What Sonic development secrets do we have left on the list?

That'd be here, for reference.

 

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I'd swear it says "snow covered mountain" or, at least, that the first two words are "snow covered" which fits for Ice Cap. For full speculation, I think it's concept art for Sonic 2 which label inspired the Sonic 3 level name when they recycled the scrapped concept for the next title.

EDIT:
I'd also say that, while the dragon from the egg could be Perfect Chaos, Biolizard was another "dragon" that was inside a space colony that looked a lot like the death egg (keyword "egg"), and Super Sonic (along with Super Shadow) fought it outside the ark, in the space itself.

 

That's an interesting point. While I believe Perfect Chaos was a more direct reference to the legendary dragon thingie from the S3 manual (being connected to Angel Island, Knuckles' ancestors and the Emeralds, with the Master Emerald being possibly the "egg") in the same way SA1 referenced other parts of the classic Japanese manuals, it's possible Finalhazard also took some inspiration from the original concept (or at least the boss battle's concept).

 

Boy, the idea of R2 being so hush-hush leads to some interesting possibilities. This is all baseless speculation, but I wonder why they don't want to discuss it? Is it legal? Personal?

1. Could the developer behind it have gotten into a spat with the team and been terminated in such a way that a legal dispute between them and the rest of the dev team was possible? If so, that could make it very hard to discuss openly even after all these years. There could be countless reasons why this happened, and it'd be much more likely to be lost in translation given that we're talking about the legal work environment of early 90s Japan. And if some form of personal drama was involved, who KNOWS what it could be.

2. Another interesting possibility, could there have been collaboration with an outside well known guest developer that just didn't work out? Some well named designer who stepped in that typically didn't work with Sega, but the contract was never ironed out correctly, or was broken for whatever reason? This could still be someone that's a no named talent to us in the west, but may have carried bigger weight in Japan.

The only thing we've officially heard is that the level was cut because it more or less wasn't up to par, but there could in fact be more to the story.

Having said that, don't take this speculation too seriously. It's just an interesting new idea to consider.

 

Maybe the hint was the word "dangerous", so perhaps a "Genocide City" type of level?

 

Michael Jackson Zone

 

I want to see some information on Sonic Mania's secrets. The pitch build would be cool to see, what with a different Studiopolis Act 2 and EggJanken.

The whole "Sonic Adventure reusing Sonic 3 leftovers" thing does seem to fit with Sonic Adventure 2 having Sonic break off a door from a flying vehicle and use it as a board to slide down hills, if that should be taken as having been repurposed from the original concepts for Sonic 3's Flying Battery and Ice Cap Zones.

 

I'd love to see what was actually planned for the rest of Sonic 4, of all things. Remember, it got cancelled with Episode 2, despite the teaser for Episode 3 still existing in the game's data...

 

I still believe it's possible Press Garden was originally 2 zones. Has this been debunked in interviews? The 2 acts share almost no assets at all.

 

Sonic the Fighters AOU show builds or Fighting Vipers builds.

 

I would like to see a Sonic Mania build of any kind as long as it isn't too close to the final release. (The game is still being sold!) Steam builds are much more hard to obtain since they're usually not burned onto discs or cartridges of any kind; It's almost always digital, and unless you were a Developer or QA Tester for the game, it'd be pretty much impossible.

Has anyone ever contacted any of the developers and asked if they would be willing to share a 2016/Early 2017 build of the game? I'd love to see the early zones and title screen (when it was still Discovery.)

 

I think it's safe to say that none of the Sonic Mania staff want to intentionally sour their relationships with SEGA and face legal charges for breaching contract by sharing development builds of a product that's still very new and very much in circulation.

holy shit

 

Oh, I just thought of another one: how troubled really was Sonic Heroes' development? We've gotten little tidbits over the years that suggest it didn't have a smooth development, from Takashi Iizuka nearly dying from crunch to a member of the development team saying that the game had so many bugs that they only classified bugs that prevented the player from finishing the game as bugs. I also remember seeing a fun (although completely baseless) theory that it was originally developed as a more RPG-style game, and that Sonic Battle was supposed to be a handheld version.

I'd really love to learn more about this game's development. It's a fascinating mess of a game (although one I'll admit I still enjoy in spite of its flaws).

 

Ok, imma throw my hat into the ring...

>Sonic Advance Protos. From smoke trailing behind sonic as he runs, to early stage designs like neo green hill having street signs and street lamps or egg rocket being completely redrawn, as well as that super early trailer of sonic running (I swear I've watched the actual trailer, but all I can find now are screenshots), this game has so much potential for juicy development secrets. Plus IGN has multiple clips on their youtube channel of a build we probably could find some day.

>Sonic DS. Surprised no one has mentioned this. Need I say more?

>Sonic Rush. I wonder if a build exists that has the advance sprites and the early music as the standard?

 

I remember hearing from somewhere (can't remember the specifics as to the exact place) that very early in heroes' development it had a very different planned roster, with like Mighty and Metal Sonic being on a team together or something? I can't imagine this is accurate but I remember reading about it from somewhere, so...

 

I curious as to how early in the development of Sonic Advance 2 Cream was implemented since in the Trailer included on Sonic Mega Collection, Cream isn't shown off at all.

 

The guy's a newbie, there are a million reasons why his question is flawed, but that doesn't justify terse rudeness. "Cute."

There's not really one "owner" (it's an organized event with many people and organizations involved) and it's unlikely any of the showrunners would be allowed to or be interested in keeping these materials. It's a nice thought, but fails to grasp the reality of the situation. Many experienced prototype hunters have already tried every avenue they could think of, and still come up emptyhanded.

See Jax? You could've explained it like that instead of being snide and unhelpful.

 

Me being the Sonic Adventure nut that I am, I would LOVE to get more from Sonic Adventure, specifically the original Act 1 of Twinkle Park (the one with the tails image / maybe Amy in the pink room). Also wishes I have from Sonic Adventure would be like, a build with the dragon boss intact in some form, even the original Nights table too... Honestly I could go on for hours of the stuff I'd still love to see from Sonic Adventure that we haven't gotten in its original form yet.