Sonic-16
From Sonic Retro
| Sonic the Hedgehog |
|---|
| System(s): Sega Mega Drive[1] |
| Developer: Sega Technical Institute[1] |
| Development timeframe: 1993-11[2][1] |
| Genre: Action |
| Number of players: 1 |
| State before cancellation: Early in development |
Sonic-16, also known as Sonic the Hedgehog[3], was a pitch for a planned Mega Drive entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, conceptualized by Sega Technical Institute's Peter Morawiec[1] and demonstrated to Sega of America management around November 1993.[2] Based on the then-upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog television series, the pitch was created shortly after the completion of Sonic Spinball, but was reportedly vetoed by Yuji Naka himself and ultimately passed on.[1]
Contents
Gameplay
Sonic-16's pitch video shows a playable Sonic the Hedgehog in an area resembling Robotropolis, dealing with enemy security cameras and SWATbots. he eventually he meets up with Sally Acorn and enters a building, ending the demo. Sonic moves at a slower pace than previous Mega Drive games (despite Morawiec's intentions to eventually contrast these with traditional faster-moving sections[1]), but boasts a new selection of moves to compensate. While still a side-scroller, it also depicts Sonic moving in and out of the camera like a beat-'em-up. He is also able to hold his back to the wall to evade detection and peek around corners, can grab and pull himself up onto ledges, and perform a "Ring Attack" move - where his own rings are thrown to destroy enemies. A mid-air "Buzzsaw!!" move is used to clear obstacles, and a "Spike Blast" (also performed in mid-air) shoots quills in eight directions.[2]
Production credits
- Concept & Demo: Peter Morawiec
- Graphics & Animation: Peter Morawiec, John Duggan
- Source: In-pitch credits[2]
History
Development
By the middle of 1992, Sonic the Hedgehog had become a big business for Sega of America, which was experiencing unprecedented growth as a result. To capitalize on this momentum, the company hired Disney's Roger Hector, with the intent of using his experience to transform Sega Technical Institute into a Sonic-focused studio.[1] Shortly after development on Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball had concluded, Hector took Yuji Naka's Japanese side of STI (along with a few American members, including Peter Morawiec) to DIC Animation in Burbank, California, where they were shown an early version of what would become the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series. The team wasn't too interested in the concept, but Hector wanted them to make a spin-off regardless.[1]
To this end, Peter Morawiec designed a gameplay format which allowed for more story and adventure than previous entries in the franchise. His familiarity with creating demos for Amiga personal computers helped him create a pitch video, titled Sonic-16, alongside John Duggan (STI’s Art Director), who created the title screen and helped with the character sprites). The demo was developed in the Amiga graphics editor Brilliance, and completed in about a week's time.[1]
Morawiec recalls that animating fast-scrolling backgrounds in Brilliance was particularly difficult, and as a result, the pitch came off as slow-paced (despite Morawiec's intention for fast-moving segments[1]). Shown to management sometime around November 1993[2], the demo was also reportedly made its way to Yuji Naka himself, who gave it the thumbs-down. As Morawiec puts it, "The cartoon wasn’t even out, so banking on its success would’ve been premature, and too many spin-offs for a fresh new franchise are likely to do more harm than good."[1] Ultimately, the decision was made not to develop the game, with STI moving on to concentrate on Comix Zone instead.[1]
Legacy
Despite Sonic-16 sometimes being attributed as an early development phase to the equally-unreleased Sonic X-treme[4], the two projects are unrelated.[5][6] In fact, Stieg Hedlund and other developers have confirmed X-treme was initially conceived as a title for the 32X and not the Mega Drive.[5] Chris Senn himself further clarified the issue in an April 2007 interview, recalling "Sonic Xtreme went through so many title and platform changes, that it’s impossible to consider the initial Sonic-16 pitch by Peter Morawiec the same game as what became Xtreme later on."[6]
Development material
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Interview: Peter Morawiec (2007-04-20) by Sega-16
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 File:Sonic16 MD pitch.mp4
- ↑ File:Sonic-16 Title.png
- ↑ Interview: Mike Wallis (2007-06-19) by Sega-16
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Interview: Stieg Hedlund (2006-12-15) by Sega-16
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Interview: Chris Senn (2007-04-03) by Sega-16
| Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems | |
|---|---|
   |
1991 Sonic the Hedgehog | Sonic Eraser 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog CD | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine | Sonic Spinball 1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | Sonic & Knuckles 1995 Chaotix | Sonic Classics 1996 Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island |
| Unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog games |
|---|
        |