Original Sonic producer 'conscious' of series' decline, now has 'full responsibility' for future Sonic titles

If you're of the opinion that recent Sonic titles don't capture the thrill of the Mega Drive originals, then you're not alone - one of Sonic's original creators agrees.

During a feature interview with Pocket Gamer, Sega producer Takashi Iizuka - who previously managed the classic Sonic 3 and Knuckles - has revealed that staff changes are to blame for Sonic's lull in quality.

"Originally it was more or less the same team working on all the different Sonic titles," he explained, "but after a few years, for various reasons, we started to delegate Sonic games to different groups of people.

"Everyone in the office has their own idea of what Sonic should be, so we started to see slightly varied, slightly different directions of Sonic games."

With the upcoming Sonic Generations, Iizuka has stepped back in to make sure it's up to the standard we used to expect.

"I was conscious of this," he admitted, "so I'm now back with full responsibility of all things Sonic."

"I have control over the direction of not just Sonic Generations, but all the Sonic titles that we will develop in the future," he said.

"So I have more control, and hopefully this will provide better appearances for future titles."

We hope so too! You can now read the full interview with Iizuka.