The Sonic Superstars team doesn't think pixel art will be a "lucrative" art solution in 10 years

 But Sonic Frontiers is built for up to two decades

The Sonic Superstars team doesn't think pixel art will be a "lucrative" art solution in 10 years

Sonic Superstars is an exciting go back to Blue Blur's 2D roots, however its new artwork fashion came about because the developers didn't think the classic approach to pixel art was "viable"; in the future. Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2023, Sonic Team Lead and Sonic Superstars Producer Takashi Iizuka (via Translator) discussed the importance of both 2D Sonic games like Superstars and 3D titles like last year's Sonic Frontiers. "When we speak approximately a brand, we clearly need a contemporary-day 3-d Sonic game"; Iizuka stated. “We additionally assume we need a traditional 2D Sonic game.These are our cornerstones that we have to have.We are increasing into movie and television, however we've but to provide both 3-D and 2D to our gaming audience .

  “We released Sonic Frontiers last year and Sonic Frontiers used the open area concept to establish sonic 3D gameplay as something that we can build over the next 10 to 20 years to continue bringing new gameplay to players - to offer experiences. It surely became an evolution of the 3-d Sonic space and we are very pleased with what the group became capable of deliver.” While Frontiers is ready to be the platform for three-D Sonic for the subsequent decades, Superstars has a barely special role. Iizuka described the game as "an evolution of Sonic's 2D gameplay"; saying, "We're looking at pixel art - it's great - but when We reflect on consideration on going similarly in 10-20 years, we do not assume it'll be a feasible fashion artwork or an exhibit for our players. In order to Move forward and really speed things up, we wanted to make sure we were presenting something that we would continue to develop and create content for the next 10 to 20 years.

 

  Iizuki's comments are certainly interesting. Pixel art style - it has achievements dating back to the mid 80's and 2018's Sonic Mania Plus is the highest rated game of the entire Sonic series. Elsewhere, indie pixel art games continue to thrive, and several high-profile games this year, including Octopath Traveler 2 and the recently released Sea of Stars, make significant use of this style. Iizuki's comments seem particularly relevant to the Sonic fan base, which may be younger than the JRPG community, but I'd be surprised to see pixel art expand in the near future.