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-- Sonic X-Treme --
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Formats: Sega Saturn
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Sega Technical Institute
Rating: N/A
Project Start: Early 1996
Cast: Sonic the Hedgehog, Tiara Boobowski, Professor Gazebo Boobowski, Nack the Weasel/Fang the Sniper, Metal Sonic, Dr. Ivo Robotnik/Eggman
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Professor Gazebo Boobowski and his daughter, Tiara, are the keepers of the six magical Rings of
Order, as well as the ancient art of Ring smithing. Gazebo and Tiara freak that Dr. Robotnik is
after the six Rings of Order, and call on Sonic to get the Rings before the Eggman can. Robotnik
has already made one previous attempt at stealing the Rings, and Sonic is the only one who can
knock the thought out of his head.
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Probably the most infamous of Sonic's failed attempts, the cancellation of Sonic X-Treme
was the final nail in the Saturn's coffin. Of course, if the game was really all that
bad, perhaps X-Treme itself was the final nail.
The well-known legend dates back to early 1996. In May of that year, Sega of America proudly
announced the development of a true 3D Sonic game for the Sega Saturn. The team in charge of
production was Sega Technical Institute, who had helped produce Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
Sonic Spinball, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles previously.
There was just one problem this time...Yuji Naka wasn't around to lead them. Infact, none of the
original Sonic Team was around to help. With Naka-san and the gang busy working on NiGHTS
into Dreams..., Sega decided to let STI introduce Sonic to the third dimension on their own.
Big mistake.
It was decided early on that the game would utilize polygonal levels, but that
Sonic himself and other on-screen characters would be sprite-based. STI did pull out some
impressive graphical tricks, and early builds of X-Treme really were looking pretty good.
Another major implementation was the "wrap-around" camera system. Designed to give players a
full view of the level to the left and right as well as in and out, the camera distorted the
screen to seem as though you were viewing it through a peephole. Apparently, this worked better
in practice than in writing...
Much like the Special Stages in Knuckles' Chaotix, all of X-Treme's
worlds were built inside giant "tubes" with no center of gravity, allowing the player to run up
walls. (Although to be fair, the level design looked much more complex than the Chaotix Special
Stages.)
The other "big" thing for X-Treme was Sonic's vastly expanded roster of moves.
Aside from the standard Sonic Spin, here's a list of some cool-sounding moves that, as fate
would have it, never made it into Sonic's collective arsenal:
- SpinBash - A quick forward attack modified from the Spin Dash
- SpinSlash - A mid-air, 360° attack
- Ring Throwing - Sacrifice a Ring from the tally to hurl at a Badnik
- Power Ball - An attack designed to strike straight down on enemies below
- Super Bounce - A jump which offers more height, but less control than a normal jump
- Ring Shield - A way to forfeit collected Rings for a shield
- Sonic Boom - A 360° attack used in conjunction with the Ring Shield
The game's main characters were Sonic, Tiara, Professor Gazebo, and Dr.
Robotnik. Nack the Weasel and Metal Sonic were set to cameo as boss characters, but there was no
sign at all of Tails, Knuckles, or anyone else. The boss stages were largely based on the
NiGHTS board...a giant, circular arena. In the middle of these arenas was a large circle
on the ground, above which a giant spiral of Rings towered into the air, circling a giant jewel
(Chaos Emeralds, presumably)...interesting, I never did find out what the deal with that was.
At risk of my own life, I now post a list of the group responsible for what
may have turned out to be Sonic's miserable death (you may recognize a few names from the
credits of successful Sonic games, Sonic 3 & Knuckles in particular):
- Mike Wallis - Producer
- Ofer Alon - Technical director/engineer, lead programmer, and co-lead designer
- Fei Cheng - Computer graphics artist/designer and conceptual design
- Chris Coffin - Lead boss stage/boss FX programming and conceptual gameplay design
- Howard Drossin - Music and sound effects director
- Ross Harris - Lead computer graphics artist/animator and conceptual design
- Jason Kuo - Boss layout lead
- Andrew Probert - Computer graphics artist/designer and conceptual design
- Chris Senn - Art director, co-lead designer, team coordinator, and conceptual music
- Richard Wheeler - Designer, world layout lead and conceptual gameplay design
God, I hope none of those guys ever read this. I swear fellas, it looked
cool to me...
Well, just about a month before the game's planned release, Sega of Japan
pulled the plug on it. Some Japanese execs who saw the game apparently weren't too impressed,
and didn't allow Sega of America to release a game that may have damaged their mascot's
reputation beyond repair. Although to me (and many other gamers) the game was looking pretty
good, the novel 3D tricks implemented did seem just a little too left-field to risk on a
character as important as Sonic. Personally, I kind of wish they'd have shipped the game anyway,
only maybe with another character...Espio the Chameleon would've been a good choice, as he can
run up walls and ceilings anyway. But then, the game only looked good, and as gaming
history has proven, looks can be unforgivably deceiving. Some folks who played the short demo at
E3 '96 weren't too impressed with the game, so maybe X-Treme is better off in the infinite bounds
of gaming limbo. I end this historical essay off with a quote from an interview with Mike
Wallis, the game's producer: "This isn't going to be the only Sonic game on Saturn by any means.
He is Sega's flagship guy." It's just too shameful to comment further...
The planned Zones were (only four that I know of):
- Jade Gully Zone
- Crystal Frost Zone
- Red Sands Zone
- Galaxy Fortress Zone
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-- MIDI Collection --
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None available
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Screenshots thanks to Jonathan "WB" Gray. Information compiled and
arranged by Jared "Green Gibbon!" Matte.
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