Gotta go forward
At this point, you can't even open the Steam front page without stumbling over remake after remake (sometimes remasters, just to spice things up). To say remakes are in vogue would be an understatement: they're an almost guaranteed moneymaker that can prey on nostalgia and a lust for a 'better time' to deliver games that can offer some ephemeral reproduction of the feeling of childhood, thus protecting from the Scaries of living in the current time. And, unless you're Square Enix having the Final Fantasy VII Remake series juggle both a new story and the original as a metanarrative, remakes usually grant that sweetest of temptations: the same thing you like, forever.
However, one person who seemingly takes issue with this is Takashi Iizuka, general producer of the Sonic series. In an interview with Automaton - which also touches on Sonic’s growing multimedia empire and Sega’s experience with Sonic Racing: Crossworlds as their first live service game - Iizuka suggests the blue hedgehog won’t be getting any remakes or remasters anytime soon, citing the concepts' lack of originality and still-high development costs.
Automaton's interviewer mentions that Sonic Team hasn't really pushed into that realm of development — the closest thing is Sonic x Shadow Generations, which included a port of the original Sonic Generations alongside the completely new Shadow-centred game. Iizuka agrees, noting that "we hear all sorts of requests from the fan community for remakes and remasters, such as people asking us to port Sonic Unleashed." Despite hearing these wishes, Iizuka stands strong on the opinion that "with remakes and remasters, you're essentially providing the same experience again."
He also notes that remade or remastered games aren't necesaarily much cheaper to make than full originals, as even they need modernising beyond a simple graphical facelift. "These days," Iizuka says, "remaking an old game requires about as many resources as creating a new title. You have to remake all the graphics, and you can’t simply release the gameplay as it was back then because many things are deemed rough by modern standards."
Given their continued popularity with publishers, I’m not sure how widely shared Iizuka’s stances on remakes are, but I for one am happy to hear them. The world does not truly need a Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Heroes remake, they're fine as they are. You don't need to try to live in the nineties or naughties forever, I promise. Though, he does mention that he hears "concerns about certain games being unplayable, so I'd like to ask you to please wait a little longer", a statement which means a lot considering how many Sonic titles are locked to their original console releases, and could do with a port to free them from the GameCube. So, thank god, a PC port might mean I could finally play Shadow the Hedgehog in its original 4:3 on an RTX card, as God intended.
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