Unused Models

This is a sub-page of Sonic Championship.

If there's any one thing that can be said about Sonic Championship on an internal level, it's that it has a staggeringly large amount of 3D models, upward of 4000 at least as recorded in the Debug Menu's Polygon_Test. This is due to a combination of elements, including its squash-and-stretch animation style which swaps character model parts on the fly, and the requirement for additional copies of models for rendering character shadows and 2P greyscale colors. Because of this, and the game's rushed development, a large number of models in the game go unused.

To do: IDs from debug mode's POLYGON_TEST menu might be nice to have.

Heartstruck Expressions#

All playable characters have heartstruck expressions, complete with heart-shaped irises, blushing, and exaggerated lovestruck reactions. These were meant for use in a kiss-based throw move the scrapped character Honey The Cat was intended to have.

Much like the associated character, the move was not completed and thusly scrapped, yet the assets remain in the game’s files. Only Bean’s heartstruck expression is used in the final game, appearing as one of the random objects Amy can drop during her “Head’s Up!” move and it's extremely rare to see in-game. The rest of the expressions go completely unused.

Beta Bark Leftovers#

Bark's design evidently went through a lot of changes through development and only settled on the final one very close to release. As a result, some leftovers from his earlier models still remain in the final game.

Late Dev. Head Model#

This is a version of Bark's squinting head on what seems to be a pretty close-to-finalized design. It even managed to get a greyscale and squished version, though its lack of a mouth is unusual. This design also seems to be the basis of Bark's shadow model, at least for the head. In any case, there are still a few differences. Compared to the final version, Bark's fur is a lighter shade of yellow, and the hat is a bit different plus his tuft of hair doesn't stick out of it.

Early Dev.(?) Body Model#

This is a version of Bark's body piece from what seems to be a remarkably different design. It's pure white similar to the design seen in the AOU '96 build, but it has significantly different proportions compared to any of the known models, which may indicate it as one of the earliest known models.

Placeholder Head Model#

1P Ver. (Color)	2P Ver. (Greyscale)

What appears to a very early placeholder model for Bark, consisting only of a sphere for his head model.

Bark Greyscale Open Hand Model#

Bark usually has open hands when performing the Scissor Punch move, but his Greyscale variant performs it with closed hands. This equivalent open hand model for his Greyscale variant is supposed to be used for this purpose, but isn't due to an oversight. Funnily enough, Bark also performs the Scissor Punch with closed hands in Fighters Megamix.

AOU '96 Knuckles Head#

1P Ver. (Color)	2P Ver. (Greyscale)

This Knuckles head model is a remnant of his earlier model seen in the AOU '96 build and some early screenshots. He has slightly different eyes and a slightly larger forehead. This, curiously, may explain Knuckles having an unusually large hitbox compared to his head size in the final game.

Unused Hand Animations#

A collection of hand models that are never used in-game, including a pointing hand for Knuckles, open and pointing hands for Fang in Colour and Greyscale form, and a thumbs up hand that could belong to a number of characters. Purpose unknown for most of these, but the thumbs up hand was likely meant for a win animation of sorts.

Amy's Hammer Animations#

A collection of models showing Amy's hammer becoming squished from impact with something. It would seem that Amy's hammer was intended to have an animation when hitting an opponent, but this was scrapped.

Metal Sonic Greyscale Exhaust Flames#

Among the models meant for Metal Sonic's scrapped greyscale variant are these exhaust flames. They were naturally cut alongside the rest of the model when Metal Sonic's playability was cut.

RoboEgg Headspin model#

This model is apparently meant for RoboEgg's head spinning animation, as its contained within the data for that but is never called to play. It may have also been used for a scrapped attack for the character.

Rocket Metal#

As a scrapped character who was so unfinished they had yet to give him a unique move list ID(when even RoboEgg has one, no less), it's perhaps unsurprising that Rocket Metal has quite a few models that go completely unused even when made playable.

Damage And Squished Head Models#

These head models are meant to be used when Rocket Metal is damaged and squished respectively. As is, Rocket Metal's head model doesn't change when damaged and erroneously uses Metal Sonic's when squished.

Lit Torso And Feet Models#

These are meant to be used when Rocket Metal's active similar to Metal Sonic. They go unused as they aren't included in his character data.

Rocket Metal Hand Models#

Rocket Metal can be seen morphing his hands into this state when he transforms into his rocket form in the intro. They also exist as separate models apparently called "laserguns" in the files. Hence, they were likely meant for a planned attack that was never implemented.

Honey#

Eye Models#

Different color variants for Honey's eyes and eyelids. May have been intended for use in her cut kiss attack.

Kiss Face Model#

A kissing face for Honey. Almost certainly meant for her cut kiss attack mentioned above.

Early Tails' Tails#

An early version of the models for Tails' tails. This version had the tails split into segments that could move independently of each other, comparable to how Fang's tail works. They instead opted to have the tails animated through model swapping in the final game. These models were actually seen in use in some early pre-release screenshots.

Expressions#

There are several emotions and speech bubbles that are not used in the final.

Confusion or anguish. Multiple slight variations of this model exist in the files, indicating that the bubble would have been animated.

A speech bubble with "Yes!" written on it.

Another speech bubble with "Yes!", this time entirely in blue.

This particular bubble with "No!" written on it is just never seen.

The last of the unused speech bubbles.

Flying Carpet#

Beta Frame#

A leftover from a very early version of Flying Carpet. In its earliest known state, it was a stationary stage held up from the ground on 4 pillars, with this frame acting as a support. The stage was instead made to be flying at all times for the final game, at which point this object was likely removed due to no longer suiting the stage's direction.

Beta Ringside Flames#

These flame models seem to also date from the stage's early incarnation, where the ringside flames were textures that tracked towards the camera. It seems that the original textures were overwritten with new ones since.

Aurora Icefield#

Beta Ice Wall#

A remnant from an early version of Aurora Icefield with differently designed ice walls. This version featured 4 unique wall patterns, as supposed to the final stage which only has 3.

Ice Cubes and Diamonds#

A staggering amount of ice cube and diamond variants that somehow all went unused. At least some of these were probably intended to be used, though, as a stage property exists called "Aurora_Nothing" which adds 2 ice cubes of these ice cubes into the stage.

Casino Night AOU 96' Wall#

An unused wall variant for Casino Night. This was used in the AOU '96 build which featured a version of the stage with 5 wall patterns, which was pared down to 3 in the final game. A blue wall was also used for the stage in that build, but the data for that was overwritten in the final game.

Dynamite Plant 4th Wall#

Dynamite Plant similarly features an unused 4th wall pattern for a stage that otherwise uses 3, albeit this one does not appear too visually different from the used walls.

Pinball Stage Leftovers#

Remnants of a planned pinball stage. This would ultimately evolve into the Casino Night stage, confirmed by the fact that that said stage is labelled "PINBALL" in the Debug Menu's Parameter_Set, plus a number of sound effects the stage uses being labelled "PINBALL" in the Sound Test.

Misc.#

Golden Gloves#

Alternate glove models that are colored gold. Might have been meant for some sort of power-up. Notably, the left hand's victory sign is one of the first objects programmed in the game.

Numbers#

3d modelled numbers from 0 to 9. Purpose unknown. They may have been intended for the Continue screen or as a part of the Death Egg II Explosion Countdown.

Red Object Models#

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32)

A unidentified red object. Purpose unknown, could possibly be a test object meant to test out animating objects like the palm trees in South Island.

Fire Models#

(1) (2) (3) (4)

A collection of models that seemingly depict a fire or explosion. Could have been an early visual design for the barrier as it has a similar shape.

Weird Barrier Animation#

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

A collection of models that bears closer resemblance to the barrier in the final game. May have correlation to some unused barrier animation code that exists in the game.

Coordinate Object#

An X, Y, Z coordinate object. This was probably used heavily during development.

Balls#

These three balls were likely test objects, since they lack any real detail and are in a primitive state. This is supported by the fact that these are the first three objects programmed into the game.

Rocket#

A rocket, purpose unknown. This may have been intended for use as an attack by the alternate Mech Eggman form.

Container#

This might have held the Flickies and Pockies seen below, similar to Panic Puppet Zone in Sonic 3D Blast, which did release just a few months after this game.

Flicky#

A Flicky, a regular sight in early Sonic the Hedgehog games that is never seen in this one. There are eight variations of the Flicky, each matching a color of the Chaos Emeralds in this game, indicating they may have had a connection.

Pocky#

Another critter seen regularly in early Sonic games. Also has eight variations matching the Chaos Emeralds, thus may have served a similar purpose as the Flicky.

An alternate rabbit model, which only has a blue-colored version. The design differs from Pocky's appearance in other Sonic games, as well as its other unused appearance in this one.

Heart Outline#

An outline of a heart.

Bell#

A bell. Amy has some code to load this model, which seems to indicate that it was intended as another object for her "Heads Up!" move. Alternatively, it may have been intended for an ending cutscene.

Pengo#

This little guy is the star of his own arcade game. He was likely supposed to make a cameo in Aurora Icefield.

Fighting Vipers Leftovers#

Very Early Tails' Tail#

Another early version of Tails' tail model. The colour and shadow model was used by "Sonic and Tails"'s Tails (2P) color in Fighting Vipers. The greyscale model's existence is curious given those are typically meant for the Player 2 color palette in this game, whereas Tails was effectively the Player 2 color palette in Fighting Vipers. This instead may be a leftover from the very early dev. builds of this game when it still used the Fighting Vipers models as placeholders.