A lot of iconic gaming mascots have come along over the years, but Sonic the Hedgehog remains an iconic character who’s gone on to become so much more than Sega’s crowning achievement. The original Sonic the Hedgehog games helped put Sega’s 16-bit Genesis on the map, and there were equal expectations for their Sega Saturn console to push the speedy hero to bold new places.
The first true 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure, wouldn’t come out until the launch of the Sega Dreamcast. However, for years, there were plans for Sonic to make his Saturn debut with Sonic X-treme until the game’s unfortunate cancellation in 1997. Many attribute the lack of a new substantial Sonic game to the Sega Saturn’s failure, but there’s still a lot about this canceled relic that’s come to light over time.
10 The Strenuous Development Cycle Literally Made The Team Sick
There are now more and more stories that surround the horrors of "crunch time" and the excessive effort that's often required to meet deadlines. There was mounting pressure for the Saturn to deliver an original 3D Sonic game. Sonic X-treme initially began development for the Sega 32X before being pushed to the Saturn and developed with two different engines by separate teams.
Arguments within Sega and tight deadlines led to the leads of both teams, Chris Coffin and Chris Senn, being diagnosed with severe illnesses and needing to quit months before their deadlines. In lieu of Sonic X-treme’s release, ports of Sonic 3D Blast and the compilation title Sonic Jam were released instead.
9 Rings Would Have Become Much More Multi-Purpose in Nature
One of the constants throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is that there is always a wealth of rings, which are Sonic's primary collectible as well as an energy source. Knuckles Chaotix got creative with rings through its tether design, and Sonic X-treme would have gone one step further and allowed players to throw rings at enemies as projectiles, as well as create a shield out of rings for defense.
Other new moves and abilities were also planned for Sonic X-treme, but they've all made their way into future titles to some extent, whereas rings have yet to evolve to this degree.
8 There Was Going To Be A New Main Character Named Tiara
The Sonic titles have a history for steadily introducing new supporting characters into the Sonic family, and this trend was set to continue with Sonic X-treme. Tiara, a manx cat, was going to be a new character who seemed to fulfill a Knuckles-like role as the guardian of six magical rings along with her professor father, who became the target of Robotnik.
The collection of Tiara's magical rings was going to be the game's plot, but Tiara was also supposed to be a playable character. Tiara’s inclusion and the release of Sonic X-treme could have seriously changed the franchise, as Tiara never shows up in any subsequent Sonic games.
7 Yuji Naka Refused To Let The Development Team Use Game Engine From NiGHTS Into Dreams
The Saturn failed to deliver a new Sonic title, but NiGHTS Into Dreams, from Sonic developer Yuji Naka, was the Sega console's breakout hit. Worried that Sonic X-treme's team wouldn't meet their deadline, Sega provided them with the source code for NiGHTS Into Dreams to expedite their development.
The team used these tools for two weeks until Yuji Naka found out. He was so irate that he threatened that he'd quit Sega if they used his technology. Naka was extremely protective over his work at Sonic Team, and this war of egos just led to the team losing weeks of work.
6 Bosses Would Have Included Metal Sonic And Fang The Sniper
The earliest Sonic games routinely feature Dr. Robotnik in various machinery for the different boss battles, but Sonic X-treme wanted to push the boss formula to new places and focus on a wider range of antagonists rather than one recurring threat.
Development for Sonic X-treme got as far as four major stages, two of which would have included Metal Sonic and Fang the Sniper as end battles. Fang has never been that popular of a Sonic foe, and even Metal Sonic has fallen into obscurity, so it's curious to consider where they might be today if they were preserved through Sonic X-treme.
5 Surfing And Bungee Jumping Were Going To Be Worked Into The Gameplay
Sonic is often best on his feet, but there's a growing trend to push the character down the path of extreme sports. The Dreamcast's Sonic Adventure plays around with snowboarding and other creative forms of fast-paced transportation, but the Saturn's Sonic X-treme aimed to bring surfing and bungee jumping into the equation.
Surfing isn't that hard to imagine in a Sonic game, and these levels could be a fun counterpoint to the airborne stages atop Tails' Tornado, but bungee jumping would be totally new territory for Sonic.
4 Its Unique Bonus Stages Nearly Made It Into The Saturn's Sonic 3D Blast
The Sonic the Hedgehog series has a rich history with fun yet challenging bonus stages that are typically completed to acquire Chaos Emeralds. Most Sonic games mix up the formula when it comes to these special stages, and the approach for Sonic X-treme was "Sonic Pool," bonus levels that drew inspiration from billiards.
Upon the cancellation of Sonic X-theme, the plan was to carry "Sonic Pool" over to the Saturn port of Sonic 3D Blast. The team behind the port, Traveller's Tales, couldn't figure out how to accomplish the task and instead opted for 3D versions of Sonic 2's special bonus stages instead.
3 Gameplay Would Have Made Heavy Use Of A Fisheye Lens
Sega struggled with how to effectively bring Sonic into a 3D world without sacrificing his trademark speed, and some of the inventive initial approaches tried to rely on unique camera angles and presentation styles to sell the illusion.
Dubbed the "Reflex Lens," the initial plan for Sonic X-treme was to present the game through a wide-angle fisheye view where it looks as if the levels move around Sonic and rotate around a fixed center of gravity rather than the other way around. It's a creative idea, but one that ultimately proved to be more trouble than it was worth for the game's development.
2 Its Source Code Has Been Obtained And Made Playable By The Fan Community
The community that's formed behind the collection and release of canceled video game prototypes and beta versions of games is truly remarkable, and their meticulous efforts have allowed audiences to experience unreleased titles in unofficial capacities.
An early test prototype for Sonic X-treme was acquired by a collector for $2500 in 2006. The online community tinkered away with the prototype's source code, and in 2015, there was a playable version of this early Sonic X-treme build available. It's quite impressive and a testament to how savvy modern independent developers have become.
1 It Was Going To Have A Live-Action Film Adaptation
Sonic the Hedgehog has only recently become a cinematic sensation, but there were actually very bold plans to make a live-action Sonic movie happen as early as 1995. Sonic: Wonders of the World was set to be a companion piece to Sonic X-treme, and the movie's plot at one point even involved Sonic and Robotnik entering the real world via the Sonic X-treme game.
MGM and Trilogy Entertainment were set to produce the picture, but the constant arguments within the game's development team led to a lack of consensus being reached on the direction of its cinematic counterpart.