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The greatest Sonic game we never got to play

A brilliant 3D Sonic game? On the Saturn? It very nearly happened. We talk to one of the designers of the one that got away

Words: David Houghton, GamesRadar UK

Cut to later in the year. Despite the hiccups of platform changes and alterations to the staff line-up, the Sonic X-treme team was finally getting into its stride and starting to produce some very exciting results. The game was already shaping up to be an incredibly fresh, invigorating and downright drool-worthy reinvention of Sonic. It was a tight, focussed extension of what the 16-bit games had been, marrying exhilerating bursts of speed with inventive platforming and exploration.

Resident programming guru Ofer Alon had created a striking ‘fish-eye lens’ camera engine which gave the game a spell-bindingly hypnotic, spherical look, long before Mario ever thought of going off-world. The game’s mechanics were already incorporating multi-directional gravity, levels which flipped and spun around Sonic, and all kinds of joyous, upside-down, inside-out, ring collecting malarky. If you’ve watched any of the videos in this feature yet, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. The game was shaping up to be the 3D Sonic that we still dream about today.

The team was split into two factions. One, led by Senn and Alon, beavered happily away on the main game levels, while the other, headed up by irrepressable human-dynamo Chris Coffin, worked on a more free-roaming, ‘arena-style’ 3D engine for the game’s many boss fights. The future of Sonic, the Saturn, and Sega itself was looking great.

However…


 
12 Comments
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Stuffgamer1  - 8 months 5 days ago 
Interesting article. I first heard of Sonic X-treme in Nintendo Power a couple months ago, and it keeps coming back ever since (especially on this site).

Even so, I must say that I don't like the looks of this game AT ALL! No disrespect to the people who worked their butts off to make this thing, but to me, it looks HORRIBLE! Navigation appears to be the absolute worst the series has ever encountered, and the 3D control looks even clunkier than some modern versions. Again, I stress that I don't want to devalue anybody's work, insult anyone, or anything like that, but this is my honest opinion on the matter.

I feel that all in all, Sonic should have never left 2D, period. But since he did (and I'm sure I'm going to be flamed for this one), I say that Sonic Unleashed is one of the best of the bunch. The night levels get a level of bashing they DO NOT deserve, and everybody can more or less agree that the day levels are awesome (any cheap deaths are caused by problems the series has had since game 1).

I'm not even a die-hard Sonic fanboy (grew up with Nintendo, and bought a Genesis on Ebay a few years ago), but I still think it's horrible how he's constantly attacked and ridiculed, when his games aren't even half as bad as people say (barring Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, whose demo I couldn't stand, and whose story looked NAUSEATING based on things I've seen on this site).

Sonic as a series deserves a good deal more respect than it's given lately (and Sonic IS better than real hedgehogs, thank you very much!). As with most things in this world, he's bashed so much that it's literally IMPOSSIBLE for his stuff to be as bad as people say.

Well, that's my crazy-butt long rant. I do ask that people don't go about flaming me TOO much. All I did is tell the truth, and a lot of you know it. Dozens of games have problems as bad as Sonic titles and worse every year, but his get the most negative talk, and for no good reason whatsoever.
NeoKef  - 7 months 23 days ago 
To the guy above me, keep in mind those vids are demos. With further editing, detail, and better movement controls the game would have been different.
OneWithWaves  - 7 months 23 days ago 
Ugh. Bernie Stolar. The world would have been a better place without you. "Saturn is not in our future"?! STOLAR is not in our future. Had this guy not been in SEGA at the time people would probably be playing SEGA's newest console and Sonic would get the respect he had back in the Genesis days. (Genesis was the USA's Mega Drive for those of you across the pond)
minimaxi  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Tragic. But I do find the fish-eye world a bit disorienting, but it certainly shows flavor, and a glimmer of hope for Saturn.
Magic_OF_Mayhem  - 7 months 19 days ago 
What a missed oppurtunity. Things would be different fo Sega, we would be playing the Dreamcast 2 and the Sonic and Mario would still be well and alive in school playgrounds.
Although I tuned out after the (in my opinion) great Sonic Adventure game for the dreamcast, I never really did like Sonic after he became "edgey" and everyone of his games had to be stuffed with obnoxiously cute characters( We're paying for a Sonic game, not a Cream the rabbit game!). Eventually though, I hope Sega will find a good game for Sonic.
AuthorityFigure  - 6 months 29 days ago 
That software looks truly progessive. What a damn shame.
Monkeylink  - 6 months 16 days ago 
ahhhh I remember the 2-d Sonic ahhhh those were the good days
waffledragon33  - 4 months 18 days ago 
damm
yoshihunter  - 4 months 17 days ago 
looks like a early mario galixie
wiigamer024  - 4 months 16 days ago 
I remember hearing about this game when I was younger, and I was SOOOOO waiting for it. Only to realize that it was cancelled. Damn, I was pissed that day. I remember my cousin coming in my room, asking me if I wanted to play STH2 with him or something, and I gave him this angry look like, "Why the F**K you even asking me, leave me alone." Then like, 2-3 days later, I felt better again.

Man, I just wish that game was released...
Kikyabut2  - 4 months 9 days ago 
it looks similar to mario galaxy, in that its spherical and confusing. it looks like it would have been great, if they had just moved back the release date a little further.
lukel127  - 4 months 1 day ago 
They have a beta at http://www.emuparadise.org/Betas/
I havent tried it but thought you would like to know
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