Sonic X-Treme | What Could've Been

As the mascot of Sega, Sonic the Hedgehog is an incredibly important figure in video game history. Because of that blue rodent, the Genesis was able to pull ahead of the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), and alongside the port of Mortal Kombat II helped the system become "the cool console". Sonic was so popular that it even became the new pack-in title for the Genesis.

In an effort to build the Sonic the Hedgehog brand, Sega put out quite a few Sonic games on the Genesis. One of them was almost Sonic X-Treme. Sega Technical Institute (often abbreviated as "STI"), who had previously worked on Sonic 2, 3, and Spinball, was tasked with developing Sonic X-Treme. While X-Treme was almost on Genesis, it was quickly decided to move it to the 32X.

What started as a new Sonic game for the 32-bit generation slowly devolved into a chaotic mess. It's an incredibly sad course of events that eventually led to the game's infamous cancellation, and closure of Sega Technical Institute.

Sonic 32X/ Sonic Mars

Under the codenames Sonic 32X and Sonic Mars, production was very short lived mostly due to the head of production, Michael Kosaka, leaving abruptly mid-development due to conflicts with upper management at Sega of America. The lead designer, Chris Senn, came up with quite a few different ideas for the game using the 32X hardware. The initial idea for the game was an isometric platformer, but that was eventually scrapped as they instead decided on making it a 3D platformer with a wide camera angle from behind Sonic.

Sonic 32X was eventually scrapped due to the poor sales of the Sega 32X and the numerous changes to the game design, requiring more powerful hardware.

Very few screenshots or images exist of Sonic 32X due to how short lived it was. You can see the isometric platforming as well as the 3D bosses.

Sonic X-Treme on Saturn

Due to the new direction and scope of the game, it was decided to switch development of the game from the 32X to the Saturn. This meant starting over and needing to learn how to develop for the Saturn; which would be more capable of handling what they had planned.

The Saturn version of what would now be known as Sonic X-Treme was being developed using two different engines. One engine was for designing the boss fights, which were on a free-roaming 3D plane. The second engine was being used to design the 2D platforming sections. The camera used a fisheye style which allowed for a wider view.

At this point, development ran into many issues. First off, none of the staff had any experience with making a fully 3D game or even with using polygonal graphics. Secondly, the Saturn was notoriously difficult to develop games for. With the game being developed on PC, there were quite a few times where the Saturn hardware was not able to handle the engine that the prototype ran on. Another issue that became increasingly troublesome was the lack of communication, as well as frequent disputes, between Sega of Japan and Sega of America.

As is unfortunately common with developing video games, the staff was incredibly over-worked; often working anywhere between 16-20 hours a day. This resulted in several staff members falling ill and setting development back even further. This included programmer Chris Coffin who had contracted walking pneumonia, and Chris Senn who was told he had six months to live. Luckily, he survived.

With just two months left to meet the deadline and Sega of Japan unimpressed with the progress of the game, Sonic X-Treme was cancelled.

Above are a few of the many screenshots that exist of Sonic X-treme on Saturn. That fisheye lens sounded nauseating at first, but actually looks really rad.
Image source: https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_X-treme/Gallery

Impact on Sega

Due to how poorly the Saturn sold, and combined with quite a few other poor decisions by Sega at the time (like the 32X), Sega controlled very little of the market at the time. This would impact the performance of their next console, the Dreamcast, and Sega's eventual bow-out of the hardware market.

Like others I can't help but speculate about what kind of impact Sonic X-Treme would have had on the Saturn's performance or the gaming industry at the time. Many say that one of the main reasons for the Saturn's failure was the lack of a big new Sonic game, and I agree with that. While the Saturn didn't have as much third-party support as other consoles around that time, Sonic sold consoles. Sonic was a big name in the 90's, and could've led to more Saturn sales which would lead to more software sales of other games.

At the time of its cancellation Sonic X-Treme's development had gotten pretty far. In fact it had around 5 levels and a handful of boss fights that were completed. From everything that I've seen, the game looks like it could've been pretty awesome. Maybe not as open or free as Super Mario 64, but it absolutely could've competed against it.

If you're interested, there is a playable version of Sonic X-Treme available to download! I'll leave a gameplay video and a link below.