'Sonic the Hedgehog' creator charged with murder

Naoto Oshima

Naoto Oshima, creator of the popular video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, was charged with murder today in Osaka, Japan. Naoto allegedly ran down a former colleague in his car around 8am local time. The victim, Takashi Iizuka, was the head of Sonic Team, the company which makes the Sonic the Hedgehog video games.


According to police, Naoto is said to have become increasingly frustrated with the handling of the Sonic character. Ratings for Sonic games since the mid-1990s have consistently dropped year after year, and consumers cite quality issues. A former Sonic Team employee (who chooses to remain anonymous) has said management became concerned only with money, and focused on getting sub-par games out the door as fast as possible.

Naoto left Sega in 1998 after becoming upset with how the company was being run. He, along with other former Sega-ites, formed Artoon, a company which later released a variety of games on several systems, including Yoshi's Island 2 for the Nintendo DS.

Big the Cat

After a recent announcement by Takashi that Sonic Team would be creating a new game based on Big the Cat (a minor character in the Sonic universe), Naoto was quoted as saying, "I can't take it anymore. I'm going to smash his [expletive] head in."

Naoto is being held on a ¥100,000,000 bond (approx. $1.2 million USD). He is expected to face trial in May, and could face up to 50 years in prison, or the equivalent in torture (as an example, one year of prison can be paid off by watching every Twilight movie, one after another. None have been known to survive this).

For more details, visit www.bogusnews.nard/aprilfools.