If Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka had his way, he’d have all modern Sonic the Hedgehog games on modern platforms.
Iizuka was speaking with Jeremy Klinger about various topics pertaining to the series. At one point, he was asked to select the one game he’d remake if given the opportunity.
In response, Iizuka mentioned that he’d love to be able to play the old games on modern platforms. In fact, he said that if he could, he’d “want every single Sonic game ever put out there to be playable now on current hardware.”
The unfortunate downside is the resources involved. Iizuka reiterated something that we’ve heard before, which is that the costs for bringing games over to modern platforms – especially remakes – would cost the same amount as making a brand new title.
Iizuka’s full words from the interview:
“… when we think about all the games in the 35 years that Sonic has been out there, I really want to be able to play all of those old games on the modern platforms. If anything was possible, like I could magically do it, I’d want every single Sonic game ever put out there to be playable now on current hardware. What’s sad is we’ve seen the 35 years go by is as hardware kind of disappears and new hardware comes out, some of these games you can’t play anymore. Even with all the updates that are happening with the hardware, some some experiences kind of get lost in time.
But you know, the cost that it would take to actually bring those games and have them not just be ported over, but actually be remade and be full experiences on that hardware – it costs about the same resource or you know money or people’s time and energy as it would to make a brand new title.
And so although I’d really want all these old titles to still be playable even now on current generation hardware, we’re really kind of not focusing on remaking those old experience, but really since it costs about as much to just make a brand new game, we’re really focused more on making new experiences to surprise people.”
SEGA has at least pursued more remasters for the series in recent years. Most recently, we saw the return of Sonic Generations, which also included a brand new Shadow Generations campaign.
We previously went over whether it’s worth getting the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Sonic x Shadow Generations if you got it on Switch here.
Iizuka also said that a third year of DLC for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is also possible. This would depend on continued success of the game, including sales and fan demand.
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