Sega shows off promotional screens for the canceled Sonic X-treme

Sega have just revealed the screens of their canceled Sega Saturn title, Sonic X-treme.

Sega was a synonym of success in the 90s when it comes to their Genesis console…but they also had a rough time with the Saturn console. At the time, they were at the crossroads between 2D and 3D and Sega of America made a huge mistake by thinking that adding life support to the Sega Genesis would be a good idea. As a result, it delayed the arrival of Saturn to the Western market. Some people think the reason for its failure lies in the fact that we never had a mainline Sonic the Hedgehog successor on the platform. And you know what? They could be right.

Development of Sonic X-treme started shortly after the completion of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The development started on the Genesis/Mega Drive before moving to the 32X and finally ending up on the Saturn. The early footage suggested this could be a great-looking side-scroller, but by the time it reached Sega Saturn, the game became a hybrid of 2D and 3D (sort of).

It was quite a bizarre development cycle. It was full of unclear hardware specs, developer fallout and turnover, the dysfunction between Sega’s Japan and American branches, and even terminal illness. We also had a bunch of revisions to the game, all very different from one another.

I hope to see more images of this game in the future. I can’t help but wonder how great Sonic X-treme would’ve been if things played out differently…