Naoto Ohshima

Naoto Ōshima
Place of birth: Osaka, Japan
Date of birth: 1964-02-26 (age 58)
Company(ies): Sega of Japan, Sonic Team, Artoon
Role(s): Artist, Character Designer, Director
Education: Kyoto Seika University (1986)

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Naoto Ōshima (大島 直人) is a Japanese artist and former Sega of Japan and Sonic Team developer, artist, and director, most known as the original designer of the characters 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 into Dreams, 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

• Iri-san (Dreamcast;
  No results
  9999) — Designer
• Phantasy Star (Master System;
  1987) — Design (as Rockhy Nao)
• Space Harrier 3D (Master System;
  1988) — Art Designer (as Bigisland)
• Kujaku Ou (Master System;
  1988) — Designer (as Big Island)
• Phantasy Star II (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Designers (as BigIsland)
• Super League (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Fielder Designer (as Big Island)
• Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu () — Art Director (as BigIsland)
• Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu (Mega Drive;
  1989) — Art Director (as BigIsland)
• SpellCaster (Master System;
  1989) — Designer (as Big Island)
• Fatal Labyrinth (Mega Drive;
  1990) — Designer (as Big Island)
• Sonic Eraser (Mega Drive;
  1991) — Special Thanks (as BigIsland)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive;
  1991) — Character Design (as BigIsland)
• Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Mega-CD;
  1993) — Director (as Naoto Oshima)
• Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Windows PC;
  1996) — Director (as Naoto Oshima)
• SegaSonic the Hedgehog (System 32;
  1993) — Special Thanks (as N.Ohshima)
• Chaotix () — Original Character Concept
• Chaotix (32X;
  1995) — Original Character Concept
• NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Director
• NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — NiGHTS Designer
• NiGHTS Original Soundtrack (CD;
  1996) — Supervisor
• Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (Mega Drive;
  No results
  9999) — Advisors (SOJ) (as Naoto Oshima)
• Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (Saturn;
  No results
  9999) — Advisors (SOJ) (as Naoto Oshima)
• Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Director
• Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn;
  1996) — Visual Designers
• Sonic Jam () — Supervisor
• Sonic Jam (Saturn;
  1997) — Supervisor
• Sonic R (Saturn;
  1997) — Graphic Advisors (as Naoto Oshima)
• Sonic R (Windows PC;
  1998) — Graphic advisors (as Naoto Oshima)
• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Director
• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Graphic Artist
• Burning Rangers (Saturn;
  1998) — Character Designer
• Sonic Team "PowerPlay" (CD;
  1998) — Special Thanks
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast;
  1998) — Story event coordinator
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast;
  1998) — Event motion designers
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast;
  1998) — CG movie producer
• Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast;
  1998) — Opening movie editor
• Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis () — Character Design (as BigIsland)
• Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (Game Boy Advance;
  2006) — Character Design (as BigIsland)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (anime) (1996) — Supervisor
• 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.)

Magazine articles

Main article: Naoto Ohshima/Magazine articles.

Interviews

Some or all of the following content should be mirrored on Sega Retro (or Retro CDN).

• Interview: Naoto Ohshima (2009-12-04) by Gamasutra
• Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima interview by Saturn Power (July 1997)

Photographs

Main article: Photos of Naoto Ohshima

External links

• Naoto Ohshima at Twitter
• Sega Stars: Naoto Ohshima article by Ken Horowitz at Sega-16