Sonic Team Boss Says 2D and 3D Sonic Games to Remain Separate

gamerant.com:

The Sonic the Hedgehog series is most notable for changing things up between titles to varying degrees of success. Pleasing every Sonic fan possible is something that Sonic Team has notably struggled with for a rather long time. While titles such as Sonic Unleashed and Generations tried to please a fair number of fans with gameplay that mixed 2D and 3D together, it seems that isn't the direction the series will take going forward. Sonic Team has stated that it will no longer put the 2D and 3D perspectives of Sonic together anymore.

Sonic Frontiers marks the series' first foray into open world territory. For this reason, many fans have been curious as to what the next Sonic title would be like since it was formally revealed at the Game Awards. As players awaited new information, leaks surfaced, and many of these leaks made a note to mention that in the game's more linear portions, the gameplay remained 3D throughout.

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As part of an interview with Video Games Chronicle, it seems that fans now have an answer as to why this is the case. Takashi Iizuka, the current head of Sonic Team, has stated that putting both the 2D and 3D play styles together «to make everyone happy doesn't really work.» Instead of putting them together as seen in previous releases, Iizuka states that now it's a matter of «delivering the game formats that people want.»

From what Iizuka claims in the interview with VGC, it seems that Sonic Team decided to follow this approach after how 2017 faired for the Sonic franchise. The leader of the team states that despite Sonic Forces' mixed reception, it was a year that the series released both a 2D and 3D title, and «everyone was happy.» This appears to be Sonic