![]() Instead the company treated characters as if they should be used and disposed. Sega had its own stable of characters - Alex Kidd, Flicky - but none of them were able to compete in the 8-bit console market.Īt the time, Sega did not value characters highly in terms of how marketable they could be, Yasuhara said via a translator. The two explained how, in 1990, Sega wanted to create a next-generation character that could stand up to the NES and Mario. Yasuhara, who worked on Sonic the Hedgehog’s maps and game design, is now at Unity Technologies Japan. Oshima, who was responsible for Sonic’s visual design, now works at Arzest Corporation, a developer that works closely with Nintendo. ![]() Much about Sonic’s history is well-known, but at GDC 2018 today, Oshima and Yasuhara shared lesser-known anecdotes about the creation of Sega’s famous hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog was born of a desire to create a cool, company-defining mascot for Sega - an icon that could sell millions of Nintendo fans on the Sega Genesis. When Sega and Nintendo battled for dominance in the early days of the 16-bit console era, Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara were tasked with creating a character that could take on Mario.
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