Yuji Naka comments on Sonic the Hedgehog’s new design

Sonic the Hedgehog got a brand new look and former head of Sonic Team Yuji Naka had a few words to say about the blue blur’s  transformation (via DualShockers). 

Paramount Pictures and Sega unveiled the Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer earlier this year and it was a nightmare for the team behind the production and for Sonic’s fan base. People hated his design. They hated that his eyes were tiny and beady. They hated that he had white, furry hands instead of gloves. They hated that he had human teeth and exaggerated thigh muscles. Like I said, a nightmare. 

There were two options: ignore the naysayers and release the movie in November 2019, or do something (anything!) and delay the movie until 2020. Paramount Pictures and Sega chose the latter. Yesterday, Sonic’s new look was revealed in a new trailer and no one is cowering in fear of what has been created. He’s actually cute now! Sure, it’s sad that the design changed because people piled pressure onto the visual effects artists, but we’ve been assured that crunch was avoided with the deferred release date. Everybody wins, I guess.

Yuji Naka was the programmer for the original Sonic the Hedgehog games, and he has weighed in on the hog’s makeover. Posting on Twitter (and translated by DualShockers), he said, ‘It seems they’re making it as if the old design didn’t exist, as the movie official account’s old tweets were deleted. I wanted to see a special DVD version of the movie which used the old design. Too bad.’

映画ソニックの新しいデザイン出て来ましたね。しかし、前のツイート消してるようですが、前のは無かったことにするんでしょうか？前のデザインのままのもDVDとかで見たかったのに残念ですね。 https://t.co/XhmfNmr4EI

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) November 12, 2019

He makes a valid point; that would have been an interesting comparison. Naka does prefer this version to the previous version and called it ‘much more Sonic-like.’ There is one thought niggling at the back of his mind, though. ‘His eyes still aren’t joined together, as expected. I can’t help but feel weird about that one point,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m looking forward to the movie’s release.’

映画ソニックの新しいデザインのトレーラーですね。手袋をつけてくれたのでだいぶソニックっぽくなりましたが、やっぱり目は繋がらないんですね。どうも違和感を感じてしまいますね。でも、映画の公開が楽しみですね。 https://t.co/C8EwuiJg2m

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) November 12, 2019

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie releases on February 14, 2020, and will come out on March 27, 2020 in Japan. Naka is currently beavering away on a new action game at Square Enix. Whether that’s the next-generation project that the company was recently hiring for remains to be seen.