Sonic X-treme was a platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute from 1994 until its cancellation in 1996. It was planned as the first fully 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game, taking Sonic into the 3D era of video games, and the first original Sonic game for the Sega Saturn. The storyline followed Sonic on his journey to stop Doctor Robotnik from stealing six magic rings from Tiara Boobowski and her father. X-treme featured open levels rotating around a fixed center of gravity and, like previous Sonic games, featured collectible rings and fast-paced gameplay.
X-treme was conceived as a side-scrolling platform game for the Sega Genesis to succeed Sonic & Knuckles (1994). Development shifted to the 32X and then the Saturn and Windows, and the game was redesigned as a 3D platform game for the 1996 holiday season. The plan was disrupted by company politics, an unfavorable visit by Japanese Sega executives, and obstacles with the game engines planned for use, including one from Sonic Team for Nights into Dreams (1996). Amid increasing pressure and declining morale, designer Chris Senn and programmer Chris Coffin became ill, prompting producer Mike Wallis to cancel the game. A film tie-in with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was also canceled.
In place of X-treme, Sega released a port of the Genesis game Sonic 3D Blast, but did not release an original 3D Sonic platform game until Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast in 1998. X-treme is regarded as the most famous canceled Sonic game, and journalists and fans have speculated about its potential. Its cancellation is considered an important factor in the Saturn's commercial failure, as it left the system with no original Sonic platform game. Elements similar to those in X-treme appeared in later games, such as Sonic Lost World (2013).
Premise
thumb|left|alt=A screenshot of Jade Gully Zone|"Jade Gully Zone" from Senn and Alon's engine , which used a fish-eye style view known as the "Reflex Lens"
Sonic X-treme was a platform game in which players controlled Sonic the Hedgehog from a third-person perspective.
X-treme featured a fisheye camera system, the "Reflex Lens", that gave players a wide-angle view, making levels appear to move around Sonic.
The developers wanted to take Sonic into the 3D era while building on its successes. Like previous Sonic games, X-treme emphasized speed and physics, and featured special stages and collectable rings. Surfing and bungee jumping were included as activities considered cool at the time. At least four stages were developed before cancellation: Jade Gully, Red Sands, Galaxy Fortress, and her father, Professor Gazebo Boobowski, calling on Sonic to help defend the six magical Rings of Order from Doctor Robotnik. After its release, developer Yuji Naka and other Japanese staff relocated to California to join Sega Technical Institute (STI), a development division led by Mark Cerny. Cerny aimed to establish an elite development studio combining the design philosophies of American and Japanese developers. After Sonic & Knuckles was completed, Naka returned to Japan to work on Nights into Dreams (1996) with Sonic Team. By contrast, author Steven L. Kent opined that Nakayama bullied American executives and believed the Japanese executives made the best decisions. According to Hector, after the release of the Sony PlayStation in 1994, the atmosphere at Sega became political, with "lots of finger-pointing".
Development
After Naka's return to Japan with his team in late 1994, STI was left with mostly American staff. and Sonic Mars The initial 32X design was an isometric side-scroller, but became a full 3D game with a view set on a floating plane. costing the team several weeks.
Design
thumb|alt=A screenshot of a level in the boss engine|Screenshot from Coffin's "boss engine", one of two engines used to develop Sonic X-treme. This version was displayed at E3 in May 1996.
The Saturn version was developed by two teams with two different game engines, starting in the second half of 1995. One team, led by Morgan and including programmer Chris Coffin, developed the free-roaming boss levels. According to Senn, his team was completely different from the STI teams led by Naka; this, combined with their inexperience, "set up seeds of doubt and a political landmine waiting to go off if we didn't produce amazing results quickly". Wallis expressed frustration with the team structure, and felt that internal politics hampered development. 3D graphics were new, and developers were still learning how they would affect controls and gameplay. The loss of the Nights engine cost the Sonic X-treme team weeks of development.
Cancellation
In May 1996, Sega displayed a playable demo of X-treme at E3 in Los Angeles, however, in early 1997, Sega announced that the game had been canceled.
While Senn felt the version of X-treme he and Alon were developing could have been completed with an additional six to twelve months, This was the first attempt at a Sonic film, which would not come to fruition until 2020, with Paramount Pictures' Sonic the Hedgehog and its subsequent franchise.
Legacy
thumb|alt=An image of a Sega Saturn|With X-tremes cancellation, the [[Sega Saturn had no original Sonic the Hedgehog platform game.]]<nowiki/>
In place of Sonic X-treme, Sega released a port of the Genesis game Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic Jam, a compilation of Genesis Sonic games with an additional 3D level. While Sega controlled up to 55% of the console market in 1994, by August 1997, Sony controlled 47%, Nintendo 40%, and Sega only 12%.
X-treme is regarded as the most famous canceled Sonic game, and journalists and fans have speculated about its potential. David Houghton of GamesRadar+ described the prospect of "a good 3D Sonic game" on the Saturn as a "What if..." scenario akin to dinosaurs surviving extinction.
In a 2007 retrospective, producer Wallis said that X-treme would have been able to compete with Nintendo's Super Mario 64. Naka was dissatisfied with the game, and in 2012 recalled feeling relief when he learned of its cancellation. although Iizuka, now Sonic Team's head, said the resemblance was coincidental. Senn went on to work on the Wii U game Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, which was released in 2014 to overwhelmingly negative reviews. An animated GIF image of gameplay was released, and after a fundraising project by the "Assemblergames" website community purchased the disc from the collector, the disk image was leaked on July 17, 2007. Senn created a website with development history including early footage, a playable character named Tiara, and concept music. Senn considered finishing X-treme himself and used some of its concepts in a Sonic fangame, Hardcore Gamer described it as rough but inventive, lacking speed but retaining the spirit of Sonic design. They felt it could have been a good direction for the franchise and a boost for the Saturn had it been completed. In March 2017, another fan began developing a homebrew Saturn game based on X-treme, Sonic Z-treme, and released a build in September 2018. Eurogamer said it was an impressive effort that combined X-treme-style ideas and levels with new concepts. At the end of 2022, another homebrew rendition of Sonic X-Treme was released by a fan named Voxel, all levels from the game that have been leaked over the years are playable.
See also
- Development hell
- Crunch