| Naoto Ohshima | |
| Native Name: | 大島 直人 |
| Birth Date: | 26 February 1964 |
| Birth Place: | Osaka, Japan |
| Other Names: | Big Island |
| Occupation: | Character designer, game producer |
(born February 26, 1964) is a Japanese artist and video game designer, best known for designing Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman characters from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.[1] Although Yuji Naka created the original tech demo around which Sonic gameplay was based, the character in his prototype was a ball that lacked any specific features.[2] Sonic Team considered numerous potential animal mascots before deciding on Ohshima's design, with an armadillo or hedgehog being the top choices because their spikes worked well with the concept of rolling into enemies.[3]
After leaving Sonic Team, Ohshima formed an independent game company called Artoon in 1999. There he went on to work on such games as Pinobee (2001), (2002), and (2004). In 2010, Artoon was absorbed into AQ Interactive, and Ohshima and other key members of Artoon left to form Arzest. Early in his career, he was credited under the nickname "Big Island" in a number of games, which is a literal translation of his family name.
| Year | Game | Role | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1987 | Phantasy Star | Designer | |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 1988 | Space Harrier 3-D | Artist | |
| SpellCaster | Designer | |||
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 1989 | Phantasy Star II | ||
| Tommy Lasorda Baseball | ||||
| Last Battle | Art director | |||
| 1990 | Fatal Labyrinth | Designer | ||
| 1991 | Sonic the Hedgehog | Character designer | ||
| scope=row | 1993 | Sonic CD | Director | |
| scope=row | 1995 | Knuckles Chaotix | Original character concept | |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 1996 | Nights into Dreams | Director, character designer | |
| Sonic 3D Blast | Advisor | |||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 1997 | Sonic Jam | Supervisor | |
| Sonic R | Graphic advisor | |||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 1998 | Burning Rangers | Director, character designer, graphic artist | |
| Sonic Adventure | Event motion designer, story event coordinator | |||
| scope=row | 2001 | Director, character designer | ||
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 2002 | The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood | Art director | |
| Ghost Vibration | Game designer | |||
| Director, game designer | ||||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2004 | |||
| Yoshi's Universal Gravitation | Producer | |||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2006 | Yoshi's Island DS | Senior producer | |
| Blue Dragon | Executive producer | |||
| scope=row | 2007 | Vampire Rain | Producer | |
| scope=row | 2008 | Producer, character designer | ||
| 2009 | Ju-On: The Grudge | Chief producer | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2010 | FlingSmash | Senior producer | |
| Echoshift | Producer | |||
| 2011 | Director | |||
| scope=row | 2014 | Yoshi's New Island | Development producer | |
| scope=row | 2015 | Terra Battle | Special character illustration | |
| scope=row | 2016 | Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games | Supervisor | |
| scope=row | 2017 | Hey! Pikmin | Development producer | |
| scope=row | 2021 | Balan Wonderworld | Development producer, character designer | |
| scope=row | 2023 | Sonic Superstars | ||
| scope=row | TBA | Hypergalactic | Writer |