In a recent interview conducted by Sonic Stadium, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka followed up on his statement two years ago by offering fans of IDW comics a possible path to seeing their favorite comic book characters in game format. Some of these characters, such as Tangle the Lemur and Surge the Tenrec, are already playable in the Sonic Dash mobile game, but seeing them in the main game (besides mentioning their names like in Sonic Frontiers) would be a huge win for the most loyal of their fans. His full answer was as follows:
“Iizuka (through translator): I work closely with the team at IDW when they’re doing their new characters and I really make sure we’re having a good time creating really good characters. And I know that in mobile games we have released or will release IDW characters. So as far as the potential future of IDW characters appearing in games, hopefully there’s a good chance.”
The Sonic The Hedgehog series has a seemingly endless amount of characters, but few get the same amount of screen time as its namesake, and even fewer are treated with the same respect. But Sonic Team and SEGA have tried to move away from nepotism and embrace the diversity of the series in recent years. Sonic Mania brought back Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo, both of whom were lost in time, and Sonic Frontiers, as mentioned earlier, made a habit of mentioning more obscure characters to honor their contributions to Sonic history, as well as to an intrigue is created for their return.
Between the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog 3 feature film (on which Iizuka himself served as an advisor), the multiplatform game Sonic X Shadow Generations, and a bright future for Sonic’s lesser-known enemies and allies, fans of the series have a lot to look forward to this year and beyond.
