Sonic X-treme (V40 prototype)

Sonic X-treme (V40 prototype)

Prerelease of: Sonic X-treme
System: Sega Saturn
Source: CD-R disc

The V40 prototype of Sonic X-treme is a prototype build of the cancelled Sega Saturn game, Sonic X-treme. This is thought to be an early build by Ofer Alon for use with the game's main stages. Its build date is unknown, though likely originates from early 1996.

Gameplay

This version of Sonic X-treme sees the player control Sonic in a simple level made up of blue checkerboard blocks. The camera has a fixed perspective, and Sonic can be moved along the X axis with and , and along the Z axis with and . causes him to jump (and can be pressed multiple times in mid-air to travel upwards) while pressing and holding disables some of the rendering (VDP1?). turns Sonic into a ball, but otherwise has no effect on gameplay.

While there are some boundaries in the Z axis (and a floor), Sonic is able to go anywhere, though while there are Rings and enemies in the level, Sonic cannot interact with them (and will just stop on collision). Likewise, sloped platforms behave like regular cube blocks.

The build has X-treme's infamous fisheye lens implemented, though animations are non-functional, with every object rapidly swapping between two frames. On display at all times is a frame counter, which suggests the build is targeting 30 frames per second, however put under any sort of stress, the number can half to 15FPS, and usually runs around the 20FPS mark.

No end goals have been programmed and there is no audio. The build also takes an unusually long time to load when first booted, with the console just rendering a black screen while doing so.