Difference between revisions of "Sonic X-treme"

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Sonic X-treme
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System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team, Sega Technical Institute
Genre: 3D Platform

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Sonic X-treme is a unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Sega Saturn. It was originally developed for the Mega Drive/Genesis but was moved to the Sega 32X and eventually to the Sega Saturn. It was intended to be released for the Christmas season of 1996, but due to numerous development problems the game was cancelled in 1997. It would of been the first fully 3D platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog game series. It also may have helped to boost the lagging sales of the Sega Saturn in the US.

Story

The last storyline released by Yasuhara Hirokazu and Richard Wheeler on the Sonic Xtreme Compendium website states that Eggman had rebuilt his Death Egg Fortress and Sonic is on a quest to destroy it. As he begins to teleport to it a small planet orbits in front of the Death Egg and Sonic is teleported there instead. The planet is inhabited by Badniks which will make Sonics journey to the Death Egg much tougher.

Gameplay

The concept was unique for Sonic games at the time; to further the traditional Sonic "go-anywhere-or-run-through" formula, every level would be designed in a rather tube-like fashion; Sonic would be able to walk onto walls, thus changing the direction of gravity and the rotation of the level itself. In addition, an unusual, fish-eye lens-styled camera was put into place so players could see more of their surroundings at any one given time. It is now known that at one point in the development process, there was a possibility for 4 playable characters. The characters planned were Knuckles the Echidna, a new character, Tiara Boobowski, Miles "Tails" Prower and Sonic the Hedgehog. Each character would also have had a unique gameplay style. Knuckles and Tiara would have had traditional-style play, having top-down and side-scrolling views respectively. Sonic had the fish-eye style levels, and Tails would play in first person flight mode. Tiara had the Ice Blade to fight her enemies. Sonic himself was to be equipped with a large set of new moves, including a "spin slash", a ring throwing ability, and a downward dash.

There were seven planned Zones: Jade Gully, Crystal Frost, Red Sands, Blue Ocean, Metal Blade, Galaxy Fortress, and Death Egg.

Other characters intended to be included in the game were Nack the Weasel and Metal Sonic, who would have been bosses in the final game and whose design and programming was actually finished by the time Sonic X-treme was canceled.

Development Process

Unfortunately, the game was canceled because of many, many internal problems. The game was being developed by Sega Technical Institute, a US-based developer that had worked on such games as Sonic 2, Sonic Spinball and Comix Zone. It was originally developed for the Mega Drive and concept art of this untitle STI game have been released. It was later slated for release on the Sega 32X as Sonic Mars which featured characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series. The development was shifted to the Sega Saturn as the 32X was underpowered as Sonic Mars was to be a fully 3D polygonal game and the 32X sales had dissipated. Around the time of the development was shifted to the Saturn Kosaka, the project leader, left STI. At that point the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series characters and references were dropped.

The game was being developed sperately by two teams who worked in parallel with each other with one team in charge of developing the main game engine. The fish-eye lens camera view, developed by programmer Ofer Alon, game the game a distinctive spherical appearance. Chris Coffin was tasked with creating the "boss level" portions of the game which offered a different viewpoint than that on the main game. Coffin had developed the "boss engine" work during the Sonic Mars 32X development phase.

The boss level engine prototyped different viewpoints such as top-down and side scrolling views before the final viewpoint was settled on. The boss engine was developed further as Ofer continued working on his engine on the Mac and PC. The boss level engine also started to adapt a more pastel color scheme and organic flow which was inspired by NiGHTS into Dreams.

In March 1996, Sega of Japan representatives went over to Sega Technical Institute's headquarters to check the game's progress. They were unimpressed by the progress on the main game engine. It turned out this was outdated and SOJ had left before being shown the latest version of the game engine. The SOJ representatives did like Chris Coffins boss level engine and requested the engine be incorperated into the main game instead of the existing one.

Some time after, Alon was taken off the project, and Senn left with him, leaving Coffin's team as the only one to develop the game. Producer Mike Wallis took one step further and put the team together to work in isolation and away from the company's politics, so that they can be able to finish the game before the 1996 Christmas deadline. The team practically moved into the company's office and worked sixteen hours a day.

The team started to tire and Coffin came down with pneumonia and had to withdraw from development. Since it was he that was leading the technology end and creating the engine the loss caused the project to be delayed. The Studio director informed management that the team could not continue and the game would not be shipped in time for christmas. Sega of America then decided to fall back on a backup plan, an upgraded Sega Saturn port of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island. Some time after the game was officially cancelled.

PC Version

After being taken of the project Alon, along with Senn continued development on a PC version of Sonic X-treme. It was rejected by Sega as it's PC devision had primarily released ports of existing games rather than release original games. After the game was rejected Alon left Sega.

Nights Engine

It has been stated that STI had asked to use the NiGHTs engine and that Yuji Naka the games developer threatened to quit if it was used. According to Chris Senn the engine was never used but using it was discussed at some point.[1]

Beta Auction

In September 2005 a basic demo featuring one small level was auctioned and sold to an anonymous collector for $2,500. At the end of the year a animated FIF image of gameplay was released. This version of the game was released on July 17, 2007 and is available for download. For more info see the Sonic X-treme beta auction page.

Hoax

In 2006 Sazpaimon hoaxed several people by releasing a Fake Sonic X-treme ISO. The gaming press was taken in by the prank as was much of Sonic community.

Resources

Box Art

Conceptual cover art

External Links

Sonic Xtreme Compendium - Sonic X-treme website run by developer Chris Senn.
FAQ on Sonic Xtreme Compendium.

Unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog games
Sonic's Edusoft \| Sonic the Hedgehog (home computers) \| Sonic the Hedgehog \| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 CD \| SegaSonic Bros. \| Sister Sonic \| Treasure Tails \| Pre-May 1993 Sonic arcade games \| Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition \| Sonic Sports \| Sonic Ride \| Sonic Saturn \| Sonic X: Chaos Emerald Chaos \| Sonic DS \| Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme \| Sonic Riders \| Sonic the Hedgehog: Awakening \| Sonic Central \| Sonic Demo
Sonic X-treme incarnations
Sonic Mars \| Sonic X-treme (Point Of View \| Project Condor \| SonicPC)

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems
	1996 Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island 1997 Sonic Jam \| Sonic R Demos Sonic R: Trial Version Prototypes Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (Saturn tech demo) \| Sonic R (Saturn prototype; 1997-09-10) Unreleased Sonic X-treme \| Sonic Saturn

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{outdated}}
 {{Bob|bobscreen=Sonic_X-treme_Title.png|publisher=[[Sega]]|developer=[[Sonic Team]],<br/>[[Sega Technical Institute]]|system=[[Sega Saturn]]||genre=3D Platform}}
-Sonic X-treme is an unreleased platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
+'''''Sonic X-treme''''' is a unreleased ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game for the [[Sega Saturn]]. It was originally developed for the [[Mega Drive/Genesis]] but was moved to the [[Sega 32X]] and eventually to the Sega Saturn. It was intended to be released for the Christmas season of 1996, but due to numerous development problems the game was cancelled in 1997. It would of been the first fully 3D platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog game series. It also may have helped to boost the lagging sales of the Sega Saturn in the US.
-'''''Sonic X-treme''''' was a 3D ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game for the [[Sega Saturn]].It was originally developed for the Mega Drive/Genesis but was moved to the Sega 32X and eventually to the Sega Saturn. It was intended to be released around Christmas of 1996, but after many internal development problems, it was finally cancelled in 1997. Had it been finished, it would have been the first fully 3D Sonic game and the first original Sonic title developed for the Sega Saturn.
+==Story==
+The last storyline released by [[Yasuhara Hirokazu]] and [[Richard Wheeler]] on the [[Sonic Xtreme Compendium]] website states that Eggman had rebuilt his Death Egg Fortress and Sonic is on a quest to destroy it. As he begins to teleport to it a small planet orbits in front of the Death Egg and Sonic is teleported there instead. The planet is inhabited by Badniks which will make Sonics journey to the Death Egg much tougher.
-The concept was truly unique; to further the traditional Sonic "go-anywhere-or-run-through" formula, every level would be designed in a rather tube-like fashion; Sonic would be able to walk onto walls, thus changing the direction of gravity and the rotation of the level itself. In addition, an unusual, fish-eye lens-styled camera was put into place so players could see more of their surroundings at any one given time. It is now known that at one point in the development process, there was a possibility for 4 playable characters. The characters planned were Knuckles the Echidna, a new character, Tiara Boobowski, Miles "Tails" Prower and Sonic the Hedgehog. Each character would also have had a unique gameplay style. Knuckles and Tiara would have had traditional-style play, having top-down and side-scrolling views respectively. Sonic had the fish-eye style levels, and Tails would play in first person flight mode. Tiara had the Ice Blade to fight her enemies. Sonic himself was to be equipped with a large set of new moves, including a "spin slash", a ring throwing ability, and a downward dash.
+==Gameplay==
+The concept was unique for Sonic games at the time; to further the traditional Sonic "go-anywhere-or-run-through" formula, every level would be designed in a rather tube-like fashion; Sonic would be able to walk onto walls, thus changing the direction of gravity and the rotation of the level itself. In addition, an unusual, fish-eye lens-styled camera was put into place so players could see more of their surroundings at any one given time. It is now known that at one point in the development process, there was a possibility for 4 playable characters. The characters planned were Knuckles the Echidna, a new character, Tiara Boobowski, Miles "Tails" Prower and Sonic the Hedgehog. Each character would also have had a unique gameplay style. Knuckles and Tiara would have had traditional-style play, having top-down and side-scrolling views respectively. Sonic had the fish-eye style levels, and Tails would play in first person flight mode. Tiara had the Ice Blade to fight her enemies. Sonic himself was to be equipped with a large set of new moves, including a "spin slash", a ring throwing ability, and a downward dash.
 There were seven planned Zones: Jade Gully, Crystal Frost, Red Sands, Blue Ocean, Metal Blade, Galaxy Fortress, and Death Egg.
-Other characters intended to be included in the game were Nack the Weasel and Metal Sonic, who would have been bosses in the final game and whose design and programming was actually finished by the time Sonic X-treme was canceled.
+Other characters intended to be included in the game were [[Nack the Weasel]] and [[Metal Sonic]], who would have been bosses in the final game and whose design and programming was actually finished by the time ''Sonic X-treme'' was canceled.
-Unfortunately, the game was canceled because of many, many internal problems. The game was being developed by [[Sega Technical Institute]], a US-based developer that had worked on such games as ''[[Sonic 2]]'', ''[[Sonic Spinball]]'' and ''Comix Zone''. Originally it was based on the engine [[Sonic Team]]'s at-the-time most current work - ''[[NiGHTS into Dreams]]'' - but [[Yuji Naka]] discovered this and had their usage of the engine pulled. As of such two separate engines started work; one was for the main levels (similar in style to ''[[Bug!]]''), while the other was for the bosses. Later on a Sega of Japan representative came over to check on the game's progress, and was so impressed by the boss engine he requested the entire game be made on that. By now the team was running short on men, and it all had fallen on one man to finish it up before the Christmas deadline so as to go up against ''Super Mario 64'' alongside ''NiGHTS''. However, despite his putting 200% into the project, he literally worked himself sick and had to stop before it became any worse. Sadly, that was the nail in the coffin; Sega of America stopped funding the project and switched to plan B: a Saturn port of ''[[Sonic 3D Blast]]''. Work on X-Treme was halted permanently.
-The game is a popular topic among ''Sonic'' message boards, allowing for much speculation and curiosity to surround it. Some fans have tried to make [[fangame]]s recreating it, but as of now nothing has ever seen completion.
-Due to the way that the Saturn's hardware is constructed, most of the environment is rendered with sprites rather than polygons. The complete sprite sheet for the enemies can be found online. The enemies were supposed to come in two colors; red and blue, with red enemies being stronger than blue ones. However, all known enemy sprites are coloured red, presumably because this is a base colour which allows them to be easily recoloured via palettes.
+==Development Process==
+Unfortunately, the game was canceled because of many, many internal problems. The game was being developed by [[Sega Technical Institute]], a US-based developer that had worked on such games as ''[[Sonic 2]]'', ''[[Sonic Spinball]]'' and ''Comix Zone''. It was originally developed for the [[Mega Drive]] and concept art of this [[Untitled STI Sonic Game|untitle STI game]] have been released. It was later slated for release on the Sega 32X as [[Sonic Mars]] which featured characters from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)|Sonic the Hedgehog TV series]]''. The development was shifted to the Sega Saturn as the 32X was underpowered as Sonic Mars was to be a fully 3D polygonal game and the 32X sales had dissipated. Around the time of the development was shifted to the Saturn Kosaka, the project leader, left STI. At that point the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series characters and references were dropped.
+The game was being developed sperately by two teams who worked in parallel with each other with one team in charge of developing the main game engine. The fish-eye lens camera view, developed by programmer [[Ofer Alon]], game the game a distinctive spherical appearance. [[Chris Coffin]] was tasked with creating the "boss level" portions of the game which offered a different viewpoint than that on the main game. Coffin had developed the "boss engine" work during the Sonic Mars 32X development phase.
+The boss level engine prototyped different viewpoints such as top-down and side scrolling views before the final viewpoint was settled on. The boss engine was developed further as Ofer continued working on his engine on the Mac and PC. The boss level engine also started to adapt a more pastel color scheme and organic flow which was inspired by ''[[NiGHTS into Dreams]]''.
+In March 1996, Sega of Japan representatives went over to Sega Technical Institute's headquarters to check the game's progress. They were unimpressed by the progress on the main game engine. It turned out this was outdated and SOJ had left before being shown the latest version of the game engine. The SOJ representatives did like Chris Coffins boss level engine and requested the engine be incorperated into the main game instead of the existing one.
-==Beta Auction==
+Some time after, Alon was taken off the project, and Senn left with him, leaving Coffin's team as the only one to develop the game. Producer Mike Wallis took one step further and put the team together to work in isolation and away from the company's politics, so that they can be able to finish the game before the 1996 Christmas deadline. The team practically moved into the company's office and worked sixteen hours a day.
-In September 2005 a ''Sonic X-treme'' demo was privately auctioned and sold to an anonymous collector for $2,500.
+The team started to tire and Coffin came down with pneumonia and had to withdraw from development. Since it was he that was leading the technology end and creating the engine the loss caused the project to be delayed. The Studio director informed management that the team could not continue and the game would not be shipped in time for christmas. Sega of America then decided to fall back on a backup plan, an upgraded Sega Saturn port of ''[[Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island]]''. Some time after the game was officially cancelled.
+===PC Version===
+After being taken of the project Alon, along with Senn continued development on a PC version of ''Sonic X-treme''. It was rejected by Sega as it's PC devision had primarily released ports of existing games rather than release original games. After the game was rejected Alon left Sega.
-It was said by the seller that the game was never any more complete than this demo, however, it's possible that this assertion was an attempt to raise the value of the demo due to existence of media which suggests there were far more levels and certainly bosses completed.
+===Nights Engine===
+It has been stated that STI had asked to use the NiGHTs engine and that [[Yuji Naka]] the games developer threatened to quit if it was used. According to Chris Senn the engine was never used but using it was discussed at some point.[http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/FAQ.html#nights]
-This version of the game has since been released and is available for download. For more info see the [[Sonic X-treme beta auction]] section.
+==Beta Auction==
+In September 2005 a basic demo featuring one small level was auctioned and sold to an anonymous collector for $2,500. At the end of the year a animated FIF image of gameplay was released. This version of the game was released on July 17, 2007 and is available for download. For more info see the [[Sonic X-treme beta auction]] page.
 ==Hoax==
@@ Line 38: / Line 48: @@
 ==External Links==
 *[http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/ Sonic Xtreme Compendium] - ''Sonic X-treme'' website run by developer [[Chris Senn]].
+*[http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/FAQ.html FAQ] on Sonic Xtreme Compendium.
 {{ScrappedGames}}