The Sonic the Hedgehog Skateboarding Game We Almost Saw
A Sonic skateboarding game? It almost happened, as footage from the cancelled Sonic Extreme proves...
Videogame history is littered with the husks of promising games that never were. The superb-sounding Star Wars 1313, to cite one example; LMNO, the defunct game produced by Steven Spielberg, to cite another.
Sonic Extreme probably wouldn’t have set the world on fire – the poor old blue blur’s had a patchy few years, bless him – but a new video offers an insight into yet another game that withered on the vine.
A racing game involving Back To The Future 2-style hoverboards, Sonic Extreme would have been a riff on the old Mario Kart (or Sonic Drift) template. Taking in familiar locations from the main videogame series – most strikingly Green Hill Zone – Sonic Extreme would have seen the famous hedgehog and his friends compete in a series of downhill races. There were coins to collect, power-ups, ramps and other boosts you’d expect from an arcade racer.
Sonic Extreme was dreamed up by a developer called Vision Scape, who effectively made the game on spec; they put together a concept and pitched it to Sega, who were initially receptive to the idea – until, eventually, the project collapsed.
A missed opportunity? A spin-off doomed for supermarket bargain bins? See what you think for yourselves, courtesy of Did You Know Gaming’s reliably informative video below.
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