User:TheJoebro64/drafts/extreme

Sonic Extreme was a prototype video game created by Vision Scape Interactive in May 2003. Proposed as a spin-off to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Extreme featured Sonic and Shadow riding hoverboards in a Green Hill Zone-themed open world environment. The gameplay was compared by video game journalists to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It featured three gameplay modes, which included searching for keys and Chaos Emeralds and fighting or racing another player. Vision Scape pitched Sonic Extreme to Sega while it made cutscenes for Sonic Heroes; the studio developed the game on the Xbox with intent to port it to the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The prototype was assembled using the RenderWare game engine and assets from prior Vision Scape and Sonic games.

Vision Scape showed Sonic Extreme to Sonic Team's Yuji Naka, who was impressed and asked for a software design description to be submitted to Sega. However, Sega never responded to Vision Scape after the document was turned in and the game never came to fruition. Sonic Team's later game Sonic Riders bears a strong resemblance to Sonic Extreme; Vision Scape's co-founder Mark McDonald says he believes their game was used as the base for Sonic Riders. Sonic Extreme was virtually unknown until gameplay footage was uploaded onto YouTube in May 2011. Journalists reacted very poorly to the game and expressed relief it was never released.

Premise

Sonic Extreme was an extreme sports video game in which the player controlled a character riding a hoverboard. Had the pitch been accepted, Sonic Extreme could have featured multiple playable characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series' history, but the prototype only featured Sonic and Shadow. Polygon and Digital Trends compared its gameplay to that of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater: the player was placed in an open world environment filled with rings, crates, boost pads, ramps, half-pipes, and rails they could interact with.

The prototype featured three game modes: "Mission", "Combat", and "Race". The "Mission" mode was single-player and involved exploring the environment to collect a key; once it was found, the player would gain access to a room with a Chaos Emerald. Collecting the emerald returned the player to the title screen. "Combat" was a split-screen multiplayer mode in which players would collect weapons—such as rocket launchers, mines, and grenades—and attack each other. Lastly, "Race" pitted the two players against each other in a race to the end of a level.

Development

Sonic Extreme was developed by Vision Scape Interactive, a San Diego-based development studio known for its work on the shooter Seablade for the Xbox and the skateboarding game Tech Deck: Bare Knuckle Grind for Microsoft Windows. While developing Bare Knuckle Grind, Vision Scape decided to use its game engine—created using the RenderWare framework—in other skateboarding games. The first attempt to do this was with a game based on Rocket Power that would have been published by THQ for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2, but this game was canceled due to THQ's financial difficulties. As a number of the studio's members had backgrounds in animation, Sega hired Vision Scape to produce the computer animated cutscenes for Sonic Team's game Sonic Heroes (2003). Wanting to make use of the Sonic intellectual property, Vision Scape's co-founder Mark McDonald decided to pitch a spin-off that used the Bare Knuckle Grind engine.

The prototype was developed over the course of a week in May 2003 without Sega's knowledge. The game was created on the Xbox because of Vision Scape's experience with the platform, with intent to port it to the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The base of Sonic Extreme was built using Bare Knuckle Grind, retooled to resemble Sonic games; for example, the game world was based on Green Hill Zone and traditional Sonic elements like rings and boost pads were added. Vision Scape's deal with Sega also gave them the ability to use assets from prior Sonic games. The studio took models of Sonic and Shadow and repurposed them to ride the hoverboards. Promotional artwork from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were used for the loading and title screens. All the audio was ripped from Sonic Adventure 2, including Sonic's voice clips, "Escape From the City", "A Ghost Pumpkin's Soup", and the Chao Garden's Chao Departure theme.

After Sonic Extreme was developed, McDonald held a meeting with Sonic Team's head Yuji Naka and showed him the prototype. According to McDonald, Naka was very impressed and enthusiastic about its concepts and said the project would move forward as a collaboration between Sonic Team and Vision Scape. At Naka's request, Vision Scape produced a software design description for a full Sonic Extreme and its budget; the studio's management believed they had secured the deal. However, Sega never responded to Vision Scape after submitting the document and ended its communications with the studio after it completed the Sonic Heroes cutscenes, despite repeated attempts by Vision Scape's agent for correspondence. McDonald did not take Sega's silence personally, assuming it had its own plans. Ultimately, Sonic Extreme never came to fruition.

Aftermath

Sonic Riders and Vision Scape's closure

See also: Sonic Riders

In September 2005, Sega announced Sonic Riders, a new Sonic game being developed by Sonic Team. Vision Scape's staff was stunned by the striking resemblances Sonic Riders bore to Sonic Extreme, with characters riding hoverboards and performing tricks through worlds inspired by past Sonic games. Video game historian Liam Robertson noted that, in addition to the hoverboarding, Sonic Extreme's game modes were present in Sonic Riders, although they were heavily modified. McDonald believes that Sonic Team took Vision Scape's concept before going in a different direction, which he thinks explains Sega's silence. Vision Scape considered taking legal action against Sega. McDonald's agent informed him that through the non-disclosure agreement Vision Scape had signed during Sonic Heroes's development, anything the studio make using Sega IPs belonged to Sega; thus, Sonic Team's use of Sonic Extreme's concept was legal.

Vision Scape was shut down in 2006. McDonald ordered the staff to dispose of their development hardware and a number software development kits were taken to a recycling plant. However, the Sonic Extreme prototype survived and was traded between collectors.

Rediscovery and reception

Sonic Extreme was publicly revealed in May 2011, when a YouTube user in possession of the surviving prototype, "ProtonX3", released a series of videos demonstrating the game's environments and game modes. The footage was very poorly received by video game journalists. Game Informer and VG247 thought Sonic Extreme looked "predictably" and "compellingly" awful, respectively, and GamesRadar joked it "prov[ed] once again that slapping the word 'extreme' onto any popular franchise, activity or consumer good is a surefire way to guarantee that it will be anything but." The game's existence also elicited commentary on Sega's quality control process; Game Informer and Computer and Video Games expressed relief that it was never released, but questioned why Sega had continued to release other poorly-received Sonic games, such as Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders and its sequels, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

In May 2017, Did You Know Gaming? dedicated an episode of its series Unseen64 to Sonic Extreme. Former members of Vision Scape, including McDonald, were interviewed for the video, while research was provided by Andrew Bollman, a video game preservationist and the owner of the prototype. After the video's release, Engadget was positive, saying "Extreme looks like it could've actually been a lot of fun" and favorably comparing its battle mode to Mario Kart 8's.