Unreleased Sonic X-Treme Footage

The first things coming to me after watching the videos where:
Bizarre, impressive, WTF?!?

Seriously, what I see is an interesting (at least) game concept, with a crazy while unique approach to Sonic gameplay. It has a certain Super Mario Galaxy feeling in it, and old school type gimmicks (which I love). In general, the videos are showing more of a scattered collection of game concepts and gimmicks than actual gameplay (it's just a beta anyway), so it's quite difficult to forecast what a finished version could be like.

It's a shame it was cancelled, I'd like to see what this game formula could give.

 

link for the second video
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=29020cc...35de86579c64406

youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hH4uUAhXHY

 

Original .zip archives I was sent are soon available at http://projectsonic.com/!release

Not really worth having as the content is presumably the same, but heck, some completist might want it

 

It's great to see this, though I do feel bad about how they came to be. This really is impressive, and looks to have been a unique concept that could have made a not too bad game. But I think a lot of people aren't considering what it would be today were it released. Impressive, yeah, but as a Sonic game. not that great. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold the title of the greatest 3d effort, and I can sort of understand why it was canned. Maybe if it weren't using Sonic it'd be seen in a different light, but I can't imagine looking at this any better than say, Bug!, were it released.

 

Taking all of the released videos in, it's interesting to see a Sonic game built more around platforming mechanics than dramatic setpieces. It's almost impossible to tell from the little bit we know about this early version of the game, but it seems like even Sonic 3K is more cutscene/setpiece based in it's playstyle. I also wonder if this game would have possibly had a widescreen option like NiGHTS or Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Very experimental stuff for such a big franchise.

 

Am I the only one, that the X-treme camera makes trip balls?

 

Oh, I got really impressed when I saw the second video. Although the camera made me get a bit dizzy sometimes (specially 0:46), I found awesome the features that that level(?) had.

About the first video, it didn't impress me as much as the second, but still impressive nonetheless. So that was the potential that the level editor had? Wow ( in a good way).

 

That 147º Field of vision camera almost kill my brain...It made me feel dizzy...

Whatever, Awesome videos...Sonic X-treme would have been the best 3D sonic game, keep it classy =P, and really thanks and an apologize to Chris Senn for all he did for the comunnity. Just Awesome.

 

To be honest I'm surprised that no one has taken up the task of "remaking" this game.

Imagine how cool that would be :O]
you never know I might when I can program properly....

Can we do this after S2HD :3

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself aren't I?

 

Actually, Senn's been working on something to that effect for a little while now, called "Project-S".

 

Ah! I didn't know of this! I hope it turns out good then

 

These levels make this to be one of the most amazing projects that was canceled.

I'm sorry that this was done with out permission (in the beginning away), but it looks awesome nonetheless.

Hope that Project-S is a success.

 

Am I the only one who always watches these videos expecting the much-lauded wall-walking mechanic, only to see a relatively generic platformer with a really awesome camera instead? When exactly was the wall-walking feature ditched?

Also, Sonic looks like he controls far too loosely in that video...

 

Sexcellent.

Whereas yeah, Sonic doesn't look like he controls too well, if it's anything like the other videos and lacks the diagonal animations, well, that's something you probably wouldn't want to show off, hence what looks like restricted movements. To be honest I've thought the Sonic animations and collisions have been a bit off in all these videos, though I'm guessing they would have been cleaned up towards the end.

But having said that, the game looks waaaay ahead of its time. Sure some parts look a bit ugly (though not as ugly as the 3D renderings in Sonic 3D Blast) but it's miles ahead of games like Bug! that saw a release. I mean sure, it's probably all down to the camera, but there were plenty of games released back in the day that had terrible cameras, so it's a refreshing change to see one that improves the game rather than ruins it.

 

People have to put this game in context. This was a game to go up against Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. This was well before most 3D gaming conventions had been put into effect. For it to even approach playability speaks volumes about it.

 

Yes, it's also not fair to really critique how the game would have gone since most of the videos that we've seen are just tests. I think the closest ones were can get were the E3 1996 video and then that little teaser of Jade Gully. Otherwise, the only people who had some semblance of how the game was going to be played are, indeed, the Xtreme team.

 

That said, the Xtreme camera is very impressive even by modern standards. That is a great camera, even without the fisheye effect.

I particularly like how the camera pulls back while zooming in on the extending rolling segments. Action movies have long used this film technique to create a tunnel vision and give a better illusion of speed. To see a game from 1996 doing this is nothing short of amazing.

EDIT: To put it another way - this is an effect that wasn't seen again in a Sonic game until Sonic 2006.

 

Project-S isn't going to be a remake of Sonic X-treme, well, it was for a short period of time but now the team behind "Project-S" aim to now make a 3D Sonic game that is fun to play. :P I'm currently at the moment making an accurate remake of the Saturn version in Game Maker, I would want to do the PC Version but the level design is far too complex for my knowledge.

 

I'm sure most people here have already seen this, but this website has a lot of information about X-Treme. http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/sxc/index.html

You can see concept art, test footage, music and more!

I am too! Why don't we finish what they started? The Sonic X-treme Compendium already has the character designs and layouts, so all we would need to do is use that information to try to complete the game. Of course, we would need to get all of the needed permission from whoever made said concepts. Don't wanna bite the hand that feeds you. It would still be a fangame, but it would be different than Project S because it's a direct attempt to finish X-Treme without straying too far from the original concepts.

 

All the stuff at SXC is free to use, for non-commercial purposes and given credit.

And just give me about a day and I'll make a topic of my Sonic X-Treme remake.

*Rushes*