Sonic Unleashed: Interview with Yoshihisa Hashimoto

12 November, 2008 29 March, 2021

With Sonic Unleashed coming just in a few weeks, we more than likely won’t expect anything new until the time of it’s release, however, the folks from Kikizo.com got a chance to sit and chat with Sonic Unleashed team director, Yoshihisa Hashimoto.

Much like all the other Sonic Unleashed interviews, this one begins with Sonic’s origin on how he used to be the best around and then began to speak about his down fall.

A lot of great questions were asked, such as, did Hashimoto think he could win back retro Sonic fans. His response was:

Yes, I do think so. Because Sonic Unleashed has the game play elements that loyal Sonic fans want. It is not designed to be in the same format as classic Sonic, but we took out the best part of classic Sonic and successfully revived it to be a new Sonic the Hedgehog of the 21st century.

They asked a lot of questions that we already knew the answer to, but they somewhat drop the Sonic Unleashed topic to ask how Sonic Team was doing:

The environment has changed after Yuji Naka became independent and established Prope, and also with the return of Sonic Team USA to Japan. Today, Akinori Nishiyama is the manager and Takashi Iizuka, formerly of Sonic Team USA, is the sub-manager and is conducting the organization. However, there is not much change with the development staff. We are the same group of people who have been and will continue developing Sonic games, as well as others, with passion. I have worked together with Mr Iizuka before on the Sonic Adventure series, so it is my pleasure to be able to work with him again.

Kikizo also showed Hashimoto a fan illustration asking if they can make a game with the same visual quality:

He thought so with the power of the Hedgehog Engine!

And we finally get an official release date. Hashimoto says:

Deep breath. Sonic Unleashed is released in North America on November 18 for Wii and PS2, on November 24 for Xbox 360, and on December 12 for PS3. The European dates are November 14 for PS2 and Wii, November 28 for Xbox 360 and December for PS3. The game is delayed in Japan until Spring 2009.

You can check out the full interview yourself here.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

16 Comments

Finally dates.

You can’t get more official than the producer of the game…but I’d like to hear SOA speak.

best buy’s dates are all one dat after 🙁 i hope they change

@offthewallz: That’s pretty standard. That’s because the date released is often a shipping date…and only BIG releases are shipped in advance to release on release date. Usually, it’s the day after…

🙁

Sweet. A definite release date. FIANLLY!!! Now, I wonder when the demo will be available so it’ll tide me over till then.

why is it delayed so late in japan anyway? are they going to get a better game then us? D:

U.S. is getting it before Japan? Is that possable? That’s cool!

Damn! That fan art is sweet!

Please note I’ve added a note to the article that mentions those are not Sega’s dates but ours, and are subject to change blah blah. Please look out for official dates – for some reason it has been hard to pin down the various dates across platforms/regions on this title.

“For one thing, we think a lot of the comparisons about his modern-era games versus the old Mega Drive classics are often just irrelevant, and are typically more about nostalgia and retro chic than an argument about whether his newer games have a place in their own right.”

I agree with this above.

I still doubt that Unleashed,if it becomes “the game that Sonic fans have waited a long time for”(or whatever Hashimoto calls it),will have some huge impact on the game series and the fans, it will just be one of the good Sonic games.

Really! 14 november! It’s tommorow!

Yes! It isn’t ging to be realeased on black friday!

Is there a relese date for Canada?

TEH RELEASE DATES ARE NOT FULLY CORRECT.

It sais on Kikizo.com:
“[Update] N.B. The above dates cannot be 100% confirmed at the time of press, and are based on our best source retail listings – they do not come from Sega. Please keep an eye out for final official release date confirmation(s). ”

So the info DIDN’T come from the guy in charge of the game itself.

I live in Germany ( …a part of Europe ;p ),
and today’s November 14th, but the Wii-version of the game isn’t out, the people I talked with say “the wii version was delayed till 28th”
(said people work in stores selling videogames and such, obviously)

Plus, on Sega.de, it says the following:
“Sonic Unleashed
erhältlich für
Wii™ – 28.11.2008
PLAYSTATION®3 – Dezember 2008
PlayStation®2 – 28.11.2008
Xbox 360® – 28.11.2008”

(Obviously referring to the country from which the page was requested, which is Germany.)