KZ: Hi Takashi! What does your role as Sonic Studio Creative Officer involve?

T: The Creative Officer’s role is to check the quality of all kinds of products and creative work related to Sonic and make sure we deliver products that are true to Sonic. In addition to games, I check comics, animation shows, movies, apparel, and more. Of course my main focus is games, though. I work with the teams from the beginning of a project until release on things like creating concepts, coordinating with the development team, checking interim deliverables, and promotion partnerships.

KZ: You started off as a gaming designer; what was the trickiest thing about that role?  

T: Thinking about games is fun work, but actually making a game fun is a big challenge. You work with programmers, artists, and a lot of other people to make a game, so if the idea you came up with isn’t fun the hard work of a lot of people goes to waste. I think a game designer needs to have a strong sense of responsibility.

KZ: Sonic celebrated his 30th anniversary this year! Who do you think are his five greatest enemies?

T: Number one enemy has to be Dr. Eggman. He has appeared as the antagonist starting with the first game, and he remains the top antagonist even now, 30 years later. The number of other Sonic antagonists is surprisingly small, but I think the top ones are Chaos, Metal Sonic, Zavok, and Infinite, who all made appearances in Sonic Forces. Also, while he isn’t an antagonist, the dark hero Shadow is one of my favorite characters.

KZ: In Sonic Colours: Ultimate, Dr. Eggman builds a gigantic amusement park, which attraction would you pick to ride in real life?

T: Eggman’s amusement park has a lot of dangerous attractions so it’s hard to choose, but the most exciting one and the one I’d like to experience is Asteroid Coaster. If you could ride a roller coaster though asteroid clusters in space in real life, I’m sure it would be popular attraction.

KZ: Yes! Any cool details in the game that we should look out for?

T: It’s not an easter egg, but in Sonic Colours: Ultimate we added a bonus feature that lets you buy customisation parts by collecting Park Medals in the stages. It doesn’t affect gameplay, but you can change the design of Sonic’s shoes and gloves to give him a different look.

SELECT A SONIC CHARACTER TO...

Help with your homework: Tails!

Play videogames with you: Knuckles!

Join your team in an epic cooking competition: Amy Rose!

Travel with in space: Silver!

Add to your sports team: Shadow!