Sonic Superstars 3D models/characters allow for new 2D gameplay, says SEGA

Sonic Superstars is a brand-new entry in the Sonic series, but it’s going for an approach much closer to Sonic’s SEGA Genesis heyday. Fans will once again get to enjoy a 2D adventure with Sonic and friends, but instead of pixels and sprites, we’re getting polygonal creations.

In an interview with IGN, Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka talked about how building Sonic Superstars in 3D allows the team to present fans with some unique 2D gameplay features that just weren’t possible in the old sprite-based games.

“It is that 2D classic Sonic game, but because we’re using 3D models to create the world and the characters. We’re able to do things inside of that 2D gameplay formula that we couldn’t have done before. So sometimes it’s going to be sending the character back further into the world. Maybe it’s going to be turning the character, spinning the character in a way that we couldn’t really do with the classic look and the pixel art. Or it could be a boss battle that we’re going to have in this kind of 3D space. There’s all these things we can do because we have 3D models, even though we have a 2D game style and a game format, we’re able to play around and do things that the classic Genesis and Game Gear titles couldn’t do.”

[Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka]