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Takashi Iizuka (game designer)

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Takashi Iizuka
飯塚 隆
Born (1970-03-16) March 16, 1970 (age 54)
Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Other namesIiz
Alma materTokyo Denki University
Occupations
  • Video game designer
  • producer
  • director
  • writer
Years active1992–present
EmployerSega
Notable workSonic the Hedgehog series
Nights into Dreams

Takashi Iizuka (飯塚 隆, Iizuka Takashi) (born March 16, 1970) is a Japanese video game director, producer, designer and screenwriter. Since 2008, Iizuka has been the vice president of product development for the Sonic the Hedgehog series at Sega, as well as the head of Sonic Team[1] although he has been working on games in the Sonic series since 1994.

Early career

His first collaboration with Sega involved working with Sega Technical Institute on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as a designer. Later, he helped supervise Traveller's Tales with the development of Sonic R. He was also the lead designer for Nights into Dreams, and director for Sonic Adventure.[2]

Sega

In 1999, he and a small part of Sonic Team moved to San Francisco to establish Sonic Team USA (later renamed Sega Studio USA), in order to gain feedback from the western market. Over in the U.S. his team worked on the international release of Sonic Adventure. Afterward, his team started to develop their own games, where he was the director and lead designer for Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Nights: Journey of Dreams. In an effort to further broaden Sonic's appeal to western markets, Iizuka gave western developer, Backbone Entertainment, a shot at developing Sonic titles (Sonic Rivals & Sonic Rivals 2) under his team's supervision for the PlayStation Portable console.

In 2008, Sega's American division, Sega Studio USA, was absorbed back into Sonic Team Japan, making Iizuka the producer for the Sonic series at Sonic Team and the head of the company as well. In 2016, Iizuka relocated to Los Angeles to become the VP of Product Development at Sega of America, while retaining his title as the head of Sonic Team.[3]

In 2022, it was revealed that Iizuka designed a game named Devil & Pii for the Sega Genesis in 1992, but it was never released. It would finally be released on October 27, 2022 for the Sega Genesis Mini 2, however.[4]

Legacy

Game journalist from Wired described Takashi Iizuka as a difficult man to read, as he tends to slip into corporate speak especially when discussing mixed reception of Sonic games.[5] His long time colleague and composer, Tomoko Sasaki, however described him as someone who "offered a different and fresh, almost unpredictable, way of thinking" and got along well with him from the very start.[6]

Works

Year Title Role
1993 Golden Axe III Planner
1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Game designer
Sonic & Knuckles
1996 Nights into Dreams Lead game designer
Christmas Nights Game designer
Sonic 3D Blast
1997 Sonic Jam Director
Sonic R Game designer
1998 Sonic Adventure Director, game designer, level designer
1999 ChuChu Rocket! Product support
2001 Sonic Adventure 2 Director, game designer, level designer
2003 Sonic Heroes Director, level designer
2005 Shadow the Hedgehog Director, game designer, level designer, scenario
2006 Sonic Riders Recording coordinator
Sonic Rivals Director, concept design, scenario
2007 Sonic Rivals 2
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games General producer
Nights: Journey of Dreams Director, producer, lead game designer
2008 Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Recording coordinator
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Supervisor
2009 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Director, game designer
2010 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I Producer
Sonic Colors
2011 Sonic Generations
2012 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II
2013 Sonic Lost World
2014 Puyo Puyo Tetris Project support
2015 Sonic Runners Producer
Tembo the Badass Elephant Supervisor
2016 Puyo Puyo Chronicle Project support
2017 Sonic Mania Supervisor
Sonic Forces Producer
2019 Team Sonic Racing
2022 Sonic Frontiers

References

  1. ^ "Takashi Iizuka interview by SPOnG (September 14, 2010) - Sonic Retro". info.sonicretro.org. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  2. ^ Chamberlain, Chad (20 November 2007). "Gamespeak: "NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams"". CBS. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. ^ "Sonic Team head returns to US to establish development 'hub' for franchise". MCV/DEVELOP. 2016-04-01. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
  4. ^ Orland, Kyle (2022-08-19). "Sega packs unreleased games, new arcade ports into Genesis Mini 2". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  5. ^ "Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka on how Sega is changing its game - Rob Boffard". Archived from the original on January 4, 2012.
  6. ^ Napolitano, Jayson (January 12, 2010). "A Blast From The Past: Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya NiGHTS Interview". originalsoundversion.com.
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