..and his name is Akinori Nishiyama.

Listen to this. This is an interview he did with "Level", a swedish gaming mag, entitled "Five minutes with Akinori Nishiyama".
This is how it reads, translated into english:

LVL: Why did you start working at Sega?

Very interesting.

Wow... trying to take a hedgehog to his "deeper" side.

I sort of get his point, but someone needs to explain to Mr. Nishiyama that Sonic is not the franchise for that kind of experimentation.
The damage has already been done as it has strayed more and more into dangerous furry territory.

I disagree with your post on two counts.

Firstly, you can't blame this one single person for 'fucking up' the Sonic franchise. A whole team of people work on a series like Sonic, from characterisation to the actual games themselves, and yeah, a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into producing a game. If the gameplay of Sonic had been perfect from day one, then no one would have really cared about the story or characterisation of Sonic. I don't believe that the story or characters make or break a game, although they certainly help with plot heavy games, but it is the gameplay experience itself that makes or breaks the game; with a good game, all dodgy stories and voice acting are usually forgiven. The Zelda series, to me, have appaling story and characterisation, but I forgive it and put up with it because the Zelda games are good games, for example. When Sega eventually get Sonic games spot on right, then no one will really care about anything else.

Secondly, games have evolved a long way from the 8/16 bit era. Gamers want their games to have depth, meaning and good characterisation. That's not applicable to all game types, but a lot of people want games and the game industry to evolve into a more mature territory with games that have realistic characters and a plot that can rival any good film. Game scripting isn't quite up their yet with films, but they are getting there and have the potential to become a medium that is more than just killing a lot of people or whatever. It's only natural that a series like Sonic evolves that way too, because characterisation and story does give the game meaning, other than being fun.

I'll admit that the story and characterisation of Sonic hasn't been handled very well (I love Sonic Adventure, but the cutscenes really make me cringe), but it's getting better, and I personally like exploring the personality of Sonic himself. The 2D games couldn't really represent his attitude or character particularly well, which is why we had comics and cartoons, whereas now we can incorperate that into the games themselves. I think the cutscenes of Unleashed are quite low key and charming, actually! I really hated Sonic 06 for reasons I won't go into :(

Not all Sonic fans are furries. As Akinori Nishiyama said, people relate to his attitude and personality.

Not all Sonic fans are furries. As Akinori Nishiyama said, people relate to his attitude and personality.

"LVL: What does it mean that Yuji Naka is no longer working with Sonic Team? After all, he is the father of Sonic.

AN: While working on the whole Sonic franchise, the idea has been to keep Sonic the same as much as possible, but of course we need to change him, and I don't think Naka would had liked the idea of turning Sonic into a monster in Sonic Unleashed. I actually met him recently and he looked at me hesitantly and said: "Was that such a good idea?"

@CapnCloudchaser : He's the producer. He's very much the man to blame as he was the one making the final decisions. I agree that you can't blame him for say, slow load times or ugly graphics, but the overall direction of the game is entirely in his lap.

OP, be sure to post this on the most forums as possible.

LCad said:

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

"LCad said:

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

Wow, what thought out and intelligent responses.
"

Why are they trying to make Sonic a deep character? Mario isn't that deep, he doesn't even talk. The reason Mario is so popular is that his character is so simple and easy to like. All you know about him is that he has a brother, saves the princess, and beats up Bowser. I'm not even sure hes still a plumber, you never see him with a plunger or anything. Sonic should be no different, he should run fast, collect rings and emeralds, and fight Robotnik. Keeping it simple is the best way to go in my opinion.

Here are some more reasons why Sonic sucks schlong.

"CapnCloudchaser said:

"LCad said:

"Vinchenzo said:

If you're 12.

Owned."

Wow, what thought out and intelligent responses.
"

Wow, what a creepy individual who relates to Sonic's attitude and personality. As AuthenticM stated, the more adult games are the ones that it's fine to be emotional with. I find Half-Life the best example, as always. Sonic games are convoluted, awkward, and you can't really relate with a wild animal, no matter how cute they are. We don't go to Sonic for a story, we go to him for speed and a nostalgic feel when he use to be in quality games."

I wonder how many dickholes his werehog Sonic fursuit has.

Yuji Naka should've kicked that guy in the dick last time he met him

I'll agree that the teased romance between Sonic and Princess Elise made no sense and had me on the point of retching at times.  I'll further agree that the storytelling in Sonic games, in general, has been pretty bad for years.  But if you honestly believe this is the reason why Sonic sucks, you're way off the mark.  The reason Sonic sucks is because the gameplay falls short of expectations every time.  When the gameplay falls short, we look to the storyline to keep us hooked, just as we do a television show or movie which features no gameplay at all.  Essentially we come for the game and stay for the story, as evidenced by the many, many games without a story at all.  The story is filler, an extra device by which the creators hope to capture our imaginations and make it easier to justify future sequels.  The story can be terrible and the game can still succeed with awesome gameplay, which Sonic, as of late, has not had.

As an example, here are some games with really shitty stories that succeeded in spite of themselves.

Banjo-Kazooie

Remember the storyline for Banjo-Kazooie?  ALL of it?  I sure didn't, at least, I had chosen to forget key parts of it.  Tooty was kidnapped (a character so lame she didn't warrant inclusion in any of the follow-up titles), which I remembered, but why was she kidnapped?  Because Gruntilda the Witch looked into her magical boiler pot and sought the name of the most beautiful girl of them all.  It wasn't her, and she was jealous.  The main premise is a deliberate rip-off of Snow White, and an awfully transparent one at that.  But the gameplay was awesome, and I didn't regret giving it another play-through at all when the XBLA version launched.

Katamari Damacy

So there's this King of All Cosmos, for all intents and purposes a god who apparently rules over all.  But instead of being all-good as most modern depictions of gods are, he is a royal screw-up who gets drunk and destroys 99% of the universe during a cosmic bender.  Try and make sense out of that.  Or anything in Katamari Damacy.  You can't, unless perhaps if you're on a cosmic bender yourself.  But nobody cares, because the game is a blast to play!  I guarantee if the game had been boring we'd all be mocking the pathetic storyline instead—I absolutely guarantee it.

Super Monkey Ball 2
Here's the thing about Super Monkey Ball 2—the magical spell is Ei-Ei-Poo!  Yes, those were the words the heroic monkey ballers used to encapsulate themselves in an attempt to stop the nefarious Dr. Bad Boon's plot to... um... see, this is exactly what I'm talking about.  I DON'T REMEMBER.  It probably had something to do with bananas, but I've really wiped that information from my brain.  Nevertheless, even knowing that the storyline is absolutely awful, I would definitely play SMB2 again because the gameplay was as good, if not better than the original game.  People didn't really start crapping on the series until Banana Blitz came out, which had questionable controls in the main game and beyond broken controls in the terribly rushed, overkilled mini-games section.  (There was also Super Monkey Ball Adventure, which most people overlook because it was farmed out to a developer that clearly didn't know what they were doing.)  All that said, now I have to look up the SMB2 storyline, and I was partially right.  Dr. Bad-Boon stole all of the bananas from Monkey Island or wherever.  Also he was an evil scientist from the future, who went back in time for the express purpose of stealing all of the bananas from Monkey Island, because he fell in love with Meemee, who in Dr. Bad-Boon's time was already married to Aiai, so somehow stealing the bananas would theoretically make her fall in love with him instead, before the marriage?  Yet Bad-Boon appears to be old, so theoretically a younger Bad-Boon should already exist in younger Meemee's time... why not go back in time and tell his younger self to make a play for Meemee before she met Aiai?  Why steal the bananas when you know that will just make the woman you're trying to pursue angry?  Why did the monkeys cast a magical spell trapping themselves in invincible flying spheres that become powerless, regular spheres at the first sign of danger, thus putting themselves in lethal jeopardy AAAAAAAARGH IT DOESN'T MATTER STOP WRECKING MY BRAIN

But it seems to me that this guy is willing to make concessions in gameplay for the sake of story.
Like Unleashed could've just been Sonic racing from end to end saving small animals that Dr Robotnik's enslaved, but he wanted to tell the story about Sonic changing into a werehog and therefore added this gameplay mechanic.

Sonic has always sucked, there was and is no fun in running left for an entire game.

I don't see anything that points to this guy being the problem. He said some weird stuff, certainly, but Sonic SHOULDN'T be a hedgehog that just runs very fast. There was more to the Sega Genesis games than just speed. Focusing exclusively on speed leads to a shallow game experience.

I'm not saying the Werehog is the answer, because it's not. Even SonicTeam has decided Sonic needs to be about speed exclusively (despite what Nishiyama is saying) - which is why you get stuff like the Werehog; they're trying to make sure you don't notice just how one-dimensional Sonic's speedy gameplay really is.

What they need to do is to make a Sonic game where Sonic himself can do everything. By that I mean, a Sonic game where you don't have to switch off to a different character for a different gameplay style - there shouldn't be a character dedicated to platforming, there shouldn't be a character dedicated to combat, there shouldn't be a character dedicated to exploration...

Sonic needs to do all of those things himself to have a broad diversity of gameplay. That's what the franchise needs.

"I'll agree that the teased romance between Sonic and Princess Elise made no sense and had me on the point of retching at times.  I'll further agree that the storytelling in Sonic games, in general, has been pretty bad for years.  But if you honestly believe this is the reason why Sonic sucks, you're way off the mark.  The reason Sonic sucks is because the gameplay falls short of expectations every time."

"Why are they trying to make Sonic a deep character? Mario isn't that deep, he doesn't even talk. The reason Mario is so popular is that his character is so simple and easy to like. All you know about him is that he has a brother, saves the princess, and beats up Bowser. I'm not even sure hes still a plumber, you never see him with a plunger or anything. Sonic should be no different, he should run fast, collect rings and emeralds, and fight Robotnik. Keeping it simple is the best way to go in my opinion."

"Sonic has always sucked, there was and is no fun in running left for an entire game."

To be hoenst, I feel as though Sonic games are rather decent, but Sonic just has a hate culture surrounding him and there's some sort of idealogy that any new sonic game has to be worse than horrible.

I actually thought that Sonic 2006 was rather good.  Same thing with Shadow the Hedgehog.
Worse sonic this gen was Sonic and the Secret Rings (which I believe is the highest on metacritic, somehow)

"To be hoenst, I feel as though Sonic games are rather decent, but Sonic just has a hate culture surrounding him and there's some sort of idealogy that any new sonic game has to be worse than horrible.

I actually thought that Sonic 2006 was rather good.  Same thing with Shadow the Hedgehog.
Worse sonic this gen was Sonic and the Secret Rings (which I believe is the highest on metacritic, somehow)"

I hate the fact that so many people have this utopian view of Sonic in their minds. It's like the perfect Sonic game that everyone is collectively waiting for. You can see it on forums and gaming sites and whenever you read a pre-/review.
- "Will this game finally be THE one we've been waiting for?"
- "We know the past dozen games have sucked but this one will do something new and exciting for some reason, we're sure!"
It pisses me off having to see the same idealistic thinking over and over again with every new game. I pointed this out way before Unleashed was released and people went over their way to defend it!
Then when the game actually came out people felt the urge to justify their purchases by saying "Well, it wasn't terrible" and "Don't rack on Sonic. Sonic Adventure was fucking awesome!"

All I want is for people to admit to themselves that Sonic is a mediocre franchise at best, because it's not the same game they remembered and loved in the early 90s. It's much much worse than that.

"I hate the fact that so many people have this utopian view of Sonic in their minds. It's like the perfect Sonic game that everyone is collectively waiting for. You can see it on forums and gaming sites and whenever you read a pre-/review.
- "Will this game finally be THE one we've been waiting for?"
- "We know the past dozen games have sucked but this one will do something new and exciting for some reason, we're sure!"
It pisses me off having to see the same idealistic thinking over and over again with every new game. I pointed this out way before Unleashed was released and people went over their way to defend it!
Then when the game actually came out people felt the urge to justify their purchases by saying "Well, it wasn't terrible" and "Don't rack on Sonic. Sonic Adventure was fucking awesome!"

All I want is for people to admit to themselves that Sonic is a mediocre franchise at best, because it's not the same game they remembered and loved in the early 90s. It's much much worse than that."

Sonic and the Black Knight doesn't fit into the Sonic Cycle however, since people hated it from the first announcement.

Sonic is just not as cool as he use to be.

"Wow... trying to take a hedgehog to his "deeper" side."

Was he ever cool? Cool as in "Sega does what Nintendon't" cool or genuinely cool?

There should not be a deeper side! wth is he thinking?

"To be hoenst, I feel as though Sonic games are rather decent, but Sonic just has a hate culture surrounding him and there's some sort of idealogy that any new sonic game has to be worse than horrible.

I actually thought that Sonic 2006 was rather good.  Same thing with Shadow the Hedgehog.
Worse sonic this gen was Sonic and the Secret Rings (which I believe is the highest on metacritic, somehow)"

I've always loved Sonic and they were fine, until Unleashed...

A freaking werehog... What the heck were they thinking? I mean at first! I thought It might be cool, like, is a whole new Sonic bigger and stronger, I thought he might be faster! But No.. He is a dang disgrace... I hate it, is just stupid

In normal state a single homing attack can take out a bunch of robots, and in werehog state which he is suppose to be stronger a punch does hardly nothing....

Now his arms stretch... What kind of %$&^ iS THAT!

Sonic is about SPEED!!!!!!!! Not been a lazy muscle rubber arm powerhouse with no power at all! What the heck is that? "Strong" but in normal stage is stronger and faster! BLAH! I could of made a better gimmic.

Best Sonic game was Sonic adventures 2 for dreamcast, then maybe Sonic the hedgehog for 360

Even if the "This time speed wont be enough" slogan was a stupid thing to say... Silver was cool And shadow was awesome as well :)

But that "Speed wont be enough" is like saying "Sonic is not the main character anymore" I mean, that's sonic! That's his deal, SPEED! Saying speed is not enough Is like making a gun and saying "don't buy it.."

But the game was good after all :)

Holy shit nearly 1500 views..but only 40 comments?

*scratches noggin*

He needs to understand that people won't go to sonic to find a deep emotional character brooding with thoughts, and nor will they for an epic story line. It should just be all about the sense of speed and the feeling of  "wooah this is faaaast". Since when did a hedgehog become something with interesting things to say?

hell if he want to make a story then fine, but is it that hard to make a story without including something other than speed levels.  They need to learn to not slow sonic down.  and about the werehog, when i heard of him my image was of a fast character with move that allowed him to get to areas sonic couldn't.  Not a slow weak brute.   Do what you want with a story just don't mess up on gameplay.  (on another subject does anyone else find it ironic that the wii version of unleashed is half decent but the other ones suck).