Once, long ago, Sonic was Sega’s answer to Mario– and this was something that was reflected in the games’ quality, which was more or less equivalent to Nintendo’s platforming franchise. But while Nintendo took great care to maintain and cultivate the quality of the Mario brand, Sega ran Sonic into the ground with increasingly ill conceived games, all of which missed the point of the original games, all of which were poorly received, until now, Sonic, much like Sega itself, represents lost opportunity more than anything else.
And this is something that Sega are determined to change going forward. On the cusp of the Sonic 25th Anniversary game announcement next month, Takashi Iizuka, VP of product development and creative services, told MCV, “We want to release good titles to all the players, and that is the challenge for us moving forward – making sure our games are great.”
This was a sentiment echoed by Sonic‘s chief brand officer Ivo Gerscovich. “Sega is really – as of this last year – putting a huge emphasis on quality,” he said. “One of the things about Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is that we held the title for a year, which is not something Sega has traditionally done, but this focus on quality is really about trying to take Sonic back to where it used to be.”
Hopefully, this commitment to quality, then, is reflected in the games going forward too. More of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations and less of Sonic Boom, please.