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The ambitious Sonic game from 2009 that you will never, ever get to play
- Thread starter Mama Robotnik
- Start date
Interesting stuff. I wonder if they'll ever take another crack at something like this. While a Sonic Maker certainly seems like a no-brainer idea, it strikes me that making a good Sonic level would actually be quite a bit more difficult than making a good Mario level.
Good thing we did post about it in September 2009!
I get the sense this could be attempted again, but Sega would want Taxman's RSDK/Star Engine for it, and I strongly suspect he (understandably) doesn't want to give up the rights to his golden ticket, especially given Sega's history of missed opportunities and messing things up.
I've always wanted to make a rom hack that used this tile set and music but I've never mustered up the effort to try it.
I was signed up to this. I think they gave me a cheapo white usb saturn pad with the playsega logo on as a signup gift
It's absolutely insane that Sega is still ahead of the competition even in the 2000s... and still failed to actually market and sell its product.
it just keeps happening
it just keeps happening
Considering that it was fairly commonplace by that point for people to save .swf files so that Flash games could be played offline or on PSP or whatever, I'm amazed that, among a community as passionate as the Sonic fanbase, nobody has the file on an old hard drive or something...
Utterly dumb they did nothing with this, especially after the success of Mario Maker. It likely wouldn't have made the same waves, but a Sonic level creator would've easily sold a cool million or so.
I remember this came out a bit before Sonic 4 Episode I did, and fans like myself were excited to see if this was teasing that that would be... lo and behold it certainly was not.
I remember this came out a bit before Sonic 4 Episode I did, and fans like myself were excited to see if this was teasing that that would be... lo and behold it certainly was not.
OP
OP
I remember this being pretty neat in theory, but the core movement and physics were unsatisfying in practice. Not as bad as what Dimps would kick out the door with Sonic 4 a bit later, but classic Sonic either feels right or he doesn't, and while I'm sympathetic to the plight of whatever poor programmer had to reimplement it all in Flash on a tight deadline, probably with no documentation, it's just not there.
Wow, put them on blast Mama. They could at least give you credit.
My son would love this. He "made levels" using the debug code in Sonic Mania all the time before they patched it out. :/
I signed up for PlaySega to get the Saturn pad. The first one I got was basically broken, and the replacement they sent me was still just a really cheap and crappy controller. It was such a disappointment to get something like that directly from Sega and it just feels the same as a $5 chinese knock-off.
I was around and paying attention in that year and never even heard about it. Crazy!
Same. Ordered it out if excitement then read everyone's impressions. Mine's basically unused and sitting somewhere.
Tragic.
I imagine it was pulled to clear the way for the TRUE classic Sonic experience, Sonic 4. I also assume Sega didn't want to "tarnish" the Sonic brand with fan made stages saturating the market. Again, in the same world where Sonic 4 would soon exist.
On the other hand, this was before Mario Maker existed and succeeded. I imagine Sega may see the market as much more palatable for such a title these days.
I imagine it was pulled to clear the way for the TRUE classic Sonic experience, Sonic 4. I also assume Sega didn't want to "tarnish" the Sonic brand with fan made stages saturating the market. Again, in the same world where Sonic 4 would soon exist.
On the other hand, this was before Mario Maker existed and succeeded. I imagine Sega may see the market as much more palatable for such a title these days.
What was this? Did they copy and paste your post?
I spent a lot of hours with Sonic Level Creator back in the day. It was a dream come true for a boy that drew his own levels in a notebook :')
I actually did play this! I had quite a lot of fun messing around with it. I remember foolishly thinking that Project Needlemouse was most likely using data acquired from this, especially considering around the time it disappeared SEGA started plastering Sonic 1 sprites over a lot of their promotional materials and websites.
I honestly think the game went MIA at Sonic Team's request because PlaySEGA had nothing to do with SEGA Japan and Sonic Team at the time had to give the okay to anything Sonic related. It certainly would not be the first time something like that happened.
Unfortunately I did not play the game anywhere near as much as I wanted to. PlaySEGA was for the most part honestly such an offensive thing to longtime fans. It was run by people who actively had no interest in SEGA as a company outside of Sonic. I distinctly remember it being loaded with references to stuff like Naruto and Chocolate Rain instead, though.
I honestly think the game went MIA at Sonic Team's request because PlaySEGA had nothing to do with SEGA Japan and Sonic Team at the time had to give the okay to anything Sonic related. It certainly would not be the first time something like that happened.
Unfortunately I did not play the game anywhere near as much as I wanted to. PlaySEGA was for the most part honestly such an offensive thing to longtime fans. It was run by people who actively had no interest in SEGA as a company outside of Sonic. I distinctly remember it being loaded with references to stuff like Naruto and Chocolate Rain instead, though.
OP
OP
Thanks for the great feedback everyone, really glad to have highlighted this wonderful Sonic offering.
Can I ask, what was so offensive regarding the PlaySEGA offer? It seemed pretty vanilla to me, so I'd be interested in your view.
Can I ask, what was so offensive regarding the PlaySEGA offer? It seemed pretty vanilla to me, so I'd be interested in your view.
It was just really strongly focused away from SEGA IP (except Sonic, it had a whole section for him even if I think it only had the Level Creator as part of that section) and instead focused on really cheap, generic Newgrounds quality flash games for free members. It ultimately felt like a generic flash site for really young kids with Genesis games tacked on in a subscription.
I remember contacting someone that worked on the service and they were unusually hostile and difficult over me just asking basic stuff over the controller and if they were intending to add any SEGA character costumes to the customizable avatar. I just did not bother after that point.
