Confirmed: Iizuka is at Sega of America "Rumour: Overseeing Multiple Sonic Games/SOA to be Sonic Hub"

[Multikaris]

4 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

I detest the whole "one Sonic game, not to many Sonic games" ideology and call bullcr@p on it.

I'm not interested in the idea of Sonic being another d@mn Zelda series where it's some odd years just for a new big Sonic game with only re-releases to fill the void for the most part because people b@$ch "one at a time!! too many!! focus!!" and all that when multiple games in the past were never an issue, it's called spin-off's that were actually successes despite the spiteful protests, including the Advanced and Rush games, the Riders games "until Free f@cked it up" and the Racing titles.

Then you had Black Knight as a spin-off which, by and large, is greatly underappreciated for doing what it did to fix Secret Rings mistakes.

There's nothing wrong with multiple Sonic games whatsoever, it's a matter of the right people behind the job.

Yes. I'm still giving Fire and Ice a chance for other playable characters alone.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, The Very First Miru to Me said:

Yes. I'm still giving Fire and Ice a chance for other playable characters alone.

I have to admit, Shattered Crystal was alright, I'm getting its sequel myself.

I think they delayed the game a year or more because they're giving the current writers the boot and are rewriting the game. But that's just a personal hope because if Shattered Crystal had a better story I'd say it would of been just right really.

[Hyp3hat]

8 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

I detest the whole "one Sonic game, not to many Sonic games" ideology and call bullcr@p on it.

I'm not interested in the idea of Sonic being another d@mn Zelda series where it's some odd years just for a new big Sonic game with only re-releases to fill the void for the most part because people b@$ch "one at a time!! too many!! focus!!" and all that when multiple games in the past were never an issue, it's called spin-off's that were actually successes despite the spiteful protests, including the Advanced and Rush games, the Riders games "until Free f@cked it up" and the Racing titles.

Then you had Black Knight as a spin-off which, by and large, is greatly underappreciated for doing what it did to fix Secret Rings mistakes.

There's nothing wrong with multiple Sonic games whatsoever, it's a matter of the right people behind the job.

They might not have the amount of staff on hand to develop multiple games in house at this point, would be my main concern. 

The merits of Black Knight aside (I haven't played it), it still reviewed poorly, so SEGA may be deciding to put all their focus on one or two games that, by virtue of their undivided attention and budget, are longer, more in depth experiences that aren't glitchy and review better, rather than throwing out a lot of Sonic product that reviews average to well and is tangentially related to the current focus of the franchise. The period you're describing is something of Sonic's lowest ebb - Rush, Riders, and the storybook games were coming out when we had Shadow The Hedgehog, 06, and the Werehog, so there's a balancing act to be done. They appear to be trying this with Boom, but that's another story.

The best way to solve your problem, of course, would be letting Dimps (or someone else) make their own handheld titles again, rather than wobbly ports of the console games. 

[Roger_van_der_weide]

8 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

I think they delayed the game a year or more because they're giving the current writers the boot and are rewriting the game.

Actually, that at least Ken Pontac is STILL the writer is pretty much the only thing that's been confirmed since it's delay, so no.
Altough I suppose it IS still possible that they told Pontac and Graff to tidy up their writing, but it's more likely they're more focused on fixing up the gameplay more.

Not that I care, my problems with Sonic Shattered Crystal lay deep within it's core design, so I can't imagine any cleaning or tidying gameplay elements will have any effects on me caring. But that's just me.
These games don't seem to be made for Sonic fans but for casual fans of the Tv show, so they should probably be more concerned why it's only Sonic fans who even talk about this game. We were never the primary target audience to begin with, but a nice additional bonus.
So my money is that they'll probably focus more on it's general market appeal and less on worrying about nitpicks only hardcore Sonic fans are tripping over.



As for the Spin offs, I'm all for having a bunch of small scaled Sonic spin off games on the handheld systems and all, but Sega seems to be fighting against Sonic's shakey image now, so they probably want to avoid coming across that they're making 500 half finished games again.
If they're focusing on repairing their image to the general public, it'll probably be one focused and clean main release.
As much as I personally would prefer several smaller games over one big one.

Also, man I'm so confused why everyone's so excited about iizuka overseeing the new game. Hasn't he overseen every Sonic game since the 90's pretty much?

[molul]

I really hope Sega brings some order to Sonic characters design sooner than later. Modern Sonic wasn't so bad, but Sonic Boom is just horrible.

I look at Mickey Mouse evolution and it always kept a classic feeling. And of course there never were two Mickey Mouse's designs used at the same time (except for that Mickey Mania game). What sense does it make that a company is using three different versions of its mascot? It's wrong.

I wonder how many years will Sega be able to handle this Sonic triple image?

[Milo]

2 hours ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Also, man I'm so confused why everyone's so excited about iizuka overseeing the new game. Hasn't he overseen every Sonic game since the 90's pretty much?

No, not every Sonic game, but Iizuka has been heavily involved in most of the main series Sonic games since the late 90s, starting with his director role for the first Adventure. He was the figurehead for Sonic Team USA/Sega Studios USA (Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog; all of which he directed and helped design) while Sonic Team back in Japan (under Naka's direction) was working on original IPs (Samba de Amigo, Phantasy Star Online, and Billy Hatcher among others). Iizuka was also a producer/director for the Backbone-developed PSP Sonic Rivals games.

There was something of a brief interim period during the mid-late 2000s, when Sonic Team back in Japan returned to making Sonic titles, and the titles from that period (Sonic 2006, Unleashed, and both Storybook titles) were by other Sonic Team/Sega staff members (Iizuka was credited with special thanks in all four of those titles). That came to an end when Sonic Team USA was dissolved and its staff returned to Japan following the mixed reception of Nights: Journey of Dreams and Sonic 2006 being a critical and commercial bomb, with Iizuka being promoted as head of Sonic Team in 2008. Since 2010's Sonic Colors and Sonic 4: Episode I, he's been serving as a producer role for not only the Sonic games developed Sonic Team, but the Sonic games developed by Dimps as well (Iizuka previously had no involvement with the preceding Advance and Rush titles, save for a special thanks credit for the first Advance).

[Nepenthe]

1 hour ago, molul said:

I really hope Sega brings some order to Sonic characters design sooner than later. Modern Sonic wasn't so bad, but Sonic Boom is just horrible.

I look at Mickey Mouse evolution and it always kept a classic feeling. And of course there never were two Mickey Mouse's designs used at the same time (except for that Mickey Mania game). What sense does it make that a company is using three different versions of its mascot? It's wrong.

I wonder how many years will Sega be able to handle this Sonic triple image?

Disney is using two Mickey designs right now- the generic one that hosts things like Mickey Mouse Club, and the noveau classic one that's starring in the new shorts on Disney Channel.

The problem then, I think, isn't really using multiple designs of a character at the same time; these are just meta artistic expressions and updates. The problem was Sega coming out with Sonic Generations and telling us that the designs are canonically separate entities with their own separate gameplay niches. All that serves to do is to visualize the different paths of the franchise, cement unofficial divisions that had no business to be entertained by the people in charge, and fracture the overall brand even more into distinct ideas that never meaningfully cross over. Regardless of what he looks like, Mickey Mouse is still the same Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie. But Sonic doesn't even have the appearance of this kind of consolidation and unity anymore because Sega came out and said so. And it's dumb.

[Clewis]

2 hours ago, molul said:

What sense does it make that a company is using three different versions of its mascot? It's wrong.

I don't understand what's wrong with this. Nintendo has done this for several years with Paper Mario and nobody seems to have had a large problem with it. Nepenthe mentioning how Disney is currently handling the Mickey Mouse character is also a very good example. In addition, both DC and Marvel Comics have also had different iterations of their tent pole characters exist at the same time for a number of years without much issue.

There's nothing wrong with using different renditions of your mascot in an attempt to reach out to different demographics. Obviously, all it really comes down to is how this idea is executed, and we all know Sega doesn't exactly have the strongest reputation when it comes to executing sound concepts. 

[FriendBot]

3 minutes ago, Clewis said:

There's nothing wrong with using different renditions of your mascot in an attempt to reach out to different demographics. Obviously, all it really comes down to is how this idea is executed, and we all know Sega doesn't exactly have the strongest reputation when it comes to executing sound concepts. 

This!

I always find it baffling when people say that having 3 different Sonics is suddenly a terrible thing when we have like 3 different Spider Mans in movies alone yet no one bats an eye when it comes to that. 

But if it's because of the lack of confidence on how SEGA executes this is another story, which is something I do understand. SEGA has yet to fully attain the confidence from the fans so I guess a bit of insecurity is granted. 

But I see no reason why Boom shouldn't co-exist with the main series. I mean, if people are that confused that Boom is not a reboot but an alternate universe than it's just blatant ignorance at this point.

[Nepenthe]

Boom came out of nowhere at a time where the franchise was finally finding some idea of unity, quality control, and thus predictable expectations about what future major releases would look like. Even though it's an alternate universe, it is still part of the overall Sonic brand that would be competing on the game front, meaning its performance was going to affect the reputation of the Sega games simply by association. On top of that, with it being an alternate universe it arguably hasn't really established any necessity for existing, because the exploration and adventure characteristics advertised by RoL and the comedy angle of the TV show were things the normal Sega games had already proven capable of supporting anyway. Basically, Boom's biggest issues is that it didn't seem to learn any of the lessons taught to it by the modern games and Lost World, which is that division for division's sake does nothing but weaken the depth and identity of the main brand of games.

[Dejimon11]

4 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Boom came out of nowhere at a time where the franchise was finally finding some idea of unity, quality control, and thus predictable expectations about what future major releases would look like. Even though it's an alternate universe, it is still part of the overall Sonic brand that would be competing on the game front, meaning its performance was going to affect the reputation of the Sega games simply by association. On top of that, with it being an alternate universe it arguably hasn't really established any necessity for existing, because the exploration and adventure characteristics advertised by RoL and the comedy angle of the TV show were things the normal Sega games had already proven capable of supporting anyway. Basically, Boom's biggest issues is that it didn't seem to learn any of the lessons taught to it by the modern games and Lost World, which is that division for division's sake only do nothing but weaken the depth and identity of the main brand of games.

Pretty much what I was going to say. We haven't really seen effects of the Modern series and Boom brand and what it's going to do with the franchise movie forward. I'm all for different continues and all but if there really is no big difference between the two then it just comes off as pointless. It's not like  Mega Man where each sub series was drastically different from one another from the get go. With Boom the point of it was to get people interested who weren't familiar with the franchise into it and bring back people who stop caring about Sonic.

[molul]

Good point with Paper Mario. I didn't even think about that. Then I guess it's Sonic Boom concept execution and the mixed quality of last Sonic titles that makes me reject it. I guess it was like "With the amount of work you already have to get Sonic back to its glory, and you start a brand new Sonic branch?". And if only the new design was worth it (for me, I mean)... But the very moment I saw that first picture I knew I was watching a failure.

[Chris Knopps]

Ah yes, about Mr. Iizuka overseeing/supervising the new guy in charge of Sonic outside of Japan...

Is that wise...? Is having Mr. Iizuka's influence the sole influence of the franchise really for the best anymore...? Is his interaction and opinion really needed and/or wanted when it comes to new people overseeing Sonic...?

I think it's time to have two in-house head honchos in charge, someone to challenge Mr. Iizuka and follow his own idealistic direction instead of playing yes man to the senior of the company that, really, hasn't done too good a job at being in charge in around ten years or so.

He's had successes, but with all the problems mixed in along with the debatable belief Mr. Iizuka plays the horse pulling the corporate carriage, I don't think it's too much of a good thing knowing Mr. Iizuka is telling the new head honcho "this is how things are, stick to it" when I'd like to see this new guy do things on his own and in his own way.

I really don't care for the "I'm in charge, just me. Sonic only needs one direction, mine." mindset Mr. Iizuka has had from the start, it's just too much suffocation.

Then when someone else DOES take the reins, as is the case with BOOM, he and the rest of Japan seemingly refuse to work together to make the project a success... A touch of disturbing arrogance.

[Regulus]

Weren't Colours and Generations published under Iizuka? I'd say Iizuka did pretty good there.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Regulus said:

Weren't Colours and Generations published under Iizuka? I'd say Iizuka did pretty good there.

Keep in mind I point out his successes, he has done well, but the fact of the matter is there are errors that still brings his authority into question.

It doesn't help that currently Generation has such a mixed opinion with consumers, with even Colors being debated here and there. Of course then again, we DO live in a period where ALL of the titles are being questioned as good or bad...

I have loved things he has done, hell I'm a fan of his Shadow game, but at the same time, I still feel it's best to let another head in-house do what he/she decides with the franchise. I don't mind Mr. Iizuka keeping an eye on him, but moving the moment a new head is hired to another country to watch over things just seems like a bit of a paranoid move...

I'm hoping for the best, I just feel it's time for two minds to be in charge without one attempting to have too great an influence on the other.

[Regulus]

Just now, Chris Knopps said:

It doesn't help that currently Generation has such a mixed opinion with consumers, with even Colors being debated here and there. Of course then again, we DO live in a period where ALL of the titles are being questioned as good or bad...

I don't know enough about SEGA politics to discuss appointing new Sonic Team heads. But with this,

Honestly most consumers like Sonic Generations. It has good Metacritic scores for example, same with Colours. Its only on overly obsessive fansites and communities where Generations in particular gets a lot of criticism for really minor reasons  

Not saying that Colours and Generations are perfect by any means, but they are solid titles.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Regulus said:

I don't know enough about SEGA politics to discuss appointing new Sonic Team heads. But with this,

Honestly most consumers like Sonic Generations. It has good Metacritic scores for example, same with Colours. Its only on overly obsessive fansites and communities where Generations in particular gets a lot of criticism for really minor reasons  

Not saying that Colours and Generations are perfect by any means, but they are solid titles.

I agree. With the Sonic Colors/Colours game the only nagging issues for me are the food world and script, and Sonic Generations being the script and shortness topped with non-playable characters.

Solid yes, enjoyable indeed, but lacking in areas that shouldn't have been an issue and tossing the hedgehog into worlds that just didn't make sense to me in a Sonic game.

[Scar]

27 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Ah yes, about Mr. Iizuka overseeing/supervising the new guy in charge of Sonic outside of Japan...

Is that wise...? Is having Mr. Iizuka's influence the sole influence of the franchise really for the best anymore...? Is his interaction and opinion really needed and/or wanted when it comes to new people overseeing Sonic...?

I think it's time to have two in-house head honchos in charge, someone to challenge Mr. Iizuka and follow his own idealistic direction instead of playing yes man to the senior of the company that, really, hasn't done too good a job at being in charge in around ten years or so.

He's had successes, but with all the problems mixed in along with the debatable belief Mr. Iizuka plays the horse pulling the corporate carriage, I don't think it's too much of a good thing knowing Mr. Iizuka is telling the new head honcho "this is how things are, stick to it" when I'd like to see this new guy do things on his own and in his own way.

I really don't care for the "I'm in charge, just me. Sonic only needs one direction, mine." mindset Mr. Iizuka has had from the start, it's just too much suffocation.

 

I don't understand this sentiment.

Particularly given that Sonic Boom - the WORST game produced in the last 10 years barring the legendary Sonic 2006 (many would argue its worse than that game too), was produced with ZERO contribution from Iizuka. The worst game produced under Iizuka has been Sonic Lost World - even then it wasn't half as shite as Boom. What about Iizuka annoys you so much that you don't want him to be around in the US? If anything Iizuka being around in the US purely for fucking quality control purposes and making sure that whatever games that are produced there don't end up being glitch-ridden monstrosities is a positive thing in my book.

Beyond this, having multiple egos pulling Sonic in multiple directions is not good for the franchise. There needs to be a single cohesive direction forwards. Boom exists as a separate entity to the "canon" Sonic. That will probably continue to exist (much to my chagrin, but alas).

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Then when someone else DOES take the reins, as is the case with BOOM, he and the rest of Japan seemingly refuse to work together to make the project a success... A touch of disturbing arrogance.

I don't understand...? Since when has this been the case? Have I missed something? Has it been explicitly stated by anyone who's in the know that Iizuka and Japan REFUSED to work with RBB to make the game a success? I thought Boom was a trainwreck from start to finish...?

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Scar said:

I don't understand this sentiment.

Particularly given that Sonic Boom - the WORST game produced in the last 10 years barring the legendary Sonic 2006 (many would argue its worse than that game too), was produced with ZERO contribution from Iizuka. The worst game produced under Iizuka has been Sonic Lost World - even then it wasn't half as shite as Boom. What about Iizuka annoys you so much that you don't want him to be around in the US? If anything Iizuka being around in the US purely for fucking quality control purposes and making sure that whatever games that are produced there don't end up being glitch-ridden monstrosities is a positive thing in my book.

Beyond this, having multiple egos pulling Sonic in multiple directions is not good for the franchise. There needs to be a single cohesive direction forwards. Boom exists as a separate entity to the "canon" Sonic. That will probably continue to exist (much to my chagrin, but alas).

I don't understand...? Since when has this been the case? Have I missed something? Has it been explicitly stated by anyone who's in the know that Iizuka and Japan REFUSED to work with RBB to make the game a success? I thought Boom was a trainwreck from start to finish...?

False, he WAS around just enough to point out a few design issues, the producers having stated his discomfort with their direction, but that was his only involvement to my knowledge.

And that is debatable depending on one's taste/preferences.

I'm not really annoyed by him, just bothered by the fact he moves to the US now to oversee the new guy when he should have done so during the development of BOOM to aid in its success especially. It just seems... Odd to me. Also there's no need for F bombs, an unnecessary addition you use for emphasis that does nothing to prove your point, i can get your point without that...

Keep in mind having him does not guarantee quality whatsoever, just that a specific direction, possibly akin to the exact same seen thus far, is likely intended.

There has been, and an ever dwindling number support said direction...

There is nothing stating otherwise, it is merely my assumption considering everything they could have done, but instead sat and didn't do.

That is SEGA of Japan's fault, I'll correct myself and say they DID do something for BOOM, force it into the exclusivity deal onto a system which could not support said title and in turn ruined it in the end.

 

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

You guys love your shift keys.

 

I hope the new game has a nice looking title screen, the last few have been kinda meh

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Inspector Shaddy said:

You guys love your shift keys.

 

I hope the new game has a nice looking title screen, the last few have been kinda meh

I'm... Intrigued by this...

What do you mean? Despite the quality of the games I feel the title screens have been pretty good. I will admit Generations and the Sonic 4 episodes felt a bit generic, but by and large I'd say they've been alright.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think 06 had a good title screen. It had a nice looking section of Kingdom valley with a lot of little aesthetic details. It was also a full area render, which no other Sonic game has got.

[Clewis]

I've always liked Colors' title screen. It's incredibly simple but still manages to be fresh when compared to every other static title menu in the series, plus allowing players to move the camera around was a nice touch. On a similar note, I've also always seen it as a small allusion to the final part of the Nega-Wisp Armor fight. I'm not sure if this was intended or not, but I like to think it is.

1 hour ago, Inspector Shaddy said:

I think 06 had a good title screen. It had a nice looking section of Kingdom valley with a lot of little aesthetic details. It was also a full area render, which no other Sonic game has got.

I've always thought it would be neat if Generations' title screen was a rendered environment like 06's, except with a different level environment being shown off every time you start up the game. Of course the type of environments available would depend on how far you've progressed through the game itself. 

More games need dynamic title screens. They're a small detail, but they're cool nonetheless.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Clewis said:

I've always liked Colors' title screen. It's incredibly simple but still manages to be fresh when compared to every other static title menu in the series, plus allowing players to move the camera around was a nice touch. On a similar note, I've also always seen it as a small allusion to the final part of the Nega-Wisp Armor fight. I'm not sure if this was intended or not, but I like to think it is.

I've always thought it would be neat if Generations' title screen was a rendered environment like 06's, except with a different level environment being shown off every time you start up the game. Of course the type of environments available would depend on how far you've progressed through the game. 

More games need dynamic title screens. They're a small detail, but they're cool nonethless.

I think generations should have shown Modern and Classic running through the era's, their surroundings kind of blurring into the next location in the game as they trot along with the two kind of pointing things out in wonder.

[Scar]

2 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

False, he WAS around just enough to point out a few design issues, the producers having stated his discomfort with their direction, but that was his only involvement to my knowledge.

So then, what were you referring to with what's in the spoiler tag?

Spoiler

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Then when someone else DOES take the reins, as is the case with BOOM, he and the rest of Japan seemingly refuse to work together to make the project a success... A touch of disturbing arrogance.

If his involvement was minimal and was only discomforted by the different style (which he has every right to be given that he's been around since the birth of the franchise...), I don't understand where the arrogance comes from...?

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And that is debatable depending on one's taste/preferences.

Not sure what you're referring to here. Assuming you're talking about the perceived quality of Boom, then sure. People liked 06. But objectively, it was a mess of a game. Boom is also a mess of a game. Its critical failure isn't because people hate Sonic, its because its a badly designed and badly made game.

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I'm not really annoyed by him, just bothered by the fact he moves to the US now to oversee the new guy when he should have done so during the development of BOOM to aid in its success especially. It just seems... Odd to me. Also there's no need for F bombs, an unnecessary addition you use for emphasis that does nothing to prove your point, i can get your point without that...

Why would he move during the development of Boom....? Its not like he's sitting around all day to casually mosey on over to the USA to supervise development of a game he has nothing to do with. He too probably had his own game to work on - one which we may soon see (fingers crossed). His move to the USA probably isn't even his doing, it would be the higher ups at SEGA deciding that his influence may be useful for Sonic Game development in the west (which so far as been terrible).

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Keep in mind having him does not guarantee quality whatsoever, just that a specific direction, possibly akin to the exact same seen thus far, is likely intended.

Nobody said anything about quality in terms of the gameplay or whathaveyou. I meant quality control. Its a different thing. If nothing else, all Sonic Team games as of Unleashed have been polished to the point where there are no glaring technical faults. Framerates are stable, there are no frequently occurring or easily inducible game-breaking glitches etc. If his influence is able to at the very least enable some kind of quality control in terms of how functional the end-product is, that would be a huge bonus. So far as I've heard a large chunk of the problems with Boom (beyond its poor game design) was the fact that it was in effect, broken on a technical level.

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There has been, and an ever dwindling number support said direction...

According to whom? You mean Lost World? That one-off game? Where are the large numbers of people who support the direction that Boom is going? Because there are no other directions that Sonic is going in beyond Boom Sonic and Sonic Team Sonic. If people want a dramatic change from the current direction, what makes you think it'll come from the western teams who so far have been responsible for some of the worst games in the history of the franchise (which is saying something)?

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There is nothing stating otherwise, it is merely my assumption considering everything they could have done, but instead sat and didn't do.

Could have done, but didn't do? What exactly is that? And how would they just DO it?

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That is SEGA of Japan's fault, I'll correct myself and say they DID do something for BOOM, force it into the exclusivity deal onto a system which could not support said title and in turn ruined it in the end.

Wait, so I'm missing something here. Was Boom originally intended to be multiplatform, before being forced into exclusivity late into development? Is there proof of this? If there isn't then by all accounts BRB should have had the basic competency to design a game which could be properly run on the platform for which it was being developed. Don't you think so? The Wii U isn't so poor a console that it "can't support a game", BRB just weren't good enough to get the game to work properly.