Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)/Development

Sonic the Hedgehog has gone through several changes over it's development process. There are several rejected ideas, levels, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

Rejected Characters

Early Rabbit Design.

Interestingly, one of the first designs of Sonic was that of a rabbit which could pick up objects with his ears and throw them at enemies. It was used in early versions of the game but as the game got faster the character design was dropped and Sonic took on his final form, a hedgehog. Below are several other scrapped character designs.

• S1concept-WARRIOR.jpg

  Warrior Design with two outfits.

• S1concept-CLOWNNWOLFBOY.jpg

  Clown and Warrior wearing head of a animal.

• S1concept-Human.jpg

  Human character with Bart Simpson like hair.

• S1concept-MRHEDGEHOG.jpg

  A hedgehog with more human-like features.

• S1concept-WINDUPROBOTROOK.jpg

  Robot character and two other characters.

• S1concept-eggman.jpg

  Man with strange outfit. Definately a prototype version of Robotnik.

• S1concept-WEIRDCREATURE.jpg

  Possibly a porcupine?

• S1concept-Chick.jpg

  Chicken with an attitude.

• S1concept-WOLF.gif

  Wolf wearing an American flag t-shirt.

• S1concept-BULLDOG.gif

  Bulldog character.

Sound Test Band

The Sonic Band sans Sonic breakdancing

The game was originally intended to feature a sound test menu, with animated graphics based around Sonic break-dancing to the music of a "Sonic Band" consisting of Sharps Chicken (guitar), Max Monkey, (guitar), Mach Rabbit (drums), and Vector the Crocodile (keyboard/synth).[1] Vector was later re-designed and re-used for the games Knuckles' Chaotix and Sonic Heroes. The development schedule meant that the feature had to be scrapped, and Yuji Naka decided to replace the test with the "SEGA!" chant used in TV advertisements, which took up 1/8 of the 4-megabit cartridge. A text-only sound test option remained in the final game's level select cheat menu.

Other Concept Art

The following is concept art for the game which doesn't fit in any of the preceeding sections. What is interesting is the image which features Tails. It was found in the Sonic 1 segment of a "History of Sonic" documentary. It is possible that the image was used in the wrong segment as directly preceeding this image is someone flipping through a art book and one page clearly displays a logo for Sonic 2.

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  Loop art in a level not used in final.

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  Loop art again in a mountainous level.

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  Marble Zone.

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  Water art in another mountainous level.

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  Sonic art, the text translates to "Mr. Hedgehog".

• S1concept-HEDGEHOG.jpg

  More Sonic art.

• S1concept-SCENE.jpg

  A scene which seems to feature Tails.

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  Some girl in a red dress.

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  The girl can be seen again. There is also a strange set of enemies and a city which is probably the same as seen in early Green Hill Zone images.

Early Game Design

Various

• S1Title.gif

  Titlescreen with a black background similar to the 8-bit game.

• S1SpecialStage.gif

  Different layout in special stage.

• S1Debug.jpg

  Different debug mode. This can be enabled by using the Game Genie code 2E6T-BCS6.

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  Final zone not listed and X's are listed after some levels in this level select. Press Start text is visible.

Green Hill Zone

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  HUD says RING and the flowers are purple.

• GHZ-SonicDarkBG.gif

  A city can be seen in the background. Trees and a brown rock can be seen in the foreground. The rocks are bluish purple in the final game. Probably a mockup image.

• GHZ-WelcomeSign.gif

  A Welcome Sign with Kanji underneath it. A city can be seen in the background.

• GHZ-Ball.gif

  A rolling ball. This can still be found in debug mode but is not placeable. The sprite was still used for the levels boss.

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  The ball again. A magazine says the ball moves when pushed but can also kill the player.

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  The ball again, but this time it is in the air.

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  Sonic punching the air. An early end level celebration.

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  Monitor is not here in final.

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  Debug statistics are on bottom of screen.

• GHZ-Hurted.gif

  Sonic gets knocked back more than in final.

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  A prototype map, purple flowers and the rolling ball can be seen.

Marble Zone

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  Area where green smashers come down. Mashers and fire from torch are missing.

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  These badniks aren't in this level normally, but can be placed with debug. The UFO's in the sky also don't appear in the final version.

• MZ-UFO.gif

  These UFO's were seen in a short clip on Wayne's world during a promotion for Noahs Arcade. They were also found hidden in the Sonic 1 Mobile game.

• MZ-UFO2.gif

  UFO's again.

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  Strange level graphics and falling tiles which can be balanced on.

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  Sideway spikes. These can be placed with debug also.

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  This room isn't in the final version.

Spring Yard Zone

• SYZ-Sparkling.gif

  Level is called Sparkling Zone and has a different background. The sign behind the counter says good luck.

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  Unkown area. A sparkle can be seen over the "good luck sign" indicating the sparkles moved around and weren't stars.

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  Sparkles present.

• SYZ-Sparkling2.gif

  Sparkles present.

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  Sparkles present.

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  Sparkles present.

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  Sparkles present.

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  Sparkles present.

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  Sparkles present.

Labyrinth Zone

• LZ-BlackBG.gif

  Completely black background.

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  This may be the underwater version of the black background. Sonic's pallete is the same as above water.

• LZ-NewBG.gif

  Rock background.

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  Rock background.

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  Rock background.

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  Rock background.

Star Light Zone

• SLZ-Pic.gif

  Different layout.

Scrap Brain Zone

• SBZ-Title.gif

  Level is called Clockwork Zone, but missing the W. The background is also different.

• SBZ-Pic1.gif

  The belts have a steep incline.

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  Zig-zag tunnel.

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  This room isn't in the game.

• SBZ-Pic4.gif

  Different layout.

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  Different layout.