To be honest, I believe Yuji returning will not make much of a difference in the actual games. If anything, Iizuka should probably be replaced with a better director. He's been called out a lot for being lazy and clueless through the years. Iizuka has always been seen as the antithesis of Tezuka in my eyes. They were both directors at one point, share the same personal name, and happen to have the task of directing a big game series at one point. You can piece together which of the two directors are possibly better at doing their job.
@XAndrew It’s a game in which you play as a flying robot. It uses the Wiimote to fly around. You point at faraway walls and objects to move your character around. It’s easy once you get the hang of it.
Get the Wii version if you can. The 3DS and Wii U ports weren't made by Naka or Prope, and were abysmal.
I think Iizuka should go, if only because it kinda seems like the games have become samey over the years even as they changed gameplay styles, with a lot of the same criticisms throughout. There is a mention of fresh blood needed, but I recall a mention in the Forces topic a few years back that most of the people credited for that game are new, and have like....one or no Sonic title credit to their name. IIRC there was even a lot of Olympics Games devs there too? If they can't even make the games fresh and interesting, then it seems like a lot of the problems are: 1.) Management, director but also within the greater Sega itself; 2.) Funding and time. And Sega has been consistently bad at those two points ever since the first Sonic title came out... I kinda wonder why they don't afford the team the same autonomy they give Atlus. I get that Atlus is a company they bought but they could have easily had a very heavy hand dictating what they do - but they don't, and they make good games for it. I'd love to see Sonic Team with a decent budget and without being obviously rushed or cut down.
Do you think it would be for the best for Sega to have a 3D Sonic game the way they did with Sonic Mania? Have someone whose a massive fan of the Adventure games and know how to program games in 3D make the next 3D Sonic game with Sega publishing it? I mean we have seen a lot of awesome fan 3D Sonic games lately.
I be down for Yuji Naka coming back if he wanted to but if he doesn't want to then I see no point in him returning. It's up to him. As for Takashi Iizuka... I think it's time he consider retirement or some other job.
The man worked on Adventure 1 and especially Adventure 2, which is my favorite Sonic game (second only to Mania). I'd be hyped to see him back personally. He might've been burned out after working on so many Sonic game in 2006 but I'd be curious to see what he could bring to the series nowadays.
Around SA2, Sega's structure change and Sonic Team became an independent business with Naka taking a CEO role. There have been interviews where he talked about how it took him out of the design side. Other team leads at Sega made similar claims (Such as Tetsuya Mizuguchi from United Game Artists which eventually merged with Sonic Team). So it's kind of unfair to judge Naka on SA2 beyond. As to if he should return: When he's talked about Sonic, he's only talked about it being too easy, which seems a bizarre thing to focus on given the series' problems. He still seems quite fond of Sonic (He regularly posts about Sonic on Facebook), so maybe he could bring fresh new ideas. It's worth noting that after leaving Sega, Naka set up Prope where he kept a close relationship with Sega (They had the right of first refusal on his games and I believe they invested in the company too, although I might be misremembering). After ending Prope, he went to work for Square Enix, which seems to be something of a demotion for him. If he was going to rejoin Sega, that was the time to do it, and the fact that he hasn't means he probably never will.
To be honest I think the Mania team have it down in terms of the classic games, so I don't know what Naka could bring really. I'm sure he'd just want to shake things up at the core, and I think it's best to just leave Christian & Co to get their teeth into the series proper for a bit. On the other hand, I think Iizuka has had his time. I'm sure he's a lovely chap n' all, but I've just had enough of shit butt rock and weird story & design decisions. I mean, it was his boring idea to have classic levels in Mania and tie the story into Forces, right?
I don't think anyone should rely on lightning striking twice. Also, because perhaps I wasn't clear enough the first time: even though programming is a creative skill, a programmer is not necessarily a game designer.
Oh sure, it can happen! But if you have a plumbing problem, you don't hire an electrician and hope that they have some ideas about pipes. IMO, Sonic Team needs new designers way more than they need new programmers.
Yeah, they're a bit "arcadey", but they're stories first which was my point. It's the whole tonal sift thing, even SA1 had this. A bit off topic a bit, but hat's sad to me is that games that are made to mimic the arcade experience now-a-days really don't capture that feeling anymore. I can't tell you the last time I've even seen a score screen to a game (leaderbords don't count) or an attract/demo screen.
@Wafer When you put it that way I guess you are right. It's just no one at Sega wants to go back to the Adventure formula out of fear that they will make another Sonic 2006. They instead choose to milk the boost formula over and over again.
Heroes was story first? That game had one of the most tacked on stories I've seen in the series. As for SA2, I remember Naka stating in an interview prior to its release that it would be less story-centric than SA1. There's also the fact that he said this during the Dreamcast days:
Seconded, but they also need some more decent scenario writers, who have a better grasp on how to make a story work and flow well.
