Unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog games
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created and published by the Japanese company Sega.
After two lead developers became ill, Sega canceled X-treme and released a Saturn port of the Genesis game Sonic 3D Blast (1996) in its place.
The cancellation is considered an important factor in the Saturn's commercial failure, as it left the console with no original Sonic platform game.
[2] The computer versions were planned for release in 1992, but Sega revoked the license following Sonic the Hedgehog's success to keep the franchise exclusive to its platforms.
Although SegaSonic Bros. was complete, Sega decided against a wide release after it performed poorly in late 1992 location tests.
[4][5] Reviewing the leaked ROM, Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote that it was "easy to see why" SegaSonic Bros. was canceled, with complicated rules, needlessly difficult gameplay, and jumbled, cheap-looking visuals.
[11] In response, Popful Mail fans launched a letter-writing campaign urging Sega to remove the Sonic connections in favor of a more faithful remake.
By November 1993, Sega had decided to release the game as Popful Mail in Japan and turn Sister Sonic into its Western localization.
In 2020, the STI artist Craig Stitt discovered mockup screenshots he created for the pitch in a 1995 video resume and shared them on Facebook.
Sega of America executives approved the project and Stitt worked with another developer, Ken Rose, to create a playable build for the Genesis that reused graphics from a deleted Sonic 2 level.
[15] Morawiec and STI's art director, John Duggan, created a demo in under a week using Brilliance software.
The demo featured slow gameplay due to the difficulty of animating fast backgrounds with Brilliance, though Morawiec planned to include speed-based sequences.
[20] A ROM image with a build date of April 1, 1994,[18] was leaked online by a Belgian hacking group in June 1995 and can be played with emulators.
[19] The ROM features Sonic and Tails joined by an elastic band of energy and is split between two side-scrolling and two top-down levels.
[21] Kotaku and Retro Gamer described it as a proof-of-concept or game engine test, as it features broken collision, unpolished physics, and no enemies.
Chaotix retains the tethering mechanic, music, and some visual elements, but removes Sonic and Tails, the top-down levels, and the art.
[20][22] Some fans speculated that the Crackers ROM was an April Fools' Day hoax due to its build date,[18] but its authenticity was corroborated by references in an internal Sega design document, leftover sprites in a prototype build of Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen (1994), and text found in a leaked Knuckles' Chaotix prototype.
[25] X-treme featured a fisheye camera system and levels that rotated around a fixed center of gravity, meaning Sonic could run up walls and arrive at what was previously the ceiling.
[26][27] Like previous Sonic games, X-treme emphasized speed and physics, and featured special stages and collectible rings.
By August 1996, two lead developers became severely ill, making meeting the deadline impossible, and the producer Mike Wallis canceled X-treme.
[32][33] X-treme's cancellation is considered an important factor in the Saturn's commercial failure, as it left the console with no original Sonic platform game.
[38] Siliconera asked Sonic Team's head, Takashi Iizuka, if the similarities were intentional; he replied that they were coincidental and that he was the only Lost World staffer aware of X-treme's existence.
[17] At the request of Hector and Sega of America's vice president Shinobu Toyoda, Morawiec, Adrian Stephens, and Howard Drossin—who had worked together on Comix Zone—established an STI office in Burbank to develop the game.
The director, Yoshihisa Hashimoto, changed the title to Sonic Unleashed (2008), removing its connections to the Adventure games.
[46][47] Their tech demo featured Sonic and Shadow riding hoverboards in a Green Hill Zone-themed environment with single-player and multiplayer modes.
It featured simple 3D gameplay in which players made Sonic sprint by rubbing the DS's touchscreen to reach a finish line.
[66] Whitehead denied rumors that the decision was caused by creative differences and said that Evening Star's relationship with Sega remained friendly.
