GameSpy: First of all, what prompted to make an extreme-sports racing game out of Sonic at this time?
Yuda: What inspired me to make an extreme game? There are two reasons. I wanted to create a game where Sonic is on a board or some sort of vehicle or whatnot. When you think of that, what would Sonic look good on? His personality and characteristics naturally came about, and him being on sort of extreme-sports type of equipment.
The number two reason is that when the project got started, the original concept didn't start off with making an extreme-sports game or anything like that. The original concept was about using what we call "turbulence." We call it turbulence because this wake is created when the leader character heads off, and he creates this air wake, like a slipstream. When that wake is created, sort of like a half-pipe shape air pressure turbulence is created. The terminology we'll be using is "turbulence." The characters behind the lead player can actually ride that wake, sort of like a half pipe, and after seeing that concept the team decided to move forward with extreme or snowboard/skateboard type of gameplay.
The reason why I created that is to give every player equal chance, so that not one particular player has an advantage over the others. By riding on the wave of the turbulence, the player can move faster. At the same time, using the turbulence you can jump and reach places you wouldn't normally be able to reach, therefore you can have access to hidden shortcuts and whatnot. You basically balance out between players.GameSpy: Also, I was asking why they'd make a racing game now, at the crux of next gen ... also the series has tried racing games in the past as with Sonic Drift and Sonic R, which never continued and had sequels.
Yuda: Both Sonic R and Sonic Drift are well-created games, but when you play the game it's just an ordinary game with Sonic, inside of a car, or whatnot. With Sonic Riders, what I want to do is expose the character elements of Sonic and his team and his friends through this racing game, and also to show the unique Sonic action element that no other racing game has. Therefore making Sonic Riders an original racing game of its own, a one-of-its-kind racing game.