Sonic Ride

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Sonic Ride
Developer: Sega AM3

Sonic Ride is the given name to a roughly one minute, thirty seconds piece of pre-rendered, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog video clip, created by Sega AM3 in 1994. It was made at the time large cabinets placed in theme parks etc. were being developed, perhaps as part of an unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog-themed ride due to some amounts of first-person interactivity shown in the video. The opening screen of the video features the Japanese words 未公開 (mi-koukai) and イメージ映像 (image eizou) which translate to "unreleased" and "video clip," respectively.

While the video was briefly covered by the gaming press (and in the case of US magazine, Game Players, mistaken for images from the upcoming Chaotix, the then-rumoured Sega 32X Sonic game), it rose to prominence through its inclusion in Sonic Jam, and was written about in the Japanese guide for the aforementioned game. Parts of the video were also used in a music video for the promotional single, They Call Me Sonic.

Sonic the Animation is a similar Sonic-themed AM3 experiment from the same period of time, with prominently featured 3D graphics created by them.

The ride

After a brief sequence drifting through a casino-styled area called Casino Zone, Sonic suddenly appears running towards the camera in a Green Hill Zone style area. The camera switches behind Sonic, who then runs to the right at a fork, and follows still as he dodges a Buzz Bomber and hits a spring, throwing him high into the air, from where the viewer can see a nice overhead shot of the zone. Hitting the ground, the camera runs around a loop, then runs into a rocky area, jumping from wall to wall, dodging startled looking Moto Bugs.

The camera then switches to a telescope view of Sonic running towards Dr. Eggman, and he is standing by a contraption designed to drop a 200 ton weight onto Sonic when a lever is pulled. He moves into position, and as we see Sonic get closer, Eggman excitedly throws away the telescope and stands by the switch. As he tries to pull it, Sonic zooms past, leaving a trail of dust in his wake and sending the machine and Eggman spinning. They move back and forth, dizzy, and just as Eggman regains his balance and pulls a pose - the weight drops, squashing him flat.

Despite being a pre-rendered video, the Sonic Ride footage appears to struggle maintaining a steady frame rate, with complex scenes causing slowdown.

Screenshots

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External Links

• Sonic Ride, on YouTube.

References

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

1991  Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car     1993  Sonic the Hedgehog | SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | SegaSonic the Hedgehog     1996  Sonic the Fighters     2011  Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Arcade     2015  Sonic Dash Extreme‎‎     2016  Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition     2020  Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Arcade Edition      Prototypes  SegaSonic the Hedgehog (revision A)  Unreleased  SegaSonic Bros. | Sonic Ride | Pre-May 1993 Sonic arcade games

1992  UFO SegaSonic     1993  Sonic the Hedgehog | SegaSonic Popcorn Shop     1994  Sonic no Space Tours | SegaSonic Wataame Scramble | Sonic Canball | Air Circus | Curling Holiday     1997  Sonic the Hedgehog AWP     2002  Sonic & Tails Spinner     2003  CR Sonic     2007  Sonic Spinner     2008  Sonic Live!     2009  Sonic Hopper!     2010  Sonic Sports Basketball     2012  Sonic Sports Air Hockey | Oh! Ring | In the Barrel     2013  Sonic Athletics | Sonic Ghost Shooting | Sonic Brain Ranking‎‎     2016  Sonic Blast Ball‎‎     2019  Sonic Sports Kids Basketball‎‎      Unknown date  CoroCoro Fever (199x) | Darts Shot (199x) | Mogu-Mogu Rush (201x) | Neo Target (201x) | Circles Shoot (201x)