Abandoned Skateboarding Game Of Sonic The Hedgehog Surfaces

A footage discovered by Unseen64 shows Sonic the Hedgehog in a failed try at a skateboarding game. Based on the footage, it appears “Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme” was originally developed without the knowledge of Sega, Liam Robertson of Unseen64 says.

Polygon reports that Vision Scape Interactive, a little-known developer, built in only one week a prototype of “Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme” that was pitched to Sega in the early 2000s. It was conceived for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, but the game never went past beyond the phase of an early pitch. What remained from that early pitch is the early build gameplay.

The early build gameplay provides fans of Sonic what the skateboarding game could have been had it gone beyond the early pitch stage. The present “Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme” apparently mixed tenets of Sonic titles with grind rails and half-pipes of “Pro Skater” by Tony Hawk.

Eurogamer adds that when Unseen64 talked to former employees of Vision Scape, the unsolicited prototype of the game, the current “Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme,” was pitched to Sega and Yuki Naka, chief of Sonic. What they knew was that everyone agreed to move forward with the project. Initially, Sega liked the idea and a budget and design document for the game was requested.

However, Sega no longer responded to the follow-ups by Vision Scape. This led Sega to release in 2006 “Sonic Riders” that had a resemblance to the prototype of the game developed by Vision Scape. Engadget notes that Sega has not commented on the issue which makes it difficult to know the reason why the prototype made by Vision Scape, now “Sonic the hedgehog Extreme,” seems to have been cloned.

Because “Sonic the Hedgehog Extreme” is based on a game from the prototype pitch by Vision Scape, but since the prototype featured Sonic, it is Sega that owns the prototype, Matt McDonald, the founder of Vision Scape, says.