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 CD
The Sega CD's flagship game, "Sonic CD" was conceived as an enhanced port of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", but was reworked after lackluster sales of "Sonic 2" in Japan. Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima directed and Sega developers designed the game to show off the technical capabilities of the Sega CD. The game features the debuts of Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, and includes animated cutscenes produced by Toei Animation. Two soundtracks were composed for the game: the original score was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, while the North American score was composed by members of Sega Technical Institute.