Sonic X-treme Could've Been Ethereal

One of the many ways I spend my time is by reading and watching videos on the development of whatever game is on my mind, instead of y'know, playing it. This includes many fascinating little nuggets, from cut content and unused concepts to games completely changing during development (a la Silent Hill Origins). Obviously it's fun to look at all the differences and the creative process at play, but there's also something more subtle to it. There's a sinking feeling I get whenever I play beta or prototype and it persists throughout the whole experience. It can come from the uncanniness of seeing the familiar be slightly off, or from the melancholy of seeing a fleeting moment in time captured in playable form.

Anyway, I've recently been interested in the development of Sonic X-treme, the infamous cancelled Sonic project for the Sega Saturn, a system that notably lacked an original mainline Sonic title (well I’d say Sonic R is that, but the cowards out there just don’t get the vision). I don't really know what got me re-invested in the history of X-treme since I've known about it for a while, but I guess my newfound interest in the Saturn itself got me digging into what would've been its killer app. Despite remaining unreleased officially, there are actually plenty of betas we have access to from multiple points in X-treme's creation, which leads to the real topic of this post: the July 18th, 1996 prototype of Sonic X-treme. The miscellaneous screenshots of X-treme you see may appear different from what was shown to the press back in the day, which is what particularly caught my attention. It doesn’t have that weird fisheye lens, nor does it have the blocky gravity defying level design similar to Bug (y'know, this guy). Well this prototype comes from major reworking X-treme had in its later stages of development called “Project Condor”, being issued after Sega of Japan’s president Irimajiri was displeased by a presentation of the game. It's basically the latest build of Sonic X-treme that is currently accessible, and is the closest we have to seeing what the game could’ve looked had it released. While it’s not much beyond a rough proof of concept, I find this small glimpse of it incredibly fascinating, and I wanna share my experience with this prototype.

A very bizarre aspect of X-treme’s development was that it made use of two separate game engines. Firstly there's the engine for the main levels that was developed on Windows computers, and would’ve required a third-party to port the game to Saturn code. Then there was an engine dedicated just to the boss fights that was built directly on Saturn hardware by Christina Coffin (see this Metal Sonic boss fight). These little boss arenas actually look pretty striking, and definitely show more promise than the levels themselves. Thusly this prototype is an attempt to build the rest of the game off the boss engine, and I think it's quite successful. The environment feels organic, incorporating the queer distorting terrain featured in Nights into Dreams. I have always adored the way 32-bit consoles like the Saturn handled scaling cloud effects. The way they stretch out into the horizon really sells the sense of freedom and adventure. I also love the use of billboarded sprites in 3d environments, though from screenshots later in Project Condor’s development, it seems they would’ve adopted full 3D models for all the characters, which makes this prototype feel like a special moment in time where all the elements were able to come together to make this specific look.

Of course jank is to be expected in a prototype like this, especially with the lack of dynamic physics. You can breeze over every hill with nothing ever slowing you down or speeding you up, it's almost cathartic in how wrong it feels. The way the spindash works is also very strange, pressing the button once puts you in the charging state, then tapping the d-pad shoots you in a given direction with little influence. There’s a funny bug I discovered where jumping in the spindash state sends you way higher than usual. There’s no application for this in the area, but I do really like how the camera moves to accommodate your jump height, kinda like a refined version of what Bubsy 3D was doing. Another oddity I found is holding the shoulder buttons puts the hog in a jogging animation while standing still, and my genius level theory is that this might’ve been a placeholder for the super peelout, but it’s hard to know for sure. There are also these mysterious floating crystals placed near the beginning, and jumping into one can launch you up into the air. Only one of these crystals actually works, but it seems to have more dynamic physics with even a cute little sparkle trail to boot. I can easily see how this could be used for interesting platforming challenges, and it inspires some confidence that the reformed team at STI could make something that feels true to Sonic.

Uh oh

Despite how barebones the play area may be, it's still able to convey little “scenes” using the few assets and landscapes on hand. Taking a trip in the river, chilling out with some flickies, it makes me long for the kind of atmosphere that’d be in the final game. And despite the bright and cheery nature of this demo, there’s this isolating ethereal vibe that I can’t shake off. The earlier versions of X-treme do have their own strange otherworldly feel to them, but this prototype does something similar while simultaneously capturing the kind of unexplainable essence that makes Sonic so appealing to me. It probably helps that it’s using music from the Japanese soundtrack of Sonic CD, which if nothing else shows that the project might’ve taken more influence from the Japanese side of Sonic. The combination of music, visuals, and general unfinishedness culminates in an almost melancholic experience, one that leaves me room to ponder many things. Images of Sonic running towards the horizon, chasing the Sega Saturn dream…

Now this isn’t me saying that X-treme should’ve been finished, it’s more of me wishing for a hypothetical good outcome where STI was given a realistic deadline and proper direction. The entire debacle of shifting visions and changing of hands is very much a product of the mismanagement fuckshit going down at Sega of America, and was the running theme for a lot of the Saturn’s unfortunate life here in the states. Considering that the Project Condor team were literally becoming sick from how overworked they were trying to make that Christmas 96 release, it was probably for the best to have the whole thing canned. But you know what, we still got Sonic R in the end so I can't be too upset.

By the way shoutouts to Sonic Retro and The Cutting Room Floor, since I've gotten most of my information from them. I basically got to unleash my inner Cybershell for this post, so please give these sites some attention.