Game News, Interviews

Sonic CD Developer Diary Uploaded, Let The Hype Commence

It’s the middle of December, and the rerelease of Sonic the Hedgehog CD is supposed to happen at any moment. No, we don’t have a release date still. But Sega of America seems to realize that, yes, we really want this game. And so instead of telling us when it’ll come out, they’ve given us something amazing. Something that, by all rights, should have been in the documentary Sonic: The Birth of an Icon. Though the interior has been redone by our very own Taxman, the visual style of the game is still definitely that of Kazuyuki Hoshino, who was also the lead character designer of the game. And since he’s still at Sega, someone decided to ask him to talk about the game. And talk he did.

Though it’s only five minutes long, Hoshino goes through what looks to be his personal collection of art, full of sketches from the Sonic CD era along with a few choice full color shots. What’s nice is that this isn’t just everything that we recently saw in Sonic Generations, but some new stuff as well. Rainbow waterfalls? Unused enemies? Early boss ideas? Even more early Amy Rose sketches? Who doesn’t love this kind of stuff?

We also get to hear him talk about some of the development process, such as why Metal Sonic looks the way he does. Even talking about the special stages and the end level signpost, while nothing new verbally, is still interesting since we get to see visually the evolution of those concepts. This is the sort of behind-the-scenes info that any fan of Sonic CD should watch.

…so…um…yeah, what are the chances that you could scan all of that, Sega?

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10 Comments

  • Reply

    Well that was interesting. What I found to be the coolest part of it was the signpost sketches, showing Robotnik/Eggman at a different angle.

  • Reply

    Just slip him a $50 and he’ll start scanning.

  • Reply

    By the way, purchase an Xbox 360 for $199 for a 20+ year old game.

    • Reply

      An HD remake of an 18 year old game which just happens to be Sonic CD.

  • Reply

    @Bartman: Or buy it on Steam for your PC.

  • Reply

    Hmmm…

    A couple things:

    Why were the stage-specific flowers taken out in the final version? They were in the Beta.

    Unless it was a translation error, there was supposed to be a stage in that mountain with Eggman’s face on it. There was no such thing in the beta or final version

    The concept with the rainbow-colored waterfalls doesn’t look like Tidal Tempest or any other stage to me.

    The stage complete signpost doesn’t change its face based on success or failure…

  • Reply

    I still don’t understand why he’s in a room full of rocks!

    • Reply

      Sega Interview Room: Past.

  • Reply

    Epic. I’m a ginormous fan of any concept art. I love it.

  • Reply

    I’d like to see him and Yasushi Yamaguchi collaborate some more one day

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