Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka and game designer and producer Shun Nakamura recently participated in an interview where they discussed a wide range of topics. One thing that did come up was that Takashi Iizuka was asked if Sonic Team has any plans to remake or remaster the beloved Gameboy Advance series Sonic Advance. Unfortunately, the answer turns out to be no. However, Iizuka says they would “love to do it” if the opportunity eventually arose.
Speaking of Sonic’s past, the three Sonic Advance games are generally accepted to be among the best 2D Sonic games, but aside from the Virtual Console release on the Wii U in Japan, they haven’t seen many re-releases. Is there a licensing reason or some other reason why these games were never re-released, either in a standalone retro collection or in one of Nintendo’s online game libraries?
OF: There are currently no plans to remake or remaster the Sonic Advance series, but we don’t know what the future holds.
Katsuyuki Shigihara was the director on Sonic Origins, which took Sonic 1, 2, 3 and CD, and we remastered it and brought it out for fans to enjoy. And if we have the opportunity, if there’s an opportunity for the Advance series to get that treatment as well, or whatever circumstances may arise, we’d love to do that.
