New SEGA All-stars Interview reveals why Sonic drives a car!

New SEGA All-stars Interview reveals why Sonic drives a car!

Here’s a new interview regarding Sonic and SEGA All-stars Racing from GamesCom. It may interest you all to know it answers a vital question: why is Sonic in a car? Watch it to find out the answer to that, as well as other questions!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7dRveE5Hvs[/youtube]

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Nuckles87

Nuckles87 has been an editor at Sonic Stadium since 2007, and has been covering events like E3, PAX, and SDCC since 2010. An avid retro gamer, he runs a monthly stream on Twitch where he explores obscure Sonic oddities, and how aspects of the franchise have evolved over the decades.

55 Comments

  1. Ok. I don’t like his answer as to “Why Sonic drives a car?” The more accepted answer has to deal with Sonic’s Profile in Sonic Jam (Saturn), in the profile it says “Likes: Fast things” a car (or more specifically a race car) is a fast thing, granted that a car may (or may not) be as fast as Sonic, but since Sonic likes fast things therefore he likes cars and likes (if not loves) to drive them. PERIOD. Quite frankly I’m tired of all the fans bickering and complaining about Sonic driving a car, BIG DEAL, if Sonic wants to drive a car then he should, just because he’s “the fastest thing alive” doesn’t mean he can’t drive a car. If you take the time to read what i just wrote I should make perfect sense.

    “We listen to the fans on the fourms.”

    WHEN PIGS FLY!

    If you asshats listen to the fans the games wouldn’t stink so very much now wouldn’t it?

  2. SEGA cares about continuity?! Anyhoo, I never saw the problem with Sonic being in a car (I mean, he can have a hobby other than running) so I didn’t see why a reason was needed.

  3. Well of course he needs a car! He’s entered a gran prix!

    He would be disqualified if he didn’t have one! DUH! *slaps head*

  4. @Casanova: Funnily enough, that’s how I explain Sonic Riders. (The other explanation being he likes dancing, so he likes doing silly tricks on a board and ticking everybody off because he not only is faster then them, but he has enough of a lead to show off.)

    @bmhedgehog: Makes perfect sense, that answer does, though. Putting him outside of the car turns him into a ‘special’ mode – the controls would have to be wildly different, and while there’s room in a cart racer for every character to have a gimmick, there’s not enough room to have a completely different character. There’s also the reaction animations to consider, since the cars in the game are of similar enough sizes to just bump into each other, and it would probably be complained about if the same animation was given to Sonic when he’s way too small, so a car avoids sass in that area.

    Dya think Sonic watches Top Gear, though? Because that care looks pretty nice… *clearly wants his car* What model is that…? And it’s even got -fins-! Ahh, fins!

    And I wonder which fan decided, “Ooh! Let’s put Big in!” …notmenotmenotmenotme. Also, note that Sumo Digital aren’t Sonic Team. Sonic Team are the ones that don’t listen. >_>

  5. I don’t get why people get so agro when they see sonic in a car, I’ve seen others say: “sonic shouldn’t be in a car!”
    Well, who really gives a damn, it’s a videogame, get over it. That’s what I think.

  6. Jeeze, “sonic shouldn’t be in a car”, almost as bad as fans tearing at each other with Jason vs Ryan.

    A video game exists top be played and have fun with, with the end product, if you don’t like it fine, your opinion, but there will be people out there who will like it.

    So in the end run, we’re all Sonic the Hedgehog fans here, so why not just wait for it to be finished, come out and enjoy it like real fans would do? Rather than bickering about each new thing that comes out to show us how the game development is doing.

  7. I think Sonic’s in a car because he’d be too fast for everyone else. I mean, no car can match the speed Sonic races, so he would need to slow down to take on a fast machine, which is why he’s in a race car.

  8. bmhedgehog, Sumo Digital’s games don’t stink. This isn’t Sonic Team. It is very common for game developers to do all the things he’s mentioned.

    Besides, he wasn’t referring to game quality. He was referring to the content, ie characters and tracks.

    Believe it or not, some of Sonic Teams’ worst games was in response to fans. Shadow the Hedgehog featured guns and darkness because fans where demanding Sonic have a gun and be in more mature games. They didn’t think Sonic should have a gun, so they went with Shadow. This is all explained in a GameSpy interview, which you can find a link to on the Wikipedia entry for the game.

  9. @nuckles87: Really? And then the biggest summary of the game ended up being ‘Sonic gets a gun’ anyway. XD There were clips in Nintendo magazine about how it was a stupid idea because you wouldn’t put Mario with a gun. (Somebody clearly forgot that the Mario universe and the Sonic universe aren’t the same one and have room for different ideas.)

    Having played Shadow, it wasn’t that bad, and it was the game that got me interested in the series in the first place and got me playing the older games. In that way it can’t be one of their ‘worst’ games…

  10. Just a thought, maybe the reason why SOME, if not all, of you have horrible experiences with these games is because they are listening to the fans. In their attempt to please EVERYONE, they end up making what you experience as a horrible game, because the people they listened to the most think things differently from you, or they tried to put in the content you were talking about but couldn’t complete for a variety of reasons. As for Sonic on hoverboards and in cars, I don’t mind. The only games I didn’t like in that retrospective is Sonic Drift 1 & 2, even for that time frame it was horribly put together. For those of you that don’t like the idea of Sonic on or in whatever, you can play Sonic R if you have the guts.

  11. “Sonic Teams’ worst games was in response to fans. Shadow the Hedgehog featured guns and darkness because fans where demanding Sonic have a gun and be in more mature games. ”

    Sonic Team can listen to fans all they want, but it’s their jobs as “developers” to deliver on the quality.

    Also, I wouldn’t call Shadow the Hedgehog a “mature” game. To any one outside the Sonic community, it’s more of a game trying to be edgy. I’d be laughed at if I told anyone I know Shadow is a “mature” game. Even a “T” rating is arguable.

    I personally think the quality of the games themselves have little to do with “fans” and the blame is the developers themselves. I don’t know who they “listened to” when releasing Sonic 06. It’s Sega’s job for quality gameplay and scripts. They could try to make fans happy, but it makes little difference if the gameplay is awfully delivered.

  12. Symantics symantics….in gaming “mature” means blood and guns, that’s the word I’m using.

    And all I was saying is that when the developers say they are using focus groups and message boards in order to listen to fans and understand what they want in the game, they aren’t “lying”. Developers aren’t compulsive liars.

    Quality is an entirely different matter altogether.

  13. @JJ4EVA – you make a fair comment about how we should all just enjoy the final product and stop arguing, but the flaw here is that, though Sonic fans are resilent to the flaws in his games a fan cannot simple be expected to enjoy a game soley for the title character on the box. Sonic hasn’t produced a truely great game in years and an ‘innovative’ (cough) driving game is unlikely to change that.

    In my opinion the person speaking for Sega in this interview seems more like a presenter, not a gamer. His words lack passion about the title he’s talking about. I would of preferably liked to hear from a key member of Sega about their decision to make a racing game.

  14. Generally I find that these Sega Superstars Games are very fun and I love the nostalgic themes and the different SEGA characters. They make great use of all the artistic styles and that’s a lot more than I can say for the mainstream Sonic titles of recent years that are running on a lot of trial and error at the moment, specifically with regards to ideas.

    I don’t have a problem with Sonic being in a car. I would prefer an on foot racer because Sonic R was lots of fun too, but what I got from his answer is that it didn’t really work out on a technical, control level and I think that’s a perfectly acceptable answer. I just wonder how much they tried to fix it before resorting to cars.

  15. @projektzuel
    you are probably right, but making a good game with sonics face on it will improve sonic’s reputation (really go on any site all guys hate sonic the hedgehog THAT much)
    i’ll look forward to an better mario kart for the ps360

  16. Just like Naka. Just want to drive them cars! Can’t say no to driving a fast car (not fast as Sonic). Hey its a opinion everyone has one doesn’t mean you can’t play the game, because someone says it sucks. The customer will be judging that regardless of a professional reviewer said.

  17. What the h*@%^ kind of answer is that?! I can understand the part where we said that Sonic would be different from the other racers if they did that (but what about the times we’ve seen him in his super form, hu? He wasn’t in a car there!) but that the fans wanted him in a car? WHAT THE F%&#?! What fans were you listening to?! Have you not learned (even though they’re not you games) from Sonic Drift or Sonic Riders? Granted, I actually thought Riders 1 was OK and 2 was good, but I’d rather have Sonic RUNNING! *Sighs* I don’t know why, but that statement pissed me off royally. Sorry for the outburst people.

  18. @Brad and DShadow: Yep.
    If there was an ‘enthusiasm’ award for internet communities I’m pretty sure we would take the cake 😀
    No seriously…

  19. Sonic out of the car should be unockable or something. Not that I really mind his car anymore, it still looks like fun. But what did the guy mean about Sonic’s “roller skates?” Did he get him confused with Shadow? Also, does that means Shadow’s in there too? Probably.

    Sonic gets run over by monster truck-like vehicles all the time… or maybe that just when I play.

  20. *sigh* people wont just understand
    why must Sonic fans be complaining about such trivial things? I mean, when it comes to other characters in a car, no one says anything, ANYTHING!

    no one complained about Crash Bandicoot being in a car even if he’s completely insane
    no one complained about Pacman being in a car even if he should “WAKA WAKA”-ing those effin ghost thingies
    NO one complained about Megaman being in a car even if his job is to defeat robot masters with his buster
    no one complained about Diddy Kong being in a car even if he’s a freaking monkey
    NO ONE complained about MARIO being in a car, even if he’s just a plumber that should just be around jumping and eating mushrooms

    so why must Sonic be always the victim of the bashing, why people? whyyyyy?

  21. okay people. hes in a car. if he was running you would always lose against him and the game would be pointless to own. hes been in a car in sonic drift and on a hoverboard in riders so why start complaining now?

  22. @Edge
    Totally agree.
    If sonic wasn’t in a car it would be a hopelessly one sided race lol.

    Pretty sure big the cat would have a hard time =P

  23. “We had to slow him down.” Ouch…

    Well, he looks cool in that car, and the reasons they gave are good enough for me.

  24. Seriously, it’s a spin off title, I don’t understand why everyone gets so wound up about it.
    the problem with the Sonic Community is that people assume one game will not ruin the franchise.
    I applaud SEGA for trying out new gimmicks despite the heavy criticism they come under.
    If you don’t like the idea of Sonic in a car, don’t play the game…

    I’m personally am looking forward to it, I just hope they use the Hedgehog engine or something similar.

  25. 1) It’s a SEGA-ALL-STARS GAME. Sonic is Sega’s MASCOT. He can’t NOT be in.
    2) It’s a GRAND-PRIX. It wouldn’t be fair to the other racers if Sonic ran. Remember, he can (supposedly) run faster than the speed of sound. No car can go that fast.
    3) It’s a fucking GAME. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to play it.

  26. here is the real story sega charcters got together to have a fun grand prix because have nothing better to do sonic wants to join because he can’t refuse a challege but they want him in a car because they don’t want to race at 80mph against a guy whos running speed can break the sound beairer end of story so shut up about it

  27. What can I say that has not already been said? Sonic is in a car. BIG. EFFIN’. DEAL! BOTTOM LINE: He’d be too fast without it. GET OVER IT!

  28. @Kaoz: SUMO already said that they’re going to use the same engine they used for Super-Star Tennis, fortunately that means all the consoles are going to have the same graphics (maybe cept for the DS)

  29. What the hell people?

    Theres like 1 person complaining about sonic in a car and like 32 people saying stuff like “why are sonic fans complaining about sonic being in a car” when actually no one is complaining!!!!!!!!! I think some people like complaing like this.
    Unbelivable….

  30. The important thing is Sega is listening to the fans, and we know its the truth cus we all know its the most widely asked question.
    Should be fun, looking forward to it! Thanks Sega 🙂

  31. “It’s no fair, he is way too fast.”

    Most of us understand that.
    Sonic moves as fast as the speed of sound while everyone one else is slow.
    Just because Sonic Drift and Drift 2 sucks doesn’t mean people should go back to the past and take it on this game.

    It’s a fair idea on what Sega is doing.
    Like that dude said, they gotta slow him down to be fair.
    MOST of us said that while whining little “fans” cry that Sonic can’t run on the ground.

    AGAIN, TO BE FAIR.

  32. Ha ha, I knew it the hit detection would be weird. If they did get around this it would look too much like SU (Which some “Sonic” fans didn’t like.) and Sonic would be cheap. (Eggman: Hold still you devil! *tries to bump Sonic* Sonic: Your too slow!! )

  33. If he’s without a car, it’ll be just like Smash Bros Brawl.. fastest moving, but when he hits something, he goes flying off the stage.

  34. @Stephen:
    exactly what i thought also.
    i think the TSS crew overdid it with the anti troll thingy.
    all guys starts complaining about guys who complains about stupid things before anyone did that.
    good work TSS (no sarcasm) if a troll appears here he is faster the most hated person in the internet before sonic can eat a chilli dog. (=

  35. @Axl-fox, ah yeah, I forgot about that, I commented a couple of days after initially watching it.

  36. @Eggman123
    hahah, your right, people will be having nightmares for ages for just saying “why is sonic in a car?”

  37. When will it end, and why couldn’t I play it safe like Jason Griffith.

    @ Umiyuri:
    I agree that there really isn’t a “bad idea,” but that it is really more in the end product or presentation of it. For example, there were SOME really good ideas for Sonic 06′, but due to time, constraint, trying to put too much in the game, and simply not getting everything to fit had the product suffering from endless load times, pointless loadtimes, and glitchtastic goodness.

  38. Quit bitching about Sonic being in a car. I’m sure 90% of you posters are gonna have your parents buy the game for you. LMFAO

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