Making a Sonic Team fan, part 4...

Sonic Team had always gone above and beyond when creating new titles. Sonic, Burning Rangers, NiGHTS into dreams, and Billy Hatcher were all fantastic with unique game play elements. Like many AAA developers there were volumes of unused assets that remained on the cutting room floor as the games were each finalized. In some cases the remains of a beta stage, character, or even music could be found in the game data itself, waiting to be discovered by the community. The Sonic games had several examples of beta material being left on the Genesis cartridges. Similar things were expected for the Saturn disks, the only problem was getting to that data was hard. It took decades for home-brew programmers to get to the info, and compile it into a workable format.

In the previous blog I mentioned that Mecha NiGHTS had been uncovered during a data mine. Even more shocking was the possibility that there was a cut boss named Selph planned for the game. While combing through the data files people found all sorts of models, animations, and unused game assets, but nothing about another boss. In the logs they discovered the file names, and unused icons for the bosses. Gillwing, Clawz, Gulpo, Puffy, Jackie, Reala, and the final boss named Wizeman. For a while the only mention of an eight boss was text only. Self, sometimes spelled Selph would have appeared before the final boss. Yet there had never been any sort of concept art, or model that could be found. Until one day a single icon was isolated.

The community was split over what we were looking at. Even when there was an update to Selph following the datamine To me, and many others it was a pointy headed alien-like creature with dark eyes. Others saw a giant claw, or pincer. I began wondering how the character would have looked, and more important how this character would have fit into the game. Up until that point NiGHTS had faced many of the boss battles in head-on fights. Some bosses, like Clawz, and Gulpo required more strategy. Two other bosses, Jackie, and Reala also wore a hat similar to NiGHTS, and they could fly. If Selph were to appear just before the final boss, or even as a hidden boss, then it must have been a special encounter.

The name Selph was very significant for Sonic Team. In order to build the game the studio had to become well versed in the psychology behind dreams, and their meanings. One of the most influential psychologists that they often cited in interviews was Carl Jung. His theory of analytical psychology was very profound. He developed the idea of ways people present themselves, or mask their intents. The idea of a collective conscious, and unconscious as well as the concept of Self. Naoto Ohshima, Yuji Naka, and the Sonic Team crew became adapt at interpreting the dreams of their coworkers. They were so good at being amateur psychologists that many in the company shared a lot of personal information. Years later they realized that that they knew much more about their Sega counterparts than they should have. Talk about an HR nightmare! But I digress... I was inspired to create how I think Selph would have appeared in the game. 

The original release of the game was not necessarily understood by audiences when it came out. It became something special to those that figured out what Sonic Team accomplished. It was all the more important because the game conveyed a message without one word of dialogue, or anything to translate. NiGHTS into dreams… was more than a story of boy meets girl. It dealt with anxiety, especially anxiety in kids in a way that no other game or media had ever attempted. The question that many in the community had was how would a battle agains the “Self” have played out?

I would argue that the boss battle would have worked out to more of a chase sequence. There wouldn’t have been actual punching, kicking, or tackling involved. As this was something that NiGHTS already did with every other boss battle. Instead I think the battle would have been a series of encounters. A way for the main characters to chase after their true selves. I believe that Elliot, and Claris, the human stars of the game would have each turned into their own version of NiGHTS at the end of the sequence. Then they would then have had the power to confront the big boss Wizeman in the dream world without having to rely entirely on NiGHTS.

I think this scenario made sense for a number of reasons. In the final shared stage of the game both Elliot, and Claris had to work together to free NiGHTS from a prison. After doing so they would merge, or “Dualize” with the main character. This would give each of them the powers of NiGHTS, and the ability to take down the gigantic villain themselves. In essence they needed the courage to face their own fears. I believe that Selph was going to be a distinct boy, and girl version of NiGHTS, with their own identifying colors that matched Claris, and Elliot. It made a lot more sense to me than seeing two versions of the dream jester at the end of the game.

This was the way I interpreted Self based on the game icon, but also because I had played through every Sonic Team game ever made. I understood the way the studio framed the levels, and approached their battles. Not only that but I had studied Carl Jung in my anthropology classes, it gave me an additional insight into dream personas. So what happened with Selph? Why was the boss cut? Sonic Team had a tight deadline. They needed to have a killer app ready for the launch of the 32-bit Sega Saturn console in 1995. Sadly the game wouldn’t be ready until a year after the console’s launch. Pressed for time they began seeing what they could cut. This boss, a new battle, a new 3D model were put on the chopping block. The only thing they forgot to scrub from the game data was the name, and icon.

Sega was working on the Dreamcast console, while the Saturn was still finding its legs. To many, myself included, this was the death knell for the console division, and the company as a whole. At the same time this would be a chance for Sonic Team to return to the blue blur, and bring the hedgehog into fully realized 3D. NiGHTS came out in 1996, and Sonic Adventure in 1998. Ask any AAA studio what an absurdly short turnaround time that was, especially for completely new hardware. The studio acknowledged that the Nightopians were the prototype A-Life characters that inspired the development of the Chao in Sonic Adventure. I don’t think that was the only thing the team brought over from their previous work. Selph was a great concept that deserved a second look. Sonic Team. Sonic would fight Eggman in his new adventure, but he needed a bigger opponent as whell. Perhaps a shape shifting creature that started off small, but became progressively bigger, and more dangerous as the game went on. I would argue that the studio took another look at Selph, and with a few changes turned the design into Chaos.

This was all conjecture on my part, based on a single file name, and a single game icon. I’m sticking with it though until I hear otherwise from Sonic Team members. There was more art that I had done recently based on NiGHTS, but it was not quite what you might imagine. I’ll share more of it on the next blog. Until then I want to hear about the unused content, stages, bosses, or heroes that you wish you would have gotten to see. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Making a Sonic Team fan, part 3...

In the previous blogs I talked about how much I loved the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and in particular the games made by Sonic Team, rather than the other developers. I also talked about the rare characters that I adored like Ray the Flying Squirrel, and Mighty the Armadillo. As much as I loved those characters I didn’t do too much art featuring them over the past few decades. Cartoon characters had always been difficult for me to draw. I try make realistic illustrations, to draw people, and vehicles in correct scale, and proportion. So going in an a loose animated style was very much out of my comfort zone. That’s not to say it’s impossible for me to do, I’m just not happy with the results when I try to draw the classic Sonic characters. I will on occasion challenge myself, and draw my absolute favorite game character instead NiGHTS from the game NiGHTS into dreams…

The problem with drawing NiGHTS was that I held the character in such high regards that I didn’t want to make a bad illustration. I worked very hard to make sure that they remained proportional to the game model. Even though this was a shape-shifting dream character without actual bones, and organs. I still wanted to make sure that my 2D illustrations gave viewers a sense of a 3D figure. Over the past few years I’ve drawn a few pieces featuring the character, and even the arch-rival named Reala.

NiGHTS and Reala were fun designs literally cut from the same cloth. You could tell that based on their early, and final designs that they were similar in form, and function. Realia had the same moves as the star of the game, and made for a difficult battle if you didn’t know how to approach the “Nightmaren.” The heroes, villains, and minor characters in the game were created by Naoto Ohshima. He of course created most of the original Sonic game cast. The designs in NiGHTS were much more humanoid, and surreal than the cartoon mascots he created for the Sonic franchise. The Nightmaren minions, which looked like dream versions of Pokemon characters were also unlike the robotic monsters that Sonic faced.

When Sonic Team shared some concept art we could see that NiGHTS, and Reala were based on a similar template. The jester-like character had very animated expressions, and a lot of these things were indeed captured in the 3D models created for the game. There was a third, larger Nightmaren boss that also took his cues from the older art. Jackle was more than twice the size of either NiGHTS or Reala. What made him eerie, aside from his laugh was the fact that he had no body. He was a floating head with hands, and feet. He could also fly, and hid his attacks behind a cape. This character was my little brother’s favorite from the game so I had to draw him as well.

The great thing about NiGHTS was how the characters changed shape as they flew around the screens. They were some of the most dynamic early 3D models in console gaming history. For example NiGHTS could dash through the skies with a burst of speed. While doing so their twin-tailed hat would get swept back, and their legs would twist to a point.

This wasn’t the only instant change that the character model had. The character could also turn into a bouncing ball, a bobsled, or even mermaid depending on where they were flying, or swimming through. Illustrating these different versions of the character were certainly an artistic challenge. It was already hard enough drawing the characters standing still, imagine trying to do an illustration of the figure that only appeared for a few moments in a perpetually shifting scene. These were the sorts of details that you could expect in a cartoon, but seeing three-dimensional models do this was truly cutting edge game animation. One of these days I’d like to get around to drawing the other shapes that NiGHTS could turn into during the adventure.

The game also featured tiny cherub-like characters called Nightopians. These were A-Life characters in the game, think of them as the predecessors to the Chao in Sonic Adventure. They had dozens of different animations, and performed many different activities. Things like fishing, building snowmen, sledding, directing traffic, jackhammering the dream world and much more. You could actually help hatch their eggs in game with the main characters. I had always wished that you could pick them up, and play with them in the original NiGHTS into dreams… This was something that you could actually do in the sequel NiGHTS Journey of Dreams. I could imagine how much fun the little guys would have if NiGHTS could zip with them through the air.

The A-life system in the game was actually very deep. You could combine the friendly Nightopians, with the evil Nightmaren and create all sorts of unique combinations. They would each hatch from their own multicolored eggs. Like I said, this predated the similar mechanics feature with the Chao in Sonic Adventure. The absolute rarest Nightopian you could unlock was called the Super Pian aka the King of the Nightopians. 17 years ago I created a video on how to unlock him. While recording my video I managed to do something that I had never been able to repeat. Not only that but I had yet to find another NiGHTS player that managed to get two Super Pains show up in one stage at the same time. Thankfully I had video to prove it, but I digress.

There was a bonus sampler disk of NiGHTS into dreams… released shortly after the title was published. I mentioned it when I did my deep dive on the blog. This sampler contained all sorts of goodies that were meant to be on the original release, if only Sonic Team were given more development time. On that disk several “presents” were available to be unlocked, including the ability to play the demo using Reala instead of NiGHTS. You could only unlock this character if you played the game on April 1, aka April fools day. The studio didn’t get a chance to finish programming Reala’s spin dash animation in the game, however the model files were located in the game files. In fact all sorts of gems were discovered when NiGHTS was datamined.

The original Sega Saturn version was notoriously difficult to crack for people looking to mine assets off of the disks. The same went for a lot of Sega’s hardware. For years, or rather decades people had been trying to find out what secrets Sonic Team had left on the game files. I too felt that the game was very densely packed, although it was a brief game I could tell that the studio put everything they had into it. The first chance to look into the code came when the game was redone, and ported to the PS2. This was easier for the modding community to get into the files, and bring them over to emulators. A number of unused models, and assets were made available to the fan community including unused animations left in the game.

One of the things that blew up in the fan community was the discovery of something fans dubbed Mecha NiGHTS. One of the unused animations featured a Nightopian playing with a remote control NiGHTS toy. Sonic Team made both a sprite model for this figure, and a 3D model as well. They were able to be reassembled, and put into the game by modders. When I found out about this unused asset I had to celebrate the discovery in art form. It was easily one of the coolest looking flying models I’d ever seen. If there was a reason for me to buy a 3D printer, and make an actual physical copy for myself then this was it. There were a few other assets left in the game files. Some of which were minor things, however there was a huge discovery that rocked the fan community to its core. I’ll talk more about this on the next blog, and share the art that came out of this discovery. Did you ever play NiGHTS into dreams… or other rare Sonic Team games like Billy Hatcher, and Burning Rangers? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Making a Sonic Team fan, part 2...

The Sonic the Hedgehog series meant a tremendous amount to me, and my family. The love we had for the character was sometimes hard to put it into words. Like many of you we played the titles, watched the cartoons, films, and collected the toys. Moreover the people at Sonic Team greatly influenced me as a gamer, and as an artist. Contrary to what some of my friends might have thought I was not blindly loyal to the character, especially his appearance in sequels. I didn’t know it at the time but I was sensitive to the titles not produced directly by Sonic Team. My friends in high school knew that the first two games were among my absolute favorites. They wondered why I was highly critical of the rest of the sprite-based games. I told them there were a number of small details that bothered me. Things like character designs, animation, levels, and even music felt odd. I couldn’t pin it down but something didn’t feel “right” to me.

Many of my friends couldn’t really see or feel a difference. I thought that the flood of titles after Sonic 2 weren’t innovative enough, they felt like a cash grab from Sega. The original Sonic came out June 23, 1991. The sequel on November 21, 1992. Sonic CD, came out on September 23, 1993. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 came out on February 2, 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles on October 18, 1994. You could see the development cycle getting shorter, and shorter. Any seasoned gamer could tell you that the games rushed to market often suffered. It was impossible to think of a series that got better with a less than a one year development cycle between sequels.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Sonic Team didn’t really produce most of the other 16-bit games after Sonic 2. Many of them were developed by the Sega Technical Institute in the USA. When I found that out the odd feeling that the other games gave me made more sense. They didn’t feel like Sonic Team games because they weren’t made by Sonic Team. However that was not to say that other teams working at Sega in Japan, or the US couldn’t create a memorable Sonic game. Nor did it mean that collaborating with another studio would “weaken” the work of Sonic Team. If anything I could tell that the core members were trying to build something great, to flesh out the Sonic universe. In order to do that the Sonic Team needed to break out of their comfort zone, and try different things. One of which was the kiddie ride I mentioned yesterday. Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car came out in December 1991. That was just six months from the release of the first game.

Granted the Waku Waku games were very simplistic, however Sonic Team had to work alongside Sega’s arcade developers. The fact that they could crank out a fun game in such a short amount of time was nothing short of genius. Yuji Naka was often credited as being that genius. It was often said that he coded closely to the hardware. He got more performance out of every development kit he was put in front of. This ability was obvious while working on the 32-bit Sega Saturn, especially when compared to every other developer. In some instances Mr. Naka was able to create game effects that baffled the engineers. This allowed him to climb the ranks of the company. He supervised some of the other teams working on spin-off games. He was sometimes described as being arrogant, standoffish, and even rude to his American colleagues. Many thought it was because he thought most of them as inferior programmers.

The proof of Naka’s genius was undeniable. The actual Sonic Team handed most of Sonic’s 2D development over to other groups because they wanted to start working in 3D for the Sega Saturn, and later on for the Sega Dreamcast. By then it was undeniable that Naka was even better at 3D programming than just about anybody else at the company. Yet before the studio went to 3D I could get a sense as to where they wanted to grow the franchise. The clue was in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The introduction of a sidekick character, Miles “Tails” Prower, meant that entirely new mechanics were possible in the platformer. Speed was Sonic’s gimmick, flight was Tails’. Each ability meant that exploring the Zones would make each play through unique. This was as opposed to the Mario Bros. as the game play between Mario, and Luigi was essentially the same. Knuckles would build on the concept of a different way to play the same game. He could glide, climb, and break down barriers. Yet there were two games that predated the introduction of Knuckles that needed to be acknowledged.

Sonic Team wondered aloud “What if Sonic wasn’t the only mascot character?” The first idea they had was for a gold, and red Sonic, collectively called the Sonic Bros. SegaSonic Bros was a puzzle game in the vein of Columns scheduled for 1992. This game actually had some location tests in Japan, however people were disappointed that it wasn’t a platformer. I would argue that the ideas for a gold “Super” Sonic, and a red Sonic (Knuckles) were planted here. The next arcade title was more profound. SegaSonic the Hedgehog was an arcade game released June 1, 1993. It was developed by Sonic Team and Sega’s Hitmaker! group. The game returned to the trio idea with red, blue, and gold variations. This time it was Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel designed by Manabu Kusunoki as the alternate colors. The 3-player game featuring a trackball, and single button were unlike any other arcade game out there. Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine called it the greatest arcade game ever made.

I was absolutely smitten with the designs of Mighty, and Ray. I got the sense that they were a more complete vision of the Sonic / Tails partnership. There was the stronger speedster, and the smaller flyer. Knuckles would debut a year later, and I felt that the character didn’t have the same charm as Mighty. Knuckles had hard edges, and an angular head. Which was opposite of the rounder, more classic cartoon designs that Naoto Ohshima produced. Years later I found out that my hunch about Knuckles was right. He wasn’t created by Mr. Ohshima, or Mr. Kusunoki but instead by Takashi Yuda and Pamela Kelly. Takashi,a nd Pamela didn’t quite grasp the simpler designs that made the Sonic heroes, and villains work.

Over the years Sega, and Sonic Team would share their notes in interviews, and online. We could see that Ray, and Mighty went back to the earliest days of the franchise. They popped up in a few plans well before Knuckles was even drafted. Mighty would return in the Knuckles Chaotix game for the Sega 32X on April 21, 1995. Sadly Ray wouldn’t come back until 2017 in Sonic Mania. The reunion of the two characters, and their unique game play elements was a dream come true for me, and many others in the Sonic fandom. The game was a highlight reel of the best elements of every title, and made me rank Sonic Mania Plus (2018) as the only 2D platforming game better than Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

The designs from Naoto Ohshima spoke to me because of their classic roots. The large heads, skinny limbs, and pie-eyes were a callback to the “rubber hose” style of animation. Mr. Ohshima was creating mascots similar to the early 20th century stars like Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Mickey Mouse. Of all the eras of animation the 1920’s and 1930’s was my absolute favorite. Seeing a modern interpretation of that style with brighter colors, and fashion through Sonic, and his friends turned me into an instant fan. As the studio shared more of their notes we learned that Sonic was not originally going to be a hedgehog. Instead the first draft of the hero for the new game was a rabbit.

The cute rabbit went all the way back to 1990 with the formation of Sonic Team. This rabbit would become known as Feels the Rabbit. He was a happy-go-lucky character, but seemed to be missing some of the trademark Sonic “attitude.” It wasn’t enough to break the mold of a hundred other cute-but-forgettable mascots in gaming. Naoto went back to the drawing board, and the rest was history. Community members never forgot those early designs, and would keep them alive in fan art, comics, and fan merchandise. Many of us thought that nothing more would be seen with the prototype Sonic. Thankfully we were wrong. Not only did Mighty and Ray return within our lifetime, but the plucky rabbit would debut as a bonus skin for Sonic Superstars in October 17, 2023. The developers at Arzest even reached out to Mr. Ohshima for his memories of the character.

For those keeping track there had been actual rabbit characters to appear in the series. The most memorable outside of the comics were Vanilla, and her adorable daughter Cream. The father of Cream was never revealed however my fan theory was that it was Feels. He just went off to have his own adventures, but would someday be reunited with his family. That’s my version of events, and I’m sticking to it. Anyhow the art of the Sonic franchise really spoke to me as a teenager, and all my life really. It shaped the way I drew cartoon characters. Some of my favorite pieces were based on a Sonic Team mascot, but it wasn’t anyone in the Sonic universe. I’ll talk about this character in the next blog. Until then I’d like to hear about your favorite Sonic games, or characters. Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Making a Sonic Team fan, part 1...

Hello friends, and visitors! I hope the year is going well for you. I’ve been hard at work at my actual job. I’ve also been trying to make time for art. I’ve been stuck thinking about what to write about on the blog. Then it came to me. I could write a little bit about one of my favorite game series, and share some art at the same time! The thing about the games I want to talk about is that it also launched one of my favorite film franchises.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movies by Paramount have been great fun. I’m not going to lie however, I had zero faith in them when the trailer for the first movie dropped in 2019. Like many people the reaction to Ugly Sonic was harsh. Thankfully the studio listened to the outcry, pushed the release date back, and made drastic changes to the design of Sonic. It was one of the rare cases where the most vocal fans helped make sure that Hollywood would be kinder to the source material. By taking on writers, and animators familiar with the character the producers managed to create box office hits back-to-back-to-back. Each film in the trilogy had taken elements from the actual games by Sega, and managed to capture the emotional beats of all the main players. I really appreciated the attention to detail in each film. I know a purist might wish that the movies were entirely animated, and not set on Earth, but will all things considered the studios did very well making the characters accessible to the public.

The other thing that I loved about the films was that I was able to bond with my kid over them. We were both big fans of the Sonic series. We must have owned just about every release across every platform, including many LCD games. My love for the character, and the franchise came with the debut of the very first game on the Sega Genesis way back in 1991. My kid’s first game was Sonic Adventure DX on the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. It seemed surreal that I had been a fan for 35 years, and my kid for more than 20. Being able to share a common love of a character had really brought us closer together. It made me appreciate that of all the movies we’d seen as a family, it was a video game movie that meant the most to us. It also made me think about how much I really enjoyed the games by the developers at Sonic Team working at Sega.

Like many of you I’ve had the conversation of favorite games with my family, and friends over the years. My brothers, and I grew up with the major consoles, going all the way back to the Atari 2600 circa 1980. We loved every console, and cherished every game we played. Long ago I had a thought experiment. If I were stuck on a deserted island, and could only bring one video game with me to play forever then which one would it be? Was it possible to rank them in order? I leaned to a very specific company, and very specific team. I published my list in 2006 on the old 1UP site. Sega was responsible for six of my top 20 favorite games of all-time. Of those games three of them were produced by Sonic Team. When I revised that list in 2023 the number of games from Sega went up to eight out of 20.

I ranked many Sega games high on the list my favorite game of all time was NiGHTS into dreams… which was from Sonic Team. I took my gaming seriously. I bought the original Xbox back in 2002 for the second title on my list Jet Set Radio Future. The Jet Set Radio series was by the Smilebit, and Hitmaker teams at Sega. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was revolutionary, and the even better Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ended up as #3 on my list. The third Sonic Team game that I ranked was Burning Rangers in the sixth spot.

NiGHTS, Sonic, and the Burning Rangers were all radically different ideas that were each executed perfectly. The thing about the Sonic Team was that they were fantastic at creating experiences in different genres. It seemed that there was nothing that the senior members couldn’t do. The initial team was formed in 1990 from members of Sega's Consumer Development division aka the console people. This was opposed to people like Yu Suzuki and the AM groups working on arcade games. Sonic Team included programmer Yuji Naka, artist Naoto Ohshima, and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.

Music for the first two Sonic games came from composer Masato “Masa” Nakamura from the Japanese pop group Dreams Come True. Aside from the game play it was the music that really appealed to me in the early games. In fact after I beat the very first title I made it my mission to try and track down more music from his band. Thankfully the Los Angeles Metro Blue Line had also opened in 1990. It gave people from Long Beach a chance to travel to downtown LA for just over a dollar. When we were in high school my brothers, and friends would go at least once a month as a group to check out the sights. We discovered Little Tokyo, and made many repeat visits. We would rent Dragon Ball tapes just as they were released in Japan, collected toys, CD’s, and import games. All of the things that current generations take for granted used to be a series of adventures for us. One of the great things of the old Yaohan Plaza shopping complex in Downtown LA were the arcades. The building was multiple stories. There was an arcade featuring the latest games from Japan, and even a bowling alley with its own arcade as well. Sadly the majority of the shops closed down, and it was sold to a Korean conglomerate about a decade after we started visiting it.

It was the “Arcade Japan” where I saw, and got a chance to play one of the rarest Sonic the Hedgehog games ever made. Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car was a kiddie ride released in 1991, the same year that the console game debuted. I managed to cram my 6’ 7”, 320 lbs frame into the cabinet so I could play it. My brothers couldn’t believe that I managed to squeeze myself into the cabinet, but at the same time they knew how passionate I was about the series. While going into the various bookstores in Little Tokyo I finally found the music from Dreams Come True. I would buy at least one CD each trip, and ended up collecting every album, and almost every single from the group as well. It was also where I picked up a number of Capcom, and Sega games CDs which I still have in my collection.

    

Each Zone in the Sonic titles had their own unique song. They were all catchy tunes. Little did I know that the best melodies would be featured in an album. The Star Light Zone song to me was the best. It framed the chill vibe of the stage, the groundbreaking parallax-scrolling stars in the background, and its unique fight against Dr. Eggman. I had just graduated high school, and was attending college when I finally heard the song it was based on. I remember I was walking to the bus stop, listening to my portable CD player when the familiar melody popped up. I lost my mind hearing the song with lyrics! 薬指の決心 = Kusuriyubi no kesshin = Determination of the ring finger from the album Million Kisses was the melody that Masa had composed for Sonic Team months before it appeared on the album.

I would also find out that the song Sweet, Sweet, Sweet aka Sweet Dreams from the album The Swinging Star was the inspiration for the ending song from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. For decades after I held the space-inspired stage from the original game, and the song in the highest of regards. While I enjoyed Sonic Adventure, and many other 2D and 3D games in the series, I felt that none of the releases ever captured the wonder of the Star Light Zone. That was at least until 2010 when Sonic Colors was released. The game took place on different planets all over the cosmos, but there was one section in particular that recaptured the magic for me.

The Starlight Carnival, specifically Act 1 was arguably the greatest Sonic zone set in space. It was a parade, and fireworks show set in deep space. It was made up of hundreds of gigantic spaceships covered in lights, lasers, and glowing floats. It was like a cosmic version of the Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade or Walt Disney World’s SpectroMagic for the people on the East Coast. Except that this parade went on for miles, and featured ships the size of skyscrapers. It was a spectacle as Sonic ran on a track made of energy, with countless ships as far as the eye could see, and even hundreds more popping in out of hyperspace. As a space nerd I was absolutely living for it.

 

The game play, and music featured in the Sonic Team games made me a lifelong fan. It wasn’t the only thing that kept me coming back. As an artist I couldn’t get enough of the world building that the studio was doing. It greatly influenced my work. I’m going to talk about that in the next blog. Did you have a favorite Sonic Team game? Did you like the movies, or music associated with the Sonic franchise? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The horse jumped over the moon, the story of Namco, final part

Masaya Nakamura believed in the power of play. He founded his company in 1955, and made kiddie rides for Japanese department stores. In the ‘60s he made electromechanical games for a young company called SEGA. In the ‘70s he saw the future of play, and begged banks for a loan to start up a video game business. In the ‘80s Pac-Man, DigDug, Pole Position, Galaga, and many more arcade hits made him an industry icon. By the ‘90s Namco was a billion dollar company. Before the end of the century he wanted to build the first video game theme park. He ended up building two: Wonder Eggs, and the Egg Empire. They were a grand experiment in play. They also predicted the future of theme park attractions by years, if not decades. There was nothing in the world like Wonder Eggs, and there would never be another park like it. Namco taught the world that play was crucial to society. So what was the legacy of the parks? How were they remembered?

Shortly after closing the park Namco curated its own exhibit celebrating the legacy of Wonder Eggs. A number of park items, specifically those featuring the Pyrallis were on display at Namjatown. The exhibit ran for a number of years. The company was proud of what they had accomplished in the decade of the ‘90s. They had every right to be. The lineup of attractions, and shops at the end of Wonder Eggs 3 was far more impressive than how it started. 

Wonder Eggs 3: Final attraction lineup 

1. The Wedding Judge 

2. Future Colosseum 

3. Carnival Arcade 

4. Galaxian³ 

5. Zombie Coffin 

6. Phantomers 

7. Cyber Station 

8. Tower of Druaga 

9. Hotel Murder House 

10. Möbius Creek 

11. The Star Audition 

12. Laperopter 

13. Oracle of Pyrallis 

14. Pyrallis Carousel 

15. Virtual Vehicle 

16. Italian Tomato Sweets Sweetie (Dessert House)

17. Hatch Batch Pot (Fast Food) 

18. Greedy Moon (Hamburger Shop) 

19. Italian Tomato (Pasta Shop) 

20. Wonder Market (Souvenir Shop) 

21. Wonder Chapel (Memorial Shop) 

22. Wonder Caricature (Portrait Shop)

The sister park started off with a lot of promise, but fizzled out with its collection of off-the-shelf attractions. It was still an important lesson in theme park design, and operations. When both parks opened they had a combined 23 rides, and shops. When they closed they had over 30. 

Here was the Egg Empire: Final attraction lineup: 

23. Funhouse Express 

24. Drift King 

25. Q-Zar Arena / The Mummy 

26. Cyber Station II 

27. Fighter Camp 

28. Tomato Empire Kitchen 

 29. Wonder Pitching 

30. Virtual Coaster - Max Flight VR2002 

31. SFX Movie Ride - Venturer: Featuring Space Race, Alien Encounter, The Snowman the Ride

Audiences never forgot the urban theme park. As they got older they shared stories with their kids about the magical Laperot village which used to be on the outskirts of Tokyo. On February 29, 2020 the former employees, and fans got together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the closing of Wonder Eggs. The event opening team members Yoshitaka Sadakata, and Hisako Shimizu hosted the presentation. The special guest was Mamoru Ikezawa, the former head of Namco’s Theme Park Division. They brought memorabilia from the park. Signs, stamps, employee uniforms, standees, and the like. Other employees brought in the items they had managed to secure in the closing days of the park. It was a packed turnout with many fans in attendance, including one that showed up in a homemade Pyrallis costume.

Futakotamagawa Garden amusement park ran from 1956 to 1985, and then Wonder Eggs was built on a corner of the park from 1992 to 2000. When Namco decided to close down them down they sent a few attractions to other parks, zoos, and play centers. Sadly by 2024 any physical trace of either park was long gone. A shopping complex was built on the path that used to separate Wonder Eggs, and the Egg Empire. There was a high-rise apartment complex standing approximately where the Pyrallis Carousel once turned. I was kind of surprised that there was no memorial plaque or statue honoring what used to be there. When I started this series I wanted to talk about the designs featured in a few Namco games. Researching them lead me to discover the art of Shigeki Toyama. The more I read about Mr. Toyama the more I learned how forward-thinking his boss was.

Play was not only an essential need for individuals, it was also a critical element of society. That realization allowed Mr. Nakamura to grow, and defend his business. As the chairman of JAMMA, he helped get arcade manufacturers to standardize technology, giving them all a boost. The lawsuits he brought against piracy defended not just Namco, but his contemporaries as well. In 2002 Mr. Nakamura stepped down as CEO, and in 2005 his company merged with Bandai. He was given an honorary role as the President of the video game division. Mr. Nakamura forever changed the landscape of gaming at home, and in the arcade. His lesser known contribution was how he created the templates for interactive theme park attractions.

Masaya Nakamura earned many accolades in his illustrious career, and left a huge void after his passing. He succeeded in life because he believed in the power of play. As we got older many of us forgot how play shaped our lives, shaped our friendships, and shaped our identity. Mr. Nakamura never forgot. Play allowed his mechanical horse to jump over the moon, and take us all along for the ride. In his memory we should never stop playing. 

I hope you enjoyed this part of Namco’s history. Did you have a favorite entry in the series, or Wonder Eggs attraction you wanted to try? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks