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Sonic X-Treme


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Personally, I'm a bit neutral about the game. I think it looked like a fantastic game that would've posted high quality graphics, and it does look fun.

But, two things bother me. The first, being the development. Development was a major problem since the developers tried to give it their all for this. While I admire this, I felt they put too much time, and were getting sick from it. Along with a small team, this would've been an average, if not, bad game due to their inexperience with this type of programming. The second, is how the game... moves. Why on how it moves? Well, for starters, the camera would've gotten in the way, a lot, like a lot of early 3D games, but since the game would've been fast paced, it would've been worse than say, Super Mario 64's camera, which did have it's faults. Also, since I get dizzy easily, I probably would've gotten a headache with all the going up and down stuff. XP

I liked the concepts, and they seemed to have a lot of promise. Again, since the development team was small, it wouldn't have worked out very well for them.

Overall, I don't think this project would've been a success, nor a failure. I feel that since we'll most likely never get to play this legendary cancelled title in this franchise, there's no real telling on what it would've been.

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Even if Xtreme's development wasn't a complete nightmare, honestly I don't think any of the concepts I've seen are all that good. It may have been for the best that it didn't actually go through.

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If anything, the fisheye effect was there to make it seem like X-Treme wasn't as much of a step down from Mario 64 as it really was.

The game is literally made of scripted paths, (bad) pre-rendered artwork and building blocks. It's cool in it's own way and would've made a neat platformer for some offbeat third party mascot, but considering Sonic's standards for back in the day, it would've been a massive stain that probably would've only dug Sonic into a deeper coffin until SA1.

..And if it didn't, then I'd be afraid to know of the fanbase it would have built, and what impact it would've left on the franchise.. *shudder*

Edited by Azukara
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The fish-eye gameplay engine in X-treme looks like a mess, and I wouldn't want that in future Sonic games. However, I do like the ideas and concepts that went into this game. From level theme's, Characters, and other Idea's.

I would also like to play this game one day. Ya the game does look like a mess to me, but I still want to see how it feels playing it, rather then just judging it off what I see.

The music for this game was also pretty good. We have the rather famous Space Queens track used in nearly ever Sonic X-treme video ever,

And then you have more lesser known pieces of music from the game like the "Lost Boss" Theme for Metal Sonic...I wonder if that name Lost Boss was meant to be a bit of mysterious foreshadowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lHN46gsDxw

These are just examples. The entire conceptual soundtrack was released actually. I've listening to most of it myself, and I think it's definitely worthy to be Sonic quality music.

Edited by Hank Hill
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This would've killed Sonic IMO. The ugly visuals, crappy gameplay, lack of innovation, bad level design and insane budget (due to prolonged development time)...

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To me this game always looked like a complete mess really, I don't understand the purpose of the fish eye 3D thing, might as well just keep it 2D or 3D. It's the same reason 3D Blast bugs me as it's isometric. I don't think that sort of thing works for faster paced stuff Sonic has.

Just seems too awkward and gimmicky, honestly.

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I don't know. Seeing the gameplay video, it looks like Sonic's portions might have ended up alright. Hard to tell without having actually played it, so I'll just say that I would have approached that with cautious optimism in 1996. It's the other characters that leave me with a bit of doubt. I can't help but wonder how the Adventure games would have handled the whole 'genre-roulette' thing if this game had been around first, assuming there would still *be* Adventure games.

However, I am certain that this would NOT have killed the franchise. If it could survive Sonic 2006, then it sure as shit could survive this, especially by the standards of 1996.

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The game always looked like garbage.

When you'd see screenshots in old magazines, I could never unerstand why writers were going utterly ape about it calling it a Mario 64 killer and even the best game ever made etc etc.

It just looked dreadful. Even for an early 3D game, and some of those look really bad, this just looked utterly dreadful. Now defenders of this will go 'But the fish eye! The fish eye! It's suppose to look like that because it's the fish eye!' Well you could call it the shit eye lense and it would still look like shit. It really looks awful regardless as to 'how it's supposed to look.'

Just take a look at that Jade Gully Zone pic in the first post... anyone wanna take a guess as to what platform Sonic jumped up from?

Saying that, it's not all bad, with what few gameplay footage there is, the idea isn't a bad one. But it just doesn't seem to work for a Sonic game, take Jade Gully for intance. At times theres some interesting and fun ideas such as the platforming, but... you don't actually look like you're playing as Sonic until you hit the automated speed sections, you're not actually running or going fast for the majority of the stage, and that is supposed to be the first level.

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Somehow I think the game wouldn't have really hurt Sonic to tell you the truth. I mean while not a lot of people liked Sonic 3D Blast did it really shattered Sonic's image in the 90s?

I am not sold on the story they had planned for it but I to be honest I do want to try that gameplay and see how it felt.

Also when I learned that Yuji Naka sabotaged the project made me realize how much of a dick he is.

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son3d.jpg

Fun Fact: Sonic Robo Blast 2's sprites were originally based off the Sonic sprites in Xtreme.

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I agree with everything that's been said in this thread. The game did look bad. There were problems with the concept. It was woefully outdated and painfully underdeveloped by the time it was mercy-cancelled. And looking at it through the eyes of people 15 years wiser, it wouldn't have been a patch on Super Mario 64. Everything everyone has said along those lines it most assuredly accurate.

Eexcept for this sentiment:

I have honestly wondered before whether or not this game would've killed the franchise or led it in a bad direction had it ever been released back in a time of such change in the game industry and in a time when SEGA was smack in the middle of their idiotic propensity for releasing outdated consoles and making bad business decisions.
Edited by Gilda
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The most commonly shown of shots show a pretty strange yet unimpressive game that doesn't really look like a Sonic game BUT there were also some level maps kicking around senntient that were drawn by Yasuhara and seem to have emerged from a different period of development that basically look like a better version of Sonic 3D blast.

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While I usually just wait and see how a Sonic game plays with my own eyes, I gotta say with the stuff I saw about Sonic X-treme I do say that it looks very unappealing in both screenshots and what gameplay there was, and that fish eye camera stuff would hurt the player's view of Sonic's surroundings.

Also, why such a name like 'Boobowski'?

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I find it cool that the game has actually managed to gather a sizeable cult following in the Sonic community!

Though I find it a little extreme that some would request SEGA to finish this...

B.J.E.+Geddit_7df1c2_3303224.jpg

I just wish there were more decent remixes of Space Queens though, like the one featured here.

>shameless self-plug

I've got to familiarize myself with the concept music though. I'm fascinated!

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I have to agree that while some of the ideas/concepts/music the game had are rather interesting, the main gameplay just looks like a mess-well at least the levels with the fish-eye lens camera/level design. Although I just had this wierd idea that it could make for a rather interesting platformer-just not for Sonic though. Maybe Frogger perhaps? lol

The levels that featured boss acts (in which that gimmicky fish-eye lens wasn't attached to it) looked decent.

Probably a good thing it was canned, even if it end becoming a major factor on why the Saturn ultimately failed.

What I kinda find wierd is that Sonic R, and of course Sonic Jam's Sonic World was actually pretty good template to base a 3D Saturn Sonic game from, I wonder why they didn't just make a game off of one of those two games instead?

Also when I learned that Yuji Naka sabotaged the project made me realize how much of a dick he is.

You mean when he threatened he would quit Sega if they used the Nights engine for the game (which was pretty much the only thing that could had saved the game from becoming vaporware)? Yeah, that Naka's ego for you. This is the same guy who pretty much left the franchise's reputation to ultimately reach the all-time low it did with 06's failure by quitting Sega during development (the fact that some other key members of Sonic Team left with him didn't help).

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This is the same guy who pretty much left the franchise's reputation to ultimately reach the all-time low it did with 06's failure by quitting Sega during development (the fact that some other key members of Sonic Team left with him didn't help).

Let's be honest, something with Sonic 06's direction is pretty much doomed to be mediocre at best.

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Can't believe I missed this:

Also when I learned that Yuji Naka sabotaged the project made me realize how much of a dick he is.

He did not "sabotage" the project. He created a game engine from scratch for the Sega Saturn that allowed fluid 3D movement and controls (which, in laymans terms, might as well be building a Space Shuttle in your backyard because of how much of a complicated piece of shit the thing was to program for). Sega of America, under the direction of legendary asshole Bernie Stolar at the time, took the source code for that engine without asking and gave it to a group of guys who were making a game that looked like shit at the time regardless of how much the people making it were killing themselves to get it done (which is why they needed the engine to begin with).

Naka demanding that Sega take away something he made that he never said they could use in the first place does not make him a dick, and it certainly isn't "sabotage" by any means; particularly not when the game Naka designed the engine for in the first place hadn't even come out yet. That debacle was just another thing in a long line of SoA and SoJ screwing the team over that doomed the game from the start.

This is the same guy who pretty much left the franchise's reputation to ultimately reach the all-time low it did with 06's failure by quitting Sega during development (the fact that some other key members of Sonic Team left with him didn't help).

Being a piece of shit on a conceptual level from day one that they didn't even bother to finish making is why STH '06 destroyed whatever reputation ShtH had left over. Naka not leaving to start up a company where he could go back to doing the things he joined the industry to do wouldn't have made it any better.

Edited by Gilda
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Eh, I don't know, I like to think Sonic 2006 could have been halfway decent with enough development time. It certainly had problems from the start, no way in hell I'm denying that (The story, horrible side missions, bringing back the already despised vehicles, etc etc etc) but most of my frustrations with it came from terrible controls, glitches, and bad level design. These things may or may not have been fixed in a more finished product, and we will never know.

Sonic X-treme...again, I don't know. By the standards of today I can't imagine we would be holding it up as a classic, but I can't know what the people of 1996 would have thought. After all, they heralded Tomb Raider as an instant classic. Seriously, has anyone gone back and played the original TR recently? To say it has not aged well is an understatement.

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Can't believe I missed this:

He did not "sabotage" the project. He created a game engine from scratch for the Sega Saturn that allowed fluid 3D movement and controls (which, in laymans terms, might as well be building a Space Shuttle in your backyard because of how much of a complicated piece of shit the thing was to program for). Sega of America, under the direction of legendary asshole Bernie Stolar at the time, took the source code for that engine without asking and gave it to a group of guys who were making a game that looked like shit at the time regardless of how much the people making it were killing themselves to get it done (which is why they needed the engine to begin with).

Naka demanding that Sega take away something he made that he never said they could use in the first place does not make him a dick, and it certainly isn't "sabotage" by any means; particularly not when the game Naka designed the engine for in the first place hadn't even come out yet. That debacle was just another thing in a long line of SoA and SoJ screwing the team over that doomed the game from the start.

Yes you are right in that they took the engine without permission. But it wasn't like they gave it away to Nintendo or Sony, they gave it to another SEGA employee to help out make to make a Sonic game. At the end he still have been the bigger man and let them keep the engine to help them right? After all they were going to use to make the game better and not sabotage Nights or take credit for it.

Plus it was not the first time he threatened SEGA he was going to quit if he didn't get his way.

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But it wasn't like they gave it away to Nintendo or Sony, they gave it to another SEGA employee to help out make to make a Sonic game.

It doesn't matter who they gave it to. Nights was basically him taking advantage of the Auteur Licence that the success of the first 4 Sonic games had allowed him to have and making something that he was inspired to make. He created the engine himself for the express purpose of making that specific game with it.

And then Sega took the majority of the things he had created purely to build his dream game around and gave it to someone else with no one even telling him that they had, let alone asking him.

At the end he still have been the bigger man and let them keep the engine to help them right? After all they were going to use to make the game better and not sabotage Nights or take credit for it.

He could have allowed them to keep it. But considering how furious he was since they didn't tell him they had done so until two weeks after they had done it, it's perfectly understandable when it was his prerogative to let them do so in the first place. If you want to blame anyone, blame Stolar for throwing his weight around as if he controlled the entirety of Sega rather than just asking to use it before he gave it to the STI guys.

Plus it was not the first time he threatened SEGA he was going to quit if he didn't get his way.

The only other example that comes to mind is when he quit Sonic Team and moved to STI after Sonic 1 came out, which was also perfectly justifiable based on the circumstances (he programmed the entire game by himself, doing things that in theory weren't possible on the hardware, and they refused to reward him for it because he was relatively new to the company).

Edited by Gilda
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Hmm...

You know, it didn't really surprise me that X-treme was turning out the way it was. Back in the day, it wasn't as if SoA had much talent when it came to independently-designing a Sonic game from scratch, wasn't as if they had any real grasp of what makes a Sonic game a Sonic game.

I mean look at this shit;

Looks like it was just as much a sheer deviation from anything Sonic as SatAM itself was mellow.png I honestly think that it was jolly good that SoA got bitchslapped by Naka regarding that as well. I get the impression that he always thought that X-Treme would've been a failure if you take into consideration his apparent apathy when X-treme was at the beginning of development, likely from dislike of concepts and from knowing first-hand how difficult the Saturn was to program.

And yes, Gilda already eloquently said it but Naka was within his perfect right to not be happy at all about his NiGHTS engine being used without his permission. The poor team's lack of resources and dropping in the deep end from the beginning was from SoA's asininity.

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