If You Could Pick One Unused Sonic Content

[E-122-Psi]

Basically what it says on the tin. Sonic games go through a truck-load of unused concepts or little tidbits that don't quite make the cut due to time or development issues. If you could any one confirmed bit of unused content and have them go Hidden Palace with it, what would it be?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I remember a rumor that Knuckles and Shadow were planned to be in Unleashed before being later cut and if that was true, I always thought that could've been pretty neat. Where I'm not sure how Shadow could've fit in, I thought Knuckles was a really weird absence because he fits so well with the Werehog and could've helped Sonic learn how to make use of raw strength as opposed to raw speed. I like how Archie Sonic handled it where Knuckles found enjoyment with Werehog Sonic being more of a brawler and preferring Knuckles' way of fighting.

[KHCast]

06 on the Wii, just to see how fucked up that’d be and the train wreck that’d follow. Also just morbid curiosity to see how that’d play

[E-122-Psi]

Sonic Adventure 1 has always intrigued me with it's unfinished quality, though one element that takes my interest the most is through very obscure coding. In the original game there are placeholder labels for three level slots, 'Jungle', 'Mushroom' and 'Desert'. There's not much to base on from that info alone, but it sounds like we might have at one point gotten an Angel Island nostalgia level and platforming desert area that likely would have formed together with Sand Hill to make it a proper level. No assets and details of any three of them have been discovered yet, but I'd loved  to have seen how some extra levels would have played out in SA1 and how they would alter the progression of the story.

[RedFox99]

Cream riding with Amy in SAR:T

[The Tenth Doctor]

I was always curious about how Metal Sonic was to be playable in 06. He even had his own scenario apparently. Would he make dumb whirring noises every time he moved like Omega? Would he talk? Would Elise be confused and fall for the Metal Man? So yeah, that's the cut content I'd like to see.

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

1 hour ago, E-122-Psi said:

Sonic Adventure 1 has always intrigued me with it's unfinished quality, though one element that takes my interest the most is through very obscure coding. In the original game there are placeholder labels for three level slots, 'Jungle', 'Mushroom' and 'Desert'. There's not much to base on from that info alone, but it sounds like we might have at one point gotten an Angel Island nostalgia level and platforming desert area that likely would have formed together with Sand Hill to make it a proper level. No assets and details of any three of them have been discovered yet, but I'd loved  to have seen how some extra levels would have played out in SA1 and how they would alter the progression of the story.

That's interesting, I never even knew about that. Would have been cool if Sand Hill was a full level and we had more levels on Angel Island.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Definitely Shadow in Unleashed and the unused instrumental His World in 2006.

[ThePrinceOfSaiyans]

I don't know enough about cut content to give an answer. Does anyone have short and sweet rundown of what's been cut over the years?

[Blacklightning]

Obligatory mention of the Windy Valley beta.

[Nicky Nicardo]

All of the stuff that was cut out of Forces, easily. I really wanna know what that game could've been if they hadn't cut so much content.

[GentlemanX]

Yeah, not really sure which build I'd like to see made into a finished game, but yeah.

[Blueknight V2.0]

45 minutes ago, FriesWithoutKetchup said:

All of the stuff that was cut out of Forces, easily. I really wanna know what that game could've been if they hadn't cut so much content.

Oh yeah I forgot about that, actually I didn't even know there was anything outside of Boom Sonic that was scrapped. Well maybe the unused Episode Shadow dialogues, if you take a certain path.

[DabigRG]

Oh, where do I even start?

You know, as someone who frequented TWDG talks since two years ago, unused content is something that inevitable tends to come up, often as a point of bitterness. With Sonic, though, it's been a while since I looked at some of what was intended, so I'm not sure what to pick from.

If there was notable dummied out stuff for say, Lost World, that'd probably be an easy pick to cite.

I know Rise of Lyric was supposed to be called Sonic Synergy and it's plot seemingly had much more development and purpose for Sonic, Eggman, Amy, Lyric, QNC, and Perci in particular before it was decided to tie it into the Sonic Boom TV Show. And Pete Capella was allegedly credited for a game called Sonic Awakening as Silver, but there's no info on what that would've entailed.

I suppose I'll settle on that rumor(?) or whatever from a while back stating that Cream was originally supposed to be in 06 for Silver's Story. Which is simultaneously weird and yet somehow potentially fitting.

2 hours ago, RedFox99 said:

Cream riding with Amy in SAR:T

The what now?

2 hours ago, The Tenth Doctor said:

I was always curious about how Metal Sonic was to be playable in 06. He even had his own scenario apparently. Would he make dumb whirring noises every time he moved like Omega? Would he talk? Would Elise be confused and fall for the Metal Man? So yeah, that's the cut content I'd like to see.

Yeah, I'm curious as to what the heck his role would've been. I can only imagine it might've given Eggman and by extension Elise a little more screentime/presence in the story and possibly fighting Sonic and Shadow at certain points, which could also help explain why Silver fights both when they don't fight each other.

[McGroose]

I would have liked to restore a significant portion of the Sonic 2 beta, with fully finished versions of cut levels like Wood Zone, Desert Hill Zone and others. Sonic 2 has a very messy development in terms of what was kept and scrapped. Solid final product that went all over the place during development.

Didn't mention Genocide City zone cause that shit was just Metropolis Act 3 but black. Cool name though. Genocide City. Ooooh.... spooky

[MainJP]

7 hours ago, E-122-Psi said:

Sonic Adventure 1 has always intrigued me with it's unfinished quality, though one element that takes my interest the most is through very obscure coding. In the original game there are placeholder labels for three level slots, 'Jungle', 'Mushroom' and 'Desert'. There's not much to base on from that info alone, but it sounds like we might have at one point gotten an Angel Island nostalgia level and platforming desert area that likely would have formed together with Sand Hill to make it a proper level. No assets and details of any three of them have been discovered yet, but I'd loved  to have seen how some extra levels would have played out in SA1 and how they would alter the progression of the story.

Evilhamwizard found a Camera file (CAM0B00S.BIN, CAM1100S.BIN in hexadecimal) in the AutoDemo that belonged to STG11 (the Mushrooms stage), it's the only camera file that reads in hexadecimal as opposed to decimals like the final game. An earlier build of the game would be nice right about now.

 

6 hours ago, Shaun Shikeishuu said:

That's interesting, I never even knew about that. Would have been cool if Sand Hill was a full level and we had more levels on Angel Island.

.https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Adventure_(Dreamcast)#Japanese_Level_List

[JezMM]

Christian Whitehead's ideas to expand Sonic CD with Desert Dazzle and Final Fever sounded super cool.  Granted, it would have cost us Mirage Saloon in Mania, but without that foresight complication, yeah, I'd have liked DD and FF.  Of course, it would've been endlessly bothering if they couldn't get the original composers, or at least soundalikes, to produce songs that would fit in to the soundtrack perfectly for these stages.  Anything else would've just been super distracting in terms of consistency.  I'd want these zones to feel like they had always been there.

Equally, the Egg Gauntlet Zone from Sonic 2 Mobile was super nice looking and while I get why Sonic Team weren't keen on the visual design of it, it was still way cooler as a piece of bonus content than Boss Attack Zone.

 

Final one that comes to mind is a bit more personal - it's clear from early gameplay and promo screenshots of Unleashed that many of the stages that became DLC were possibly intended to be part of the base game at some point - one even appears as an icon on the sound test menu before DLC is installed (not that we noticed it at the time). Many DLC night stages are literally extensions of the regular stages that begin from just beyond the goal ring, taking place on the same map.  While cutting these stage extensions was absolutely the right choice for how long the night stages were already (almost every stage that isn't already trimmed could've been, and some that were, frankly, should've been trimmed further), as someone who does love the game and tends to play every stage whenever I do play anyway, I kinda wish I could experience all this content as once intended, with full length, connected Werehog stages, and the unconnected DLC stages containing medals and gallery items as the many empty explory areas seem to imply were once there.

Granted though... the free EXP crystals on DLC stages are a godsend when replaying the story from scratch - frankly they could move those to be in every stage, not just DLC, lol.

[superman43]

25 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Christian Whitehead's ideas to expand Sonic CD with Desert Dazzle and Final Fever sounded super cool.  Granted, it would have cost us Mirage Saloon in Mania, but without that foresight complication, yeah, I'd have liked DD and FF.  Of course, it would've been endlessly bothering if they couldn't get the original composers, or at least soundalikes, to produce songs that would fit in to the soundtrack perfectly for these stages.  Anything else would've just been super distracting in terms of consistency.  I'd want these zones to feel like they had always been there.

Equally, the Egg Gauntlet Zone from Sonic 2 Mobile was super nice looking and while I get why Sonic Team weren't keen on the visual design of it, it was still way cooler as a piece of bonus content than Boss Attack Zone.

 

Final one that comes to mind is a bit more personal - it's clear from early gameplay and promo screenshots of Unleashed that many of the stages that became DLC were possibly intended to be part of the base game at some point - one even appears as an icon on the sound test menu before DLC is installed (not that we noticed it at the time). Many DLC night stages are literally extensions of the regular stages that begin from just beyond the goal ring, taking place on the same map.  While cutting these stage extensions was absolutely the right choice for how long the night stages were already (almost every stage that isn't already trimmed could've been, and some that were, frankly, should've been trimmed further), as someone who does love the game and tends to play every stage whenever I do play anyway, I kinda wish I could experience all this content as once intended, with full length, connected Werehog stages, and the unconnected DLC stages containing medals and gallery items as the many empty explory areas seem to imply were once there.

Granted though... the free EXP crystals on DLC stages are a godsend when replaying the story from scratch - frankly they could move those to be in every stage, not just DLC, lol.

Not only that, scrapping Final Fever was quite substantial to the existence of Titanic Monarch.

[MainJP]

8 hours ago, ThePrinceOfSaiyans said:

I don't know enough about cut content to give an answer. Does anyone have short and sweet rundown of what's been cut over the years?

If you don't mind reading I'd recommend reading the TCRF pages for the Sonic Franchise. TCRF is the renowned site that documents cut/unused and hidden content in games and their prototypes.

https://tcrf.net/Category:Sonic_the_Hedgehog_series

Also Sonic Retro:

http://info.sonicretro.org/Category:Game_development

I don't know if it's short and sweet but here's a rundown up to Adventure 2:

Sonic The Hedgehog:

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(Genesis)

Checkered ball seen in prerelease screens, it can still be viewed in Debug Mode but can't be placed.

Splats was cut late in development as a trading card and a figurine for it were released.

Unused Warp effect.

SEGASonic Arcade:

https://tcrf.net/SegaSonic_the_Hedgehog

Robotnik for a cut USA version.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2:

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(Genesis)

Hidden Palace, cut late in development. Sonic would have gone here to achieve Super Sonic for the first time.

Rock World Zone, Winter Zone, Sand Shower Zone, Ocean Wind Zone, Blue Lake Zone, Tropical Plant Zone and Olympus.

 

Sonic The Hedgehog 3:

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_3

Eighth Special Stage.

Infamous cut Angel Island Zone intro.

Sonic & Knuckles:

Eighth Special Stage.

Sonic CD:

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_CD_(Sega_CD)

Unused Special Stage.

R2.

Bonus Stage.

Sonic Adventure:

Speeps contributed a lot to the SA and SA2 pages.

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Adventure_(Dreamcast)

https://tcrf.net/Proto:Sonic_Adventure_(Dreamcast)/AutoDemo

Only Sonic Jam asset left in the games files. Fits perfectly in a few small spots in Beta Windy Valley Act 1 where the AutoDemo and Final Springs seem to be too big for.

Level Select.

Test Stages (Stage 0). Full of classic elements like slopes, half pipes and inclines. There's also wall runs, pinball tracks and tests for scripted paths and monkey bars.

Old Character Select is still accessible, for years we thought these were just leftover textures.

O MUD meant for Dilapidated Way, causes Sonic and Tails to become dirty the further they run through the sewers. Never placed anywhere for whatever reason.

Beta Windy Valley and three cut stages of course.

Textures dating all the way back to November 1997.

Knuckles tutorial. Here's a video I uploaded years ago showing it off.

Infamous two-headed Dragon. Still hidden in the game and can be placed.

Speeps, whom contributed a lot to SA findings shows off unused objects:

Sonic Adventure 2:

https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Adventure_2_(Dreamcast)

https://tcrf.net/Proto:Sonic_Adventure_2_(Dreamcast)/The_Trial

https://tcrf.net/Proto:Sonic_Adventure_2_(Dreamcast)/Preview

 

Infamous playground.

Infamous library.

 

[TheOcelot]

R2.

In Sonic CD there are seven zones which are labeled (as can be seen in the stage-select menu) R1, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 & R8 repsectively.

However, there is no R2.

It's believed that R2 was a zone cut-early in development because it didn't meet design quality standards. There is very little concept art from R2 (see below). Since most stages in Sonic CD followed similar designs to Sonic 1 (Palmtree Panic = Green Hill, Collision Chaos = Spring Yard, Tidal Tempest = Labyrinth zone etc), it's believed that R2 would have been a Ruins type stage akin to Marble zone from Sonic 1.

I find it fascinating that R2 was cut and yet Wacky Workbench was deemed good enough!

It's also speculated that R2 was to be called "Relic Ruins".

 

Edit:

[MainJP]

21 minutes ago, TheOcelot said:

R2.

In Sonic CD there are seven zones which are labeled (as can be seen in the stage-select menu) R1, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 & R8 repsectively.

However, there is no R2.

It's believed that R2 was a zone cut-early in development because it didn't meet design quality standards. There is very little concept art from R2 (see below). Since most stages in Sonic CD followed similar designs to Sonic 1 (Palmtree Panic = Green Hill, Collision Chaos = Spring Yard, Tidal Tempest = Labyrinth zone etc), it's believed that R2 would have been a Ruins type stage akin to Marble zone from Sonic 1.

 

I find it fascinating that R2 was cut and yet Wacky Workbench was deemed good enough!

It's also speculated that R2 was to be called "Relic Ruins".

 

R2 had some enemies created for it according to Taxman:

These are the sprites he shared:

This scene here in the Extended Ending is the cut R2 stage, indicating that it was made before the game was finalized.

http://info.sonicretro.org/R2

This isn't a response to you, my post is in addition. I posted this stuff for anyone who doesn't know about it.

[Blue Blood]

Honestly, my top pick for unused content would have been Dust Hill and Hidden Palace from Sonic 2. While we eventually got the very unique new rendition of HPZ in S2 Remastered, we initially weren't so lucky with DHZ, as the inspired Desert Dazzle in SCD Remastered got canned. But eventually we were given Mirage Saloon in Mania. What makes MSZ so awesome is that it's inspiration is clear and has absolutely no shame in showing it, but it unlike the dozens of other fan-made remakes over the years it is an entirely new and unique level in its own right. All it borrows from the original DHZ the art, which was completely reworked and built upon. I'm not as fussed about the other unused S2 stages.

Generally, I find that there's not an awful lot of unused content in Sonic games that makes me like I'm missing out too much. '06 has the much-discussed "Free Mode" for all 9 characters, Rainbow Gem for Sonic and Speed Chip for Silver. All of those would have been very nice, but then you quickly get into the realisation that none of it ever stood a chance of being decent in that disaster of game unless the whole thing was thrown out the window and remade from scratch. SA1's beta Windy Valley and test levels are very impressive, though it's kind of more the concept and direction that were better than the execution. The SA1 engine means that it wouldn't have worked very well. There's a reason it was changed so dramatically, after all. 

The prototypes of Rise of Lyric, back when it was known as Sonic Synergy and presumably wasn't a Wii U game are interesting. There's a ton of concept art that shows how much of a vision the team had and all manner of things that they didn't get to even touch upon in the final game. There were supposed to be set pieces with the Sentinels, a multitude of other Enerbeam moves, proper hubs with proper quests, a much deeper story and much more. I guess I would love to see the game that Boom was supposed to be. 

9 hours ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Definitely Shadow in Unleashed and the unused instrumental His World in 2006.

Shadow was never in Unleashed, and nor was Knuckles. An interview erroneously cited them as appearing in the game alongside other characters including Amy and Tails at E3 2008, but that's it. Nothing in the game's data remotely suggests that they were ever a part of the game.

[DiamondX]

10 hours ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Oh yeah I forgot about that, actually I didn't even know there was anything outside of Boom Sonic that was scrapped. Well maybe the unused Episode Shadow dialogues, if you take a certain path.

Boom Sonic wasn't actually planned for Forces. The Avatar was the main idea of the game before they decided to add Sonic as the main character.

[Blueknight V2.0]

36 minutes ago, DiamondX said:

Boom Sonic wasn't actually planned for Forces. The Avatar was the main idea of the game before they decided to add Sonic as the main character.

Yeah but the overall concept of the Avatar was obviously Boom Sonic, they'll never confirm it though.

[ThePrinceOfSaiyans]

I seem to recall that it was planned for Super Sonic would be playable in regular stages in Sonic Adventure based on a voice clip of Tikal saying something along the lines of "if you collect 50 rings, you can turn into Super Sonic!"

Assuming Super Sonic was planned to be playable in regular stages, I'd say that is the cut content I would have liked to see make it into the final product. 

EDIT: Found the voice clip.