Iizuka Says Trip Will Be An Unconventional 'Sonic' Antagonist You Can "Empathize With"

Sonic Superstars is introducing a brand new character in the form of Trip, an armor-covered creature based on a sungazer lizard. But she is notable not only for being the first Sonic character created by co-creator Naoto Ohshima in decades, but also for being an antagonist designed to have a lot more depth than your typical enemy.

In a new interview with GameInformer, Sonic franchise lead Takashi Iizuka explained the thinking behind developing this hap-hazard new foe, who is seen working with Fang the Hunter in the upcoming 2D Classic Sonic adventure. "In the past, when we've had new enemies come out, we've always had really strong, powerful enemies," he said.

"We have Infinite [from Sonic Forces]. There are lots of these kinds of, boom, they're in your face as an enemy, and you know right away that they're very strong. They're a formidable enemy and, 'Oh no! How am I going to deal with this enemy?' That's been the way enemies have been presented in the past, and we wanted to do something different.

"We don't just want to have a [new] character with no background... that's just going to 'boop' pop in the world. We really want to show a character with some kind of unique characteristics, some character backgrounds, some storytelling elements that are going to make the character unique and stand out and be a character that people can kind of relate to and empathize with and enjoy as a character in the world, not just because they're there, but because they mean something to the world."

The GameInformer piece adds that, during a run-through of the game at Sonic Team's offices, they were able to actually encounter Trip during a stage while playing as Amy. But rather than pulling a cocky stance or setting a villainous trap, Trip seemed "lost, sad and even helpless", and the player actually goes on to help the character navigate through the rest of the level. "My takeaway from that initial encounter isn't that Trip is some evil character bent on destroying our heroes, but rather there's some complexity behind her eventual turn to intimidating villain," the author Brian Shea writes.

Iizuka expanded on this point to hit home that they wanted to approach the design of Trip as something more layered than the usual 'rival with flair' or 'monster of the week' approach. "The team wanted to show that Trip is not that usual enemy, and we wanted to introduce her in a way that's not the obvious 'Oh, I'm super strong' way. When we presented Trip in the very beginning, I think she even falls on her face in the very first scene that you see her in.

"The first thing I think people will be thinking is, 'Who is she, and why is she a super strong enemy? What's going on?' We wanted to introduce the character in that way to make it different from how enemies have always been presented in Sonic games," Iizuka added.

Sounds like Trip will be an very intriguing character. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!