Sonic Extreme

Sonic Extreme was a prototype video game created by Vision Scape Interactive in May 2003. Proposed as a spinoff to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Extreme featured Sonic and Shadow riding hoverboards in a Green Hill Zone-themed open world, with gameplay likened to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It featured three gameplay modes, which included searching for keys and Chaos Emeralds and fighting or racing another player. Vision Scape developed the game while it made cutscenes for Sonic Heroes; it was created on the Xbox with intent to port it to the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The prototype was assembled using the RenderWare game engine and assets from prior Vision Scape and Sonic games.

 

Vision Scape showed Sonic Extreme to Sonic Team head Yuji Naka, who was impressed and asked for a software design description to be submitted to Sega. However, Sega never responded to Vision Scape after the document was turned in and the game never came to fruition. Vision Scape cofounder Mark McDonald said he believes Sonic Extreme was used as a basis for Sonic Team's later game Sonic Riders. Sonic Extreme was virtually unknown until gameplay footage was uploaded to YouTube in May 2011. Journalists reacted negatively and expressed relief it was not released.