Sonic X-Treme is one of the most interesting stories in all of gaming. You have this game that was supposed to change the industry, only to be infamous for it's really awful development

I don't care what anyone else says. This was a good use of an hour of my Saturday night lol.

I imagine there's an alternate dimension where Sonic X-treme was never cancelled. The "Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World" movie would have been released as a tie-in, and Sega would still be making consoles alongside Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Also, the "Sonic Christmas Blast" special would have retained its original title; "An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas".

Seems like the Sonic series in the 90s had a ton of issues. Sonic 2 had to be rushed to make the deadline Sonic CD was delayed. Sonic 3 had to be split in two, and even then, had to be rushed a bit too. Sonic Spinball was basically there to fill a gap and wasn't great. Of course Sonic x-treme would suffer from a lot of issues, but this was brutal Had Naka not being an utter dick, the game could've been salvaged I think.

Game almost killed the development team. Now THAT’S Xtreme!

This video is by far the biggest thing I've ever made. I began making all of the AOF episodes back in October 2018, with the first interview for this doc coming that month. This documentary took over a year and some to get out, and I hope it was worth it. I'm pretty sure Sonic X-Treme is cursed, as I ran into a host of issues while making this, including getting varying degrees of sick several times while working on it. That said, I'd like to thank all of the wonderful interviewees, voices actors, friends, and patrons who made this possible. After saying for months that it's still coming...it's finally here. As for what's next for me, I'm going to try to go back to more regular uploads. With that said, my next video will definitely not be nearly as big as this haha! If you enjoyed what you saw here, though, feel free to check me out on Patreon, especially as full, un-cut versions of AOF video interviews are there: www.patreon.com/stuffweplay

As a teen waiting desperately for this games release, hearing the full story is heartbreaking.

I remember reading about this game in GamePro when I was a kid and then wondering why it never came out. Over the years, I've read about the story and watched clips of stuff on KZfaq. This is definitely the most comprehensive video on the subject. Thank you for putting out such an awesome video!

That Christina made the whole boss mechanics alone AND invented Z-targeting.... that’s something lol should’ve been there from the start, maybe it would get somewhere

Thank you for tackling X-Treme. For being one of the most (if not THE most) famous cancelled games out there, I feel like most resources/articles on the thing fail to convey just how insane its development was.

I have to side with the animator that was fired just for standing up for his right to a fair work-life balance and that Wallis made him out to be a douchebag for it, especially with both the remaining project leads nearly working themselves to death over it and proving him right. That poor animator lost his job purely for insisting on not following stupid and self-destructive work ethic.

This was seriously outstanding, James. I always stings in the heart to hear about the awful decisions of Sega in the mid-90s but Sonic X-Treme will always be one of the biggest “what if’s” in the history of the franchise. Thank you for this!

If they ever make a SEGA Saturn mini They should finish sonic x-treme like how Nintendo finished Star Fox 2 for the snes mini

It really is baffling how splintered and unfocused Sega was during this time. It seems like so much could have been solved by a more straightforward business model, i.e. just focusing on a couple of consoles and not having so many dev teams.

Personally, I don't think it was fair to fire the guy who didn't want to crunch too much time. Especially since it did turn out to be killing multiple people. No video game is worth that.

So there was a ring throw move in the Sonic 3 prototype, and now there was one planned in Sonic X-treme? That's crazy. I've wanted a video like this for so long, thank you for making this!

Imagine getting fired from a job because you only worked 10 hours a day. Crazy! That's just unhealthy.

This is definitely the best piece I've saw about Sonic X-treme. The amount of work and research put into this is visibly astonishing. I'm searching things about this game for years and much of the details in here were new to me. Congratulations!

Thanks for allowing me to be part as the...British narrator lol. AOF has been without a doubt one of the best series the gaming community has ever had. The polish is unreal!

To Me, Robert Morgan will Always be the REAL culprit behind Sonic X-treme's cancellation since HE was the one who REFUSED to give Chris Senn And Ofer Alon a Saturn devkit to help with the game's development. as well as bringing in his buddies from Point of View to make the Crummy build That was shown to Nakayama. Too bad a LOT of people don't know about that little tidbit, though.

this series is only getting better and better wow

Dude, how has this not hit a hundred thousand? Its a crime. Quality work

When do we get this in theaters?

The most sad part is that Chris Senn would later work on Sonic Boom

Wow this incredible story showed nearly all things that could go wrong or be mismanaged while developing a game.

Ooof, that intro (especially the line about delaying a game until it seems impossibly big) feels _viscerally raw_ for those following _Cyberpunk 2077_

I've watched many presentations on sonic xtreme and the saturn. I have to say, this was by far the best put together and well executed presentation on the subject that I have seen. Kudos.

I give this video a 299 out of 10 😎 Thank you so much again for such a detailed documentary on video game history. I didn't even know about the game called Sonic X-Treme until you announced this doc in the works. The console wars of the 90's were such a fascinating time. I was just a bit too young/sheltered to understand how crazy it was at the time.

Thank you for letting me be a part of this, bud.

This needs 1M views. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling, compassion and detail put into this documentary about something on the surface that wouldn’t seem compelling.

The guy talking bad about someone that „only“ works 10 hours, should apologize to him. As the manager he was responsible for the health and also mindset and it seems, it was toxic. For me, the worst a manager could be and it seems, he didn’t learn anything- also after they got sick. If everyone would have worked a healthy overtime, they would have more time spend on the game at the end. Something, a good manager has in mind.

I personally think that some ideas from Sonic Xtreme, mainly the new characters written for the game, like Tiara and Gazebo, could probably be incorporated into the next main Sonic game.

This game was dead on the spot the moment development started. The concept never seemed good imo. Especially when you put it next to likes of Mario 64, Crash and Tomb Raider.

That cross between Santa Clause and Teddy Roosevelt looked eerily similar to a certain Egg-shaped super genius...

I've been really enjoying this documentary so far and love the amount of work you put into it. Getting those interviews with old employees is a killer move and shows you actually did some original research. Very few video game video essays do this. Loving the camerawork too. I hate to be that guy though. Your date for Kalinske's surprise launch reveal at E3 appears to be incorrect. The text in your doc says July 8th, 1995. But most sources show this happened on May 11th.

I've never seen a lot of this footage before- I didn't know there WAS any footage of those E3 conferences, much less Sonic 32X prototypes.

So the animator expressing concern that the team was working themselves to an unhealthy degree was a "douchebag" move? He was an "ass" for being unwilling to endanger his own mental/physical well-being? If only he'd lost 25 pounds through extreme stress and pushed himself to death's door through overwork he could've kept his job? Hmm...

32:56 "Who got along really well with...KRYSSEN?" I forgot I was there hanging with the US Sonic team. Honestly, I have never heard a name similar to mine mentioned in a video before, so this stuck out to me.

Oh my gosh, this is such an interesting documentary about this game. This video is honestly the most info I've gotten on Sonic X-Treme! Thank you for making this video! I wish that it had been released! I personally LOVE the use of the fish-eye lens, as it would have been one of a kind!

One must also keep in mind that Sega was still producing GameGear games, they seriously over saturated their market in their own company at a critical time. They didn’t stop producing Genesis games until ‘98.

Well, now that Yūji Naka was found guilty of insider trading, you have to look and consider that he ruined this game’s chance of ever seeing release. He was a key role in developing Sonic, sure, but he was also instrumental in killing Sonic by holding grudges and not being a team player.

This was incredibly well researched. Great job!

Amazing documentary! A facinacting insight into the game dev process. I did however want to point out, 59:55 in partciluar. Yes, that animator seemingly wasnt a team player, but I think it speaks volumes to the mistreatment of game developers that he was fired for putting his foot down and refusing to crunch. Seems the industry has hardly changed in that regard.

wow, this was such an awesome watch omg. i'd heard of sonic xtreme and it's demise before but i had no idea the timeline was so insane

Good job dude, I'm glad you got this out.

That was one hell of a fascinating watch, I have to say!! Very impressive and informative. I never knew all these little aspects of the story behind this game's development.

WOW, a lot of this footage is new to me! Stellar work!

It really seems like SoJ was actively trying to sabotage anything SoA was doing

It didn't seem that bad judgeing by the demonstration demos, but overall it all just spiraled into absolute development hell, who knew that one game could almost break apart half an entire development team?

I’ve never seen a documentary like this before. Such a depth! Thank you very much!

Thanks for the in-depth look at such a convoluted and emotional situation.

"A rushed game is forever bad" Sonic the hedgehog 2: *peices out*

This video, simply put, is absolutely fantastic! The amount of research, time, and care you put into this video makes this, in my opinion, easily the best video about Sonic X-Treme on KZfaq! Having discovered your channel through this video (as Sonic X-Treme has always been a source of endless fascination for me), I look forward to your future 'Art of Failure' videos! Great work once again!

Very informative and entertaining documentary of Sonic, Sega, STI, and Xtreme! I followed the game but this program informed me of much I didn't know. Thanks for the show!

No matter how many times I'd watch this video, I will never get tired of it.

It's pretty shocking how much work they put in and for how long this game was in development for, to see what actually was left of the game at the end. It looks like it was no where near close to being finished.

so the game got 2 people almost killed after quitting the game's development, it seems like their lives were perfect.

I forgot Tiara existed, oh gosh, I loved her design and was so sad she never made it out of development...

Fantastic work. Thank you for all your effort in putting this together. Really great to gain this level of insight into possibly the most mysterious Sonic game. What a shame they didn’t get another year after being told to make the game look like the boss demo. A late game is better than no game, right?

It's honestly incredible how after the absolute epiphanies that were the mainline Sonic games on the Genesis and Sega CD, that Sega would give some random people without any experience with Sonic free reign to develop a follow-up. I'm no fan of sports, but imagine the New England Patriots winning the World Series (I said I'm not a fan) and then replacing every team member the next year and vying for the Triple Crown that upcoming year as well. Notice also that the average number of staff of a random franchise location of Burger King is as large or larger than the number of people who worked on Sonic Xtreme. Sonic Xtreme is a curiosity, but it was never going to be great. And the reason is that SEGA didn't really care...just as appears to be the case now in late 2020, when no follow-up to Sonic Mania has shown up on the radar. If in 2021, for Sonic's 30th birthday, there is no follow-up to Sonic Mania (with all new levels, and designed by the same Sonic Mania team), you will know that Sega is still just as stupid and inept as they have been since 1994.

Your health is more important than making a game.

Also, I wonder if Yuji Naka did that on purpose. NiGhts succeeding more than the sonic Saturn title kinda seems like he was really wanting his new game to outshine Sonic(I mean SOnic isn't even really his) and since the team was, obviously, needing serious help purposely denied it to them knowing they would either make a inferior game or fail completely.

Fantastic video. The kind of thing that would have been on TV 20 years ago.

Great job on this! This vid is way better at explaining Sonic Xtreme than anything else I've seen outside of really digging deep into stuff the actual devs have said etc.

Sad to see Sonic and SEGA go out like that in the early 2000s. A house divided against itself will not stand.

how tf does this video only have 16k views. It's very well researched and deserves way more IMO

So ridiculous how SoA and SoJ weren't "on the same page" about something as pivotal as what console was the successor to the Genesis. If they wouldn't have treated each other as separate entities so much and cooperated, they could have skipped the 32x and focused on the Saturn and getting the right titles to launch for the NA release. And why was SoA looking into a new console knowing the Saturn just came out in Japan? So strange.

At the time I started writing this, it's near the end of the holiday season, around Christmas: the planned release time frame for Sonic X-treme. A year later, and no other Sonic X-treme documentary video has topped this one; probably *the best* documentary of this game I've seen to date. Late to the party on this . . . *very.* I remember composing a long passionate comment on your Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric episode of Art of Failure; expressing my fasination towards that game & my apologetic passion towards the Sonic Boom subset franchise as a hole, while looking forward to this episode on Sonic X-treme. So. . .I'm gonna do the same thing here, because. . .man. I have *a lot* of passionate thing to say about this game. *Long passionate comment incoming* Sonic X-treme is a game that *really* fasinates me; a game that contains out-of-the-box ideas & concepts that could've made a one-of-a kind experience, especially for Sonic first leap into the 3rd dimension. But basically do to internal politics within SEGA that lead to a hellish development cycle, the game was never meant to be. It was so cool of you to actually go the extra mile to interview Chris Sean and Mike Wallis for this video to add extra clarity to certain events of X-treme's development. It's quite a shame, really. When I said that it contains out-of-the-box ideas & concepts that could've made a one-of-a-kind experience, I really mean it. I disappoints me that some scoff at the game by judging it from early prototypes of the game; saying that it would've been nauseating to play with the fish-eye lens. People forget that a lot can greatly change fast in development, even in just either in a month or more. Take the SonicDEMO96/4Worlds build by Chris Sean & Ofer Alon for example; compare that to earlier builds of the game that are now available to the public, and you can see a stark difference. And it was confirmed by Sean that the game was only about 60% complete. If the game was given enough time to be completed, the game probably would of been very different than what we've seen of it. I personally think that this game could've been really good. Despite what some will say, but the fish-eye lens I think is a cool idea; a novel solution to 2D games of the past by having the ability to see most of your surroundings in the level. For a fast moving character like Sonic, it would've been a tremendous help to see incoming obstacles up 'n down 'n all around (referencetotallyintended). The anti-gravity/"World Rotation" gimmick that was also planned for this game would've been also fun to play around with as well. Judging by the latest known build of the game that I mentioned earlier, the game looked to be like a combination of both it's would've-been competition, Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot, in terms of how the levels in that build were put together. Super Mario 64 was a fully 3D game, where you can control Mario in a fully 3D environment, while Crash Bandicoot was more confined in a hallway, while switching to 2.5D in occasion. Sonic X-treme looked like it does both these things: semi open 3D environments with a hint of 2.5D elements. Seeing all of the known plans and ambitions for this game, if only development went more smoothly than it did. And even if it did, could this game saved the SEGA Saturn in the west? In reality, we don't know for sure, but if I had to guess based on my own thoughts on the game. . .maybe. History has told us that once Sonic graced the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive in the west, it pretty much helped the console skyrocket in sales to the point of having SEGA beating Nintendo for a while. So it would've been plausible that lighting would've struck in the bottle twice for SEGA, have they had Sonic X-treme been completed more smoothly and on time for the Saturn during the holiday season. Man. . .this game. . . If only. . . I would've loved to play it, and experience what it could've offered. You know. . .it would be cool to see this game get revived. Think about it. Since now that the Sonic franchise has been split into a few pillars, the most notable being "Classic" Sonic and "Modern" Sonic, I would say it isn't too far fetched to do something like this, if you see where I'm going with this. I would say the *best* example to use for a potential revival of Sonic X-treme is a fan project named *Project AXSX* . A fangame that has been in development for almost 15 years and still going strong, created by Andrew75 (one of the guys who are responsible of uncovering the prototypes of recent memory that were shown off in this video, fun fact.), that aims to re-create Sonic X-treme as if to how it could of been possibility like if it was finished. Out of all the Sonic X-treme fangames out there, this is the absolute *best* one to date. The overall slow but steady progress it has made over the years is an absolute marvel, and I *highly* recommend checking it out and giving it the upmost support for those who are greatly fasinated towards Sonic X-treme as I am. As much as I hate the implications if this notion, I must admit. . .it's one of those fangames that are too good to *NOT* be official, I feel. It's that good, I think. So yeah. . .just a cool thought that I think could actually happen, but hey. . .a man can dream, can he? Thank you for making this rock solid documentary. Hope you had a Merry Christmas. . .and a Happy (andhopefully better) New Year!

Great documentary, thanks so much. Mario 64/Goldeneye/Zelda basically sold the N64... So it's hard not to see that a few quality sonic titles and a streets of a rage could have put the Saturn on a very different course and offer something the PS1 couldn't. The guy who got fired seems to be the only voice of reason in the team, key members worked themselves into illness with stupidly long shifts. Also very selfish/stupid of the Nights producer not to lend the engine from Nights; would have saved the project.

Holy shit, what a vid. You don’t have enough views for all the work you must have put into this. Great job; I’d love to see more documentaries from you, and I hope it gets picked up more.

Best development history channel ever (next to Beta64, of course)

thought this was a sonic documentary, not just a sonic xtreme documentary, your video is so good it creates an illusion while watching the video.

I held out for years hoping that someday, a near finished build of Sonic Xtreme would see the light of day, but going off of this documentary, you come to realize that the game never even came close to reaching a finished state, and was basically a crazy-quilt of directionless and gimmicky ideas and a doomed concept from start to finish. It just doesnt look appealing or that fun to play, and doesnt capture the feeling of playing as Sonic in 3D at all. I cant believe Sega thought this game even had a prayer of competing with Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot when the gameplay and graphics were barely a step ahead of Bug! (which, oddly enough, was planned as a 3D Sonic game very early on). Even Sonic 3D Blast felt more cohesive and truer to the Genesis games in comparison! So yeah, with due respect to the team who busted their butts off on it, this project absolutely deserved to be put out of its misery. Also, how ironic is it that the "asshole animator" turned out to be the closest thing to a voice of reason in that mess and actually lucked out by getting fired from that sinking ship? Its really disgusting how "Crunch culture" is treated as a normal thing in the video game business. :(

I'm kind of on the side of the guy who got fired. No game or job is worth risking your health or personal life for. You're not going to do your best work if you're physically and mentally exhausted.

Holy shit, this project almost killed two people and this Mike character is still like “only working 10 hour days is for assholes.” Toxic work culture literally kills people. Game devs, and workers in general, should unionize.

I would kill to see a live action movie of this story, like fuck it would’ve been so stressful and anxious to watch

This video was incredibly put together. Bravo, and here’s hoping to WAY more views and subscribers in the future. Seriously, this video helped me contextualize the game in a whole new way.

The reason "Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World" could never take off on production, casting, filming and only a small synopsis was because Sonic X-Treme failed to meet a deadline and release, thus increasing problems further as the plot of the film would emphasize in this particular Sonic game as a way of marketing. That's my hypothesis on this whole thing. Now on the video. Very well written and informative! Amazing job, man. Congrats.

I love this video so much. Great job. I think this is the 3rd time I’ve watched this and I always get something new from it. Have you played Balan Wonderland yet? Maybe Sega should have let them have the nights engine

I didn’t think anyone could beat miiyouandmii2’s video but you did it. Amazing job... earned a sub

This needs more views. Like seriously, thank you for putting in the work to make this long video. Very informative

Hearing about Naka’s recent charges, yeah it makes sense why he was enough of an A-hole for this project to get canceled

Yikes... the health problems are scary. They wanted to be apart of this revolutionary game so bad, but it was killing them. They probably used uppers too.

Great job... Very professional and comprehensive work. Looking forward to seeing what's next.

This was so entertaining and informative and was edited well. Thank you.

A fascinating deep dive into the subject. Excellent work.

I empathise with these developers. I really do. SEGA had such a lack of cohesive management throughout its company, and you can tell that, were this team working under better circumstances, they could have created a Saturn game so good that SEGA would work even harder to emulate the Saturn to preserve those games. What irritates me even more, however, is hearing that Yuji Naka, a developer I've had a lot of respect for due to all his accomplishments, wouldn't allow his game engine for Nights to be used on Sonic Xtreme when that team desperately needed it. How selfish and conceited do you have to be to not allow a game engine your company owns, NOT you, to aid a development team whose key members are working themselves to death? Okay, fine, he presumably created it. We all know that, so there's his recognition. But it's not like Yuji hadn't been reaping the rewards of it anyway, given the critical and commercial acclaim Nights had garnered. As someone who has worked in the industry for a brief time, I just can't wrap my head around what Yuji Naka did, especially considering how difficult it can be to create and finish a game for commercial release. They were part of the same company, and he couldn't do that much for them? Not even offer words of encouragement for people with a strong passion for his gaming creation, wanting to bring that legacy to the third dimension? I remember when Hideo Kojima had left Konami and worked on Death Stranding with his team of developers, and Sony encouraged him to visit their other developers. That visit paid off, because when he spoke with the Guerrilla Games developers, they insisted on giving him their game engine. Since he couldn't use the Fox Die engine his team created for MGSV, you can imagine how helpful that would have been for him.

If they could've delayed to at least mid-1997, the game could've had a chance That would give the developers time to recover from their conditions But then again, by mid-1997, development for the Dreamcast we're beginning and they decided to move to the Dreamcast

Very good. Well researched and brilliantly put together. ❤

It was a whirlwind of bad decisions and situations. I ended up having the impression that the X-treme Team wasn’t aware they had 3D Blast as a ‘Plan B’. If so, would they give up a little bit earlier?

I bet sonic extreme should of come out if they got to use the nights engine

Sega was diverse inside their own company . SOA & SOJ ( Sega of America / Sega of Japan) had their creative and control / EGO differences and that is what really destroyed them.

I'm sad that a day will come that no one will make any more videos about cancelled Saturn games; the Saturn will get more and more forgotten and moreso for cancelled games, and also the ones who cared will die off and not make videos.

21:17 jeez, thanks for the jumpscare! 😤

Boy them 480 line’s definitely making my future eyes hurt

How hasn't the sonic fan game community joined forces to finish this game yet?!

And in June 2021, Yuji Naka left Square Enix due to flop of Balan Wonderworld and consider retiring from the industry.

Here's a question. Why didn't the Japanese side of Sega work on a Sonic game for the system like they did for the Genesis. Was it because Yuji Naka didn't care about Sonic at that point and thought Nights was going to be the next big thing?

"A delayed game is eventually canned but a rushed game will see us through to the next financial quarter." - SEGA

FANTASTIC WORK