Sonic Team
The initial team formed in 1990 and was composed of developers from Sega's Consumer Development division, including programmer Yuji Naka, artist Naoto Ohshima, and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. The team took the name Sonic Team in 1991 with the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the Sega Genesis. The game was a major success that contributed to millions of Genesis sales. The next "Sonic" games were developed by Naka and Yasuhara in America at Sega Technical Institute, while Ohshima worked on "Sonic CD" in Japan. Naka returned to Japan in late 1994 to become the head of CS3, later renamed R&D #8. During this time, the division took on the Sonic Team brand but developed games that do not feature Sonic, such as "Nights into Dreams" (1996) and "Burning Rangers" (1998).
Sonic &amp; Knuckles
For the series' twentieth anniversary in 2011, Sega released "Sonic Generations", a game that remade aspects of various past games from the franchise. A remake of the Sky Sanctuary stage was made for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the game, while the Mushroom Hill level was remade for the Nintendo 3DS version of the game. "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing" features a track inspired by the Death Egg as downloadable content along with the Metal Sonic character. The sequel, "Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed", featured the same race course, and an additional new one inspired by the Sky Sanctuary stage. Re-imagined versions of the Flying Battery and Lava Reef stages, along with the Blue Sphere bonus game, appear in the 2017 game "Sonic Mania".