« Back The Hermitage offers one of the largest unrestricted non-profit theatre commissions in the United States California based playwright Naomi Iizuka has received the 2024-2025 Hermitage Award established by the Hermitage in 2021 with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theatre commissions in the United States Iizuka will receive a cash prize of $35,000 a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital—which for this commission is anticipated to be Chicago in late 2026 Iizuka is a playwright and educator whose body of work includes Anon(ymous) Her plays have been produced at theatres across the country lizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and a previous recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award a Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference She was a Berlind Playwright-in-Residence at Princeton University She is the head of the MFA Playwriting program at University of California each of whom are innovative and exceptional playwrights with thrilling In describing her intended HMTA commission currently titled Casa de Mañana Iizuka shared the following. “Casa de Mañana is a dark comedy that explores what it means to make art when your life and the world around you are imploding Set in an assisted living and memory care facility the play tells the story of an underemployed theater artist who’s trying to make a play based on stories that the residents tell her about their lives—except the residents don’t want to talk to her They have their own problems to deal with and their own secret agendas Why should they tell stories to a stranger Casa de Mañana asks what it means to tell the story of your life How do you make sense of the craziness and mystery of the people around you And what choices do you make in the time you have left?” the Hermitage is the only major arts organization in Florida’s Gulf Coast exclusively committed to supporting the development and creation of new work across all artistic disciplines. The Hermitage recently experienced devastating impact from hurricanes Helene and Milton and the organization is working to reopen its beachfront campus on Manasota Key as quickly as possible Visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org. Noah Himmelstein will direct Matthew Puckett's original musical. Neumann is the Tony nominated choreographer behind Hadestown and Swept Away. Finalists included Cole Escola's Oh, Mary! and Itamar Moses's The Ally. The world premiere opera, based on a play by Gerber, is the second opera by Nottage and Gordon. In the Sondheim revue, one Tony winner is playing the trumpet while the other is channeling Madame Rose. The George Abbott, Douglas Wallop, Jerry Ross, and Richard Adler musical opened May 5, 1955. Due to the expansive nature of Off-Broadway, this list is not comprehensive. The evening of Broadway stories, trivia, and prizes will also be live streamed. A variety of new work development, conferences, and institutes have been revealed by the industry stalwart. Thank You!You have now been added to the list. Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites. Our website is made possible bydisplaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us bywhitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.Thank you! Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb Furman University’s Department of Theatre Arts opens its 2024-2025 season with Naomi Iizuka’s “Language of Angels” directed by alumna Caroline Jane Davis ’13 The performance in The Playhouse is open to the public General admission tickets are $15, $10 for Furman affiliated (faculty, staff, alumni, OLLI, Woodlands) and $5 for students. Other admission options are available on weekday shows. Season passes are also available. Learn more about tickets An eerie ghost story set in the cave country of North Carolina After a young girl is lost in a cave on the edge of town there is an investigation of her disappearance and the fate of those who survive her While partying with her friends in the deep dark meandering caves of a rural North Carolina town What ensues is an investigation of the fate of the friends who outlive her Naomi Iizuka’s creepy play is an exploration of love CAROLINE JANE DAVIS (she/her) is a visiting assistant professor in theatre arts and education at Furman University with a focus on underrepresented voices in new play development Recent productions include the regional premiere of “The Game” (director) at Horizon Theatre Company world premieres of “ODD” (director) and “Kill Corp” (assistant director) at the Warehouse Theatre “The Taming” (dramaturg) at Lean Ensemble Theatre and “Athena” and “Late: A Cowboy Song” (director) at Furman University she serves on the editorial board of Southern Theatre magazine and is the secretary of the Southeastern Theatre Conference Executive Committee TROMSNESS (he/him) is an adjunct instructor of theatre at Furman University and is serving as the costume designer for this production Tromsness is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of South Carolina He earned his bachelor’s degree in theatre with an emphasis in acting costume design and stage management from Western Washington University He also holds minor degrees in linguistics and art history from Fairhaven College He was an associate professor of theatre at USC where he taught voice and speech He has been a freelance professional actor playwright and designer for more than 15 years is the technical director for Furman Theatre and is serving as scenic and lighting designer for this production He also supervises students David Jones on the sound design and Liz Simpson on the props design Megumi Iizuka has been a member of the staff at St Michael’s Hospital and Unity Health Toronto since 2007 where she has focused on pediatric She also has courtesy staff privileges at Mt Megumi Iizuka is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences (DOVS) She completed her Pediatric and Strabismus fellowship at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at University of Wisconsin in Madison She completed residency in Ophthalmology at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Toronto and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 2007 She previously completed a bachelor’s of Applied Science in Engineering Science and a master’s of Medical Biophysics Her research during her master’s involved studying tissue-light interactions for the thermal treatment of cancer with Dr She completed her medical degree at the University of Calgary before residency both young and old for a variety of conditions Her subspecialty focus is strabismus surgery and cataract surgery She is also actively involved in training family doctors residents and fellows in both medical and surgical areas of ophthalmology at the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto She is currently a co-preceptor of the Neuro-ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Fellowship with Dr She has been awarded multiple teaching awards by the University of Toronto Megumi Iizuka is an active member of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) the American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) She is also a member of the Fellowship organizational committee at the University of Toronto and heads the Resident teaching at St She is board certified in Canada and the United States to practice ophthalmology and pediatric ophthalmology you want to keep what is unusual and complicated and you also want to make it muscular and vivid,” Iizuka said Naomi Iizuka and professor Karina Gutiérrez are no strangers to the stage but when translating Shakespeare’s “Richard II”to San Francisco’s Magic Theatre they experimented with the unfamiliar and sprung into acting after seeing a performance centered on her Chicano community at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista my family’s stories are being produced on a stage in a way that is accessible — in a way that pays homage and respect to them,’” Gutiérrez said Since kicking off her acting career in a high school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Gutiérrez carried her creative journey into a decorated scholastic career recently graduating with a doctorate from Stanford University’s department of theatre and performance studies “What I love about the spirit of the Bay Area is that there’s always been an element of experimentation,” Gutiérrez mused “There’s always been an element of championing new voices and new plays and that’s something that I’m always looking to continue to foster in my communities.” Originally published in 1595 and detailing events set in 1398 For her project with the theater nonprofit rather than merely adapt it for a modern audience She set out to maintain the original prose while imbuing the play with contemporary significance because it’s as though I was able to spend time in somebody else’s consciousness,” Iizuka said one of the more prominent contemporary American playwrights has dabbled in numerous adaptation projects throughout her career she brought Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”to the landscape of 1980s Oakland published with an addendum — “Hamlet: Blood on the Brain.” Experienced in bridging historic divides through adaptation Iizuka got to experience something almost entirely new while working on “Richard II.”  you’re using the original work as a jumping-off-pad,” Iizuka explained because rather than using the original work as a launching pad With lengthy passages on chivalric code and a complex cast of characters “Richard II” was its own beast to cut down and translate for a modern audience The original play boasts a run time of more than two and a half hours but Gutiérrez and Iizuka were able to cut it down to 90 minutes with a cast of seven “It’s piecing it together,” Gutiérrez added “It’s making sure that we provide enough signposts but there are things that cannot be overly simplified.” Gutiérrez was inspired by the work and techniques of Augusto Boal in fleshing out each character “You have seven people that are going to be playing multiple characters,” Gutiérrez said why try to hide it when we can actually highlight the labor that goes into creating the work?” The effort to bring “Richard II” to the Magic Theatre was a collective one emboldened by the cast from multicultural ensemble Campo Santo and the desire from all parties to amplify drowned-out voices They worked to cover the final two years of King Richard II’s life centering around his deposition from the throne of England by Henry Bolingbroke — later Henry IV “Richard II” tackles authoritarianism and asks the question of how a leader should rule Iizuka found Richard to be unsympathetic when she first encountered the play I had a lot more sympathy for him,” she said “I think it’s really hard when you realize that the world around you has changed and it’s not your moment anymore.” Iizuka recognizes the need to adjust to a changing landscape and the tools that were working for us when we were younger don’t work quite the same way now requires audiences to be in active dialogue with the work and our current historical moment “The question is not who was the rightful king,” Gutiérrez said “It’s not even who would be the better king because what we see is how power essentially has a way to change how one would lead.” In working on “Richard II,” Iizuka and Gutiérrez found that the message particularly resonated in the contemporary political landscape and hope audiences leave the play with questions it’s a good day when you have shaken someone’s perspective enough where they have to either reconsider or double down on how they think,” Iizuka said Email notifications are only sent once a day We're an independent student-run newspaper and need your support to maintain our coverage Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: A 93-year-old former top bureaucrat who was serving a sentence for a high-profile 2019 Tokyo car accident that left two people dead has died in prison a former chief of the now-defunct Agency of Industrial Science and Technology died last month around three years into his five-year term According to the Tokyo District Court ruling Iizuka ran a red light after mistaking the gas pedal for the brake who were cycling through a crosswalk in Tokyo's Ikebukuro area on April 19 He was also later ordered by the court to pay around 140 million yen ($907,000) to bereaved family members of the accident The ruling was finalized in September 2021 the 38-year-old husband and father of the victims who campaigned to seek severe punishment for Iizuka and has been engaged in road safety activism but learn from his experiences and together consider a path to avoid a tragedy like this happening again," he wrote The incident stirred debate on preventing accidents involving older drivers in graying Japan and prompted many drivers of advanced years to give up their licenses 92-year-old driver ordered to pay 140 million yen over fatal Tokyo crash To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible ShareSaveCommentInnovationGamingTakashi Iizuka On How ‘Sonic Rumble’ Is Like A Merry-Go-RoundByOllie Barder Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights Ollie Barder covers Japanese pop-culture and gaming from Tokyo.Follow AuthorNov 23 03:40am ESTShareSaveComment'Sonic Rumble' is coming to iOS I am glad that Iizuka agreed to talk about the game in more detail I’d say that Sonic Rumble is a merry-go-round title where Sonic fans around the world can play together I am happy to say that over the past 33 years Sonic communities have emerged in numerous countries worldwide and many fans have come to enjoy Sonic’s games Sonic Rumble is where all these fans across the globe can have fun together in real-time many Sonic games are single-player experiences where players take their time playing solo and there have not been many games that can be played casually and enjoyed by everyone together The most important stand-out point of Sonic Rumble is that it can be easily enjoyed in quick bursts by anyone be they your friend down the street or a Sonic fan on the other side of the world the content can be played by both veterans of the Sonic franchise and players who are not used to playing games A lot of effort was put into creating the game's 32-player multiplayer experience Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase and adorable character renditions and stage graphics that showcase the poppy impression of Sonic through the game’s toy world theme Many nostalgic characters from the Sonic franchise will be making an appearance so fans can also look forward to collecting them all “We also put a lot of effort into creating a 32-player multiplayer experience that also maintains the speed and action that is expected from the Sonic franchise games in this genre are designed to be easy to pick up and play and are known to slow down the speed to increase player interaction and simplify the controls to prevent unintended problems we decided to employ more action to give players a sense of speed and controllability that adheres to that Sonic-like quality “This included a high level of action to create a sense of player competition and interaction while also adjusting the difficulty level to a point where everyone could enjoy the game I think we were able to create a game that fully captures that universally good feeling players get from Sonic titles so I hope that many people will enjoy that aspect of the game so you can easily recommend it to friends who have never played Sonic before and play together with them Our aim is to create a game that is essentially a toy box one that always feels fresh thanks to its events each season and all the new characters to be added We encourage players to invite their friends and family to join in the fun and help us expand our ever-growing worldwide community together Please look forward to what we have in store as the team is hard at work preparing for the global release of Sonic Rumble.” Sonic Rumble will be released this Winter for iOS Image: Courtesy Photo Despite major damage to its Manasota Key compound from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Hermitage Artist Retreat proves that the show must go on: The organization has announced that California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka has been selected as the fifth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) established by the Hermitage in 2021 with support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the United States a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital which for this commission is anticipated for Chicago in late 2026 Iizuka's body of work includes Anon(ymous) Her plays have been produced at theaters across the country “I was thrilled and genuinely honored to find out that I had received the Hermitage Major Theater Award,” Iizuka said in a statement “To be chosen by one’s peers is so meaningful It felt like this unexpected and incredibly generous gift in what I guess you could call the vast expanse of my mid-career.” Iizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award a Joyce Foundation Award and a Hodder Fellowship She was also a Berlind playwright-in-residence at Princeton University Iizuka has written for The Terror: Infamy (AMC) Bosch: Legacy (Amazon) and The Sympathizer (HBO Max) She is the head of the MFA playwriting program at University of California Feature | The Making of Sonic Generations – Retro Gamer talk with Sonic Team creative director Takashi Iizuka about the game's original 20th anniversary release and while Sonic Adventure 2 was a good game to celebrate the occasion it served as a swan song for both the Dreamcast and the company's time in the console market Sonic The Hedgehog (commonly known as Sonic 06) arrived on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and received a notably negative critical reception marred by myriad technical issues and a setting and story that were perceived as out of character for the series A botched Game Boy Advance conversion of the original Mega Drive game also launched in 2006 solidifying Sonic's 15th anniversary as an occasion to forget Sonic's 20th anniversary broke the cycle with Sonic Generations a game in which Sonic teams up with his past self in a time-travelling adventure that mixes 2D and 3D platforming – but before we discuss that game we have to return to the past ourselves to examine its heritage it was clear that the Sonic series needed a change of pace and Sonic Team was evidently aware of that as the 2008 release Sonic Unleashed overhauled the structure of 3D Sonic games Ditching the movement model that had characterised the series since Sonic Adventure launched ten years prior Sonic Unleashed adapted the gameplay of the DS hit Sonic Rush into 3D with a Boost mechanic that encouraged constant forward motion they would automatically switch from a standard forward-looking view to side-on sections that evoked memories of the classics While Sonic Unleashed was received more warmly than its predecessor and represented a definite step in the right direction "Sonic Unleashed also featured two distinct styles of gameplay combat-focussed action games were popular at that time and we wanted to explore how that could be represented in a Sonic title while reflecting on iconic Sonic moments that players love," says Takashi Iizuka That experimentation resulted in the creation of Sonic's stretchy-limbed Werehog form whose stages were more akin to games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden and we took learnings to refine Sonic gameplay for more recent titles." That feedback clearly informed the direction of the next round of Sonic games all of which kept platform gameplay at their core Following the completion of Sonic Unleashed Sonic Team began development of Sonic Colours for the Wii and Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360 and PS3 – both of which would build on the Boost style of Sonic Unleashed Sonic Colours arrived in 2010 and focussed exclusively on Sonic as a playable character with new Wisp power-ups to expand his range of abilities The game was a critical and commercial success and while the side-on sections dominated gameplay it showed more of what the Boost style could offer to the series The Dimps-developed 2D platformer Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I courted the nostalgia market in 2010 receiving favourable reviews and strong sales heavily invested Sonic fans disliked the use of Sonic's modern design and mechanics as well as oddities in the game's physics model which reprises the Sonic Unleashed concept of including two forms of Sonic The game begins with Sonic's friends throwing him a surprise birthday party shadowy creature to attack and drag the whole crew into a white void Sonic finds locations from his past drained of their life and colour – as well as his friends in the same state Sonic catches up with Tails and both of their past selves Sonic Generations was always intended as the ultimate celebration of Sonic and the franchise's highest moments from its past in one fun package," says Iizuka "Combining both Modern and Classic Sonic made sense as we were honouring Sonic's holistic history which includes both designs." The pudgier silent incarnation of Sonic from the Mega Drive days would feature exclusively in 2.5D stages and kept classic moves like the Spin Dash green-eyed version we know today would explore 3D stages like those of Sonic Unleashed retaining his full repertoire of moves including sliding "Sonic Generations was meant to highlight all of Sonic's history so it's important we represented each title to the best of our ability." Sonic Team consulted widely to find out which stages those should be "Since Sonic's 20th birthday was such a big moment for the team we wanted to make sure everyone at Sega had a say America and Europe who was working on Sonic games at the time to nominate their favourite levels then we did more research with dedicated Sonic fans split across three eras that broadly represented the Mega Drive games the Dreamcast games and the more modern games The inclusion of stages from Sonic 06 and Sonic Unleashed surprised some fans who hadn't expected Sonic Team to highlight games that were negatively received "Sonic Generations was meant to highlight all of Sonic's history so it's important we represented each title to the best of our ability," says Iizuka this meant finding ways to update them in full 3D "It was important to respect and pay tribute to the original beauty and fun gameplay elements of each stage we included and it was equally important to preserve the design motifs of the Classic levels (checkered patterns in Green Hill etc) when modernising the textures and graphics so the worlds all felt correct in the 3D space," Iizuka recalls "There was a lot of trial and error as we explored how to do this before deciding on the final look but once we secured the 3D design language and look of Green Hill the rest of the stage designs all sort of fell into place." Iizuka continues to explain the level design philosophy behind the Mega Drive stages "We put a lot of effort into preserving the original 2D side-view level design as this was critical in evoking a feeling of nostalgia from the essence of Classic Sonic titles we added new level design and gameplay elements when the stage turned into a 3D world-view to create fresh and exciting game moments." When you play the game it's easy to see this in action – just in Green Hill Classic Sonic's Act 1 has plenty of S-shaped tunnels and swinging platforms while Act 2 sees Modern Sonic grinding through a flooded cave and stomping through wooden bridges to access secret paths the majority of the stages in Sonic Generations originate from Sonic's 3D games we added 2D side-view gameplay mechanics to bring a fresh new gaming experience to the more recent levels at the time," Iizuka tells us with Act 1 incorporating the GUN truck as a persistent antagonist that will cut across Sonic's path "Since using Boost is a primary way of having fun in Modern Sonic gameplay we focussed on making that the focus of the 3D stages and providing great boost moments there," Iizuka adds and moments like running down the skyscraper in Speed Highway transitioned effortlessly to that style "Because the concept for Sonic Generations was already solidified there wasn't any hesitation once we got into development." Choosing to represent the entire series also meant the inclusion of stages from Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colours Was there any difficulty in ensuring that the Sonic Generations versions of the stages were sufficiently different to the originals Sonic Generations was being developed right across from where Sonic Colours was being developed so it was important that even though both teams were developing the same stages the stages had to incorporate different level design to make sense for their different game concepts Because the concept for Sonic Generations was already solidified Just as Classic and Modern Sonic diverged in gameplay styles the musical themes for their stages did the same with Act 1 themes tending towards more electronic musical styles and Act 2 themes typically incorporating string instruments The new arrangements and remixes came from a variety of musicians who had worked on the series throughout its history Speaking to Sonic Retro in 2012 Sonic Generations sound director Jun Senoue explained that assembling the all-star team was a relatively straightforward process "I heard about the levels we would have – Green Hill from the first one Casino Night from the second – and then I heard about the different styles for Act 1 and Act 2 Then I just picked up the styles of music I wanted to get and I made a list of the musicians I wanted to team up with though he did note that one desired collaborator proved elusive I hoped I could team up with him to make an alternate version but he was not available," he lamented referring to the composer for the original Mega Drive game Sonic Team chose a rival character of a similar stature to Sonic and a gigantic main boss for each era each boss was designated for either Classic or Modern Sonic but the developers kept the core theme of the game in mind "Act 1 stages were always nostalgic-themed so we kept the same concept for boss and rival battles We created gameplay that was both nostalgic and new for them," Iizuka explains we wanted the feeling of nostalgia to come through in the entrance scenes of the boss and rival characters then the gameplay would include new attacks and strategies to defeat the bosses and rivals to make for a fresh new gameplay experience." players must complete a number of Challenge Acts to make progress "Developing stages for all Sonic games – not just Sonic Generations – is a massive effort requiring a lot of time and energy A stage that takes the development team half a year to create can be completed in no time because Sonic runs so fast To get the most out of all the stage assets that took so long to create we added Missions into the game," Iizuka remembers The challenges included beating levels with a single ring time attack goals and utilising particular power-ups to negotiate tricky areas I really like the missions that involve co-operating with the other characters to complete because it reflects the 20th anniversary concept of the game," Iizuka says What did we think? In our Sonic Generations review we called it the "best Sonic game since Sonic 2" Sonic Generations received positive reviews Though games™ felt that "we could do without the need to complete three challenge levels before being allowed to move on to the next series of proper stages" it still felt the game was "one of the best Sonic games in recent years" with "some genuinely imaginative and exciting level design" 360 Magazine said "it's great to see Sega really nail the 3D formula" and gave it 4/5 Other scores included 84% from GamesMaster 8/10 from Official PlayStation Magazine and 70% from Play Sonic Generations wasn't just a critical turning point for the series Sonic Generations managed to shift 1.85 million copies in its first six months and had a long tail with the game still selected as a highlight in a 2021 financial statement from Sega That success greatly influenced the future of the series we felt the Modern series moved the Sonic franchise forward from the Classic series so the Classic series was regarded as Sonic's past was key in changing how we thought about things," Iizuka reflects "Not only was it the first game to mix both the Classic and Modern series together but it also made us think about preserving and growing both of those series as the Sonic brand continues After years of struggling to find a direction for Sonic looking backward revealed the path forward Examine the games that followed Sonic Generations and you'll see a concerted effort to deliver on the heritage of the series but leans heavily on the highly stylised look of the early Mega Drive games before Sonic Forces reprised the pairing of Classic and Modern Sonics and the gameplay associated with them The aforementioned Sonic Mania took the opposite approach to Sonic Generations to critical acclaim creating and remixing stages in a retro style and Sonic Superstars has carried the Classic Sonic style forward If there's one thing Sonic fans love almost as much as the hedgehog himself and what's striking about Sonic Generations is its ability to unify such an argumentative bunch Whether you wanted to blast through a 3D Green Hill Zone that would have been unimaginable in 1991 or desperately wanted to see Sonic and Shadow duel one more time Sonic Team did as much as possible to fulfil those wishes and the game is highly regarded as a result So if you want to remember why you fell in love with Sonic all those years ago or are simply curious as to what you've been missing out on give Sonic Generations a play – you're bound to find something you'll love One of the aspects of the Sonic series that fans have come to appreciate over the years is the creation of bespoke games for handheld platforms which often vary quite significantly from the hedgehog's home-console adventures That tradition stayed intact for Sonic Generations "Most of the assets created for the PlayStation and Xbox versions of Sonic Generations could not be used at all when developing the 3DS version of the game so we focussed on different stages for the 3DS version and really made two different titles celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sonic," Takashi Iizuka explains As with the Sonic games for Game Boy Advance and DS the 3DS version of Sonic Generations was a collaborative effort with the external developer Dimps "The team worked very closely with Dimps from concept development and co-development of the game to the end while Dimps worked on all the level design and development for the 3DS platform," Iizuka tells us "I travelled a lot to the Osaka studio during development to make sure the 3DS game they were working on had the same Generations feel to the game being made in parallel in Tokyo by the Sonic Team." the contrast between Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic stages is less stark on the 3DS "We wanted to create the best experience for players on 3DS hardware we didn't add the 3D world-view perspective gameplay into the concept," says Iizuka we did want to expand on the 2D side-view gameplay by having platforming action that was true to Classic Sonic combined with game design and gameplay that would reflect the fun of Modern Sonic as well." This meant adding moves like boosting sliding and the homing attack for Modern Sonic The main reason to seek out the 3DS version of Sonic Generations is that while it follows the same story beats as the home-console versions it draws different stages and bosses from past games – for example Mushroom Hill Zone instead of Sky Sanctuary Zone and Big Arms instead of the Death Egg Robot "We also wanted to do something unique for the handheld version so we included stages from Sonic Rush only on the 3DS version," Iizuka notes The game also brings back Special Stage chases for Chaos Emeralds based on the ones that appeared in Sonic Heroes NGamer felt that the 3DS game was "good-looking and fan-pleasing, but a bit short" and awarded it 79%. Official Nintendo Magazine also noted the short length, but noted the "huge selection of missions" and gave it 85%. Less impressed, GamesRadar+ gave it 3.5/5 and said that "there is plenty to enjoy if you bother to look outside of the main story mode" but complained that "the new levels are just too unambitious and end up playing like Sonic's recent DS outings" Nick ThorpeSocial Links NavigationNick picked up gaming after being introduced to Donkey Kong and Centipede on his dad's Atari 2600 He joined the Retro Gamer team in 2013 and is currently the magazine's Features Editor writing long reads about the creation of classic games and the technology that powered them He's a tinkerer who enjoys repairing and upgrading old hardware and has a taste for oddities including FMV games and bizarre PS2 budget games A walking database of Sonic the Hedgehog trivia Metal Hammer and a variety of other publications Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report a former senior bureaucrat at the industry ministry who killed a mother and her daughter in a horrific traffic accident in Tokyo in 2019 Iizuka was 93 years old when he died on Oct the car that Iizuka was driving sped through a red light and hit Mana Matsunaga while they were crossing at an intersection Iizuka initially blamed mechanical failure but the Tokyo District Court ruled in 2021 that he had accidentally and repeatedly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for negligent driving resulting in death or bodily injury The case brought the spotlight on traffic accidents around Japan caused by the mistakes of elderly drivers the district court ordered Iizuka to pay 146.6 million yen ($951,700) in damages who lost his wife and child in the accident 25: “It must have been very regrettable for him to go to prison and then lose his life I would like to continue my activities to reduce the number of traffic accident victims and perpetrators of crimes in society.” “If (Iizuka) ever meets my wife and daughter I have no stronger feelings than that right now.” Matsunaga conveyed his feelings to Iizuka through a prison staff member This led to a meeting at the prison in May Matsunaga said he asked Iizuka if he had any message for elderly people and their families “Please tell them to return their drivers licenses as soon as possible.” “I would like to use his experiences and words as food for my future activities.” (This article was written by Taro Ono and Shoko Mifune.) Man holds prison talks with inmate who killed wife Man details emotional trauma after losing wife Elderly driver in fatal Ikebukuro accident gets 5 years in prison Elderly driver in fatal accident in Ikebukuro pleads not guilty Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission The launch of Sonic x Shadow Generations is coming fast this October and everyone is curious to know more about Shadow the Hedgehog’s new Doom Powers The team just released a trailer all about the Doom Powers highlighting each unique ability and how they provide new twists for Shadow’s platforming and combat The trailer also showcased gameplay from new stages calling back to fan-favorites such as Chaos Island from Sonic Frontiers and Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2 as well as iconic boss challenges like Metal Overlord from Sonic Heroes Eagle-eyed viewers might also catch a glimpse of the reimagined hub world where players will get the opportunity to test out and master Shadow’s new moves while they explore We got together with Sonic Team Creative Officer to chat on why this game was the perfect opportunity to give Shadow new abilities action-packed ways of navigating different stages and boss battles Why are Shadow’s Doom Powers important to the story and gameplay the team wanted to make Shadow Generations’ action more unique to differentiate it from what Sonic can do Shadow’s new powers are essential because they give him new ways to attack enemies and traverse the world giving our team more to build upon in each stage’s level design the Doom Powers play an essential role in Shadow’s journey and development throughout his campaign Shadow receives these when he awakens to the power of darkness in the game so players will see how closely they tie into the narrative when the game comes out later this year How did you choose the final selection of Doom Powers we see in the game so the Doom Powers had to embody a sense of danger and mystery that can be seen in Shadow’s actions and movements The level designers also incorporated many ways the Doom Powers can be used in this platform action game so they are not just additional combat moves Shadow can use Doom Powers to platform around the world How are these powers different from Shadow’s existing powers in previous games Iizuka-san: When designing the levels in Shadow Generations we wanted to make the most of Shadow’s existing move which enables him to find new platforms to run through each stage and find new ways of attacking bosses the core of Shadow’s gameplay is very similar to what Sonic can do so we introduced the Doom Powers to give the game more unique action Not only does it increase the variety of things you can do in the platform action stages but it also allows for great exploration and traversal abilities in the 3D White Space Hub World for Shadow What was the design process like when conceptualizing the idea and designing the look of each power Iizuka-san: The idea for the Doom Powers came up when we realized we needed to give Shadow new abilities and powers to create new gameplay formats It was important to provide Shadow abilities that Sonic can’t do to make the action more enjoyable while ensuring each power reflects his dark the Doom Powers draw energy from Black Doom so that was taken into consideration in the design of all the Doom Powers What Doom Powers are you most excited for fans to experience the black wings that come out of Shadow in the Summer Game Fest trailer was an impactful idea early in the design process so we wanted to make it the coolest looking of all the Doom Powers The wings that come out of Shadow make you think of a devil which goes well with Shadow’s dark hero elements and allows us to present something cool and new Sonic fans – get ready to embrace Shadow’s dark side and use his new power to take on Black Doom and save the world be sure to try out all different kinds of paths and methods with each Doom Power to find new ways of completing each stage and battle Sonic x Shadow Generations is available for pre-order now starting at $49.99 on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles To learn more about various pre-order incentives head to PlayStation Store or Sonic x Shadow Generations official website Fans who buy the Digital Deluxe Edition can play the game three days early and receive additional content Independent specialist insurance and reinsurance broker BMS Group has appointed Ryo Iizuka (pictured above) as director of private equity now comprises a team with backgrounds in legal Iizuka brings extensive experience from large global investment banking and M&A consulting firms He will work with Hewitt and associate Kaori Iwai to meet the growing demand in Japan for independent specialist advice and tailored insurance solutions to mitigate complex risks in various transactions Get the latest reinsurance news direct to your inbox twice a week. Sign up here BMS said that Iizuka’s M&A experience and track record in implementing successful strategies for Japanese and global businesses including corporates and private equity firms will enhance the firm’s capabilities in Japan’s active M&A market BMS has expanded its presence in Asia over the past few years with offices and multilingual experts in Hong Kong This growth allows BMS to provide comprehensive services across major financial hubs in the region Read More: BMS Group strengthens global leadership with new chief people officer According to BMS’s 2024 PEMAT report there has been a resurgence in M&A activity in Asia driving increased demand for the PEMAT team’s services Iizuka’s appointment underscores BMS’s commitment to Japan and the broader region Hewitt stated that Iizuka’s broad perspective and experience will add a new dimension to the BMS team particularly in advising on M&A strategies involving Japan “I’m looking forward to working with Ryo as my front-line partner as we continue to challenge the market with new solutions for insureds We’ve had a great first year in Japan and the hire of Ryo marks our dedication to delivering insurance solutions as strategic deal advisors,” he said Iizuka expressed enthusiasm for collaborating with colleagues globally and building BMS’s reputation in Japan “I cannot wait to start working with our colleagues around the world and building BMS’s challenger reputation in Japan with Tim and Kaori by contributing my M&A expertise to help develop and deploy new transaction insurance solutions for the insureds in Japan,” he said Please feel free to share your comments below Get the latest reinsurance news direct to your inbox twice a week. Sign up here Login | Sign Up Nintendo Life Guest Login or Sign Up But there are no plans for it at the moment Like most Sonic fans, we here at Nintendo Life love the GBA's 'Advance' Series. We have fond memories of playing through the Advance trilogy (and even the tangentially related fighting RPG and pinball spinoffs) in the early 2000s but bar the SonicN N-Gage port and a Virtual Console release in Japan we haven't had the chance to play them on any new hardware since With the fan adoration for these games, a remake or remaster feels like a no-brainer, no? Well, in a recent interview with VGC Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka confessed that he would be very much up for it When asked about the potential of an Advance series re-release (be that as a remastered collection or on the GBA NSO library) Iizuka quickly flagged that there are no plans for any such remake or remaster at the moment Bringing up how Sonic Origins reintroduced fans to the blue blur's original and CD appearances Iizuka said that Sonic Team would "love" to do something similar for the Advance series Here's the full quote from the VGC interview: There’s currently no plans for the Sonic Advance series to be remade or remastered Katsuyuki Shigihara was a director on Sonic Origins and we remastered that and brought it out for fans to enjoy if there’s an opportunity for the Advance series to also get that treatment the "no plans" makes this about as far from a confirmation as you can get Elsewhere in the interview, Iizuka teased what we can expect from Sonic X Shadow Generations' new content and shut down all talk of a Chao Garden spin-off title "We can’t just break it off and make it a thing" Would you like to see the Sonic Advance games in a new collection Speed down to the comments and let us know [source videogameschronicle.com] despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since he seems to have little sway in what he directs his team to do I admit that I don't know who dictates what he can or can't do Wouldn't be averse to Sonic Battle coming back in some form too One of the very few good games from this series I wouldn’t mind getting Sonic Heroes instead although the Advance games definitely feel like they should be priority especially with Sonic Movie 3 (unless this is a different Advance then the one I’m thinking of) (Edit: I mixed up adventure with advance He always goes on about good games like these and the Adventure series and then always reminds us that they're not going to remake them meanwhile they remake tons of other games in the series That comment about the chao garden the other day was equally ridiculous Take notes of what Konami have been doing with their Collections and port them in one package I would prefer the Adventure series to get remastered and/or give us a new Adventure game I'd love to see a remaster/remake of the Advance series but if there aren't currently plans for that then I really don't get why they aren't putting those games (along with Battle etc.) on NSO at least and even more so now that I know they got a Virtual Console release in Japan Sonic Team really doesn't seem to have a good idea of how to respond to fan requests do they?"we don't know what the future holds" .. The future of the Sonic series is whatever you want it to be The fact that the Advance series has never seen re-release since their original platforms has been a bother A decompilation of Sonic Advance 2 is extremely close to completion (99% done as of today) I'd love to see the games ported to systems that support larger display areas like 256x192 (DS) or 400x240 (3DS) or at least that sort of mindful view area increase Arguably the best Sonic games in the franchise Sonic Advance 1 was the first Sonic game I owned I don't know if it's nostalgia or something else but while I didn't enjoy the Genesis/Master System games at my friend's as much Never got around playing 2 through 4 but I'd jump at a chance to have a proper "Sonic Advance collection" they were essentially already done by a quality indie team They just borked them into a single collection with a nonsensical frontend but given that so many publishers prefer to do endless Collections I doubt we'll ever see that day coming I was very surprised Capcom didn't do that with the Mega Man GB titles @Bobb You are the first person in history to say that Some people don't get into a franchise until much later installments but for those who grew up on the advance games it's a bummer they won't get a chance to re-experience it anytime soon I'm heavily in favor of Sega team porting all their games to modern hardware just for the sake of preservation I actually have sonic advance 2-3 but I never had the first advance game So having SA 1-3 on NSO or as a collection would be really cool I would love to play them as they are some of the few Sonic games I have never played I have been enjoying the Castlevania Advance collection so much I think it would be great to see more games from that era come over as a collection Just look at Capcom and Konami and how they get their do profit with these legacy collections The Castlevania Dominus and Advance Collections were hot sales wise and the Capcom Legacy and Fighting Collections are a goldmine for Capcom You could earn big too if you stopped holding back on these legacy games you had in your grasp such as Yakuza Legacy Collection I'd like to see Sonic Battle remastered (or ported to NSO) as well No need for a graphic as games from that era still looks great but the Chaos Emerald hunt and how to get them was totally garbage and frustrating I'd love a collection or NSO rerelease I never played 2 or 3 and would love the opportunity to do so the phrases "we don’t know what the future holds" and "if the stars align" are so frustrating xD like why does it seem like everyone involved in Sega is under a tyranny and can't do what they want @DripDropCop146 there is a fairly big chance I'm biased because I didn't get to play the first games enough as a kid Chuck Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure in too while you're at it Allow the player to revisit levels they already cleared like in the subsequent Rush games (only Advance 3 allows this And they need to make Advance 2's star rings permanent collectibles so we're not forced to redo an entire level's worth just for another try at a Special Stage we've lost Having to recollect these things every time is a big no because having to gather all Emeralds for every character just to unlock Amy is insane And maybe also reprogram Advance 1's Special Stage The ring collision detection on that one was awful @Bobb It happens We've had many ports of the original trilogy over the years with Origins being the definitive version that now I believe Sega should start extending the same courtesy to other games in Sonic's latter history @Serpenterror yessss to all of these But are you wishfully thinking a threequel with a Night's trilogy But seriously - sega need to look at Capcom and Konami - just port the shirt out of everything and stop ignoring the Saturn generation please This was the last time they gave us proper pixel based Sonic games before they became psuedo 3D on the DS @dudujencarelli All Sonic Advance games have a level select screen Put the Sonic Advance trilogy on NSO already you cowards @dudujencarelli You can also revisit levels in Sonic Advance 1 & 2 @dudujencarelli Or they could just reduce the number of those star rings to collect Collecting those in the first place was just an unnecessary task we should had just been allow to enter the special stage by just having at least one of those Having two or three should give us two or three tries similar to how Sonic Origins did it @Alexface Well there's NiGHTS the original game then there's that NiGHTS Christmas special and then there's NiGHTS Journey of Dreams I believe the Christmas special was bundle with a re-release at one point @Quiet2down Unironically I like this game more than quite a few of their efforts @nebzila agreed he comes out with things like this all the time yet he seemed to tie the very concept to the Adventure series when asked about the absence of one since then @Serpenterror ah yeah ok I didn't count Christmas Nights as a full game not quite a game.In the PS3/360 releases it was part of the package @EarthboundBenjy I knew Advance 3's hub worlds facilitated revisiting the zones I did not know about Adv 1 and 2's options I always save-stated in the beginning of each zone or special stage Always assumed you had to play them in one sitting like the original Genesis games just put them on NSO or release a collection with art and stuff like Castlevania Advance Collection just get the originals on NSO or a collection along with Sonic Pinball Party and Sonic Battle while you're at it and you get a winner The original Sonic Advance is pretty much the real Sonic 4 in everything but name but from what I've seen of them they're more like precursors of Sonic Rush I'm starting to believe that it was just that SEGA couldn't be arsed to bring the trilogy to the Wii U VC on the west If the originals being released by THQ was really a problem they could've released the Japanese versions instead There's little to no language barrier on them Sega seems to enjoy ignoring their entire GBA catalogue @PikminMarioKirby Fellow Heroes enjoyer Sega can be so allergic to doing the thing that makes sense But seeing how they can fumble so much with emulation or experimenting with mediocre results it’s maybe for the better they don’t get involved in their own history I would love to see a trilogy collection of this remastered They were my favorites during the time of the GBA Hopefully we'll get this and it not be on the NSO Expansion But all the GBA games so far are first party so maybe third party publishers can’t or won’t put their games on the service we’d love to do that… and then show absolutely no evidence they actually want to do that @PikminMarioKirby You might be confusing the Advance games with the Adventure games The 3rd Sonic movie is focusing a lot on Sonic Adventure 2 Played the first one a couple of months ago on the Pocket and I've got the other two lined up to play in the future SEGA should just sell Sonic and let someone else have a go Remaking the Advance games is a joke - take their template and make better 2D Sonic games from them Its really REALLY not that difficult at all Just give up then and let someone else do it properly They don't really need ground-up remakes No idea why companies don't look at others like Capcom & Digital Eclipse making all these easy to make hard to screw up collections that people want The Advance and Rush games were very fun to me Pretty entertaining 2D Sonic games right there Sonic Advance was my first proper introduction to Sonic I dabbled with it here and there on a friend's Game Gear I would completely support a Sonic Advance HD remake Being one of the first sonic games on a Nintendo console It felt like classic sonic with an adventure feel or vise versa I would buy them all if they were made available for the Switch @PikminMarioKirby I would love to see 'Sonic Heroes' get remastered too or at least released on the Nintendo eShop or X Box Marketplace and I find it disappointing how 'Sonic 3D Blast' 'Sonic Generations' have all been released or made available on newer consoles while 'Sonic Heroes' has been forgotten about by Sega when it was one of the best 3D Sonic games and a lot of Sonic fans I know loved it and would like it to get re-released I think they should bring out a 3D Collection like Nintendo did with 'Super Mario 3D All Stars' with 'Sonic Adventure 1 and 2' 'Sonic Unleashed' and 'Sonic 3D Blast.' The closest I got to playing the Sonic Advanced games was the Ultimate Flash Sonic game 20 years ago (remember that game) So as a Sonic fan i always wanted to play them so a Sonic Advanced collection would be great If they want to throw Sonic Battle in the collection too I'll be alright with that 😉 The Sonic Advance trilogy makes me nostalgic for my college years Sonic Advance 2 kinda bugged me with how it dealt with accessing special stages but at least using Tails and Cream made it bearable either way im always up for some retro collections @Mgalens Yep Sonic games in particular certainly benefit from a wider screen space so it would be great Show Comments Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment.. Limited Run's Atlus Switch 2 Collector's Edition Is A 'Game-Key Card' Release Ecco The Dolphin Is Making A Comeback With Remasters & New Game Video: Sega Reflects On Sonic's Rich Racing History Ahead Of CrossWorlds Review: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) - The Series' Second Western Release Still Hits Hard Every Nintendo Switch Online Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Game Ranked 1 News DC x Sonic The Hedgehog Toy Line Hits Shelves And Online Retailers Fall 2025 25 Reminder Nintendo's Switch 2 Launches Worldwide Next Month 51 News Ubisoft's Switch 2 Physical Release Of Star Wars Outlaws Is A "Game-Key Card" 56 News Ecco The Dolphin Is Making A Comeback With Remasters & New Game 16 UK Charts The Calm Before The Nintendo Switch 2 Storm Continues News Nintendo Switch System Update 20.0.0 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patc... PSA Redownloading Switch eShop Games Has Now Changed With Latest Update ICYMI 12 Switch Games Will Receive Free Switch 2 Upgrades News Switch Users Are Getting Error Codes After Updating To Version 20.0.0 Editorial Gamers, Support The People And Sites You Love, Before It's Too Late Guide Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: Mystery Gift Codes List News Oops, Yuji Horii May Not Have Leaked Massive Remake News After All News The Company That "Leaked" Switch 2 Is Being Sued By Nintendo News Nintendo Highlights Multiple Switch Games Launching In May 2025 News Switch eShop Update Puts Less Focus On The Terrible 'eSlop' Show More © 2025 Hookshot Media, partner of IGN Entertainment | Hosted by 44 Bytes | AdChoices | Do Not Sell My Personal Information SEGA has a brand new interview available with Takashi Iizuka as they discuss Shadow The Hedgehog across a few different titles Enjoyed this? Please share on social media! I really like role-playing games."Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka wants to make a Sonic the Hedgehog role-playing game "at some point" before he retires from Sega In an interview with Good Vibes Gaming Iizuka was asked if he would work on a Sonic RPG in the future and said he was interested in doing so and shocked Sonic Team had yet to do it I really like role-playing games," Iizuka said we haven't done a Sonic RPG.' And I'm questioning myself 'Why haven't we done a Sonic RPG in all this time How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?!'" Iizuka said he would "hopefully" get to work on a Sonic RPG before he retires from Sega but made clear there was nothing "concrete" at this time I'd like to hopefully work on a Sonic RPG at some point before I retire from Sega," he said There are no concrete plans at this point." The only Sonic RPG released so far was Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer Bioware worked on the project and not Sonic Team In our review of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood IGN wrote: "There's fun to be had and the game does pick up after the first few hours but we'd be surprised to see many DS gamers get behind Dark Brotherhood while there are so many superior role-playing games on the platform There's a good design in here somewhere; it's just lost in the shuffle of it all." The closest that Sonic Team got to incorporating RPG-esque elements in a Sonic game was the blue hedgehog's first 3D game, Sonic Adventure, which implemented some RPG elements. In a cut commentary for Sonic Adventure DX Iizuka explained that after work on NiGHTs into Dreams proposing that Sonic Adventure should be an RPG-style game the development studio has worked on role-playing games including the aforementioned Nights into Dreams and the Phantasy Star Online series Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster. Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka revealed that he would love to do a Sonic RPG before he retires Sonic is just too fast for me so RPG would be slower pased Something along the lines of paper mario or mario rpg would work best for a Sonic RPG NiGHTs into Dreams was not a role playing game Sonic Team didn't work on the original though but it could still be good I'm not saying this will somehow result in a Sonic Chronicles sequel.. I'd hope its turn based and not an action RPG although I could see an Action RPG being cool if they can do it right in 3D which is not a guarantee with that series I picture a Mario RPG sort of game though and think that would be awesome The only reason I never got into Sonic Chronicles is according to my research it ends on a cliff hanger and it never gets resolved I'd very much be interested in a Sonic RPG wouldn't mind turn-based gameplay combined with some of the hub exploration ala Sonic Adventure I feel like they have defo done an rpg many times bot in a classic 8 bit style but defo a modern one in sonic adventure and unleashed I have been wanting a Sonic RPG ever since the 1st Mario RPG Or maybe even like a metroidvania with RPG elements i could be on board with a standard RPG though Side view 2D Sonic RPG in the style of the Mario and Luigi games Is Sega really so devoid of creativity that they have to task Sonic across all genres There's a fundamental problem with everything Sega does: they feel like they are decades behind the rest of the gaming world Making a Sonic RPG feels like playing into their weakness Sonic Team pumps out a Sonic game annually Take a year off and give us proper Sonic RPG imagine if they included romance options.. yeah its majority of games is not RPG but this will work Today's print edition Home Delivery A 93-year-old inmate imprisoned over a car crash in which a mother and her young daughter were killed in Tokyo's busy Ikebukuro district in April 2019 has died of old age former head of the government's now-defunct Agency of Industrial Science and Technology He was serving a five-year term for negligent driving causing death and injury.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); the passenger car that Iizuka was driving ran a red light and barreled into a crosswalk "I pray from my heart for the soul" of Iizuka "I want him to apologize to Mana and Riko if he can see them in heaven my heart aches because he had to die in prison." Matsunaga met with Iizuka in May this year at his prison Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to elderly people in order to prevent similar accidents Iizuka asked Matsunaga to tell them to surrender their driver's licenses soon In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division. Video Game News 10th Sep 2024 / 11:43 am Posted by Chris ScullionSonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has suggested the studio isn’t planning to make a new Chao Garden game Chao Gardens are special areas in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 where players can raise the small Chao characters found in the game The mode is popular among Sonic fans, and earlier this year, a rumour spread that a Chao-raising mobile game was in development Iizuka suggested that there would be no standalone Chao Garden release any time soon Upon being told that many fans were continuing to ask if Sonic Adventure 3 or Chao Garden would ever return Iizuka explained that the latter was part of the Sonic Adventure structure and couldn’t be easily separated from it “When we talk about Chao Garden specifically I know everyone’s like ‘I want Chao Garden I want Chao Garden’,” Iizuka replied (via an interpreter) “But Chao Garden is a piece… it’s part of the whole Sonic Adventure series of games it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing if you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3 then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3 “I think at some time I’d like to say ‘hey It’s just one of those things that if In a previous interview with VGC back in June, Iizuka dismissed speculation that there would be a Chao Garden in Sonic X Shadow Generations When we pointed out that fans seemed to want it back and asked if he would ever consider doing so Header image courtesy of Chao Island Sega Chris Scullion Deputy editorScottish games journalist and author with 18 years of experience, formerly of Official Nintendo Magazine UK & CVG. Already a patron? Click the button below to log in with Patreon. Not a member yet? Visit our Patreon page to become a patron and get access to community discussions and other exclusive benefits. I'm surprised they haven't made a mobile Chao Garden app or, ahem, "game" (sic). Fans: "Hey, we love this part of the game and would play it if it was it's own thing! We'd pay for it!" Iizuka: "That's not going to work for me, brother." the guy cant even make a good sonic game, obviously they cant make a chao game. the creativity of a potato, the people working on sonic games. So they have been hearing for decades for fans wanting this Chao raising sim, and never wanted to capitalize? Color me shocked. © 1981 Media Ltd No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder Website by 44 Bytes I don't care if the scouter says otherwise But while it might seem obvious to you and me that Shadow's got some Vegeta in him Sonic Team director Takashi Iizuka says otherwise Over the weekend at Anime Expo 2024, Sega held a panel to promote Sonic x Shadow Generations, during which Iizuka was asked about the inspirations that informed Shadow's design and character during the development of Sonic Adventure 2 Iizuka said Shadow's role as a dark rival to Sonic was influenced by '90s American antiheroes which would account for some of the general red-and-black edginess panel host Zeno Robinson said he'd asked Iizuka about the long-held assumption that Shadow was inspired by Vegeta Iizuka reiterated that denial for the crowd correcting the record by emphatically shaking his head The book collected concept art and official illustrations dating back to 1991—including early concepts for Shadow from the development of Sonic Adventure 2 Included on one page of early concept sketches some of which were shown during the Anime Expo 2024 panel are a series of character development notes the final line being "ベジータ," or "Bejīta"—or as we'd write it in English They have the concept art at the event and covered up the vegeta dot point with a sign LMFAO bro hates dragon ball 😂 pic.twitter.com/S3H0MReUtgJuly 7, 2024 Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications While attending Summer Game Fest I visited SEGA for a hands-on session with Sonic X Shadow Generations in addition to an interview with Takashi Iizuka best-known as the head of Sonic Team and a lead producer on several Sonic The Hedgehog titles Iizuka is also credited as the mind behind one of my favourite video game characters ever who’s once again sharing the spotlight with Sonic in the new game I was blown away with the revamped gameplay of Sonic Generations as well as the all-new Shadow The Hedgehog stages which felt completely different in terms of controls and tone Sonic Generations follows Sonic and his friends being attacked by a time monster which sees the blue blur meet his past self and sprint through some of his franchise’s most iconic stages the game is a non-stop celebration of Sonic’s history from start to finish While the base game has been largely unchanged aside from a touch-up to the controls the inclusion of a Shadow The Hedgehog spin-off storyline is completely new It follows Shadow after being attacked by the same time monster the antagonist from Shadow’s first and only spin-off title fear not as there’ll apparently be a short video that’ll ”explain a lot of this to you.” I was dying to learn more about the game from the man himself including what a title like this could mean for the character of Shadow in the future As you might glean from The Year Of Shadow it’s a pretty big year for the SEGA character and Iizuka’s words on what that means for both the staff at Sonic Team and the fans filled me with joy Iizuka said: “We have the movie coming out this December and a huge spotlight is going to be put on Shadow as a character … So we wanted to release a game at the same time that would also put a spotlight on Shadow … so everyone's going to know just how cool of a character he is.” Ever since his first debut in Sonic Adventure 2 all the way back in 2001 Shadow has been one of the most complex characters SEGA has created he’s gone through a lot of changes and interpretations With that in mind I was interested to learn what previous Sonic media the team will be taking inspiration from and how they planned on reimagining it for both the gameplay and story Iizuka spoke about Shadow’s signature Chaos Control ability and how the team “really wanted to go in and make sure the level design or all of the Shadow Generations content used Chaos Control to the fullest extent.” Shadow’s ability to stop time can be used to make platforming easier However another trick Shadow has up his sleeve are the new Doom powers which were described as “new abilities for Shadow” that make “getting through each level unique.” the biggest part of Sonic X Shadow Generations is obviously Shadow’s storyline which will feature several levels all taken from previous games that Shadow was in basically a whole other game stacked on top of the existing Sonic Generations Now while that’s not a very long list there are still plenty of levels to choose from but it turns out it wasn’t that arduous of a task to select which ones to bring back and remake we really picked the most popular stages to go back and remake … we took the same approach for Shadow Generations “We wanted to pick the most popular and the most important stages to remake and redo and make the stages and the themes all crafted around those past experiences So it's going to be something very familiar to people except all of the gameplay will be brand new.” Iizuka went on to explain that the levels selected are also from crucial times and events in Shadow’s life saying “You're going to go through a lot of things that Shadow and learn more about his character.” maybe don't know that much about Shadow because the story is told over various different titles you won't really have that full comprehensive understanding we're going to walk through all of those important moments and you really understand the background of Shadow. “That's really what's going to make playing Shadow Generations easy for anyone to just pick up and come right in and play.” My final burning question as a Shadow fan myself was what this title could mean for future projects as Shadow hasn’t had a spin-off game since 2005 With that in mind I wanted to know if this project generated interest in Sonic Team and SEGA to revisit those spin-offs in the future “I've been working for decades making new Sonic games and we never really had a lot of opportunities to make spin-off titles because fans always wanted more Sonic games The Shadow the Hedgehog game was one of those times where we were actually able to make a spin off title we need to constantly be providing content to our fans content that people are going to want and like and we don't really have a lot of resources to make so many titles making Sonic games that fans are going to expect and fans are really going to enjoy.” Iizuka went on to say the team got lucky in 2024 but also a game that's going to have Shadow in it with new gameplay for Shadow and going to be able to tell a story to really introduce Shadow as a character to a lot of people who maybe don’t know him.” Unfortunately it sounds like future Sonic spin-offs would have to be tied to some sort of remaster or re-release but if that’s the only way to explore other characters in the video games I’m all for it bring on Sonic 3 & Knuckles & Chaotix It was a pleasure speaking to Takashi Iizuka and I can’t wait to play more of Sonic X Shadow Generations when it releases on 25 October later this it’s probably going to quickly become my new favourite Sonic game Topics: Interview, Sonic, Sega, Xbox, PlayStation, PC "How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?!" Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka wants to know why the hell Sonic Team haven’t made their own Sonic The Hedgehog RPG yet you’ve been running the show since 2008 You’ve been working on Sonic games since 1994 I too yearn to bound through the Star Post portal and into a world where Sonic has to min-max his trainers and do companion quests for Big The Cat The spinning ball of spines is in your court Mario has had that genre all to himself for long enough who notes that Sonic Team have worked on RPGs in the past have no excuses save boring commercial ones I really like role-playing games," he said "The RPG game format is a lot of fun and I've even thought to myself you know for the past 30 years we haven't done a Sonic RPG Why haven't we done a Sonic RPG in all this time How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?!" which I’m not allowed to write about or Graham will break my knees No part of this website or its content may be reproduced without the copyright owner's permission Rock Paper Shotgun is a registered trademark of Gamer Network Limited has shut down the comparisons of his dark hero and Dragon Ball's Vegeta noting that he's "not that kind of character," and he doesn't want him to be At Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to sit down with Sonic creative officer Iizuka – as well as Sonic x Shadow Generations game director Katsuyuki Shigihara and producer Shun Nakamura – to talk about all things Shadow, as well as Sega's upcoming high-speed platform game Iizuka tells me Shadow is his favorite Sonic character largely because of his "tragic backstory" which makes him "interesting and compelling," but I was curious to find out if he felt fans have interpreted Shadow in a different way over the years than how he originally expected or intended Shadow is "not Vegeta in any way." He explains: "Vegeta really starts out as an enemy and then later becomes a friend and an ally and kind of fights for justice and trying to save the world and whatnot Let's save the world.' He's not that kind of character and [I don't] want him to be that kind of character.  Perhaps Sonic X Shadow Generations and the upcoming third Sonic the Hedgehog movie might be able to set this record straight for good just know that the Sonic team definitely doesn't see Shadow as a Vegeta counterpart.  Be sure to check out our ranking of the best Sonic games.  with Sonic's edgy rival set to star in his own campaign in an updated remaster of 2011's Sonic Generations We ask Iizuka-san about what fans can expect from the new Shadow content what classic Sonic locations Shadow will visit and what to expect from the new Sonic Frontiers-inspired hub world.\n\nPresented by 5-hour ENERGY","commentCount":2,"comment":[{"@context":"http://schema.org/","@type":"Comment","datePublished":"2024-06-09","author":{"@context":"http://schema.org/","@type":"Person","name":"theirishlife34"},"text":"Sonic adventure 1/ 2 Should be next for a remake not that werewolf sonic game that was a lame game The threequel has Takashi Iizuka's seal of approval Game designer and Shadow the Hedgehog co-creator Takashi Iizuka has high praise for the upcoming third Sonic movie which will see Shadow enter the big-screen fray.  "He does want to let people know everything that he's seen has said really good movie,'" Iizuka's interpreter told GamesRadar+ at this year's Gamescom in Cologne "And this is coming from someone whose favorite character is Shadow the Hedgehog and he's responsible for all of our character supervision so he thinks it's gonna be a really good movie and he hopes everyone gets really excited to go see it because he thinks they're gonna have a really great time." Keanu Reeves is set to voice antihero Shadow in Sonic 3 and the movie will also see the return of Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic alongside James Marsden and Jim Carrey in live-action roles as Sheriff Tom Wachowski and Dr According to producer Toby Ascher, the film is "probably the most exciting thing that we’ve done in the franchise." He previously told GamesRadar+ incredible movie that obviously takes a lot from Sonic Adventure 2 and some of the games that I know the core Sonic Team grew up loving." Sonic Adventure 2 is where Shadow made his first appearance back in 2001 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 arrives on the big screen on December 20. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other biggest upcoming movies on the way in 2024. Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox Entertainment WriterI’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+ covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.  Sonic team lead says that Shadow is “extremely powerful on his own and doesn’t really need a gun or anything because he can do it himself.” In anticipation of the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations, VGC interviewed Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka about the game and the Sonic franchise as a whole One of the topics discussed centered around the character of Shadow the Hedgehog and his use of vehicles and firearms in his 2005 eponymous title Though the game received mixed reviews on launch it became a cult classic amongst Sonic the Hedgehog fans.  According to Iizuka (who was one of the creators of Shadow alongside Shiro Maekawa Shadow “would use whatever he needed at the moment to get the job done” – including riding a motorcycle and shooting various firearms Iizuka goes on to say that though Shadow used these things in the past the character is “extremely powerful on his own and doesn’t really need a gun or anything because he can do it himself.” Lore-wise Shadow was created by Professor Gerald Robotnik (not to be confused with his grandson Doctor Ivo Robotnik) to be the Ultimate Lifeform his powers rival those of Sonic and other mainstay characters in the franchise And Shadow is powerful – so much so that he hasn’t used a gun or ridden a motorcycle since 2005 The recent trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations even shows Shadow getting a new power that grants him wings Shadow’s use of firearms somewhat aligns with Iizuka’s explanation of the character (having ranged options is helpful but riding a motorcycle is a bit contradictory as his Air Shoes allow him to reach high speeds without exerting himself These decisions could have been made to give the character a grittier tone in the Shadow the Hedgehog game Iizuka even sets the record straight by saying that Shadow will not use a gun in Sonic X Shadow Generations.  Shadow’s reemergence in Sonic the Hedgehog media is central to what Sega is calling the “Year of Shadow,” which includes the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations game and Keanu Reeves’s portrayal of Shadow in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie Fans of the anti-hero have a lot of things to look forward to Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins Dynasty Warriors Origins focused on balanced sex-appeal that doesn’t compromise female characters’ roles and backgrounds, says series producer  Japanese NFT game company’s currency crashes after users discover infinite money glitch Shin Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko says teaching AI to draw like him was more time-consuming than making art from scratch  and website in this browser for the next time I comment AUTOMATON WEST is operated by Active Gaming Media Inc.Reproduction in any form or medium without acknowledgment of Active Gaming Media Inc Copyright © 2025 - AUTOMATON WEST / Theme by Creative Themes “ANON(YMOUS)”: Performances are underway for “Anon(ymous).” Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University; and directed by Bi Jean Ngo (assisted by Matthew Cooperberg) the play runs through November 9 at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre including the streetwise Pascal (Oriana Nelson (Photo by Larry Levanti / Lewis Center for the Arts) The Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University is presenting Anon(ymous) at McCarter stylized retelling of The Odyssey centers on two refugees in the U.S — Anon and Nemasani — each of whom has been separated from a family member Iizuka’s script embraces and offers ample scope for multiple forms: drama director of the Lewis Center production (assisted by Matthew Cooperberg) takes full advantage of this; the polished staging makes use of often dazzling production values while ensuring that the performances are the primary focus Set Designer Yoshi Tanokura (along with Set Design Fellow Matthew Ciccone) generally is economical in furnishing the stage with scenery Curtains hang at the back and sides of the stage emphasizing that this is a piece of theater (and perhaps suggesting a possible interpretation that the characters know they are telling a story) The most detailed set is for a scene that takes place in a restaurant Anon(ymous) opens with the entire ensemble who is already onstage — approaches us from behind processing from the aisles to the stage as they speak with each line beginning with the same phrase “Where I come from is far away from here.” A Chorus of Refugees joins him One refugee establishes a key theme by describing “waterfalls taller than the tallest skyscraper.” Aabid Ismail delivers a compelling performance as Anon whom he infuses with palpable PTSD (born of the character’s experiences) at times defiant determination to find his family (against unlikely odds) Ngo introduces choreography into this opening segment The actors are given movement that is flowing and expressive The sound design by Nathan Leigh (which includes eerie atmospheric music) and Elena Milliken’s  lighting (which uses projections effectively) establish the war that causes the refugees to flee to this country and the storm that bedevils their journey and causes the families to be separated Anon meets a variety of characters — some helpful Just as Athena helps Odysseus in Homer’s original poem Anon periodically receives help and guidance from a goddess the feisty and matter-of-fact Naja (Oriana Nelson) who infuses the character with the dignity to rise above her circumstances) assumes that her lost family member is dead She toils in a sweatshop; whenever she is able she sews a shroud that she firmly says is “not for sale.” Anon(ymous) received its 2006 world premiere at the Children’s Theatre Company (in Minneapolis) the play does not deal with juvenile themes both Anon and Nemasani are targets of sexual harassment Anon is treated as little more than property by Calista (Kate Stewart who succeeds in making the character both stereotypically bratty and dangerous) Calista is named for the nymph Calypso in Homer’s original Nemasani is the target of unwanted advances from Mr Yuri Mackus (made suitably domineering and lascivious by Avi Chesler) The play is an entertaining but sobering fable that considers how immigrants are treated particularly ways in which the rich and powerful take advantage of their vulnerability The piece also probes themes of disrespect for other cultures Where Anon(ymous) makes itself available to younger audiences is not so much in its subject matter or themes The play is inhabited less by three-dimensional characters (other than Anon and Nemasani) This is particularly true of the antagonists and Costume Designer Ariel Wang reinforces it in many of their outfits Yuri Mackus wears a green shirt that immediately suggests dollar bills (unsubtly he gives Nemasani the nickname of “Penny”) a character meant to represent the worst of American excess is given an artfully gaudy blue and red swimsuit (along with a red bow that inescapably recalls Minnie Mouse) the affable but patronizing wife of a Senator wears purple — suggesting an effort to appeal to both sides of the American political divide Anon recalls his upbringing by a “Nice American Family” (portrayed by Ng as the mother and Stewart as the daughter) and staging all indicate that “nice” signals white On his journey Anon meets the sinister one-eyed butcher Mr for which Wang delivers a memorable design the gregarious proprietor of a restaurant staffed by Ritu Anon also encounters Serza (Chris Twiname) a bartender whose use of a specific figure of speech reveals that she is the daughter of another character; and a Barfly (James Han) his primary helper is Pascal (also played by Nelson) A climactic duel between Anon and one of the antagonists is smoothly staged by Fight (and Intimacy) Director Jacqueline Holloway Pieces of ridiculously outsize sewing equipment become weapons giving the scene a distorted look that somewhat recalls filmmaker Tim Burton It is tempting to wonder whether Iizuka wants us to be a few steps ahead of the characters here — perhaps for this piece mystery is less important than our empathizing with the characters Although there is less suspense in the ultimate resolution there is plenty in terms of how we get there Iizuka is skilled at placing characters in situations that feel both inescapable and unpredictable Iizuka’s strongest and most important gift is in writing poetically This does not just refer to dialogue; it means creating characters and situations that lend themselves to dazzling Anon(ymous) has a plot that is just thick enough to be engaging as drama but open enough to allow the talented cast — which has the versatility to deliver the multiple roles required of most of the actors — and creative team to contribute their part There is rich poetry in the blending of dialogue and sound design that rewards us for undertaking this odyssey On November 7 the Lewis Center will host a conversation between Iizuka and Barbara Graziosi Princeton’s Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature and Chair of the Classics Department "Allow us to help you, to help your busines! Call us on +0044 1034 5623 or get in touch via email at mentor@mentorbiz.com" Sonic the Hedgehog’s career is in rude health at the moment Long time fans will remember all too well the string of strange disappointing Sonic games that plagued the series in the back half of the 2000s a run that makes Sonic Team’s recent successes all the more worthy of praise one of the first big turning points was 2011’s Sonic Generations which celebrated Sonic’s past while bringing togther the 2D and 3D branches of the series the blue blur has never looked back – other than in a nostalgic sense – and now has a string of other critically acclaimed games underhis belt along with two movies and a third on the way It’s fitting, then, that amidst all this popularity comes the return of Sonic Generations in a new remastered version, Sonic X Shadow Generations As well as improved visuals for the original game this new release also includes brand new stages starring Shadow the Hedgehog (who probably symbolises the series’ uptick in popularity more than anyone or anything else) To discuss the game’s return, VGC sat down with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka and game designer and producer Shun Nakamura The original release of Sonic Generations almost feels like one of the turning points for Sonic after a sort of less well-received period with games like Sonic 2006 Do you think those games were a necessary period in Sonic’s history because they may have refocused Sonic Team and let it breathe new life into the series Sonic Generations was our 20th anniversary title and it was there to really take all of the 2D side-scrolling Sonic platform action games as well as all of 3D high-speed platform action games and get this wide spectrum of great content [It meant] that if you were brand new to a Sonic game you were getting all these amazing moments all these things that people remember and you were now up to speed with a lot of fans And it was one of those titles that had so much of these moments in there that it really was like a defining moment for what a Sonic game could or would be And so when we talk about Generations being that turning point because it started really defining the content that people liked and the content people wanted to see more of Do you think that focus on nostalgia played a big part in that Black Knight and the like felt like they were constantly looking for new ideas whereas with Generations it felt like looking back was what finally helped Sonic to push forward because Generations was that pure Sonic experience A lot of the games from the past were always trying to add something new and different to make them very unique the ideas or the things you could do were very different And Generations was the first time when we were saying “hey we’re focusing more on that high speed platform action.” And it became that pure expression of a high speed platform action game which is what everyone started gravitating towards And now obviously the big addition this time around is the second game Shadow’s popularity has grown a lot over the years so was giving him such a central role this time a way of almost making up for the fact that he wasn’t in it much the first time around TI: Sonic Generations was for Sonic’s 20th anniversary so the key idea behind what game we were going to make was that it’s got to all be about Sonic So Shadow does show up as a rival in Sonic Generations but the whole point was really to focus on Sonic But this time we have the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie coming out this holiday and there’s going to be a focus on Shadow in the movie so we know people are going to see Shadow and know him from the movie because we have Sonic Generations – which was a game that kind of introduced newcomers to Sonic the Hedgehog – and this is our chance to make something to also introduce people to Shadow So we have people who maybe only know Sonic from the movies but haven’t played the games so maybe this is their first time seeing Shadow in the movie as well amazing moments from Sonic’s history so they can play the game and understand all these cool game moments about Sonic the Hedgehog which also does the same thing – it goes back and shows all these great moments from Shadow’s past and really explains the character this is the one title you can get that will now bring you up to speed with everything Sonic and Shadow Shadow Generations shows moments from Shadow’s past, but based on a recent trailer it looks like it’s also got some content in there from Sonic Frontiers You know how perceptive Sonic fans are – as soon as that trailer was released a lot of them pointed out that Shadow wasn’t in Frontiers Was that really just a nod to Frontiers to celebrate its success Sonic Generations is a game where you’re kind of going back to the past The Shadow Generations portion of the game is still part of the Generations story so the Time Eater has affected Shadow’s of everything as well That allows us to put everything out there and have Shadow experience a lot of this stuff from the past that mean Shadow is going to get these new abilities and he’s going to be able to use these new abilities as he goes back and experiences a lot of the things from the past And one of the fun things from the past that the team wanted to portray that we thought would be really interesting for fans is to… remember if we’re talking about the past that’s going from when Shadow Generations is launched backwards And so one of the interesting ideas we had was what if Shadow went through the space-time continuum and Shadow is now in the Sonic Frontiers environment and wouldn’t that really make them excited So getting the fans excited over things like that is what we wanted to do and we’re able to do it because of the Generations format “What if Shadow went through the space-time continuum and wouldn’t that really make them excited?” TI: There’s currently no plans for the Sonic Advance series to be remade or remastered Katsuyuki Shigihara was a director on Sonic Origins if there’s an opportunity for the Advance series to also get that treatment I asked Sonic fans if there was anything they wanted to ask you and I’m sure you can guess the two things that came up time and time again If Chao Garden or Sonic Adventure 3 ever do happen has fan expectation been built up to the point where neither could truly live up to those expectations TI: When we talk about Chao Garden specifically I know everyone’s like “I want Chao Garden But Chao Garden is a piece… it’s part of the whole Sonic Adventure series game well if you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3 then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3 Does it feel like much of the hype power of Sonic Adventure 3 is in its title There have been so many critically acclaimed Sonic games out in recent years that it feels like at this point some of the fans who want to see Sonic Adventure 3 partly want to see it because they’ve been waiting so long just to see that title confirmed just slapped the Sonic Adventure 3 name on something like Sonic Frontiers to put an end to it TI: As someone who made the Adventure series there’s a lot of requirements for what an Adventure game needs to have in order for it to really be an Adventure game the whole concept for that was a need to have this new gameplay style we had Titans on the map that you had to do battle with and that really defined what Sonic Frontiers was Sonic Generations had the whole Time Eater and going through history all these games had something new to them that made them what they were and gave them the titles that they were titled in order to really make like the next Adventure game I think there’s a whole checklist of things that would need to be in there – ways of presenting things gameplay – they would need to be in there to really define it as something that should be called Sonic Adventure the man is truly out of his depth, need to retire entire sonic team. doesnt take a genius to make another adventure title. heck even a remake would be miles better than what they released since. PLEASE make Sonic Advance 1-2-3 available for the new consoles. Even though a remaster would be cool, I would buy them not remastered if I could play them on the Switch for example. It seems pretty clear that how Iizuka thinks about the Sonic game franchise and how fans in the West regard it are two very different things given the quality questions and puzzling responses here. Wasn't all roses in the 2010's. Remember Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric? I would really like Sonic Mania 2 though. With Whitehead and Lopez on it. and the Sonic the Hedgehog games for as long as I can remember Shadow and Tails were always my favorite characters in the series So when SEGA reached out about doing an interview with the creator of Shadow the Hedgehog we discussed everything from his work at Sega the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog and how they worked to make him different from Sonic Check out my thoughts on the preview of Sonic x Shadow Generations here One of the longest running independent gaming news "It's important to support lower spec consoles and let many users keep playing Sonic." Sonic Team will work to keep its games on last-gen systems for as long as possible That's according to producer Takashi Iizuka, who said in an interview with IGN that he wants "as many people as possible to play" Sonic games more advanced systems enable "newer Sonic games [to] express the speed of Sonic" we feel that we can make newer Sonic games that can express the speed of Sonic and with much better gaming UI as well "However, we want to support the lower spec cons[oles] as well," he added. "So even though the PS5 Pro is coming out or new innovations or technology are coming out we feel that it is important to support with the lower spec consoles and let many of the users keep playing Sonic." Iizuka intimated that whilst the newly unveiled PS5 Pro is considered by some players to be prohibitively expensive "[for] the quality that they are providing it would be really good for the high-end game users." ICYMI, Sega recently announced the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Movie Pack will be coming to Sonic x Shadow Generations as DLC just ahead of the film's release starring Keanu Reeves as the voice of Shadow The DLC will be inspired by scenes from the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film and arrive ahead of its release on 12th December Find out why Sonic fanatic Ed can finally admit Shadow is better than Sonic in his fab preview of Sonic x Shadow Generations © 2025 Eurogamer.net a brand of IGN Entertainment Eurogamer is a registered trademark of Gamer Network Limited Takashi Iizuka on updating the platforming classic for a new generation of gamers The latest issue of Retro Gamer goes behind the scenes of Sonic Generations and also examines the recently released Sonic X Shadow Generations Sonic Generations was always intended as the ultimate celebration of Sonic and the franchise’s highest moments from its past in one fun package,” says Iizuka “Combining both Modern and Classic Sonic made sense as we were honouring Sonic’s holistic history which includes both designs.” One of the challenges that Sonic Team faced was creating a 3D look for the stages from classic 2D games that fans would find acceptable “It was important to respect and pay tribute to the original beauty and fun gameplay elements of each stage we included and it was equally important to preserve the design motifs of the Classic levels (chequered patterns in Green Hill so the worlds all felt correct in the 3D space,” Iizuka recalls “There was a lot of trial and error as we explored how to do this before deciding on the final look the rest of the stage designs all sort of fell into place.” Iizuka also talked to us about Sonic X Shadow Generations a remaster that updates the original game and adds plenty of Shadow-related content “Different stages let Shadow show off his new abilities like surfing on water gliding and completely transforming to move across different terrain,” Iizuka says before explaining their role in the game’s new White Space hub world “The White Space in Sonic Generations was a fun 2D platforming hub world and we wanted to do even more for the Shadow Generations White Space so we used elements from the Sonic Frontiers’ Open-Zone design to create a 3D White Space One of the reasons why we went in this 3D platforming direction was to enable Shadow to use all his Doom Powers in the White Space and really push players to run around and explore the hub world.” Outside of exclusive Sonic Generations coverage issue 265 of Retro Gamer also includes a look at the games of Factor 5 the excellent sequel to Myst and Ultimate Guides on the arcade hit Rastan and the underwater shmup X-Out There’s also an exhaustive guide to the best games on the Amstrad CPC 464 a behind the scenes look at the recent CYGNI: All Guns Blazing and an interview with Mike Tucker about his interesting career Retro Gamer TeamSocial Links NavigationRetro Gamer is the world's biggest - and longest-running - magazine dedicated to classic games Retro Gamer has become respected within the industry as the authoritative word on classic gaming thanks to its passionate and knowledgeable writers with in-depth interviews of numerous acclaimed veterans My partner and I recently revisited Sonic Adventure 2 and it wasn't because we have a special fondness for sending hedgehogs rocketing to their deaths at unpredictable angles or fumbling with Tails's Metal Gear We were there for the Chao Garden—the side mode where Sonic and co act as surrogate parents for little blorbo creatures who you can force to fight in karate matches before they've learned to walk It's a feature so beloved that its failure to appear as a standalone game is a continued and baffling mystery because Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka says the Chao Garden isn't right for a spinoff In an interview with Video Games Chronicle Iizuka said Chao are inseparable from Sonic Adventure and that the Chao Garden can't exist on its own any more than a branch can exist without the tree "It’s not a standalone game," Iizuka said via an interpreter "It’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing." I can understand not wanting to carve off a core piece of series identity and repackage it for individual sale But considering there hasn't been a new Sonic Adventure instalment in more than two decades: Maybe carving off just the one piece wouldn't hurt Especially when that piece takes place in a pocket dimension that's almost entirely divorced from the main gameplay but when I'm giving a Chao a little gorilla so I can watch it grow gorilla arms the fact that I found that gorilla while making a hedgehog go fast isn't a crucial part of the equation Videogames have all kinds of other ways I could find little gorillas Chaos deserve freedom from their purgatory and ideally it'd be a freedom I can put on my phone Iizuka said a request for more Chao Garden is a request for another Sonic Adventure—something that currently isn't in the cards "I think at some time I’d like to say 'Hey we’re making Adventure 3,' but we don’t have plans for that yet," Iizuka said "It’s just one of those things that if News WriterLincoln has been writing about games for 11 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024 bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter There are currently no plans to make Sonic Adventure 3 and continue the Sonic series from the Dreamcast days Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka was interviewed by VGC and discussed the possibility of continuing the series as well as a return of its much loved Chao Garden Iizuka acknowledged the requests for the Chao Garden to make a return but noted "it's part of the whole Sonic Adventure series game" it's integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay so we can't just break it off and make it a thing," said Iizuka well if you're asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3 then that's pretty much asking for Adventure 3 "I think at some time I'd like to say 'hey For anyone who hasn't played the Sonic Adventure games the Chao Garden is an integrated minigame in which animals rescued in main missions are used to level up cute critters (known as Chao) who then race and battle against one another While more recent games have referenced the Chao Garden, it hasn't been included in full since Sonic Adventure 2 but it that won't be possible without a potential Sonic Adventure 3 So why haven't more recent 3D Sonic games been called Sonic Adventure 3 to continue the series? As Iizuka described the likes of Sonic Colours or Sonic Frontiers "these games had something new to them that made them what they were and gave them the titles that they were titled I think there’s a whole checklist of things that would need to be in there - ways of presenting things gameplay - they would need to be in there to really define it as something that should be called Sonic Adventure." Until then, Sega will release Sonic x Shadow Generations in October. I got to play it at Gamescom last month and could finally admit that Shadow is better than Sonic growing strawberries and herbs and watching the news every day She developed her relatively stable life after suffering through years of misery and cruelty and deciding “I don’t want to cry myself to sleep anymore.” Born in a seaside town in Miyagi Prefecture Iizuka was a junior high school student when a welfare worker accused her of theft but she was declared “mentally disabled” and sent to an institution she was taken to a clinic and given an injection of anesthesia She woke up in a bed with a throbbing pain in her stomach She overheard her parents saying that she “had an operation that makes it impossible for her to have children.” but when she told her husband about her sterilization operation and she later learned that her father had been forced to agree to the surgery on his daughter She decided to seek justice against those who had caused her so much pain Iizuka and her supporters began complaining to the health ministry about the damage caused under the Eugenic Protection Law which was enacted in 1948 to “prevent the birth of defective offspring.” It stipulated that people with disabilities or certain diseases could be forcibly sterilized But the central government simply reiterated that the Eugenic Protection Law “was legal at the time.” when she attended a consultation meeting in the prefecture for advice on daily life The lawyer at the meeting was Koji Niisato Niisato had been providing consultations for years mainly to help victims with multiple debts and loan problems His mission was to change society in which debt drives people to death Iizuka told Niisato about her surgery and how it has affected her life she filed a petition for human rights relief with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations She later learned that another woman in Miyagi Prefecture had also undergone a sterilization operation A relative of the woman contacted Iizuka and showed the surgical records the woman filed the first lawsuit in Japan seeking state compensation for forced sterilization at the Sendai District Court and the court also recognized the damage caused to Iizuka Similar lawsuits over the Eugenic Protection Law were filed across Japan the Supreme Court again ruled that the former eugenic law was “unconstitutional” and ordered the government to compensate those who were forcibly sterilized under the law the top court also waived the 20-year statute of limitations for seeking compensation Iizuka and the other woman from Miyagi Prefecture held hands and said Iizuka said: “I have come this far after suffering for such a long time Although the plaintiffs won essentially all aspects of the case the ruling cannot erase years of suffering Iizuka said she will continue to lead a quiet life on her own but her physical strength is declining and she is wobbling more and more And she continues to ask why she had to be victimized by such a despicable practice When she saw a news report about a married couple with disabilities who were trying to raise a child Then she wondered: “Why did we have to undergo surgery back then instead of receiving support Why was my life at the mercy of my country?” Iizuka added: “I want to go back to 16 years old and start my life over.” (This article was written by Ikuko Abe and Yuki Kawano.) Forced victim of sterilization speaks out on her lifelong regret Justices hear about shattered lives from forced sterilizations South Korean court: Discharge of late transgender soldier unjust Top court to rule again on forced sterilization to change gender LGBTQ+ hopes high as top court to rule on trans surgery law Independent specialist insurance broker BMS has appointed Ryo Iizuka as a director of the private equity BMS’s Japan office has been operational since mid-2023 and Iizuka’s appointment rounds out the local team to a trio of experts from legal Iizuka joins with a wealth of experience with large global investment banking and M&A consulting firms having worked in senior positions including at Deloitte Hewitt said: “The appointment of Ryo gives our BMS team another dimension with his broad perspective and experience particularly as an expert in advising corporates’ M&A strategies into and out of Japan I’m looking forward to working with Ryo as my front-line partner as we continue to challenge the market with new solutions for insureds and the hire of Ryo marks our dedication to delivering insurance solutions as strategic deal advisers.” Iizuka added: “I cannot wait to start working with our colleagues around the world and building BMS’s challenger reputation in Japan with Tim and Kaori by contributing my M&A expertise to help develop and deploy new transaction insurance solutions for the insureds in Japan.” Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis BMS has also announced the launch of its new global healthcare liability division.   This division will focus on providing comprehensive solutions and guidance to healthcare providers and their insurers.   It will offer access to BMS’ suite of services and products focusing on developing new market capacity and solutions.  Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network