Naoto Ohshima

Fast facts on Naoto Ohshima
Date of birth: 1964-26-2 (age 53)
Role(s): Artist, designer, director
Education: Kyoto Seika University (graduated in 1986)

Naoto Ohshima (also Ōshima) (大島 直人) is a Japanese artist and former SEGA employee who was the original character designer of Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman. Ohshima gained notoriety at Sega for creating characters and playing integral roles in the development of games like Phantasy Star, NiGHTS, and Sonic Adventure. After leaving Sonic Team, he co-founded (and later became president of) an independent game company called Artoon. There he went on to work on such games as Pinobee and Blinx the Time Sweeper. In 2010, Ohshima and other key Artoon members left the company to form Arzest, another video game development company. Ohshima currently holds the title of Executive Vice President.

Production history

• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Director
• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Graphic Artist
• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Character Designer
• Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Director
• Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Visual Designers
• Fatal Labyrinth (Mega Drive;
  1990) — Designer (as Big Island)
• Iri-san (Dreamcast;
  No results
  9999) — Designer
• Last Battle (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Art Director (as BigIsland)
• NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Director
• NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — NiGHTS Designer
• Phantasy Star (Master System;
  1987) — Design (as Rockhy Nao)
• Phantasy Star II (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Designers (as BigIsland)
• Space Harrier 3D (Master System;
  1988) — Art Designer (as Bigisland)
• SpellCaster (Mega Drive;
  No results
  9999) — Designer (as Big Island)
• Super League (Mega Drive) (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Fielder Designer (as Big Island)

• Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive version) (1991) — Character Design (as BigIsland)
• Sonic Eraser (1991) — Special Thanks (as BigIsland)
• Sonic CD (1993/1995) — Director (as Naoto Ohshima (BigIsland))
• SegaSonic the Hedgehog (1993) — Special Thanks (as N.Ohshima)
• Knuckles' Chaotix (1995) — Original Character Concept
• Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (1996/1997) — Advisor (SOJ) (Sega) (as Naoto Oshima)
• Sonic Jam (1997) — Supervisor
• Sonic R (1997/1998) — Graphic Advisor (Sega Enterprises Ltd.) (Sega) (as Naoto Oshima)
• Sonic Adventure (1998) — Story event coordinator, Event motion designer, CG movie producer, Opening movie editor
• Pinobee: Wings of Adventure (2001) — Director (Development Staff), Character Designer (Development Staff)
• The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood (2002) — Art Director
• Ghost Vibration (2002) — Game Designer (Development)
• 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 (Artoon Co., Ltd.)
• Vampire Rain (2007) — Producer
• Lost Odyssey (2007) — Special Thanks
• Vampire Rain: Altered Species (2008) — Producer
• Away: Shuffle Dungeon (2008) — Character Designer
• FlingSmash (2010) — Senior Producer
• Yoshi's New Island (2014) — Development Producer (Arzest)
• Terra Battle (2014) — Character Designer
• Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (3DS version) (2016) — Supervisor (Arzest Corp.)

Interviews

• Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima interview by Saturn Power (July 1997)
• Naoto Oshima interview by Gamasutra (December 4, 2009)