How the hedgehog keeps at speed

“Sega does what Nintendon’t”.

The slogan, from the 1990s, is one of the most famous in video game history.

It was a time when the bitter rivalry between the two Japanese game companies was its fiercest.

Today, this relationship has softened.

You can play Sonic games on Nintendo Consoles and the characters have even appeared in games together.

But does Sega try to restart the beef?

The announcement for its latest version, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, is closely like an advertisement of 1992 which claimed superiority on Nintendo.

And in August, the man in charge of the character of the mascot seemed to take a pop in Mario Kart from the summer scene of this year’s summer game.

But when the BBC Newsbeat catches up with the leader of the Sonic Takashi Iizuka team, it does not name the names.

“So I did not call any specific title, and there are a lot of racing games,” he said.

The idea that Sega is seriously trying to fight with Nintendo is unlikely, according to Chris Dring, editor -in -chief of the game company.

He suggests that Sega “has a little fun” and underlines that his new game, which is available on different consoles and on PC, has always come to sell the most opponent on the Nintendo switch.

Sega is clearly confident in his new game, he says, but there is “an element to take advantage of the popularity of Mario Kart”.

“The Sonic Conversation against Mario benefits Sonic,” he said.

The biggest challenge for longtime titles is to attract new players and to face the new giants of the game industry.

Fans stick to titles such as Fortnite, Roblox and Call of Duty – Dispute “Live Service” games which offer a rotating selection of constantly increasing content – for months, even years.

With Crossworlds, it is planned to add a rotating distribution of characters and to offer players an additional “Pass” module to access certain extras – a functionality seen in many online titles.

Mr. Iizuka says that the goal is to “make sure that we refresh the game every month and that we really have a fun experience to come back constantly”.

It is a common practice, and a game company uses to keep the players engaged as development time and costs continue to increase.

“There was a time when you publish a new game every year,” said journalist Chris.

“This is no longer what things work in video games, they often take more than five years to do.”

Chris says that drops of rolling content are a good way to maintain interest once the media threshing of a large launch has faded.

And it makes sense to “kiss” the modern game landscape, he says.

For example, he says that one of the most popular recent sound outings was an official game within Roblox.

In addition to the success of successful films, says Chris, it is a way of “introducing Sonic the Hedgehog to these players, then, let’s hope, convince them to pass and play something like Crossworlds”.

Video game companies have relied on the remakes and the remasters of older titles in recent years.

The trend had triggered hope among the unconditional fans of Sega that the remakes of the Sonic Adventure series – among the character’s first 3D outings – would also arrive.

But Mr. Iizuka insists that this is not something that his team will examine, because the new technology allows them to create “richer, more complex and more interesting worlds”.

“Instead of using all this time and energy to redo a game that people have already known, we could make a whole new game instead,” he said.

“I think the team is really interested in taking the same time, energy and efforts to really bring new experience to players.”

The position conforms to the approach of Sega to some of its other retro titles.

He is currently developing new inscriptions in long-term series such as Arcade Racer Crazy Taxi, Battler Golden Ax Hack-And-Slash and the online jet radio on the theme of skating.

The first of these renaissance projects, Ninja Adventure Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, has made its way to the short points of the game of the year of certain criticisms when it was released last month.

In the case of Sonic, the journalist Chris underlines that it is not logical that your flagship development team is working on remakes.

But it does not entirely exclude the possibility, especially since SEGA has the form of reissue of titles in the rear catalog of the character.

“If they wanted it, if they do not have it in their quality as a team, they can always outsource it to many talented people who are big fans of Sonic who could do him justice,” he said.

But, he adds, Sega does not want to be considered a retro company.

“There is a balance between doing new things and doing old things to ensure that they are a business that looks to the future and not only to be a business that counts on its past,” he said.

Listen to Newsbeat Live at 12:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. on weekdays – or listen here.