![]() The physics, momentum and controls all feel just right - but even beyond that, it's clear that this is a significant evolution over the original Game Gear version in many different ways. It's written in C and designed to be completely portable, replicating the look and feel of classic Sonic in a similar vein to Christian Whitehead's Retro Engine, which powers Sonic Mania. This new take on the game is built using new tech known as the Crimson Engine. The main issues involve the lack of proper Sonic physics due to platform limitations, while the near constant slowdown is frustrating. It's the third attempt at bringing Sonic gameplay to Sega's 8-bit system though it's not without its flaws. The original was first released in 1993 for the Game Gear and Master System (in Europe, at least). In retrospect, it's clear why the game was canned but it's still a key part of Sega history.Īs intriguing as Sonic Z-Treme is, the SAGE 2018 demo that impressed me the most is surely Sonic Chaos - a brand-new game inspired by the Game Gear title of the same name. ![]() While Z-Treme still has a long way to go it's great to see fans working to deliver on the unfinished potential of Sonic X-Treme all these years later. It's possible to bump this up to 60 frames per second, if you choose, but performance is less consistent in this mode with the game bouncing between 30 and 60 depending on scene complexity. By default, it runs at 30 frames per second and manages to deliver this nearly 100% of the time save for a couple dips here and there. The demo includes multiple frame-rate and camera options as well. While it's very early, it's an impressive showing and suggests that this could conceivably become something more interesting in the future. At its core, Z-Treme incorporates X-Treme-inspired level design and concepts, combined with a new spin from the developer. According to the game's author, all the rendering, loading, animation, controls and collision detection code was written from scratch with original hardware in mind. In development since March of 2017, Sonic Z-Treme is a proof of concept demo created using a new engine designed specifically for the Saturn. John takes a look at his favourite demos from this year's SAGE, with Sonic Z-Treme and Sonic Chaos just two of the highlights.ĭevelopment was apparently something of a mess then, but the game has some significance in Sonic lore - and now, thanks to the hard work of Sonic Retro user XL2, the spirit of the game lives. Unfortunately, when Yuji Naka caught wind of this, he demanded a cessation of work on the project and this ultimately ended the Sonic X-Treme project. This prompted members of the team to request access to Sonic Team's Nights Into Dreams engine to speed up development. Then, after a disastrous meeting with Sega of Japan, a decision was made to change the direction of the project following the direction of an entirely separate portion of the game - the boss sequences. Much to his chagrin - and that of lead designer Chris Senn - Sega management brought another team on board to handle Saturn programming duties, a developer known as Point of View, but this studio ultimately fared even worse. The main programmer, Ofer Alon, was working primarily on PC hardware and struggled to deliver the required fluidity on the Saturn itself. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Sonic community, several prototypes have been recovered, showcasing the game in various states of completion. So, what happened? It's a long story involving sky-high ambitions, multiple teams and failures on the part of Sega management, but the traces of its existence have become the stuff of legend. However, the game never saw the light of day. ![]() This was the infamous Sonic game that was supposed to help save the Sega Saturn, a system seller first shown to the public in a slick E3 1996 demo. It's something of an epic task since so little source material is out there: two failed prototypes are known to have existed on the 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis while a third known as Sonic Mars was created for the 32X before eventually evolving into Sonic X-Treme. It's an attempt to reconstruct the cancelled Sonic X-Treme for Saturn and to do so running on original hardware. There's a lot to work through here, but it's the release of a Sonic Z-Treme demo that may prove most interesting to many fans. From resurrecting a cancelled Sega Saturn Sonic title to remaking Game Gear classic Sonic Chaos, the range of ideas and concepts on display this year is highly impressive - and best of all, every demo from the event is available to download. ![]() One of our favourite gaming events - the Sonic Amateur Games Expo - returned once again this year with a wide selection of impressive games from talented developers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |