Sonic R is the only original, fully 3D Sonic title available on the Sega Saturn… And it wasn’t even developed by Sonic Team. After the slew of fantastic 2D Sonic titles available across the Sega Mega Drive and Master System (and even the 32x with games like Knuckles Chaotix), they just couldn’t manage to bring that speed and entertainment to the Sega Saturn. We got glimpses at what a full 3D Sonic platformer might look like, including plenty of tech demos and trailers for games like Sonic X-Treme which ultimately got cancelled, Sonic R stands on its own. You can read more about the development of Sonic R on SonicRetro.
It’s a racing title featuring a cast of Sonic characters and stages designed by Sonic Team. There’s five stages which all feel at home in a Sonic game and through the gameplay, exploring these levels is encouraged to find shortcuts, coins and chaos emeralds. The approach is interesting, but as a racing game the characters are difficult to control, it’s easy to get lost within the stages and the momentum quickly dies once you hit any obstacle.
The game has a cast of Sonic characters, some of them unlockable such as Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, Tails doll, metal Knuckles and EggRobo. It’s also possible to play as Super Sonic if you can manage to collect the Chaos Emeralds in each stage. To unlock a character, you must race and beat them after collecting the coins in each stage.
There’s also a two player mode where you can race against an opponent or collect balloons. The ballon collecting stages really show off the explorative nature of the stages. Without the racing mechanic, you can really explore the stages and get to grips with some of the special abilities such as Dr Robotnik’s and EggRobo’s ability to shoot bombs.
Sonic R Screenshots from the Sega Saturn
Turning Sonic into a fully 3D game wasn’t straight forward and it began life as an engine for a formula 1 racing title and retooled into a Sonic title. Sonic R was developed by Traveller’s Tales after their success(?) with Sonic 3D blast. Sonic 3D blast gave us a 2D isometric world where we could control Sonic in three dimensions, but I don’t feel it captured the same pace and excitement we got when Sonic launched on the Mega Drive.
Apart from Sonic R, we did get some other glimpses of what a 3D Sonic game might feel like on the Sega Saturn. Sonic Team themselves were working on titles such as NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers but managed to bring Sonic in as a playable character in their Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams demo disc, you can watch the gameplay here on YouTube. We also got Sonic Jam, a compilation of the 2D Sonic titles made for fans full of behind-the-scenes material. The game consisted of a lobby area where you controlled Sonic, in full 3D, in a world that felt like it was plucked out of one of the original games.
We’d have to wait until the Sega Dreamcast was launched to finally play Sonic Adventure, the 3D Sonic title we were all waiting for since the Saturn. Just because we never got a 3D adventure title on the Saturn, doesn’t mean they weren’t trying to develop one. Sonic X-treme is notorious for its difficult development and is often used as an example of how Sega was failing as an organisation. The game itself was being developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI) and slated to release for Christmas 1996 after being shown at E3 that year. Read more about the development here on SonicRetro.
Sonic X-Treme Fan Remake
Even though the demo’s available give us a glimpse at what Sega were planning to release on the Sega Saturn, a fan project has been started to give us what we nearly had back in 1996. A playable Sonic X-Treme game. Featuring a few levels modelled off what we saw from 1996, this remake in Unity combines the fish-eye lens, floating 3D levels and gameplay in a really slick package.