the cutting room mirror

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

This article has a talk page!
view on tcrf.net

Unused Graphics#

Early Game Icon#

Located in system.arc is sonicnexticon.png, an early version of the game's icon.

2006 Tokyo Game Show#

Various graphics relating to the 2006 Tokyo Game Show demo build can be found in the gameshow folder.

E3 Leftovers#

Sonic06E3KDV2.png Sonic06E3CSC.png

Two loading graphics from the E3 demo can be found in the result folder. They were intended to be overlaid on top of the empty striped box in the upper-left corner. No such graphics are ever displayed there in the final game. The "Mission: Head for a Goal Ring!" text suggests that the game was intended to feature alternate stage objectives similar to Sonic Adventure 2.

Xbox Live Demo Leftovers#

Leftover assets from the XBLA demo can be seen in the comingsoon folder.

tit0001.mhp

Used for the final game

title.xncp contains a very early version of the main menu with squared icons that show Sonic's head, possibly either a book or a memory card, a stopwatch for likely some sort of "Time Attack" mode, and a wrench for configuring the settings. It also has the copyright date for the year 2005, likely from the TGS 2005 build. The second graphic shows a larger image of Sonic's head, which would appear at the bottom-right of the screen as a decal - recolored to blue by the XNCP.

Early Pause Menu#

These assets, found in sprite.arc, were presumably supposed to be used in place of the retail pause menu. Oddly enough, the blue arrow in this image is actually used in-game as the default select icon.

Four Player Multiplayer Remnants#

A couple of graphics related to an early version of the multiplayer mode exist within tag_character, which shows that it was once meant to allow up to four players instead of just two. This indicates that you could originally choose other characters than the three main protagonists at some point in development. Some of the game's unused voice clips support this as well.

Unused HUD Icons#

There's a few unused HUD icons that don't appear during normal gameplay. These being:

  • A rainbow colored gem, which would have allowed Sonic to transform into his Super state outside of the Solaris boss fight. This can be hacked into the game, but the gem itself has no functionality.
  • A counter for Bronze Medals, despite actually using the Silver Medal icon in the game.
  • Blue arrows, which seems to suggest a lap count for races.
  • A Ring for town missions that involve passing through them.
  • Head icon for missions involving NPCs.
  • Dog icon for missions involving dogs.
  • "E" icon would've been used for multiplayer as an enemy counter.
  • The Star icon purpose is unknown, but it's possible that it may have been related to the Goal Ring.

Warp Gates#

Amongst the graphics for Warp Gates/Holes, there's ones featuring Crisis City, Flame Core, and End of the World, all of which aren't accessible in any of the three main hub worlds. There's also a black and white one, likely for placeholder purposes.

Trickpoints#

Being found in tirkcpoint folder, at one point there were more levels or ranks when doing tricks in order to increase the player's score.

Sonic's Face#

Sonic usually only has one graphic on his face in-game, in which he grins. However, there exist two more unused expressions that were intended to be used alongside his different facial animations. The first graphic has him smiling more enthusiastically, like with his render in Sonic Heroes. The second one is for frowning, which is similar to Shadow's face graphic, but he uses the one in his own archive file.

Mission Icon#

Sonic06Kaiwa_05.png SONIC06Kaiwa_03.png

The baloon contains two unused icons for missions by NPCs. The pink icon was meant to be the original icon during development, while the purpose of the green icon is unknown.

New Game#

Found inside of the title folder, this "New Game" graphic was used in the XBLA demo. It would seem that it was intended for one to be able to start a new game directly from the main menu. To do so in the final game, the save file needs to be manually deleted from the console's menu.

Komatu#

A signature from the developer Takuma Komatsu can be seen within the camoflauge graphic in cache.arc. This isn't seen in normal gameplay due to how the camoflauge effect is rendered in game.

Temporary Particle#

This particle texture is located with all the others. As suggested by the file name and the symbol in the texture, this was only "temporary" before they opted for something else. There is a used texture called ef_st_flare016_00.dds which is essentially identical, but red and missing the symbol.

Partially Obscured Graphics#

These graphics, while used, aren't possible to fully discern in-game.

The screens in the Crisis City computer room and Eggman's ship contain multiple images that can't be seen in-game due to the camera's placement. They feature screenshots and images from throughout the game's development.

A picture of Elise and the Duke of Soleanna together, from the cutscene in which Eggman threatens Elise to leave her castle. Only the side is visible in-game; there's no point where the full, unobscured picture can be seen. Amusingly, the picture is incongruous with the game's story; Elise appears as she does in the modern day despite the Duke dying when she was a child.

Unused Music#

Found in the Xbox 360 Version#

silver_theme.xma#

Demo

Final

A demo version of "Dreams of an Absolution" containing a synth lead instead of vocals. According to the songwriter, Bentley Jones, this was a placeholder that the developers forgot to take out.

shadow_theme.xma#

Unused

Final

"All Hail Shadow" by Magna-Fi, from Shadow the Hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog uses a new version of the theme by Crush 40, located at theme_shadow.xma.

title_loop.xma#

A shortened version of "His World". This was used as the background music on the game's website. Although short versions of "His World" play during the credits of each episode, the music is baked into the video files, leaving this file unused. The filename suggests this was possibly planned to play during an opening cinematic, much like in Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Unleashed.

Found in the PlayStation 3 Version#

boss_eggman1.at3#

An early version of the Egg-Cerberus and Egg-Genesis boss theme. Certain instruments were made louder for the final game, and it appears to have sequenced instruments in place of real ones.

boss_eggman3.at3#

Same as the previous, but for Egg-Wyvern instead.

Unused Audio#

Knuckles#

Rank

Japanese Audio

English Audio

Transcription

S

よし!完璧だぜ
All right!

A

よし!いい感じだ
That felt good!

B

ま、こんなもんだろ
Well, that wasn't TOO bad...

C

フン!手間取っちまったぜ
Hmph! That took longer than I thought.

D

くそ!まだまだだな…
Shoot! I've still got a ways to go...

Knuckles is the only character that can not reach the goal ring in any level under normal means. Despite this, he is perfectly set up for the circumstance that he does, having a victory animation as well as a full set of voice clips for each of the possible rankings. It is possible to hear these in-game using glitches to make Knuckles reach the goal ring in Flame Core, however, a glitch involving character swapping will occur that causes Knuckles to always use the D rank voice clip regardless of the score.

Unused Text#

Shop Items#

??? You'll need to buy it to see what it does!

Allows you to "Speed Up." This increases your movement speed.

A 1-up item.

"Sonic Adventure" music

"Sonic Adventure 2" music

"Sonic Heroes" music

"Shadow The Hedgehog" music

"Sonic The Hedgehog" music

"Sonic The Hedgehog 2" music

"Sonic The Hedgehog 3" music

"Sonic & Knuckles" music

"Sonic 3D Blast" music

"Sonic R" music

"Sonic Riders" music

"Sonic Adventure" music, part 2

"Sonic Adventure" music, part 3

"Sonic Adventure 2" music, part 2

"Sonic Adventure 2" music, part 3

"Sonic Heroes" music, part 2

"Sonic Heroes" music, part 3

"Shadow The Hedgehog" music, part 2

"Shadow The Hedgehog" music, part 3

"Sonic The Hedgehog" music, part 2

"Sonic The Hedgehog" music, part 3

"Sonic The Hedgehog 2" music, part 2

"Sonic The Hedgehog 2" music, part 3

"Sonic The Hedgehog 3" music, part 2

"Sonic The Hedgehog 3" music, part 3

There's unused text for several items that the player could purchase at some point in msg_shop.e.mst:

  • "??? You'll need to buy it to see what it does!" refers to the Rainbow Gem, which would allow Sonic to transform into his Super form.
  • The "Speed Up" line refers to the Speed Chip, an upgrade for Silver that would increase his movement speed.
  • 1-UP Capsules were purchasable.
  • Music from most of the Sonic Team-developed Sonic games was purchasable, though it's not clear which tracks were available from each title. The concept of unlockable music from previous games would be revisited in the subsequent anniversary game, Sonic Generations.
RANKING
DOWNLOAD
Xbox Live
Tag Story: A special two-player story
Rankings: Check your rank
Download; You can download additional game content
Network: You can check rankings and download content
Xbox Live: Connect to Xbox Live and check rankings
Play downloaded Character Missions
Play Super Sonic Missions
Play Super Shadow Missions
Play Super Silver Missions
Play downloaded Character Missions
Play Metal Sonic Missions
Play ??? Mission.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Demo
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Preview Version (720p)
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Preview Version (480p)
Metal Sonic's Theme
Metal Sonic Icon
Additional Mission Pack "Sonic/Super Hard"
Additional Mission Pack "Sonic/Extra"
Additional Mission Pack "Shadow/Super Hard"
Additional Mission Pack "Shadow/Extra
Additional Mission Pack "Silver/Super Hard"
Additional Mission Pack "Silver/Extra"
Additional Mission Pack "Super Hard All."
Additional Mission Pack "Extra All"
Additional Episode "Metal Sonic"
Sonic The Hedgehog redefines his trademark speed for the most intense, high-velocity adventure yet!
You can play a new set of super hard missions for Sonic.
You can play a new set of extra missions for Sonic.
You can play a new set of super hard missions for Shadow.
You can play a new set of extra missions for Shadow.
You can play a new set of super hard missions for Silver.
You can play a new set of extra missions for Silver.
You can play a new set of super hard missions for Sonic, Shadow, and Silver.
You can play a new set of extra missions for Sonic, Shadow, and Silver.
You can play an additional episode for Metal Sonic.
You can play additional missions for Metal Sonic.

Found in msg_mainmenu.e.mst, there's mentions of things that are not found in the final game, among them elements that seemed to have been planned for DLC. A mission mode and additional episodes for Sonic, Silver, and Shadow in their super forms are mentioned, along with unused difficulty options like Super Hard and Extra. Most curiously, an episode for Metal Sonic, a character that does not appear at all in the final game, is mentioned.

System#

LEVEL
EXP.
EXPERIENCE POINT
Find $ Chao!

msg_system.e.mst mentions experience points, which is a mechanic that doesn't exist in the final game. It also mentions finding Chao(s), which are absent in this title, that presumably would have been a type of mission similar to the ones that appear in Sonic Unleashed.

Enrique the Shop Keeper#

"I'm the owner here, Enrique. Thanks for coming by! Well, take a look around. They're all valuable items that I got through special channels. I'll do my best to find good products, so come by once in a while and see what I've got! So, what do you want to buy?"

"Hey, you're back! What are you looking for today?"

"Surprised? This is a "Network Shop. This is a new shop that was developed for people who want to shop whenever they want! It's not only high-tech, it's on the cutting edge of cool! Don't you think so? You can use this Network Shop to buy exactly the same things that you can buy at my shop in the Castle Town! Well, that's enough chitchat. What do you want to buy?"

"Hey, I told you, you don't have enough Rings."

"You don't have enough Rings! Come on, are you making fun of me?"

"Hey, are you leaving already? Come again soon!"

"Sorry, I'm all sold out. Sorry about that. Well, come by again to say hi!"

"Welcome! Hmm... Sorry, but I don't have anything that really suits you...But thanks for coming! I'm Enrique. Don't forget me!"

"Hey, surprised? This is a "Network Shop. "I want to shop whenever I want to!" "I want to buy things wherever I want!" "I want the cool things from Enrique's shop!" "I want to see Enrique whenever I want!" "Enrique's too handsome for words!" "I can't get enough of Enrique!" That's what people kept telling me, you see. So due to overwhelming public demand, I developed this new type of shop! It's not only high-tech, it's on the cutting edge of cool! Don't you think so? You can use this Network Shop to buy exactly the same things that you can buy at my shop in the Castle Town! Well, that's enough chitchat. What do you want to buy?"

msg_shop.e.mst also contains several unused text dialogue for Enrique, which would have given him more personality than what's seen in the final game. It's unclear why this was removed, but it's possible that it was done in favor of purchasing items to be straightforward and quick as possible. The Network Shop dialogue likely refers to the monitors you can find in New City and the Forest, allowing you to use the shop outside of Castle Town. The reference to a Network Shop isn't to be confused with the cut Network option in the Main Menu, which would've allowed for online features to be used.

Scrapped Multiplayer Modes#

"msg_battle_twn_a"
 "Text": "Castle Town"

"msg_battle_twn_b"
 "Text": "New City"

"msg_battle_twn_c",
 "Text": "Forest"

"msg_battle_roundam"
 "Text": "Forest"

Collect $ Rings first! The one who collects them first wins.

Collect the most Rings! The one who collects the most Rings wins.

Collect $ Rings before the other team! The team that collects them first wins.

Collect more Rings than the other team! The team with the highest Ring total wins.

Survive till the end! The one who survives to the end wins.

Team battle! The team with the last remaining player wins.

Race to the goal! The one who arrives first wins.

Race to the goal with your whole team! The team that gets all members to the goal first wins.

One player: Catch a demon! Others: Don't get caught by the demons!

Pass through as many Rings as possible! The one who passes through the most Rings wins.

Collect Bronze Medals! The one who collects the most wins.

Collect as many Bronze Medals as possible! The team that collects the most wins.

Destroy as many things as possible! The one who destroys the most wins.

Destroy as many things as possible! The team that destroys the most wins.

Break as many targets as possible! The one who breaks the most targets wins.

Break as many targets as possible! The team that breaks the most targets wins.

Defeat as many enemies as possible! The one who defeats the most enemies wins.

Defeat as many enemies as possible! The team that defeats the most enemies wins.

Collect as many presents as possible! The one who collects the most wins.

Collect as many presents as possible! The team that collects the most wins.

Figure out the pattern in the boxes. Break the box with the number that fits!

Figure out the pattern in the boxes. Break the box with the number that fits!

Find the hidden key! There's only one! The one who finds it first wins.

Find the hidden key! There's only one! The team that finds it first wins.

Get the Chaos Emerald first! The first one to get the Chaos Emerald wins!

Get the Chaos Emerald first! The first team to get the Chaos Emerald wins!

CONGRATULATIONS!

READY?

GO!

FINISH!

WIN

LOSE

DRAW

Rings

There's mentions of several objectives for multiplayer that ended up being scrapped in msg_battle.e.mst, which could either have been separate modes or missions within the planned Co-op campaigns. Curiously, one mentions the idea of "catching and avoiding demons". No entities explicitly described as demons exist in the game, though it may be referring to the Iblis monsters.

Gold Medals#

Miles "Tails" Prower's Gold Medal list

Knuckles The Echidna's Gold Medal list

Rouge The Bat's Gold Medal list

E-123 Omega's Gold Medal list

Amy Rose's Gold Medal list

Blaze The Cat's Gold Medal list

Super Sonic's Gold Medal list

Super Silver's Gold Medal list

Super Shadow's Gold Medal list

msg_gold_results.e.mst has text for Gold Medal listing for all the "Amigo" playable characters and Super Forms for the main three protagonists, which go unused as they don't have their own exclusive episodes.

Xbox Live: View score and time rankings

Network: Download content and view rankings

Tag Story: A special two-player story

Tag Trial: Challenge previously-cleared missions with two players!

Rankings: Check your rank

Download; You can download additional game content

Network: You can check rankings and download content

Xbox Live: Connect to Xbox Live and check rankings

The beautiful Water Kingdom of Soleanna. The young Princess Elise, holder of the secret of the "Flames of Disaster", is abducted by Dr. Eggman during the fire ceremony. Sonic goes to thwart Eggman and rescue the princess, but another hedgehog, Silver, tries to stop him, calling him the "Iblis Trigger", the key to some terrible power. Why is he after Sonic? What is the Iblis Trigger? What does Dr. Eggman know about the Flames of Disaster? Sonic's latest adventure is about to begin!

Tag team: Cooperate as Sonic and Shadow!

Battle: Fight it out with 2 to 4 players!

msg_mainmenu.e.mst and msg_multiplayer.e.mst has unseen text for modes in the main menu that don't appear in the final game, along with their descriptions. The most notable things mentioned are the scrapped "Tag Story" and a short summary for Sonic's episode. One such Tag Story meant for Sonic and Shadow seems to have leftover voice lines in the files.

Unused Code#

Sonic Lub Files#

An early version of Sonic's .lub file can be found alongside Tropical Jungle and Dusty Desert's scene files. It has some unique properties, such as Sonic's top speed being 20ms compared to the final's 17ms, and lacking any of Sonic's gems, indicating they were a late addition. It also lists several unused parameters, with c_run_algorithm purpose being unknown.

Super Mario 64#

One of the two parameters for input_method within the players LUB files is oddly named input_method_mario64. The parameter is used for nearly every single character except Sonic and Shadow, as they would use input_method_sonic_v1 instead. Input_method_mario64 allows the playable character to ignore the rotation speed parameters and turn on a dime, similar to how Mario moves in Super Mario 64.

Shaders#

Can be found in shader.arc.

  • Billboard07.fxo - pixel lighting, CSM sampling, and point lights.
  • DepthOfFieldFilter.fxo - seems to imply that the game was intended to use a depth-of-field effect, like the one seen in Sonic Unleashed.
  • MotionBlurFilter.fxo - unsurprisingly, a motion blur effect. BurnoutBlurFilter.fxo is used instead.
  • iblis02_eye.fxo - seems to be identical to iblis01_eye, which is used.
  • Waterrise.fxo - intended for Kingdom Valley. Seems to be rippling water / mist.

Additionally, CharacterMaterial.fxo has unused techniques.

(Source: HedgeDocs)

Internal Project Name#

The game's internal project name is SonicNext, as evidenced by filenames. This references the status as the first Sonic title for seventh generation consoles and aligns with the game being referred to as "Sonic Next-Gen" during development. However, the original executable name for the Xbox 360 version is marathon.exe. This can be found by opening default.xex and going to the line 000016C0 in a hex editor.

Oddities#

Internal Filenames#

  • Many of Sonic's internal files are referred to as sonic_new, likely because Sonic's model was changed from the one seen at TGS 2005.
  • The internal naming scheme of the music for stages usually follows this format: stg_(stage id)_(letter).xma. The letter corresponds with which section of the stage in which the music plays. However, Crisis City's tracks don't follow this as closely: the first two tracks are stg_csc_a.xma and stg_csc_b.xma respectively, but the mach speed section's track is called stg_csc_e.xma and the track for the section before it is called stg_csc_f.xma, which may imply both that Crisis City had many more areas in the past and also that the mach speed section was intended to be before that platforming section.
  • The track "Town Mission" uses the name stg_twn_shop.xma, which doesn't fit the syntax of the other Town Mission tracks, twn_mission_comical.xma, twn_mission_slow.xma, and twn_mission_fast.xma.
  • The shaders for the Scepter of Darkness use the prefix bod_, as it was originally known as the "Book of Darkness".
  • The Rainbow Gem is internally referred to as Emerald_S, suggesting that the Gems were originally Chaos Emeralds.

Early Textures#

The first in-game cutscene for Sonic's episode features a nighttime version of Soleanna that's different from the terrain you actually get to play around in. The event ID for this cutscene is e0031 and has its own separate terrain folder from Soleanna's actual one, containing unique models and textures. Many buildings are missing, while some are missing sides, probably due to being out of sight. The textures used in e0031 appear to be early counterparts, as they're missing some text and effects, but are also set up correctly, unlike Soleanna's final textures.

Minor Differences

  • The most relevant textures are slightly transparent in e0031, which is correct for the diffuse-specular configuration - they are opaque for Soleanna.
  • twn_a1brick01_dfsp_b.dds was made brighter for Soleanna.
  • twn_a1cring04_dfxx_b.dds, twn_a1cring05_dfxx_b.dds, twn_a1swalk58_dfsp_b.dds, and twn_a1swalk60_dfsp_b.dds were made darker for Soleanna.

Major Differences

e0031

Final

twn_a_h704_dfxx_c.dds was modified to add the word "CAFE" for Soleanna.

e0031

Final

twn_a_h503_df_c.dds was also made darker, but was modified to add the number 15 for Soleanna.

e0031

Final

twn_a_h039_df_c.dds had gaussian blur added to a portion of the texture for where it'd be mapped over a shop window.

e0031

Final

twn_a_h060_df_c.dds had a Gaussian blur added to a portion of the texture for where it'd be mapped over a shop window.

e0031

Final

twn_a_h097_df_c.dds had gaussian blur added to a portion of the texture for where it'd be mapped over a shop window.

Unreachable/Out-of-Bounds Objects#

To do:
One of these unreachable springs exists in Dusty Desert too. Document it and look for other odd out-of-bounds objects.

Kingdom Valley - Section A

In Kingdom Valley - Section A, there is an unreachable spring at co-ordinates (X: -26241.4, Y: 0, Z: 5035.69) - this spring has a LaunchSpeed value of 0, OutOfControl value of 0, and it targets nothing. It's present in the SET files for Kingdom Valley - Section A in retail and the Xbox Live Arcade Demo, as well as End of the World.

End of the World - Section F

In End of the World - Section F (Amy's White Acropolis section), there is an unreachable 1-Up Capsule at the location that Sonic's normal White Acropolis B starts from.

Radical Train - Silver

In Silver's Normal Radical Train, there are several out-of-bounds objects, including a rainbow ring, a jump panel, the unused jump board, a dash panel, and some oddly placed springs, as well as some rings.

Misplaced Rings in DLC

In Omega's Dusty Desert section in the Team Attack Amigo DLC, there is a trail of rings placed on a slanted platform where Sonic's Dusty Desert Section is. Omega does not go here during the section normally.

Platform Differences#

To do:
Aquatic Base's 2P layout on the US PS3 version is completely different. Document differences.

Watch on YouTubeWatch on YouTube

  • The title screen tells players to "PRESS START BUTTON" on PlayStation 3, but just "PRESS START" on Xbox 360.
  • The PlayStation 3 version is significantly more prone to slowdown than Xbox 360.
  • There's minor level changes between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
  • Loading takes much longer on PlayStation 3.

Graphical Differences#

  • Shadows are lower resolution on PlayStation 3 (with some being missing outright or not rendering correctly).

To do:
I don't recall there being anything materially improved with how PS3 handles point lights. This may simply be a product of chance rather than an actual difference.

  • Point lights appear to be less buggy on PlayStation 3 compared to the Xbox 360 version.
  • Heat effects are missing in the PlayStation 3 version.
  • Planar reflections are always disabled on the PlayStation 3 version. On Xbox 360, these are only disabled during multiplayer.
  • Gamma correction is wrong on the PlayStation 3 version, giving everything a slightly washed-out look.
  • UI has some elements flipped or missing on the PlayStation 3 version. This is likely due to incorrect shader porting.

Cutscene Differences#

  • All cutscenes on PS3 are locked to 30FPS, whereas Xbox 360 runs (or at least tries to run) cutscenes at 60FPS.
  • Prerendered cutscenes are played at a much higher quality on PS3 compared to Xbox 360.
  • On the PS3 version of the cutscene "Eggman sends Sonic to the future", when Team Sonic is pulled into Eggman's machine, Tails and Knuckles' screams are flipped (Knux screams when Tails does on 360). Oddly, despite not matching the animation, this actually lines up with how the scene is structured in the leaked script.
  • The PS3 version of the cutscene "The resurrection of Mephiles" has Mephiles absorb Shadow's shadow in an odd way compared to 360. The scene also seems to play faster on PS3 (Rouge's next line is slightly ahead of 360), though this may be caused by slowdown on 360 that isn't present on PS3.

Layout Differences#

To do:
Screenshot comparisons or footage of these differences.

  • In Silver's Kingdom Valley on 360, the path the last eagle takes has Silver's body go slightly under the water. On PS3, the path the eagle takes is much more direct and doesn't go near the water.
  • In Sonic's Radical Train Hard, after saving the second train, a ring trail was misplaced on 360 that causes it to float in midair. The PS3 version corrects this, placing the ring trail on the ground.

Regional Differences#

To do:
There's almost certainly more than this.

  • In the cutscene "Finding the Iblis Trigger", Silver audibly gasps when he sees Sonic for the first time. In the Japanese version, his gasp is silent and no voice file for it exists.

Japanese

English

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

  • During the cutscene "Eggman Sends Sonic to the Future", when Eggman activates the Solaris prototype, his lips are animated to move as if he's laughing, yet no sound is heard. Oddly, in the Japanese version, he does laugh properly in this scene. Interestingly, an equivalent laugh exists in the English version's files, but goes completely unused, as do a few grunts and other laughs.

Japanese

English

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube