In a recent behind-the-scenes feature, Sonic Team director, Morio Kishimoto, shed some light on the philosophy behind Sonic Blitz’s development.

“With Sonic Frontiers, we explored the feeling of speed and freedom in vast, open spaces,” Kishimoto stated. “For Sonic Blitz, we asked a new question: How can we make speed itself the puzzle?”

This core idea is what gave birth to the game’s two flagship mechanics:

1. The Temporal Shift System: “The time-warping environments aren’t just a visual gimmick,” explains lead level designer, Junya Okazaki. “We design each zone like a single, cohesive circuit. Then, we fracture it. The player must learn the layout of both the past and future versions and use the shifts strategically. A path that is blocked in the prehistoric era might be a crumbling highway in the future that you can use to access a new area. Speed isn’t just about going fast; it’s about timing your burst to hit the shift point at the exact right moment.”
2. The Blitz Boost: “This is our answer to making the player feel an even greater surge of power,” says Kishimoto. “It’s not an infinite resource. It’s a reward for skilled play. We want to push players to take risks—to defeat enemies instead of avoiding them, to take the high road full of tricks instead of the safe path below. The Blitz Boost is your tool to literally bend the level to your will, creating new paths for a few glorious seconds.”

The team emphasized that their goal is to create a “tightly crafted, high-octane experience” that honors the legacy of classic Sonic level design while pushing the mechanics into entirely new, unpredictable territory.