takashi Iizuka, Head of Sonic Team
For many franchises, longevity comes from carefully protecting the formula that made them successful.
Sonic's history suggests something different.
From introducing darker storytelling in Sonic Adventure 2 to experimenting with open-zone design in Sonic Frontiers, collaborating with indie developers, and continuing to invest in live-service racing content, Sonic has remained relevant precisely because SEGA continues to ask where the character can go next rather than where he's already been.
More than thirty years later, that willingness to keep moving may still be Sonic's defining characteristic.
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