Naka doesn't want to work on Sonic

Sonic creator Yuji Naka has had enough of the speedy blue hedgehog.

"Right now, I want to create new things," he told Siliconera. "Even if I had the opportunity to create some kind of new Sonic game I think that's best kept within SEGA."

It would seem Naka's wish for Sonic to be "kept within" SEGA is at odds with SEGA itself. 2D retro revival Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, due for release in "late 2010", is not being made by Sonic Team or any internal SEGA studio. It's being developed by Dimps, which made the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush games.

Prope CEO Naka would love to work on a follow-up to his quirky Wii-exclusive music game Let's Tap. But poor sales mean it's unlikely.

"Personally, I would love to work on something like that [a Let's Tap sequel], but the sales weren't high so I don’t know if I can justify making another one."

Shame. We quite liked Let's Tap.

"One of the things in Let's Tap is it's not digital, you don't push a button and have the game react to it. I'm really happy with the technology we created. It senses soft touches, reads that, and puts that it into the game."

So, if not Sonic, or another Let's Tap, what's Naka working on next?

"That I can't answer," he replied when asked whether he'd seen any interesting animals lately, a question plucked straight from cloud cuckoo land.

"The reason why I can't is because the game we're developing is based on that animal I thought was interesting."

His next game is, in fact, Wii and DS title Ivy the Kiwi?, which is being published in Europe by Rising Star Games this autumn.