Sonic's Creative Officer Reveals the Clever Workaround That Lets Sonic Fire Guns in Fortnite

Takashi Iizuka, a key figure in Sega's Sonic franchise, recently explained to IGN's Jeffrey Vega the unique challenge the company faced in bringing the Blue Blur to Fortnite as a playable skin.

While Shadow is known as an edgy, gun-wielding anti-hero, Sonic is a completely different character. The upbeat hedgehog relies on his incredible speed and, occasionally, the power of the Chaos Emeralds to defeat enemies—never a firearm.

That's why Sega hesitated when Epic Games first approached them with the idea of adding Shadow and Sonic to Fortnite, according to Sonic Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka. Fortunately, they found a creative solution: introduce a new Sonic variant.

"Epic Games came and spoke with us a couple years ago about putting Sonic in Fortnite, but Sonic is a character that will never hold a gun," Iizuka told us. "And when thinking about the design of Fortnite, it was really hard to think about Sonic being in the game. But this time, we were able to take creative liberties and created Android Sonic."

Similar to Metal Sonic, the team designed an Android version of the character that could realistically wield a shotgun, allowing a Sonic variant to do the shooting as a clever workaround.

"Because we made this Android version of Sonic, we were able to get this Android Sonic into Fortnite, have him hold a gun, and have him be able to really play inside Fortnite and be integrated into the game," Iizuka explained.

This week's Shop is going full adventure mode 👀 pic.twitter.com/thT6CMd7Vq

Of course, this meant tweaking his design to fit the game—most notably, giving him longer legs.

"One of the things that’s really important in Fortnite is to be able to have all the weapons and items and things to be used amongst all the different characters. So, if we had our regular version of Sonic in there, it really wouldn’t work. Like, you couldn't use all the items and things to apply to your character," he continued.

"We needed to have a character shape that is similar to all the other Fortnite characters. That was something that Epic Games said was really important, that we need to make sure we have the same shapes as all the other characters. And from there, it was really working with the Epic Games team on making sure the Android version really felt like a Sonic character but still fit the requirements of what the body proportions and shapes needed to be."

Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and even Dr. Eggman are now available in Fortnite, along with a new area inspired by Green Hill Zone. For more insights, check out our full interview with Takashi Iizuka, or catch up on the latest Fortnite news.