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Polygon has published a lengthy new article detailing the history and future of the Sonic brand, and it contains several key contributions from big names such as Yuji Uekawa, Christian Whitehead, Al Nilsen and Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team. It also comes with some very… peculiar looking art to accompany it.
Continue reading Iizuka and Rafei Discuss History and Future of Sonic
A new interview with Big Red Button Entertainment CEO Bob Rafei has surfaced over on GameZone. Though Rafei told GameZone a lot of information you’ll have to wait for when they bring to E3 2014, he did go into detail about the inspiration for both how the combat is unique for each character in Boom, where the “Enerbeam” idea stemmed, and how it’s used to interact with the environment around you. Rafei mentions specifically Knuckles’ Chaotix, which is well know for its own use of a tether which links you to a secondary character whilst playing.
GZ: Combat appeared to be quite a bit more involved than previous Sonic games. What can we expect in terms of the combat gameplay?
BR: In combat, our goal was to allow player expression via character selection and ability to engage enemies. We wanted to enhance how players can engage enemies through different character abilities. These are some really fun characters! We’re excited to allow all four, not just Sonic, more center stage in combat and navigation.GZ: What are the uses for the energy tether, and was Knuckles Chaotix an inspiration for that idea?
BR: We looked at a lot canon titles including Knuckles Chaotix as inspiration of what would work best to establish this action adventure experience. We ultimately decided to go in a different direction for Boom. The energy tether, or “Enerbeam”, can be used in quite a few ways. Some examples are, in locomotion, such as the zip lines, to pull things like shields off of enemies and to interact with elements of the game world. Basically, it is used to some degree in all major pillars of the game and is an important character ability. It will also show up in the animation when appropriate.
You can check out the full interview over on GameZone where they discuss the founding of Big Red Button Entertainment, the Naughty Dog influence seeping into the art direction and what they believe the modern Sonic audience is. Guess E3 is where we’re going to get our next big haul of details about Boom, folks. Only a few months to wait!
