Sonic Design Changed To Appeal To Nintendo Audience

Since debuting on Nintendo's console, Sega has been tweaking the design of its mascot Sonic the Hedgehog in order to appeal to its one-time rival's audience. Takashi Iizuka, producer of the forthcoming Sonic Colors, told IGN: "From a general game design perspective, in recent years we've been able to introduce Sonic to new fans -- a lot of the Nintendo/Mario fans -- and because of that, we've made changes to the design. "We've designed things in Sonic Colors that we think will really appeal to people who are unfamiliar with the Sonic brand and the Sonic gameplay. So from that perspective we hope that fans of Mario will really be able to enjoy playing as Sonic in Sonic Colors." The design changes appear to form part of a wider effort by Sega to increase the popularity of its mascot. Earlier this month the company said it was disallowing new orders of Sonic games with average Metacritic scores into European shop shelves, in order to combat franchise fatigue. "Any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed," Sega's SVP of EMEA Jurgen Post explained to MCV."We have to do this and increase the value of the brand. This will be very important when more big Sonic releases arrive in the future."