Sonic Colours - Q&A Feature

Takashi Iizuka is the current head of Sonic Team for Sega in Japan. His association with the franchise stretches back over sixteen years to 'Sonic 3 and Knuckles' on the Mega Drive. Widely credited as the driving creative force behind 'Sonic Adventure' and 'NiGHTS into Dreams', Iizuka-san has historically been a key player in Sega's efforts to broaden their western appeal, helping to found Sega Studio USA in the late nineties as well as outsourcing key development duties to Western teams. With a distinguished legacy of design success under his belt, Iizuka-san's responsibilities have expanded to include management of Sonic Team, and he acts as producer for their new games. TVG sat down with Sonic Team's big boss for a chat about their latest project, Sonic Colours.

How did the idea for Sonic Colours come about, and what was the inspiration behind it?

So the project really started off with concentrating on what makes Sonic so special, and the way we started off was with Sonic being the only playable character and concentrating on high-speed action, which is the strength of Sonic franchise games. On top of that we wanted to add something different; this is a new title so we needed to come up with a way to add new elements but not really destroy the high-speed nature of Sonic games, and that's how we came up with the colour powers, which are like these power-ups, which don't really distract from the high-speed side of Sonic games, but give a different flavour to the game.

With regard to the colour powers, how many are in the game in total? Are there others that we haven't seen yet?

For the Wii there's a total of seven and for the DS there are five in total. For the Wii we've obviously shown you the cyan laser, yellow drill, and the orange rocket which we revealed just today. For DS - this was also at E3 - there's the red burst ability. We can't really tell you what the other abilities are but it's obviously something that's different but still really fun - concentrating on the fun action.

How long has the game been in development now, and how close is it to completion?

The project started off just after Sonic Unleashed was released; at that time we were still looking for the new concept for this new game. Up to this point, the state of the current development is that both Wii and DS [games] are really near the final status of the code, so what you've just seen today is pretty close to how the product is going to turn out.

Are there any online features, or any plans for DLC?

For the online features both Wii and DS versions have Wi-Fi rankings, so you can compete against the other users for high scores. There are no plans for DLC for these titles, but there are other features of the game which we haven't revealed yet, which will be revealed in future.

The graphics look really good... it's a big step up from Sonic Unleashed. Were there any challenges in getting this sort of performance from the Wii?

It's obviously due to the fact that Sonic Team has been working on a lot of Wii titles in the past and it's really coming from those experiences. The team is really confident that the graphics are in the first class even compared to some of the other Wii titles, it's something that we're really proud of.

Yeah it wouldn't look out of place even on Xbox or PS3. Are there any plans to maybe port it over to those systems?

The purpose of the project, or one of the goals of the project is that we're aiming for the best titles - as the best Wii title, and also the best DS title - so currently there are no plans to port to the other platforms.

I noticed while I was playing the game that there were collectable red stars on some of the levels; what's their purpose in the game?

They're actually called the special rings, and like the name suggests, it's to unlock special features in the game which we haven't revealed yet. As you saw in the demo or through the E3 build, the game has - each stage has - so many ways to go around, I mean there are so many alternative paths, and so many varieties of ways in which players can really explore. It's almost like rewards for players for finding such new routes or hidden paths, and these rings can only be found by going through a lot of routes in each stage.

How are you splitting your time between Sonic Colours and Sonic 4, and how does your role differ between the two projects?

So for Sonic 4 the objective was to bring the 2D Sonic game into the next... to give it the next step, and for Sonic Colours, it was the 3D Sonic game, to give it the next step; so, like an evolution. While both projects had their own purposes, my concentration and focus is on ensuring the two titles will not become similar, as in they have to be differentiated and have their own purpose. So my position is to give those two titles a clear direction so they don't become confused, so they're clearly differentiated with each other.

I see. So Sonic 4 is more about harking back to the 2D era, and Sonic Colours is more about expanding it in a different kind of direction?

Yeah, exactly.

One last Sonic 4 question, I love the Casino Zone, is there any chance we might see that in Sonic 4?

I can't tell you whether that's going to be in the game or not but it's also my favourite stage (laughs).

If it's okay I'd like to ask for your thoughts on motion controls: what do you feel they add to a game like Sonic Colours?

I've worked on Mario & Sonic Vancouver as well, and believe that there are games where motion control works really well, and there are games where they don't really work well. In the case of Sonic Colours because it's all about speed and platforming, if you look at the controls, I think precision is probably one of the key words in those kinds of titles, so for Sonic Colours motion controls are not really the right controls to implement. So in this case it's only used for engaging the colour power.

I know that you've worked with different teams across the globe. Given your experience, do you feel there are any differences between western and Japanese approaches to game development?

I've worked with Western developers in titles like Sonic Rivals, and the impression I got is that the Western developers are really good at making a game that was planned to be made, if that makes sense. You know, there's like a mould of the game, and they're really good at filling in that mould, and creating a game that was planned to be, but I mean for Sonic Team it's more like, they do have an initial concept - they envision what the game is that they want to develop - but they have so many ideas from so many other people it kind of... it's like it does fill in the mould, but also takes it a step further, you know changing the ...  possibly changing the look or aspects to the game because there are so many ideas.

So it's more sort of a creative, improvisational process maybe?

(Translator nods)

Okay last question. I'm a great fan of Sonic Adventure, the original -

Thank you.

I just wondered, how much of the spirit of Sonic's first 3D outing do you feel remains in Sonic Colours?

So back with Sonic Adventure it was obviously the first 3D Sonic game, and even in development you know nobody had actually seen a 3D Sonic game at that time, so every member of the team had question marks over what they were supposed to do, because they had obviously not worked on it. At that time, everybody was working with a lot of question marks in their mind. But now, because everybody - a lot of people - know what 3D games should be and what 3D Sonic games should be, so it's kind of like... it's more like experience, or the development within the development team that... you know... back in those days there were a lot of questions but now some of those are answered; everybody has experience. So, in that sense, let's say, the spirit of the experience they harnessed in Sonic Adventure is obviously being inherited by Sonic Colours.

TVG would like to thank Takashi Iizuka, the Producer on Sonic Colours and head of SEGA's Sonic Team, for taking the time to speak with us...