{"id":63739,"date":"2025-09-25T15:56:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/how-the-hedgehog-keeps-up-to-speed\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:56:36","slug":"how-the-hedgehog-keeps-up-to-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/how-the-hedgehog-keeps-up-to-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"How the hedgehog keeps up to speed"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Peter Gillibrand<\/span> and<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Richardson<\/span>BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"SegaSega<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sonic’s back with a new racing game – but who’s he jostling for pole position with? <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“Sega does what Nintendon’t”.<\/p>\n

The slogan, from the 1990s, is one of the most famous in video game history.<\/p>\n

It was a time when the bitter rivalry between the two Japanese game companies was at its fiercest.<\/p>\n

Today, that relationship has softened. <\/p>\n

You can play Sonic games on Nintendo consoles and the characters have even appeared in games together.<\/p>\n

But is Sega trying to restart the beef?<\/p>\n

The advert for its latest release, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, closely resembles a 1992 commercial that claimed superiority over Nintendo.<\/p>\n

And in August, the man in charge of the mascot character appeared to take a pop at Mario Kart<\/a> from the stage of this year’s Summer Game Fest. <\/p>\n

But when BBC Newsbeat catches up with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka, he isn’t naming names.<\/p>\n

“So I didn’t call out any specific title, and there’s a lot of racing games out there,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The idea that Sega is seriously trying to pick a fight with Nintendo is unlikely, according to Chris Dring, editor-in-chief of The Games Business.<\/p>\n

He suggests Sega is “having a bit of fun” and points out that its new game, which is available across different consoles and on PC, is still likely to sell the most copies on Nintendo’s Switch.<\/p>\n

Sega is clearly confident in its new game, he says, but there is “an element of leveraging the popularity of Mario Kart”.<\/p>\n

“The Sonic versus Mario talk very much benefits Sonic,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SegaSega<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a similar style of game to Mario Kart<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The bigger challenge for long-running titles is attracting new players and going up against the new giants of the games industry.<\/p>\n

Fans stick with titles such as Fortnite, Roblox and Call of Duty – so-called “live service” games that offer a revolving, ever-updating selection of content – for months if not years on end.<\/p>\n

With CrossWorlds, there are plans to add a revolving cast of characters and offer players a “season pass” add-on to access certain extras – a feature seen in many online titles.<\/p>\n

Mr Iizuka says the goal is to “make sure we’re refreshing the game every month and to really make it a fun experience to constantly come back to”.<\/p>\n

It’s a common practice, and one game companies are using to keep players engaged as development time and costs keep rising.<\/p>\n

“There used to be a time where you released a new game every year,” says journalist Chris.<\/p>\n

“That’s not how things work anymore in video games, they often take five years-plus to make.”<\/p>\n

Chris says rolling content drops are a good way to maintain interest once the hype of a big launch has faded.<\/p>\n

And it makes sense to “embrace” the modern gaming landscape, he says.<\/p>\n

For example, he says one of the most popular recent Sonic releases was an official game within Roblox.<\/p>\n

Alongside the successful movie tie-ins, Chris says, it’s a way of “introducing Sonic the Hedgehog to those players and then hopefully convincing them to step across and play something like CrossWorlds”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SegaSega<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Characters from games made by other companies will be added to CrossWorlds over time<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Video game companies have been leaning on remakes and remasters of older titles in recent years. <\/p>\n

The trend had sparked hope among die-hard Sega fans that remakes of the Sonic Adventure series – among the character’s first 3D outings – would also be coming.<\/p>\n

But Mr Iizuka insists it’s not something his team will be looking at, as new technology enables them to create “richer, more complex, more interesting worlds”. <\/p>\n

“Instead of using all that time and energy to remake a game that people have already experienced, we could make a brand new game instead,” he says.<\/p>\n

“I think the team is really interested in taking that same amount of time and energy and effort to really bring a new experience to the players.”<\/p>\n

The stance is in line with Sega’s approach to some of its other retro titles.<\/p>\n

It’s currently developing new entries in long-dormant series such as arcade racer Crazy Taxi, hack-and-slash battler Golden Axe and the inline-skating-themed Jet Set Radio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first of these revival projects, ninja adventure Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, slashed its way on to some critics’ game of the year shortlists when it came out last month.<\/p>\n

In the case of Sonic, journalist Chris points out that it doesn’t make sense to have your flagship development team working on remakes.<\/p>\n

But he doesn’t rule out the possibility entirely, especially as Sega has form for re-releasing titles from the character’s back catalogue.<\/p>\n

“If they wanted to, if they don’t have it in their capacity as a team, they can always outsource it to lots of talented people who are big Sonic fans that could do it justice,” he says.<\/p>\n

But, he adds, Sega doesn’t want to be seen only as a retro company.<\/p>\n

“There’s a balance between doing new things and doing old things in order to make sure that they’re a company that’s looking ahead and not just being a company that’s relying on its past,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to Newsbeat live<\/a> at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Peter Gillibrand and Tom RichardsonBBC Newsbeat Sega Sonic’s back with a new racing game – but who’s he jostling for pole position with? “Sega does what Nintendon’t”. The slogan, from the 1990s, is one of the most famous in video game history. It was a time when the bitter rivalry between the two Japanese game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[279],"tags":[18570,6440],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63741,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63739\/revisions\/63741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}