Sonic Team

Background
Sonic Team is a major development studio within Sega, handling the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as well as the NiGHTS and Phantasy Star game series. The initial team was formed in 1990 by Takashi Iizuka, Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara. Following their first game, Sonic the Hedgehog, which was a huge success for the Genesis in 1991, the team stayed dormant until 1996, when they were officially incorporated as "Sonic Team". In 1999, twelve members of the team relocated to San Francisco, California and formed "Sonic Team USA" (later "Sega Studios USA"), but eventually moved back to Japan in 2008.

1st Logo (June 23-July 26, 1991)
Logo: On a black background, we see the text "SONIC TEAM". Below it is "PRESENTS” all in lettering.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Sonic Mega Collection for Nintendo GameCube, Sonic Mega Collection Plus on PS2 and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (February 11, 1995-)
Logo: On a black or white background, we see a silhouette image of Sonic's head with the text "SONIC TEAM" in the same font from the Sonic games in the same color. Above the text is "CREATED BY".

Variants:
 * On prototype Xbox and GameCube releases of Sonic Heroes (before 10.13) and Shadow the Hedgehog, only the logo is shown with no text shown above it. Later Sonic games would feature this variant.
 * On NiGHTS into Dreams, a 3D image of Sonic's head in with a  outline rotates horizontally into view, while a group of glass letters that make up "SONIC TEAM" zoom out and rotate to face us. The letters become 2D and white as they face us, and "PRESENTS" fades in underneath "SONIC TEAM".
 * On Sonic Jam, the words "SONIC TEAM" in 3D spin about before joining together. The Sonic head then appears in-between the words as "PRESENTS" in spaced-out letters swipes in from the right and settles underneath the logo. The Sonic head glows yellow with the ring sound.
 * On Burning Rangers, the Sonic Team logo with Sonic's head in-between the words "SONIC" and "TEAM" fades in. The logo is white and shines for a second before turning into its normal colors.
 * On Sonic Adventure, the logo whizzes in on an ocean background and slowly zooms up. The logo is similar to the one used in the Sonic Jam variant.
 * On Sonic Mega Collection, the text "COMPILED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF" is seen above the logo rather than "CREATED BY".
 * On the Puyo Puyo games since 2001, the logo appears with the Sega logo with "PRESENTED BY" above the logo below.
 * In trailers for Sonic Forces, the logo is dark gray with concrete texturing.
 * In the ending credits for Sonic Forces where it starts inside the tower (with a shiny bloom effect) in Eggman Empire Fortress, an in-credit version appears from outside the black 16:9 box and scrolls up until it stops above it. Then it disappears seconds after the box fades out in the Metropolis location.

FX/SFX: The logo fading in and out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants: On the first four games that used this ident, it included a jingle, which consisted of a whoosh noise followed by an echoing female voice whispering "Sonic Team" and a slightly low-pitched ring sound from the Sonic games that also echoes.
 * On NiGHTS into Dreams, simply the jingle plays.
 * On Sonic Jam, the whoosh at the start is accompanied by the sound of wind blowing.
 * On Burning Rangers, there is no whoosh, but a calm 5-note jingle instead. The voiceover is heard with a quicker echo, and instead of the ring sound from the Sonic games, the sound you hear when you lose all your rings is heard.
 * On Sonic Adventure, the jingle is accompanied by synthesized crashing of waves.
 * On NiGHTS Journey of Dreams, the whoosh in the jingle is missing, the voiceover is different, and the ring sound is normal pitch.

Availability: Common.
 * The standard logos are seen on almost every Sonic game developed by the studio starting with Sonic Adventure. On the PC port of Sonic Heroes, the logo was not used, but is stored as a leftover in the texture archive packed in "adv_title.one".
 * The variants listed above are seen on the aforementioned games on which they are seen. It was first seen on NiGHTS Into Dreams for Sega Saturn.
 * The Puyo Puyo variant can be only found on Puyo POP, Puyo POP Fever, Puyo Puyo Fever 2 Chu!, Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary, Puyo Puyo 7, Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary and many other Puyo Puyo games since 2001.

Editor's Note: None.