Sonic Superstars “was conceptualised during a Zoom drinking party”

Sonic Superstars came as a massive surprise when it was announced during Summer Game Fest. Ahead of the new 2.5D platformer’s release later this year, the team has revealed the surprising origins of this project – being “conceptualised during a Zoom drinking party.”

Takahashi Iizuka, the creative officer for Sonic the Hedgehog, recently sat down with VGC for an interview where the executive revealed a whole bunch of information on the upcoming Sonic Superstars. It was known that Superstars is not being headed by Sonic Team, with one of the original Sonic creators ‘Naoto Ohshima’ and his studio Arzest helming development instead. That said, Iizuka has now confirmed that 100% of the game’s development is being managed by Arzest, saying:

“Sonic Superstars is really all developed by Arzest, but Sonic Team in Japan is working with them on design and some other elements. Arzest and Ohshima-san are 100% developers of the game.”

It’s been 20 years since Naoto Ohshima was last involved with Sonic the Hedgehog, making his return extra surprising. In discussing how this collaboration came to be, Iizuka claimed:

“During the coronavirus lockdown Ohshima-san reached out and we set up a Zoom drinking party connecting America and Japan. We decided to get together and just have some fun. During this conversation, I mentioned that I wanted to make a new 2D Sonic game, and Ohshima-san replied, ‘You know what? Met too. That sounds like a really great idea'. So what started out as a really casual conversation ended up being executed on.”

While Arzest has had somewhat of a spotty past, Ohshima has amassed a great deal of respect over the decades, and so it is exciting to see him return to Sonic after so long away. The full interview can be found HERE.

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