Jump to content
Awoo.

1990s American Sonic's Greatest Offence Revealed: His Legs


Dreadknux
Dreadknux
Message added by Dreadknux,

This topic was good and got turned into 1990s American Sonic's Greatest Offence Revealed: His Legs at some point.

Recommended Posts

Sonic's differing US and Japanese design throughout the 1990s is well-documented, but Yasushi Yamaguchi appears to have inadvertently added a new piece of trivia into the history books. The original designer of Miles 'Tails' Prower recently revealed that, of all the issues SEGA Japan had with SEGA America's take on the company's mascot design, one of the most persistent was over Sonic's little American crooked legs.

The strange factoid came as Yamaguchi was answering a question related to the recent discovery of an early Tails look and colour design. The creative expressed confusion that so much media had been created with Tails' design being based around that super-brown sprite, as he noted that he quickly discarded the colour palette after being unsatisfied with the results.

But after being shown photos of SEGA America marketing vehicles and materials featuring a brown Tails based on the old design, Yamauguchi decided to let it be known that SEGA Japan was often annoyed that the US office would ignore the Sonic Team's design notes.

tails-peach.jpg

Quote

I have no knowledge of the [above] pictures or figures in the photos. At the time, Sega of America ignored the opinions of the development staff. They did not listen to our requests for the number of fingers on Sonic in the package art, or our request to fix his legs to be straight.

SEGA of America's maverick approach to marketing and game development in the 1990s is well-documented - and it's no secret that during the 16-bit console gaming era, the US and Japanese SEGA offices often did not see eye to eye, with the former often ignoring style, design and product guidelines from the latter headquarters.

2023-legs.jpeg

The offending articles. Via @Linkabel

Sonic the Hedgehog was regularly in the crossfire, with package art and various multi-media projects featuring artwork that differed from the original Japanese design. Most infamously, an entirely new backstory to Sonic's origin was created by SEGA of America, seemingly without the knowledge of Sonic Team or SEGA Japan at the time. This had been made apparent in recent years with former Sonic Team alumni such as Yuji Naka expressing confusion at hearing stories about 'Dr Ovi Kintobor' at the Summer of Sonic convention.

Yamaguchi later added that SEGA Japan actually did not have the adequate resources to fully manage the company's characters until after the release of Sonic CD, which might explain why there was suddenly a lot more cohesion between the East and West markets after in the late 16-bit era.

Despite all this hubbub in the 90s, it turned out that, according to the SatAM Historian, Sonic co-creator Naoto Oshima was apparently a big fan of the bow-legged American rendition of the hero! So, swings and roundabouts, I guess.

Via @Linkabel [Twitter]


View full story

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sonic on the skateboard in that comic has to be one of my favourite things. Might have to steal that as a temp avatar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always loved drawing Sonic with those bendy legs. It's more dynamic and "loose" which works well with Sonic's personality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a character known for agility and speed, you'd think showing some flexibility in the legs would be appropriate, yeah? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.