Unknown 3D Sonic Game Pitch Discovered

[Badnik Mechanic]

This guy runs a popular YouTube account which specialises in uncovering and archiving cancelled games and footage from scrapped builds of release games. 

He claims that there are a few other images from this pitch.

Who are Climax? I guess it's Climax studios, they were responsible for Silent Hill Shattered Memories and typically seem to make games based on other peoples licenses and IP's.

[Jango]

And unsurprisingly, it's Green Hill. 

[SaturnWolf]

Huh, never knew Climax of all studios would try to tackle a Sonic game. I'm interested to see what more comes out on this.

[Indigo Rush]

2 minutes ago, Jango said:

And unsurprisinly, it's Green Hill. 

I bet he'll be wearing red sneakers, too. 

I'm looking forward to seeing this when it comes out; it's always interesting to hear people's different ideas on how to take Sonic into the third dimension!

[Jango]

Wanna know which 3D Sonic game should be pitched or noticed by SEGA?

This one:

 

 

[Polkadi~☆]

Good idea, bad idea? No idea. Seems SEGA turned this down for a reason we'll never know, nor will we ever know just what this was.

[Jango]

4 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I bet he'll be wearing red sneakers, too. 

I'm looking forward to seeing this when it comes out; it's always interesting to hear people's different ideas on how to take Sonic into the third dimension!

You know, in light of recent events it's not an impossibility to have Sonic in green shoes for example :V

Movie studios being pitching Sonic with human teeth and SEGA seems to be OK with it.

Just saying hehe

[Blacklightning]

5 minutes ago, Jango said:

And unsurprisingly, it's Green Hill. 

Based on the image quality, the concept looks about Saturn/PS1 era to me. Around then a Green Hill level would actually still have been somewhat novel - in fact the only debatable time it would have come up since is the hub for Sonic Jam I believe? Believe it or not, GHZ's saturation didn't actually start becoming a problem until around Generations - it's a pretty recent problem by comparison.

5 minutes ago, Jango said:

Wanna know which 3D Sonic game should be pitched or noticed by SEGA?

This one:

-snip-

Yawn. Let me know when they actually start making level design around it instead of tech demos. Sonic-esque physics on their own haven't really been a particularly big milestone for years now.

[Diogenes]

There's a bit of Emerald Hill in the back there too.

I kinda go back and forth on the whole "too much GHZ" thing. On the one hand Sega/Sonic Team have certainly been lazy in how they reference and revisit stuff from old games, but on the other I feel people are too quick to reject any kind of references, as if having iconic, recurring elements in the series is somehow inherently a bad thing.

Anyway I hope this guy does manage to dig up enough material for a video as I'm always interested in seeing this series' bizarre struggles to remain relevant.

[Badnik Mechanic]

31 minutes ago, Jango said:

And unsurprisingly, it's Green Hill. 

It's... actually not.

Not strictly.

If you look in the background you'll see the Emerald Hill Zone.

Edit: In case you were wondering, there is nothing playable in this pitch.

 

[Jango]

26 minutes ago, Blacklightning said:

Yawn. Let me know when they actually start making level design around it instead of tech demos. Sonic-esque physics on their own haven't really been a particularly big milestone for years now.

Ohoho, I will. Right now it's easily the best and most faithful recreation of 2D physics in 3D, with improoved animations for 3 different characters and a lot of gameplay possibilities for each. This was programmed by two guys in a year. Pretty much like Forces if you think about it :V

These guys need to get to the public eye... "It's just an engine". So was Taxman's Retro Engine at the beginning. They have a base, it's just a matter of time untill some proper level pops up (hopefully!). But we need to help and give them visibility.

[DabigRG]

47 minutes ago, Jango said:

And unsurprisingly, it's Green Hill. 

It's almost like it's an iconic and easy level to make hacks from or something.

26 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

t on the other I feel people are too quick to reject any kind of references, as if having iconic, recurring elements in the series is somehow inherently a bad thing.

 

Unless it's a reference or lift from the Dreamcast era, in which case, "GIMMEGIMMEGIMME!".

[Multikaris]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

It's almost like it's an iconic and easy level to make hacks from or something.

Unless it's a reference or lift from the Dreamcast era, in which case, "GIMMEGIMMEGIMME!".

1. Exactly. 

2. Or the modern era, which fans turn a blind eye to. I’d imagine an even bigger response to a non-game element being cleaned over to the games than even a Dreamcast era one. 

 

Also, the tweet mentions that there were multiple pitches by Climax. We still need info on the Lab Zero proposal, though.

[DabigRG]

1 minute ago, Miragnarok said:

 

2. Or the modern era, which fans turn a blind eye to. I’d imagine an even bigger response to a non-game element being cleaned over to the games than even a Dreamcast era one. 

 

Like what?

[Tarnish]

5 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

Yawn. Let me know when they actually start making level design around it instead of tech demos. Sonic-esque physics on their own haven't really been a particularly big milestone for years now.

Normally I'd be with you on that one, but the fact there seems to be more work and effort put into this tech demo feature-wise than pretty much the last decade of Sonic Team's output, I'll take a really promising tech demo over the same old crap Sonic Team has been feeding us any day. At least this has potential...can't say that about Sonic Team.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Bark bork Sonic Team bad hire this fan dev we know nothing about etc etc

Anyway while I was reluctant to google "climax studio" when not in incognito mode, it looks like they tend to make pretty middle-of-the-road stuff. I hear their 2 Silent Hill games didn't really capture what was good about the first 3, and while I love Adventure Time, Pirates of the Enchiridion looked about as lifeless a game as you could get.

I did however find that they were responsible for Crayola Scoot, the greatest game ever made.

[Cortez]

Oh hey Climax Studios, it’s right above my work (wagamama), I often get some of the staff come in for lunch so it’s cool that they once pitched a Sonic game.

[Salamander]

I wouldn't necessarily read anything into the use of Green Hill Zone in a pitch.  Even before the modern era of Green Hill overdose, it's exactly the sort of level you'd want to build first to show SEGA that you can make a Sonic game.

[Jango]

20 minutes ago, FFWF said:

I wouldn't necessarily read anything into the use of Green Hill Zone in a pitch.  Even before the modern era of Green Hill overdose, it's exactly the sort of level you'd want to build first to show SEGA that you can make a Sonic game.

Yet, Taxman pitched Studiopolis Zone :V

[Diogenes]

I mean, did he not originally pitch Palmtree Panic, aka GHZ 2?

[Indigo Rush]

6 minutes ago, Jango said:

Yet, Taxman pitched Studiopolis Zone :V

Christian Whitehead isn't an unfamiliar third party and had worked with Sega before.

 

[Jango]

Well, yeah, way back with his Sonic CD port pitch. He was pitching a remaster.

Just now, Indigo Rush said:

Christian Whitehead isn't an unfamiliar third party and had worked with Sega before.

 

One thing doesn't justify or influences the other all that much tho'. Doing Green Hill is just playing it safe. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

2 hours ago, Cortez said:

Oh hey Climax Studios, it’s right above my work (wagamama), I often get some of the staff come in for lunch so it’s cool that they once pitched a Sonic game.

How has it been 2 hours and nobody has asked you the obvious question which is probably a lot harder to do than it sounds?

[Multikaris]

13 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Like what?

Say, the Freedom Fighters in a game. 

[DabigRG]

Passive Aggression ho.

 

4 hours ago, Cortez said:

Oh hey Climax Studios, it’s right above my work (wagamama), I often get some of the staff come in for lunch so it’s cool that they once pitched a Sonic game.

Oh? That's cool.

What do you do?

2 hours ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

How has it been 2 hours and nobody has asked you the obvious question which is probably a lot harder to do than it sounds?

Ikr

23 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Say, the Freedom Fighters in a game. 

That's not a Modern concept.It'd be neat, but stick within your terms.