Sonic Superstars, the upcoming game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, will be developed by the Japanese team at Arzest. The studio is headed by Naoto Ohshima, who is best known for designing the blue blur.
Arzest’s Involvement with Sonic Superstars
According to Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, Arzest became involved with Sonic Superstars after plans with the Sonic Mania developers, Christian Whitehead and Headcannon, fell through. Some initial concepts and ideas were laid out between the teams, but they were unable to move forward with the project. Iizuka then proposed the idea of a Sonic game to his old co-workers, which led to Ohshima and Arzest’s involvement.
Although Sonic Team is providing guidance, Arzest is the sole developer of Sonic Superstars. Iizuka confirmed that “Arzest and Ohshima-san are 100% developers of the game.” This marks a departure from previous Sonic games, which were developed by Sonic Team.
About Arzest
Arzest was founded in 2010 and released its first game, Wii Play: Motion, shortly after. Since then, the studio has worked on titles like Yoshi’s New Island, Hey! Pikmin, and the Mario & Luigi series on 3DS. Arzest has also worked on games like Balan Wonderworld and co-developed Balan Wonderworld.
Notable Personnel
In addition to Ohshima’s involvement with Sonic Superstars, the game will feature music from Jun Senoue, the composer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Adventure. Other composers, like Tee Lopes (known for his work on Sonic Mania), will also contribute to the game’s soundtrack.
Ohshima has created a brand new character for Sonic Superstars, which Sonic and his friends will have to face. This marks the first time a new character has been introduced in a Sonic game since the introduction of Sonic’s sidekick, Tails, in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic Superstars is set to be a departure from previous Sonic games, with Arzest taking the lead on development and Ohshima introducing a new character to the franchise. The involvement of notable composers like Jun Senoue and Tee Lopes also suggests that Sonic Superstars will have a strong emphasis on music. Fans of the franchise will undoubtedly be eager to see how this new direction for Sonic plays out when the game is released.
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