At Atlus's Second Development Division, new game development began under Masahito Tanimura's lingering worries.
Actually, Snow Bros. had another title on the Famicom, one that truly featured two snowmen. But the project currently being developed by the Second Division starred two Eskimos instead.
Compared to the blatantly pirated translation "Snow Bros.," the name "Ice Climber" was actually far better known.
The original Ice Climber had no story at all. Players only knew that two Eskimos climbed a mountain while fighting enemies, trying to reclaim vegetables stolen by vultures.
In the original Ice Climber, there was no distinction between stages either. In reality, it was a single stage that simply grew more difficult, looping endlessly after completion, with no true ending.
This was typical of early Famicom game design.
Titles like Battle City followed the same pattern—no clear ending, only more and more stages.
That was because early video games inherited their design philosophy from arcade machines, which likewise had no concept of "clearing" the game, only higher and higher scores.
As a result, early Famicom games were generally very hard—and often rather boring.
Kobayashi Tetsu, of course, had no intention of doing things that way.
This new version of Ice Climber included a simple story: a pair of Eskimo spouses have their stored vegetables stolen, and set out to climb a snowy mountain to retrieve them.
Each time they reach the summit, they see vultures dividing up the vegetables and flying off in different directions, forcing the couple to climb again to reclaim the newly scattered produce.
After thirty stages, the game ends. The husband and wife retrieve their vegetables and return home to spend a happy winter together, after which the game enters an endless mode.
Compared to the original, there was essentially no gameplay difference—just the addition of a short animation of the vultures flying away after reaching the summit, and a final scene of a small house with floating hearts when the game ends.
But with these changes, the game could finally be said to have a beginning and an end, rather than repeating hundreds of palette-swapped stages.
After presenting the proposal, Kobayashi Tetsu had no intention of staying involved in Ice Climber's later development. Everything was handed over to the Second Development Division and Satoru Iwata.
As for himself, he stayed at the Atlus garage to assist with Sonic's development, occasionally sneaking out to slack off and look for suitable office space.
In the blink of an eye, a week passed.
In the evening, Kobayashi Tetsu glanced at his wristwatch and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"Let's stop work for now. The Gaina animation is about to start."
Everyone looked up at once.
The Sonic anime was about to air?
Kobayashi Tetsu turned on the television.
Since the MS console hadn't been released yet, Sonic's anime wouldn't feature footage of the game for now. But TV Tokyo had already scheduled two full seasons, so timing wasn't an issue at all.
Kobayashi Tetsu even planned to have Gaina produce fifty-two episodes.
The first episode naturally told the story of how Sonic the Hedgehog accidentally arrived on Earth.
At exactly seven o'clock, the broadcast began.
To everyone's surprise, the screen was pitch black.
Just as Kobayashi Tetsu wondered whether the TV was broken, points of light suddenly flickered within the darkness. In an instant, they rushed in from afar toward the screen, finally settling in front of their eyes.
As the camera zoomed in, the light resolved into a spaceship. With another push-in, Sonic's upper body appeared on screen.
"Huh?"
Kobayashi Tetsu leaned a little closer to the television.
The character design was more refined than he had expected. It clearly conveyed Sonic's deep-blue hedgehog appearance, with clean, simple lines.
Though only Sonic's upper body was visible, speed lines constantly streamed behind him—a common visual technique in animation and manga to depict high-speed movement.
In the next moment, the camera shifted downward, revealing the real reason.
Sonic's upper body wasn't moving, but his lower body was running at incredible speed.
He was standing inside a hamster wheel.
So the spaceship was powered by Sonic running inside the wheel, converting the kinetic energy of his speed into thrust.
But if Sonic could run that fast on his own, why did he even need a spaceship?
Kobayashi Tetsu could only think one thing.
It's animation—don't question it! Never apply realism to gag characters!
As the image froze, a passionate young voice rang out from the TV.
"I'm Sonic! The fastest thing in the universe—Sonic!"
Kobayashi Tetsu nodded quietly.
The voice acting was solid. The voice sounded a bit older than expected, but for a non-human character like Sonic, defined by a straightforward personality, it fit perfectly.
Generally speaking, boyish characters of this age in anime were often voiced by women.
But having a male voice actor here suited Sonic surprisingly well.
The story officially began.
After descending from outer space, Sonic crash-landed on Earth. The impact damaged his ship and caused him to lose his memory.
This also explained why Sonic didn't simply run through space with his own body.
He still needed to breathe.
The ship was more like a kind of life-support capsule, ensuring Sonic could remain active while traversing space.
Though Kobayashi Tetsu still felt it was a bit far-fetched, at least it was somewhat plausible.
The amnesiac Sonic fell into a household somewhere in Tokyo, Japan, and was taken in by the Yoshida family. Even though Sonic clearly wasn't a normal lifeform, the Yoshidas accepted him without hesitation.
Much like how Nobita's family naturally accepted Doraemon, the Yoshida family paid no mind to Sonic's oddities.
Though Sonic had lost his memory, his personality remained unchanged, and he quickly blended into family life.
When confronted by extortionist thugs, Sonic fought back for the first time, smashing through them in a blaze of sparks and lightning, sending them flying all the way to the doors of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Back home, Sonic worried whether showing such extraordinary abilities would make him unacceptable to others, but the Yoshida family continued to accept him just as naturally as before.
The first episode ended there, mainly showcasing Sonic's arrival and the nature of his high-speed abilities.
With his arms crossed, Kobayashi Tetsu offered a simple evaluation.
Solid, but unremarkable.
It wasn't bad, but in an anime powerhouse like Japan, it certainly wasn't top-tier.
That said, the special effects animation was quite impressive—this was Hideaki Anno's forte, after all, as a special effects animation director.
What really surprised Kobayashi Tetsu was Sonic's voice actor.
It turned out to be Tōru Furuya—the voice of Amuro.
No wonder it felt so familiar.
The subsequent story would follow the script Kobayashi Tetsu had provided: enemies like Dr. Eggman and Shadow would appear one after another as seasonal bosses, while allies such as Knuckles would debut as both rivals and companions, eventually becoming Sonic's partners.
"Though it's conventional, its strength lies in its simple plot and brisk pacing. It's basically a story about Sonic happily living with a local family, mixed with his signature combat style. Even if the visuals and story aren't the best, as long as it maintains this level, the ratings should steadily rise."
By the time four seasons had aired and the story reached its climax, Sega would release the MS and move into the American market. After that string of announcements, Kobayashi Tetsu could smoothly follow up with one more declaration.
Sonic the Hedgehog, bundled with Sega's new MS console—now on sale to great acclaim!
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