Sonic Team Says No To ‘Sonic Adventure’ Remakes – But SEGA Could Still Make It Happen
In a move that is both admirable and a bit head-scratching considering the sheer amount of relatively easy money being left on the table, Sonic Team has admitted that the main reason behind the current lack of Sonic Adventure remakes is not money, time, or a lack of support from SEGA or Sonic the Hedgehog fans, but rather their own lack of interest in making them.
Sonic Team’s disinterest in revisiting either of the Blue Blur’s Dreamcast outings (or their respective ‘enhanced’ Nintendo Gamecube releases, Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle) was confirmed by their original director Takashi Iizuka, who since 2008 has served as the studio’s top boss, during a recent interview given to the BBC regarding his team’s latest release, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
Asked about the potential for either game to eventually receive the remake treatment, Iizuka informed his host that Sonic Team was more interested in experimenting with current day hardware to create “richer, more complex, more interesting worlds” than looking back at the past:
“Instead of using all that time and energy to remake a game that people have already experienced, we could make a brand new game instead.
I think the team is really interested in taking that same amount of time and energy and effort to really bring a new experience to the players.”
However, while Sonic Team may not have any plans to revisit Sonic’s first proper 3D adventures, Iizuka clarified that this did not mean no one ever would, as on SEGA’s end, “If they wanted to, if they don’t have it in their capacity as a team, they can always outsource it to lots of talented people who are big Sonic fans that could do it justice.”
And in adding one more speed bump to the Sonic Adventure duology’s potential second wind, the Sonic Team boss noted that SEGA was currently trying to find “a balance between doing new things and doing old things in order to make sure that they’re a company that’s looking ahead and not just being a company that’s relying on its past.”
While the BBC’s question and Izizuka’ subsequent answer centered on the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic Team’s forward-facing philosophy likely applies to all of his past games, including those entries that could use a remaster (or at the very least a substantial tightening-up of their controls and gameplay), like Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, or either of the Nintendo Wii-exclusive ‘Storybook’ games Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight.
And sadly, this also means that we’re unlikely to see any past titles given the ‘collection’ treatment, in particular the Sonic Advance/Sonic Rush series and the franchise’s Sonic Riders/Sonic Rivals racing outings.
Regardless of what lies in store for Sonic and his friends, SEGA and Sonic Team’s new Sonic Racing: CrossWorld is both now available and damn good – a welcome change of pace for both the genre and the fastest thing alive.
NEXT: SEGA Censors Rouge The Bat’s Bare Back In ‘Sonic X Shadow Generations’
