This is a sub-page of Sonic Championship.
There are some characters that exist in the game who are inaccessible without cheats. Some of these were finished up and made available in the HD rerelease.
Honey#
A yellow cat-like character with black hair, based on the character of the same name from Fighting Vipers (Whom was named Candy outside of Japan). She was discovered after the release of Sonic Gems Collection due to leftover code referring to her despite the majority of her assets being removed from that version. In an interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, he stated that with Sonic the Fighters being initially designed around placing Sonic characters in the Fighting Vipers engine, the character was likely conceived and implemented as a tribute to the game's development origins.
Honey's in-game data is nearly complete, featuring a full moveset deriving largely from Knuckles' plus a few moves from Amy. But she does have a handful of bugs that most likely prevented her from being fully implemented, namely:
- Her model for the "squished" state does not use the proper body pieces and instead uses Amy's body. This, plus Honey using Amy's intro animation seems to indicate that Honey was built off of Amy.
- There is a bug in her eye tracking, causing one eye to look at the camera but the other to look in the opposite direction, making Honey look strange in some scenes. Her other head models which lack eye tracking don't have this issue.
- Her Vs. screen image is not correctly set up to appear, so it defaults to Eggman's.
Notably, unlike other characters, Honey's Player 2 color palette is a unique design derived from her namesake's Player 2 palette in Fighting Vipers, instead of the greyscale palette every other character has. Honey would later make a cameo appearance in the intro FMV for Fighting Vipers' Saturn port.
While Honey's model was removed completely from the Sonic Gems Collection port, the XBLA and PSN versions (as well as the later version of the game included in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Lost Judgment) added her as a secret playable character (move the cursor over Amy and press Start, which also unlocks an achievement/trophy) with all of the above issues corrected.
Metal Sonic#
The sub boss of the game's arcade ladder. Has a unique moveset, the most remarkably so of any of the unplayable characters, though still borrows a handful of moves from the playable characters, including Sonic's Emerald Dive (*In Hyper* Half Circle, P + K).
Although he normally only appears in the game as a boss character, there is evidence to suggest Metal Sonic was actually meant to be a playable character. His name appears properly on the high-score table unlike some other unplayable characters mentioned below, and while he doesn't display a greyscale model in mirror matches, the model for such a purpose exists in the files entirely unused.
He would eventually be made playable in the HD re-release alongside Mech Eggman, albeit only being accessible in the VS. modes and unable to engage in mirror matches. He is accessed by pressing Start over Sonic on the character select.
Dr. Eggman (Alternate Form/Mechless Eggman)#
An alternate form of Dr. Eggman unseen in gameplay. He appears without the "E-Mech" he uses in his boss fight, being colloquially dubbed as "Mechless Eggman". He has an unusual moveset, featuring moves other characters have mapped to different inputs, e.g. his Skip Kicks are his standard K instead of Up + K and his actual standard Kicks are instead mapped to Down-Forward + K, K, K. Aside from that, he has a few unique moves including a three-punch combo ending in a slow uppercut (P, P, P) and bomb throw move that can throw up to three in a row (Forward + P, P, P). Notably, Tails and Bean respectively seemed to have these moves in the game's AOU '96 build. This, plus the unusual input mappings seems to indicate Eggman's moveset reflects an earlier stage of the game's development compared to every other character in the final game.
Interestingly, similar to Metal Sonic, there's evidence to suggest this form of Eggman was meant to be playable, including his name appearing in the high-score table whilst his boss form does not, and having a normally unseen Vs. Screen image and title card (shown above), though the latter elements also display for Mech Eggman should he be made playable. Although he lacks an intro animation, he also has several unique animations that are unseen, including an idle and Game Over animation.
He has not been made playable in any version of the game to date.
Mecha Sonic Model No.29 (Rocket Metal)#
One of Eggman's robots that is normally only seen in the intro, with a visible name "Mecha Sonic Model No.29". When made to be playable, it can be seen that he has his own nameplate and titlecard, giving him the name "Rocket Metal". His moveset is wholly derivative, entirely copying Knuckles' moveset and animations, albeit with some visual quirks. He turns into Sonic when performing a Spin Dash, he uses Metal Sonic's idle animation for his Game Over screen, his head becomes Metal's when he's put into squished mode (He has his own head model for this purpose, but it's entirely unused) and he seems to have the same eye-tracking bug that Honey has.
Though Rocket Metal has elements that indicate he was meant to be encountered in gameplay, he lacks a unique VS. screen image, a greyscale model or a name display on the high-score table. The game's dedicated boss character Mech Eggman has a similar combination of elements, which seems to suggest that this character was intended to be fought in the game as a boss character. Developer Masahiro Sugiyama has stated, however, that Rocket Metal was indeed intended to be a fully playable character that simply wasn't completed.
As an aside, the rocket form that Rocket Metal takes on in the intro has a separate model for its shadow that's normally never seen in-game. Shadows are normally seen under the player in gameplay. This model's existence may suggest that Rocket Metal was planned to have a move involving its rocket form in gameplay that was never implemented, or otherwise was meant to use it in an in-game cutscene of sorts.
He has not appeared in a playable or boss form in any version of the game to date. He did, however, have a cameo in the Saturn version of Fighting Vipers, where his rocket form can be seen in the intro similarly to the Honey cameo mentioned above.
RoboEgg#
Eggman's robot from the intro cutscene. When made playable, it can be seen to have a virtually identical moveset to the final boss, Mech Eggman, with the exception of being able to crouch. Aside from that, it has a few visual quirks, most notably that it will continuously rotate its head as it does in the intro cutscene once every 6 seconds. It's triple punch string ender (P, P, P) uses purple speed lines instead of Mech Eggman's white, and it also uses Metal Sonic's Idle animation for the Game Over screen, same as Rocket Metal.
Among other similarities to Rocket Metal, it neither has a name entry in the high score screen or a greyscale model in mirror matches, and it even seems to lack its nameplate and titlecard, instead defaulting to Eggman's. As it turns out, it does have its own unique title card and nameplate in the files, both of which referring to it as "RoboEgg", that go completely unused. As with Rocket Metal, it was planned to be playable but wasn't completed.
It has not appeared in a playable or boss form in any version of the game to date.
Big Eggman#
A larger version of Mechless Eggman. This may be a leftover from Fighting Vipers, mirroring the small and big forms the final boss has in that game. It may also have been a test on Sega AM2's part to see what size would look right for Eggman in-game. He uses the smaller Eggman's animation data for his idle and walking animations, causing him to appear broken in those states, but otherwise appears normal.
Notably, a third, even larger Eggman can be found in the files, inaccessible even through the Debug Mode. It's properties are similar to the Big Eggman seen here, except its head is erroneously placed in its body.
UFO Eggman#
The UFO that Eggman uses to create the greyscale clones in Mirror Matches. It was certainly not meant to appear in gameplay as it copies Knuckles' moveset and animations, and its hitbox and shadow is completely inaccurate to its model.
Unused Mech Eggman Form#
Data in the game exists for an unused form for Mech Eggman that appears to include tank treads and rocket launchers. This design exists in individual pieces that have been put together in the mockup seen above. Not included here, the tank treads have multiple model variants with different tread positions in the files, indicating that they were to be animated.
A slight variation on the form also exists in the game, which take the form of a singular model with a semi-complete body. This is highly uncommon for this game, indicating the model was either meant for a cutscene or is a mockup of how the design would look in game.
The form's intended purpose is unknown. It may have been an early design for the E-Mech seen in game that was scrapped.
Dummy Characters (DUM9-17)#
An assortment of dummy characters can be found in the Debug Menu following the game's implemented characters. These all re-use Sonic's model and either use Knuckles' moveset for DUM9-15 or a very limited moveset capable only of walking, jumping, and guarding for DUM16 and DUM17. The latter two are also weirdly unstable. DUM17 is capable of crashing the game if jumping in certain ways.