Japanese magazine Famitsu recently caught up with Sonic series Producer, Takashi Iizuka, to talk to him about the success of Sonic Mania. Interestingly Iizuka revealed that the majority of sales were from children overseas, showing just how strong the fan-base is over here in the west. He was also asked if he has any plans for another game in the Sonic Mania series and said that he hasn’t thought about what to do regarding the series after Sonic Mania Plus.
Q: When you hear that the motivation for development is high enough, I expect a sequel.
Iizuka: The next project is called Sonic Mania ‘ (Dash).(Laughs)
That was a joke, the project “Sonic Mania” feels complete issuing the packaged version “Plus”. I have not thought about what to do with the series in the future currently.
Finally, please give your message to the readers.
Thanks to everyone who purchased the original “Sonic Mania”, I thank you very much for continuing to “Plus”. Although it may be the impression that for old-fashioned 2D games, those who know the mega drive versions of those days, it is very interesting for a wide range of age groups. Especially overseas, the number of users downloaded by primary school students is the most numerous. This time, I will issue “Plus” in a form that is easy to pick up, so if you have not played yet, I’d love to pick it up. It is a title that is encouraged also to elementary school students in Japan.
It’s kinda telling that he feels the need to explain his way around the impression that a 2D game is old fashioned. A good game is a good game regardless of when it was made or what style it has. I’m not sure if that’s something Sega forgot or if it’s something they just never figured out to begin with and they got lucky for a while. Here’s hoping that the divide between Mania and Forces showed Sega that the most important thing for a game is making sure the game play itself is solid. You can throw all the graphics and all the crazy ideas you can think of into a game, but if they don’t actually complement the core experience they mean nothing. Sega’s spent most of my life chasing the next big thing they could do with Sonic while cutting away the core of what made the classic Sonic games classics to begin with. Christian Whitehead and the rest of the Mania team meanwhile have spent that same amount of time dissecting those old games and focusing on those core elements and Mania is the culmination of that. The real challenge will be what comes next.
I could not have said it better myself.
Sonic Mania sold far better than Forces.. and I said from the beginning that if Mania sold better than Forces.. that sega would have a LOT of soul searching to do.
I hope they just take away the right conclusions from this.. and not throw together a half assed side scrolling sonic game in the future expecting it to sell well.
Mania sold well not just because of sold gameplay, but because it was made by people who have a love for the series… and that shines through.
The team that made Forces seemed to just make the game cause it was their job and nothing more.. no passion.. no love..
“Kids”
Ah yes, it was definitely the kids who bought it the most. Yep
30+ year old kids…