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Sonic X-treme

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Sonic X-treme
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
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 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 have 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.

In total three versions were in development for the Saturn. One was led by Ofer Alon and Christian Senn, another led by Robert Morgan along with the Point Of View development company, and the last led by Christina Coffin which was called Project Condor.

Story

The 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.

Other possible storylines which have been developed over time can be found here.

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. Sonic was slated to be the only playable character but if development had worked out well enough and enough time was available other characters may have also become playable. Characters which may have been included as playable characters were Knuckles the Echidna, a new character, Tiara Boobowski, and Miles "Tails" Prower. 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. Badniks would come in two colors, blue and red, and the blue ones would be weaker than the red ones. Fictional creatures called MIPS were to have a role similar to Flickies and power Badniks.

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 development 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 separately 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 of 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 incorporated into the main game in place 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, X-Treme 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]

Project Names

  • Sonic-16 (Genesis)
  • Sonic Mars (32X)
  • Sonic32X (32X)
  • Sonic Saturn (Saturn)
  • Sonic Ringworlds (Saturn)
  • SonicBOOM (Saturn / nVidia08)
  • Sonic Xtreme (Saturn)
  • SonicPC (PC)
  • Sonic Bluestreak (briefly considered)
  • Super Sonic (briefly considered)

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 GIF 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

Download.svg Download Sonic X-treme
File: Xtreme.rar (20.74 MB) (info)
Current version: 712

Production Credits

SONIC16 (GENESIS) PITCH

Peter Moraweic
John Duggan
Roger Hector

SONIC MARS (32X) PITCH

Chris Ebert
Christian Senn
Jeremy Cantor
Michael Kosaka
Roger Hector
Toshi Morita

SONIC MARS/SATURN/nVIDIA

Chris Ebert
Christian Senn
Dean Lester
Don Goddard
Fei Cheng
Mark Kupper
Michael Kosaka
Mike Wallis
Ofer Alon
Richard Wheeler
Robert Morgan
Roger Hector
Toshi Morita
Christina Coffin
Manny Granillo
Ross Harris
Tony Dezuniga
Alan Ackerman
Andy Probert
Betty Cunningham
Dave Sanner
Dean Ruggles
Jason Kuo
Robert Steele
Stieg Hedlund
Aoki Kunitake
Howard Drossin
Yasuhara Hirokazu

SONIC SATURN/PC

Christian Senn
Ofer Alon

SONIC SATURN (PROJECT CONDOR)

Christina Coffin
Dean Ruggles
Jamie Bible (Contract Programmer)
Jason Kuo
Mark Kupper
Mike Wallis
Richard Wheeler
Yasuhara Hirokazu

Box Art

Magazine Scans

See Also

External Links


Unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog games
Sega Master System
Sonic's Edusoft | Sonic the Hedgehog (home computers) |
Sega Mega-CD
Sonic the Hedgehog |
Sega Mega-CD
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 CD |
Arcade
SegaSonic Bros. |
Sega Mega-CD
Sister Sonic |
Sega Mega Drive
Treasure Tails |
Arcade
Pre-May 1993 Sonic arcade games |
Sega Mega Drive
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition |
Sega 32X
Sonic Sports |
Arcade
Sonic Ride |
Sega Saturn
Sonic Saturn |
Game Boy Advance
Sonic X: Chaos Emerald Chaos |
Nintendo DS
Sonic DS |
Xbox
Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme |
Game Boy Advance
Sonic Riders | Sonic the Hedgehog: Awakening |
Google Android OS
iOS
Sonic Central |
Google Android OS
iOS
Sonic Demo
Sonic X-treme incarnations
Sega 32X
Sonic Mars |
Sega Saturn
Sonic X-treme (Point Of View | Project Condor | SonicPC)
Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems
Sega Saturn
 1996  Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island     1997  Sonic Jam | Sonic R    
 Unreleased  Sonic X-treme | Sonic Saturn