Fang the Sniper or Nack the Weasel? Character Creator TOUMA Explains The Two Names

Depending on which region you grew up in, you might have come to know one of Sonic Triple Trouble’s main antagonists as either Fang the Sniper in Japan or Nack the Weasel in the west. But why the two names? Character creator ‘TOUMA’, explained to fans via twitter this week as to the origin of the two aliases, amongst other bits of character information!

In a post on Twitter answering a question from non-other than IDW writer Jon Gray, TOUMA answered a number of points (in Japanese, translated below):

• Fang was originally supposed come from a place called Different Space, which was apart from Sonic’s world (TOUMA admitted that there was not much coordination between the Game Gear unit and the main Sonic unit – it can probably be concluded therefore that there was probably not much in the way of regulation of lore)
• Normally the convention of “Name The Animal Name” was the basis of naming characters, but TOUMA notes this was not the case for Tails; based on this, TOUMA thinks that this is the reason the animal name was not included (again, dependent on region, the character was described as either a weasel or a wolf-jerboa cross)
• The original name of the character was actually Nack! However, as this sounded too close to Knuckles in the Japanese pronunciation, it was changed
• The name originated from answers received from a question put out by TOUMA in a Japanese magazine

While TOUMA recounted his memories, he made it clear that this is not an official announcement from Sonic Team, and that he admires the current team and their world-building.

Either way, thank you TOUMA for giving us an insight into the character’s origins and name (Fang has always been a favourite character!).