Sega Executive Director Wants Sonic Games & Movies to Surpass Mario

Sega Japan recently launched a new interview titled “Creating a Second Sonic: What Is The Vision of SEGA’s 2nd Division?” Multiple Sega executives, including Osamu Ohashi, are featured discussing their plans for the future of the Sonic franchise.

One particular set of comments stood out, with Ohashi stating that he wants Sonic media, the games and movies, to surpass the heights of what Mario has brought to the table.

You can view a translation of the relevant comments below via our team’s Ryuji:

“The 2nd Business Department is in charge of the Sonic series. In addition to Sonic, the division is trying to create a “second Sonic” by rebooting other popular IPs from Sega’s past.

For this interview, we interviewed Mr. Osamu Ohashi, the Division Manager, and Ms. Sachiko Kawamura, the General Manager of Design, and delved deeper into the vision they are aiming for and the fun of working there.

…

Q. How do you plan to grow Sonic in the future?

A. Simply put, I want to surpass Mario. Sonic was a game originally developed to compete with Mario, and we have yet to achieve that. Because we respect Mario, my goal is to catch up to and surpass him.

We want Sonic to be played all over the world, including Japan, just like Mario, and we want the movie to be a bigger hit than Mario. We also want to build a Sonic attraction in Universal Studios Japan. That is my goal as a Sonic lover.

While such a lofty goal may serve as excellent motivation for future projects, it does seem a bit too ambitious, especially when considering the distant and recent histories of both Mario and Sonic. The former’s mainline entries tend to be highly polished and reliably enjoyable experiences, while the latter is more of an inconsistent toss-up. Still, the future may change these perceptions gradually.

You can view more comments via Sega Japan’s article.

A new 3D Sonic game, Sonic Dream Team, was announced for Apple Arcade.

Sonic Superstars is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

An official free prequel comic, Fang’s Big Break, is available, and YouTuber Cybershell did a collab video with Sega discussing the history of Fang’s character.

In case you missed it, check out our review.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is available for Nintendo Switch.

In case you missed it, check out our review.