Takashi Iizuka, a key determine in Sega’s Sonic Franchise, informed IGN’s Jeffrey Vega in regards to the distinctive problem the corporate confronted in giving the Blue Blur a playable pores and skin in Fortnite.
Whereas Shadow is considerably well-known for being an edgy, pistol-toting anti-hero, Sonic is a completely completely different character. The yang to Shadow’s yin, Sonic is an upbeat hedgehog who makes use of his extraordinarily quick pace (and sometimes, the facility of the Chaos Emeralds) to take down enemies.
That’s why Sega balked when it was first approached by Epic video games with the thought of giving Shadow and Sonic their very own Fortnite skins, in response to Sonic Artistic Officer Takashi Iizuka. Fortunately, they have been in a position to give you a inventive answer: Why not make a brand new Sonic variant?
“Epic Video games got here and spoke with us a pair years in the past about placing Sonic in Fortnite, however Sonic is a personality that can by no means maintain a gun,” he informed us. “And when excited about the design of Fortnite, it was actually arduous to consider Sonic being within the sport. However this time, we have been in a position to take inventive liberties and created Android Sonic.”
In the identical vein as Steel Sonic, the group cooked up an Android model of the character that will be realistically able to utilizing a shotgun, thus permitting a variant of Sonic to be the one doing the capturing as a intelligent workaround.
“As a result of we made this Android model of Sonic, we have been in a position to get this Android Sonic into Fortnite, have him maintain a gun, and have him have the ability to actually play inside Fortnite and be built-in into the sport,” Iizuka defined.
This week’s Store goes full journey mode 👀 pic.twitter.com/thT6CMd7Vq
— Fortnite (@Fortnite) August 20, 2026
In fact, this meant altering his design a bit to ensure that him to suit throughout the sport — most notably, giving him longer legs.
“One of many issues that’s actually essential in Fortnite is to have the ability to have all of the weapons and objects and issues for use amongst all of the completely different characters. So, if we had our common model of Sonic in there, it actually wouldn’t work. Like, you could not use all of the objects and issues to use to your character,” he continued.
“We would have liked to have a personality form that’s much like all the opposite Fortnite characters. That was one thing that Epic Video games stated was actually essential, that we want to ensure we have now the identical shapes as all the opposite characters. And from there, it was actually working with the Epic Video games group on ensuring the Android model actually felt like a Sonic character however nonetheless match the necessities of what the physique proportions and shapes wanted to be.”
Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and even Dr. Eggman can be found in Fortnite, together with a brand new space modeled after Inexperienced Hill Zone. You possibly can take a look at extra from our interview with Takashi Iizuka, or atone for the newest Fortnite information right here.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s Information Editor. With ten years of expertise reporting on video games and leisure, she’s obtained a storied background within the preventing sport group, influencer information, and viral on-line tendencies. Discover her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
Jeffrey Vega is the Lead Social Host/Producer at IGN and might be feeding his neopets proper now. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jeffreyvega, Instagram, and IGN’s TikTok.
