Source · Primary · interview

Sonic Team story (ソニックチーム物語)

staff, Sega Magazine (Japan) and Shmuplations (translation). 1997. “Sonic Team story (ソニックチーム物語).” SoftBank Creative; translation by Shmuplations.

Cite as
Sega Magazine JP 1997, via Shmuplations
Original
http://shmuplations.com/sonicteam/
sha256
76878af894b388f5c67e0ffc91a13719a5fe23dffaebc1a48be640ad01eeccc4
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20261016072342id_/https://shmuplations.com/sonicteam/
Accessed
2026-10-26
Licence
© SoftBank Creative / Shmuplations; translation quoted briefly
Credit
Sega Magazine (Japan), issue 3 (January 1997), pp. 9-13, "ソニックチーム物語"; English translation by Shmuplations (not ours). Wayback capture.
Notes
Japanese developer interview with Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka and others. Naka describes the McDonald's February 1994 tie-in (2 billion yen), the June restart, having "about half the stages", and the last-minute decision to make a Lock-On cart. Quotes here are Shmuplations' English; the original Japanese scan is not pinned.

Cited on

Claims (4)

Yuji Naka said Knuckles came out of market research into American children's tastes: of eight candidate designs, Knuckles was the most popular.Naka, on Sonic 3Interview
Yuji Naka said Sonic 3 was first built from late January 1993 for Sega's SVP chip, with isometric 3D graphics, and that the team dropped that work in June 1993 when the chip looked unlikely to be finished by the end of the year, restarting with six months left.Naka, on Sonic 3Naka, on Sonic 3Naka, on Sonic 3Interview
Yuji Naka said a McDonald's promotion planned for February 1994, on which Sega had spent 2 billion yen, fixed Sonic 3's release date, so after the restart the team had time for only about half the stages it had planned; the idea of joining two cartridges came only at the end of development. He later told GameSpy that Sonic 3 was "literally half a game", the rest going into Sonic & Knuckles.Naka, on Sonic 3Naka, on Sonic 3Interview
Sonic 3 was made at Sega Technical Institute in the United States by an almost wholly Japanese staff, while the institute's American developers moved to Sonic Spinball; Sega-16's history of the institute says the Japanese unit made both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.Naka, on Sonic 3Interview