Sonic Advance/Development

Sonic Advance had gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

E3 2001

During development, Sonic the Hedgehog Advance was shown at E3 2001 but was not playable. A short video showing Sonic in a prototype Neo Green Hill Zone was released by Sega alongside a handful of screenshots featuring the HUD. These are all very strange compared to the final; the alignment of the Ring count and timer are lower than they should be, and the lives counter (complete with wrong palette) is further right than it is in the final. The Ring used in the prototype screenshots is a bit thicker and the font used in the HUD was slightly altered to be slightly taller and to utilize inward shadowing.

Neo Green Hill Zone

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  These next five images all have the same differences to the final game; a misaligned HUD with slightly different graphics, different water and clouds in the background and bigger ring sprites.

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  The clouds and water are in a different formation than the final in this shot.

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  The sign and lightpost are not in the final game either.

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  In this screenshot numbers appear top right hand corner, possibly symbolising a debug mode similar to the Sega Mega Drive games.

Casino Paradise Zone

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  The castle in this prototype is a lot duller than in the final, and is of a different shape. In the released game it is much more colourful.

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  Here the castle is in the centre of the screenshot. In the final it always remains in the top left.

Egg Rocket Zone

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  Again another misaligned HUD, and this time with some slightly different foreground tiles too.

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  This area is completely different. The tubes are more rounded with less detail, but the background has more detail. The misaligned HUD and big rings are here too.