The Sonic 3D footage was actually what interested me most about the whole thing - and I spotted the loop straight away, personally. =P I'd love to see more footage exclusively of that build...
To be fair, it did look like it had potential to be a good game. That said, what I saw looked fucking horrible.
Hooooly cow, it's insane to see this again. I remember back around late 1996, I was reading up on Sonic X-Treme's e3 showing. I downloaded the very tail end of that clip, the MARIO WHO? bit, off of an AOL download depository. It took forever to load and was in awful, awful quality. I thought it'd been lost to time.
Oh how I remember buying a Saturn specifically for this game, being naive and full of hope. Alas, those hopes were crushed, but if X-Treme really was turning out as bad as everyone said it was then it was probably for the best.
The Sega saturn always intriged me, as every body remembers the 32x, and nobody cares about the Saturn. When possibly "better" then the original Playstation, As soon as the ps1 got more and more hit exclusives, the saturn was only known as a small time arcade system by 1997, and I always blamed Sonic Xtremes cancelation On this, even though I didnt even exist till january of 1998. That aside, if there was a bit more support to this game, I think it would have been great in 1997/1998, certainly better then Sonic Adventure. The way I see it, This game had Slight 3d gameplay, and the tube like design helped the game well, remove the fish eye lense, maybe have the game take place Mario galaxy by hopping across small moons. It looks like it plays like the fangame Sonic Robo Blast 2, execpt more liniear.
Sega was pretty dang ballsy back in the day. It's a shame we don't see that anymore. But, I guess they don't really have competitors to bad mouth, so... yeah Sonic X-Treme is only really a curiosity piece because it was never fully released. It fascinates me, but really, I'm glad it never saw release. With all due respect to the team that worked on it (and the insane amount of suffering they had to endure through it's development), it was probably going to be critically panned, especially when compared to the superior Mario 64, and would have brought Sega's downfall several years earlier than it ended up coming. I'm glad the Adventure series became the first "proper" foray into 3D for Sonic. But this stuff is still fascinating!
While I may not be the most knowledgeable person on Retro as far as Xtreme development goes, I will say that what was shown in this trailer is... Well, awful, to be frank. No wonder the game went through so many developmental changes and engine switches. This looks like an absolute mess - and before anyone shoots me for my opinion, yes, I'm well aware that this was early in development - but where is the momentum? Where's the skillful navigation of obstacles and slopes? Where is, well, any indication that this is a Sonic title besides Sonic himself being present? I'm aware my opinion may be controversial but I can't see any redeeming qualities in this build or anything remotely salvageable. It actually makes me kind of glad that the game never saw the light of day and I think the fans are doing better things with the unfinished scraps than anyone at Sega could have managed.
I bet there are some Boss fight Vids out there, I know that Gamefan Magazine's website had posted some screens of the MetalSonic bossfight. To me,the images look like they were of a VHS tape. This morning I've attempted to contact some of the Gamefan members to see if they have anything.
Seeing this video gives me a pang of pity for the poor unlucky sap who had to put it together. "Make a trailer that shows how cool our next Sonic game is going to be!" "But sir, there's hardly anything made yet... our team only started making it like a week ago." "I don't care! Waggle the camera around and make it look exciting!" It's no wonder the development was fraught with disaster and illness. It's funny, I guess the way Nintendo portrayed Sega wasn't that unfounded. I kind of miss the silly rivalry.
"Sega Europe have their own plans" Yeah, because this advert wouldn't be legal to show in the UK for a start =P We have rules about advertising regarding how competing companies can be portrayed.
I can't recall if anyone pointed this video out before, I've never seen it anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwNA3HHCF4 Not only is there some video of Kirby's Air Ride for N64 at the beginning, but at 8:27 you can see video of Sonic Xtreme in that small arena where you collect rings. I'm expecting this is old... but whatever.
Wow, I didn't know Sonic Xtreme was playable right on the floor. For some reason I was thinking it was a closed doors sort of deal. And was that the extent of the demo? A square room where you collect rings?
Huh, I never knew there was a playable prototype of MK64 with Kamek, always thought that was just some early tech demo version. Also, what's the deal with the Wario and the wireframe Pong and Pacman? Its obviously not the Virtual Boy since that didn't have color. Oh nevermind, its just a neat looking promo video.
I thought that was fairly known stuff. Basically, they had a demo using the Boss Engine at E3. I'm pretty sure the plan was to have the boss battle with Nack The Weasel playable, but they found a bug or something and just put this "placeholder". It's just a stage with a diamond that looks much like those Time Stones from Sonic CD and rings flowing around it. So, nothing exciting really.
Aww man it looks like the guy recording the video got bored and and turned away to look at Daytona USA. You could still hear the sonic rings in the background right after the xtreme play. Even with such short gameplay, I think I can pick up a few new clues. For instance the Gemstone in the center looks like it had blocking collisions enabled, Also is it just me, or does Sonic's acceleration seem a little to instantaneous? ( like the leaked Saturn tech demo) the gameplay matches the 718 tech demo exactly, from Sonic to the camera system.) Some of he textures are easier to make out in this video as well. I wish the camera man would have sit that camera still for a while longer without zooming in and out and moving around all over the place so quickly. I Know SANiK ripped the 718 Saturn demo apart and found the Metal sonic Boss Arena wall model hidden within. I ripped the metal sonic floor texture from that demo using an emulator. SANik can be a bit on the secretive side at times. I wonder what else may be hidden with-in. Any hackers here like to take another look see?, I'm dieing to know !
