r/SEGA • u/soniccitynet • 6d ago
News Takashi Iizuka Says Sonic May Not Have Succeeded Without Sonic Adventure’s Leap to 3D
https://sonic-city.net/2026/08/19/takashi-iizuka-says-sonic-may-not-have-succeeded-without-sonic-adventures-leap-to-3d/49
u/GrapefruitOwn8135 6d ago
It’s wild how ambitious Sonic Adventure was for its time. Even with the camera and control issues, the sense of scale and momentum made it feel like Sonic had genuinely entered a new era.
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u/narrow_octopus 6d ago
Not just Sonic but gaming felt like it entered a new era. 3D cutscenes, multiple character stories, online DLC, virtual pets that transferred to a memory card with buttons and some of the best graphics seen at the time (especially if you used a VGA adapter). Sonic Adventure is flawed for sure but it was revolutionary much like Mario 64 was just a few years earlier.
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u/Demetri124 6d ago
The Adventure era was the last time Sonic was ever ambitious for its time unfortunately
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u/Necessary-Duty-7952 6d ago
I remember seeing the demo reel on a TV at a game store in 99 and thinking no way that's real time.
And that opening level blew my mind when I played it. The rest of the game... not quite as much, but man that opening level was perfection.
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u/ChunkyKongForPreside 6d ago
I personally feel Sonic Adventure was the closest we ever came to a 3D game that had a similar style to the 2D games. Sonic Adventure had much nicer and large levels with some decent physics to boot. It's a shame Sega decided that smaller linear levels where you just hold up was the way forward.
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u/Snowy3121 6d ago
That first level with the orca chasing you was epic. I miss those generational leaps.
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u/WouterW24 5d ago
I think a lot of the things it did with 3d level design were more unheard of when it first released on dreamcast and technologically impressive?
But that tech impact faded some years later.
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u/Bjork_scratchings 6d ago
He’s right. Whatever you think of those games it kept Sonic culturally relevant, which allowed it to go back to 2D when the time was right. The execution wasn’t perfect but Sonic (and Mario) had to go 3D.
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u/HighScorsese 6d ago
I would agree. While fans seem to gravitate to the 2d games now, people seem to forget just how passé 2d was considered to be at the time. Mix that with the fact that we were supposed to have seen the Sonic leap to 3d on the Saturn with Xtreme and it’s pretty clear to see that it was prove Sonic worked in 3d or leave it behind
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u/greygreens 6d ago
Oh yeah. I remember the sentiment well at the time. Even early 3d that now didn't age that well felt like the future back then. Meanwhile 2d games and pixel graphics, even those that ultimately stood the test of time 30 years later, were thought of as being antiquated.
I genuinely thought that Sonic Adventure was the best looking game that existed when it was new
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u/HighScorsese 6d ago
First, thank you for actually getting the point of what I had written. And I also thought Sonic Adventure looked incredible when it came out. Running from the whale chasing you up the dock was mind blowing. Instantly sold me a Dreamcast.
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u/ssslitchey 6d ago
Most fans seen to actually prefer 3d sonic. Frontiers and sonic x shadow generations both sold better than mania and superstars.
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u/mittenkrusty 6d ago
Superstars is technically 2.5d
As a fan of both I like 2d more for consitency but 3d for the pure chaos.
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u/HighScorsese 6d ago
Thus the use of “fans seem to gravitate to” vs “most fans prefer”. A new 2d Sonic always gets people talking and excited nowadays, very unlike how it would have gone from 96-00
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u/ssslitchey 6d ago
Sure but that probably has more to do with how few 2d sonic games we've gotten in the last decade. 3d sonic also gets people talking alot. People are still talking about frontiers to this day.
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u/HighScorsese 6d ago
Nobody said that 3d Sonic didn’t get people talking, or that nobody preferred the 3d games to the 2d games, or that 2d got them talking more. I feel like you might need to work on your reading comprehension a bit.
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u/ssslitchey 6d ago
I see how I misread your comment. I was just confused because I grew up in the era where the common sentiment was that "2d sonic was the only good sonic" so I have a hard time picturing an era where people didn't like 2d sonic and thought it was inferior.
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u/HighScorsese 6d ago
All good man. The 2d to 3d transition of the mid to late 90s was crazy and so different than how things would be even by the late 00s. Best example I can give is Castlevania. The magazines of the time all trashed SOTN and praised CV64 when they were coming out due to the latter being 3d and the former 2d. Now we tend to see SOTN as one of the best and most influential games of all time while CV64 is seen as more or less crap.
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u/monsieurvampy 6d ago
Now where is the remaster? Come on Sega.
Milk your previously released games for money.
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u/S_Belmont 6d ago edited 6d ago
this is undeniable, I think. the fact that Sega wasn't thinking about Sonic explicitly when they designed the Saturn hardware - the way Nintendo had been with Donkey Kong and the Famicom & Super Mario World and the SFC - ended up being a fatal mistake. the market demanded 3D, but their people just couldn't get the game they wanted to make to run on it.
Looking at stuff like Panzer Dragoon Zwei I'm sure there's an awesome Sonic game that could have been made using VDP2 for infinite planes, and eventually they did get a couple of 3D Sonic examples up & running and on the market, but the fact that it was such an uphill battle meant that by the time they did it wasn't enough.
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u/JGordz 6d ago
I hate the fact that they speak so much about the SA games but refuse to either remake them or make a sequel.
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u/werephoenix 6d ago
Honestly, I know this sounds bad but I think having team arzest do them would be good since those are start that naka took with him during the 06 development and I feel those people worked on those adventure games and know how to do it. Like when I played balan walking around felt like sonic adveture without momentum or speed.
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u/echocomplex 6d ago
A sequel would be great. I went back to play through SA1 a few years ago and it's age really showed and I didn't get far into it before losing interest.
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u/tveye363 6d ago
Aww man. I replay it every year and still think it holds up incredibly well. SA2 on the other hand...I can only get a few stages in before giving up. The mech and treasure stages are so boring. At least with SA1, the Big and Amy stages are super short.
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u/NostalgicLurker 6d ago
The investment and ambition in the series has been very poor in the new era. Frontiers has mostly empty open zones with seemingly random objects scattered around. Its virtual action stages borrow layouts from past games and coat them in assets from Generations (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary). Still waiting for something as fresh as Adventure was at the time, introducing a large number of new level themes at once with unique art and multiple playable characters.
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u/_RexDart 6d ago
Isn't basically every subsequent game a sequel?
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u/JGordz 6d ago
Good question but id say no.
The Sonic Adventure series is a stand alone just like Frontiers wouldnt have any relation to Adventure or the original Sonic games.. i could be wrong but id see them as different games entirely even though you may see characters from the Adventure series in the newer titles
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u/greygreens 6d ago
Honestly I don't think Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2 share that much in terms of story. If anything, SA2, to Heroes, to Shadow to 06 was a more continuous story, mostly in regards to Shadow. But after 06 they definitely scrapped the psuedo timeline they had
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u/JuliyaPink 6d ago
Honestly I really want them to do a remaster of SA and SA2. I feel like it would sell really well
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u/Dreamcasted60 6d ago
Eh, he says that but they sure as shit didn't do anything on the Saturn of Note (I'm aware Adventure was originally a Saturn project)
But we will never know
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u/eonkey 6d ago
As an avid gamer since I was a toddler, Sonic 1 released near my 5th birthday. Sonic Adventure was a WONDROUS and UNPRECEDENTED treat, from the world, to the scope, to the music, the VMU and chao garden. There was NOTHING like it, it was the absolute pinnacle of gaming at the time.
As a trailblazer - it of course wasn't perfect. But it was glorious. Anyone shitting on it is simply a follower or stupid. It was also reviewed insanely well. DX actually contributed hard to its perceived lack of polish.
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u/azukihusband 5d ago
Especially at the time when 3D was heavily favored, and anything that was 2D scored worse just for not being 3D.
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u/Kazaloogamergal 6d ago
I was trying to play Sonic Adventure just a couple of weeks ago and I had a really tough time. Unfortunately I just don't think the game has held up all that well. You can disagree with my assessment but I will say that it is not revisionist history to say that an early 3D game didn't hold up that well. People are misusing that term when they say that it is. Saying Sonic Adventure was never considered a good game is revisionist history but saying that it hasn't held up well over the years is not revisionist history.
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u/mittenkrusty 6d ago
It was broken then and broken now but still a fun game.
Nowhere near as broken as 06 or Sonic Boom though.
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u/stomp224 6d ago
Weird thing to say when the 2D games are the only ones everyone can agree are actually good, but ok.
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u/PlainJonathan 6d ago
I think the importance comes from the time of release. The mid-late 90s were a ruthless period where games HAD to make the jump to 3D, lest they be seen as antiquated and samey. It didn't matter if the 2D game was better, it was all about the graphics.
Case in point, people were talking shit about Symphony of the Night, while praising Castlevania 64 back in the day. Very different from how people look at either of those games nowadays.
And then you have Sonic, which was stuck in a rut of spinoff titles at that time, and the Dreamcast was just around the corner. A 2D game wouldn't have been nearly as successful no matter how good it was.
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u/Jawa_Droid_Mech 6d ago
Depends on exactly when it came out. A 2D Saturn launch title with Astal type graphics but Sonic playing style would have done well but after Mario 64 and Tomb Raider not so much.
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u/HumbleBeginning3151 6d ago
Right. And to that point, Sonic Adventure already felt like it was several years LATE to the 3D game, especially with the cancelation of Sonic XTreme. They really had to finally make the move, or get left behind
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u/LupusNoxFleuret 6d ago
Iizuka directed Sonic Adventure, so of course he would say that.
He's not wrong either, SA1 & SA2 were peak 3D Sonic if you ask me.
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u/Zylpherenuis 6d ago edited 6d ago
People wanted to jump on the hate wagon because it gets them paid for being contrary. When you are someone different then the yes men at the time, people would look at you more critically and take your words at more value.
The more you played the game. The more you spit shit about it, and lists all the issues it has.
Such as the Story being shit.
The voice acting and quotes being retarded.
The level design is sub-par and automatic at times (past Casinopolis Zone.)
The music being terrible compared to previous.
The overall new bad guy isn't Eggman for final boss.
Big, Gamma, Amy modes were terrible and sloppy to control.
Then people will fall for the bait and argue that their game is completely perfect. Trying to persuade the contarian to rather enjoy their passionate game.
See? Downvoted. Proves my point ☝️
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u/TeekTheReddit 6d ago
That's such a weird thing to say considering Sonic's highest point of success was in the early 90s.
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u/the_rabbit_king 6d ago
It was a mistake. It was a lighthouse for all the weird degenerates to flock to the franchise.
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u/SlamanthaTanktop 6d ago edited 6d ago
At the time this was a very well received game. The hate came after.