Certainly should Sonic the Hedgehog considered the most iconic design from the Sega cosmos. The blue hedgehog with red sneakers was exactly the symbol Sega used in marketing against Nintendo in the early 1990s. But the species of the mascot could have been another. So had Naoto Oshimaonce the creator of the iconic design, recently shared concept art on Twitter that is barely recognizable as material from Sonic’s development.
Sonic as a human double pack
Oshima outlines the idea of an action title called Twin Stars, in which two brothers would take the leading roles. These two should protect the “Dream World” from the boss of the “Nightmare World” in the game. But it was from this design that Sonic the Hedgehog was ultimately to develop. In the concept art, only the pose of the brothers and a looping in the background on today’s mark.
The design of the two brothers is less reminiscent of the fastest hedgehog in the world, but of Shonen Jump characters. It’s also ironic that Sega previously had a human mascot, Alex Kidd. Also, over 25 years later, Oshima would be working on a game in which two human characters would ultimately play the lead roles. After all, he was in charge together with Yuji Naka Balan Wonderworld involved, a platformer released in 2021.
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Naka in particular caused a stir before and after the release of Wonderworld. finally had Square Enix fired him six months before the game was released. Since then he became co-creator Arrested twice by Sonic the Hedgehog. At least the ratings were for Sonic Frontiers (buy now €41.90 / €53.99 )more than passable, even though Naka and Oshima haven’t worked at Sega for years.
Sources: Dualshockers, Twitter (Naoto Oshima), Eurogamer
