The sequel to Sonic that never was. Sonic 64 for Saturn

Guys, I want to toss on more about that Sonic 64 idea. I'm getting hit with a whole rush of things that could have been done now if they only Sonic Team approached the Sonic series in this matter following Sonic 3 (& Knuckles).

Now if this could have been possible in some way for Saturn's hardware to do 3D similar to the way Nintendo 64 was able to do Super Mario 64, even if it comes up short for Saturn lacking dedicated 3D processors, maybe it would require that SEGA write the 3D processing all in software C language and utilize Saturn's dual CPUs to achieve 3D similarity close to Super Mario 64.

But Sonic 64 would have to follow that style game since traditional 16-bit Sonic games always used Super Mario as a roadmap in style.

The difference between Sonic 64 and Super Mario 64 would be as before Sonic 64 focus is still speed, so the engine made for Saturn hardware will also have to incorporate fast moving 3D (which I'm sure it will probably require a miracle in programming the Saturn hardware to not try to come close to Super Mario 64 3D, but also include speed)

*Stick with me here in this imagined Sonic 64 Saturn game* :)

Picture everything you saw in Palm Tree Hill zone in a 3D world, 3D flying robot mosquito, and a lot of roses and flowers with Sonic right in the center of it much like how Mario can move around freely in the 3D world of Super Mario 64.

Now you're probably thinking it wouldn't work right and he will be slow, but Sonic 64 would be programmed with speed in mind, so so there will be designated pathways in Sonic's 3D world that you should follow if you want to complete the game. So the old goal of short time completion gets higher bonus points.

Those rollercoaster like loops that made Sonic famous from Sonic 1, CD would exist in Sonic 64. Which would reveal the next challenge

It would preferred that Sonic 64 camera view is best played with the camera behind Sonic in a 1st/3rd person style view, and like Super Mario 64 you could rotate the camera although it will be much difficult to complete looped paths getting through the main course if the camera is at odd angles.

Another thing that would be addressed is the spin attack.
The 2D Sonics had it easy being in a 2D plain allowing the player to just press down while moving to activate it, in Sonic 64 the spin attack would require the player to press one of the Action button's on the Saturn's controller to do a spin attack.

Sonic CD sound track should also be reused for some of the 3D worlds in this make believe Sonic 64 game too. :)

Play Sonic Jam or Sonic R and you can pretty much see what the Saturn was capable of making. Neither are very fast, Sonic R is about right at times, but the rest of the time they're actually about the speed of Mario 64.

The problem with Sonic in 3D is the need for speed. Otherwise it isn't hard to imagine the Saturn pulling off something with the relatively low polygon counts of Mario 64 with greater texture detail and variety.

I need to get around to picking up the US version of Burning Rangers so I can actually finish it. That one was very obviously using an early form of Sonic Adventure's gameplay.

Sonic on Saturn should have been 2D.

By Sonic 64, don't ya mean Sonic 32?

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Originally Posted by findout5

By Sonic 64, don't ya mean Sonic 32?

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Exactly, unless he means if Sega failed sooner, maybe Sonic would have been on N64! ;)

I think he's imagining Mario 64 on the Saturn with Sonic characters. It wouldn't be a Sonic game, and I doubt it would have had the draw that Mario 64 had anyway.

I think what you're looking for here is Sonic X-Treme -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Xtreme

I am fairly confident that Sonic Xtreme was never going to be better than Bug! or Bug! Too. The engine just lacked analog 3D capabilities as most platformers prior to 1997 did.

Still, it's a shame it was canned. Not having a proper new Sonic game on the Saturn was a complete joke.

I'm not defending it, and I actually ended up returning Sonic 3D Blast on Saturn back in the day. It is important to consider though, that even the Playstation failed to sell over 1 million units in its first year-and-a-half. That is, there were only 1 million Playstations in houses by 1997.

Developing a "proper" Sonic game for any of the three systems at the time would have been impractical. Sonic 3 & Knuckles had failed to achieve cumulative sales to Donkey Kong Country alone. A 2D Saturn Sonic would have done much worse in sales, although the infinite possibilities make me crazy.

If they wanted to tackle DKC they should have allowed Sonic Team to complete Sonic 3 instead of having to split it up into Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles. That was one of the stupidest things they could possibly have done.

And a 2D Sonic would have been exactly what we all were waiting for back when Saturn came out - only to see it ending up on 32X.

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Originally Posted by gamegenie

I'm getting hit with a whole rush of things that could have been done now if they only Sonic Team approached the Sonic series in this matter following Sonic 3 (& Knuckles).

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Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo were working on Mario 64 since the 80s, during the conception of the SNES.




Sonic Team on the other hand was still working on 16-bit stuff when Saturn was released: Sonic & Knuckles, Chaotix, Ristar.

There was no way to make up all those lost years, no matter how much resources you'd have put into it.

The best they could do in time and with the given hardware was Nights. The Sonic extra in Christmas Nights kinda hints at Nights' roots of being a 3D Sonic game:





Sega's equivalent to Mario 64 was Sonic Adventure. They were experimenting with that game since Nights. And Sonic World as part of Sonic Jam does prove that Sonic Team tried to get what would eventually become Sonic Adventures to run on Saturn:

it would have been awesome to have a full game made from the sonic world level of sonic jam, it was pretty impressive for the time and the controls were good.

Why would it be called Sonic 64. That name doesn't make much sense.

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

If they wanted to tackle DKC they should have allowed Sonic Team to complete Sonic 3 instead of having to split it up into Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles. That was one of the stupidest things they could possibly have done.

And a 2D Sonic would have been exactly what we all were waiting for back when Saturn came out - only to see it ending up on 32X.





Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo were working on Mario 64 since the 80s, during the conception of the SNES.




Sonic Team on the other hand was still working on 16-bit stuff when Saturn was released: Sonic & Knuckles, Chaotix, Ristar.

There was no way to make up all those lost years, no matter how much resources you'd have put into it.

The best they could do in time and with the given hardware was Nights. The Sonic extra in Christmas Nights kinda hints at Nights' roots of being a 3D Sonic game:





Sega's equivalent to Mario 64 was Sonic Adventure. They were experimenting with that game since Nights. And Sonic World as part of Sonic Jam does prove that Sonic Team tried to get what would eventually become Sonic Adventures to run on Saturn:

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I agree with this, and I'd like to add that making Sonic's gameplay work in 3D is not a simple proposition, especially compared to a character as flexible as Mario. I don't know if the Saturn could do 3D Sonic justice either way; Sonic World looks good, but you can't extrapolate that Sega could have made a whole game based on that.

I can understand why some feel that it would have been a sign of weakness for Sega to make a 2D Sonic game after Mario had come out with a 3D game, but I don't think Sonic needed to match Mario blow for blow. A 2D game would have still done a lot to keep interest in the series going (at a time when a lot of us were wondering if it was dead). I think it would have been a great thing as far as the series itself is concerned, though not necessarily the best option in terms of boosting the Sega hardware platform.

Sega didn't need Sonic to be the hottest shit around; the Saturn could have done fine regardless if it had been handled better. In an ideal scenario Sega could have kept Saturn sales strong on the basis of 3rd party games alone, not to mention potential exclusives such as Toejam & Earl or Phantasy Star. I think in that case a 2D Sonic would have been the way to go. Even though it'd necessarily be a less prominent game in the era of 3D platformers, it still could have been a seriously acclaimed title, especially if they had pulled out all the stops and really tried to outdo S3K as much as S3K had outdone Sonic 1. And it definitely would have put Sonic in a better position for his 3D entry on Sega's next system (not necessarily the Dreamcast, since if the Saturn had taken off Sega could have held off on releasing a new system for another couple of years).

I think if they had waited longer to put Sonic in 3D, and had really put a lot into making the game come out right (it probably shouldn't have been a launch title, for one thing), then the Sonic series could be in a really good place right now. Rather than being the archetypical example of how a game franchise can fall from grace.