A former Sega artist took to social media today with previously unseen art of a lost Sonic the Hedgehog character developed for Sonic Adventure.
Satoshi Okano worked at Sega for 10 years, starting in 1996, and is best known as the character designer for the Dreamcast classic, Samba de Amigo. Okano also worked on the Sonic franchise at numerous points during his time at Sega. One of his most notable contributions is a magazine ad for the Sega Saturn compilation game Sonic Jam, which portrayed a taller, slimmer Sonic. This artwork would form the basis of the “modern” Sonic character designs used in Sonic Adventure onwards. Today, Okano took to social media to share old artwork he “excavated” from storage, primarily related to his work on Samba de Amigo. However, one particular piece of artwork provides context for an unknown early character who never fully materialized.
Okano shared an image of a unique spider-like Sonic character. According to Okano, the character is a spider girl, whom Sonic Team had planned to use in Sonic Adventure. While the character never fully materialized, she does make an appearance in the final game: she can be found in an in-game advertisement that players can see on the iconic Speed Highway stage. While Okano had previously clarified that the Speed Highway texture featured a spider girl, he had never shared any artwork of her before now. The in-game texture is both tiny and heavily stylized, so Okano’s recovered artwork offers the first clear look at the cryptic spider girl character.
Okano has not further elaborated on the role the spider girl was intended to have before being reduced to only appearing on a poster, nor has he offered any potential names — if the character was even developed enough to receive one. The spider girl is not the only arthropodic character the series has seen, as Charmy Bee was introduced in the ill-fated Sega 32x game Knuckles’ Chaotix, and more recently, IDW Publishing’s Sonic comics prominently introduced a museum curator named Jewel the Beetle. The unnamed character’s feminine features also invite comparisons to series mainstay Rouge the Bat, who wouldn’t debut until Sonic Adventure 2.
While it’s unlikely that Okano’s character will ever rematerialize in future Sonic games, the artwork provides an interesting look at the development of one of the most beloved installments in the franchise and might serve to sate the curiosity of longtime fans who noticed this furtive character on in-game posters. Sonic fans looking to meet brand-new characters may want to check out Sonic Superstars, available now on all major gaming platforms.
Source: X
