From Sega Retro
Naoto Ōshima (also Ohshima or Osima) is a Japanese national and former SEGA employee that was the character designer of Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman. Ohshima gained notoriety at Sega's Sonic Team for creating characters and playing integral roles in the development of games like Phantasy Star, NiGHTS, and Sonic Adventure.
After leaving Sonic Team, he formed an independent game company called Artoon, which he is currently president of. There he went on to work on such games as Pinobee and Blinx: The Time Sweeper.
Production History
- Phantasy Star (1987) — Design (as Rockhy Nao)
- Space Harrier 3D (1988) — Art Designer (as BigIsland)
- SpellCaster (1988) — Designer (as Big Island)
- Phantasy Star II (1989) — Designer (as BigIsland)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive Version) (1991) — Character Design (as BigIsland)
- Fatal Labyrinth (1991) — Designer (as Big Island)
- Sonic Eraser (1991) — Special Thanks (as BigIsland)
- Sonic CD (1993/1995) — Director
- SegaSonic the Hedgehog (1993) — Special Thanks (as N. Ohshima)
- Knuckles' Chaotix (1995) — Original Character Concept
- NiGHTS into Dreams (1996) — Director, NiGHTS Designer
- Christmas NiGHTS (1996) — Director, Visual Designer
- Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (Mega Drive Version) (1996) — Advisor (SOJ) (Sega) (as Naoto Oshima)
- Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (Saturn and PC Versions) (1996/1997) — Advisor (SOJ) (Technical Support) (as Naoto Oshima)
- Sonic Jam (1997) — Supervisor
- Sonic R (1997/1998) — Graphic advisor (Sega Enterprises Ltd.) (Sega) (as Naoto Oshima)
- Burning Rangers (1998) — Director, Graphic Artist, Character Designer
- Sonic Adventure (1998) — Story event coordinator, Event motion designer, CG movie producer, Opening movie editor
- Pinobee: Wings of Adventure (2001) — Director, Character Designer
- The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood (2002) — Art Director
- Blinx: The Time Sweeper (2002) — Director, Game Designer
- Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space (2004) — Director, Game Designer
- Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (2004) — Producer
- Yoshi's Island DS (2006) — Producer
- Blue Dragon (2006) — Executive Producer
- Lost Odyssey (2007) — Special Thanks
- Away Shuffle Dungeon (2008) — Character Designer
- FlingSmash (2010) — Senior Producer
He's been listed in game credits under the nickname "Big Island", which is a literal translation of his surname.
Yuji Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara often gets the credit for his work on the Sonic series, because of his close association with the series.
Interviews
