A NEW Sonic Game! Sonic Galactic! The BEST NEW Sonic Game Since Sonic Mania!

[@apr2499]

For anyone with a Steam Deck, this works great! Just need to boot into desktop mode, open a browser and download Sonic Galactic. Extract the zip to a folder. Then open the Steam app, and add a non Steam app. Browse to the folder you extracted Sonic Galactic and select the .exe file, and OK. Reboot into normal mode. Go to the Non Steam apps tab, and select Sonic Galactic. Go to the gear, and properties. Select compatibility, and select one of the Proton versions. Now open the game. Should work perfectly. The only issue I had was with the tutorial. I could not get the tutorial to work. Just skip the tutorial. The game plays fine.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Pinning this. Thanks!

[@Yokomo-Hoyo]

I’ll never understand why there aren’t more games like this. They are cheaper produce and fun.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Me either. But I’m sure the accounting and research dept says they aren’t what the masses want

[@simon41978]

Industries think like they have to ''innovate'' all the time, which means throwing out ''the old stuff'' regularly. Maybe games had gone as far as they could with CRT's but they were still awesome. Nintendo never went near the high resolution of CPS1/2/3. I would have liked to have seen that. And, for them to use a proper 4:3 aspect ratio.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

Because everything has to be an FPS or GTA.

[@Jabjabs]

Turns out Sega hates money. Always has, always will apparently!

[@bpcgos]

Because They cant take all money in this world, profitable is not enough for greedy publisher nowadays

[@bjornh1527]

YES this does look like just the kind of game that would get me interested in Sonic again. Top notch pixel art that absolutely nails the style.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Def play it. Couple hours of fun

[@astrea555]

sega and sonic fans these days are so amazing with all these indie projects!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Sonic fans keeping the franchise alive 2d wise

[@nbdante]

If SEGA want to make keep OG style Sonic alive and relevant they should invest in some of this fan made games! Maybe not to make money but to fill gap between major releases and also it will be a good PR for the company! The game really looks, plays and sounds great!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I mean they could do both; fill the gap and make cash. It’s a win win for them

[@Roddy_Zeh]

Beautiful! 1st stage's sky reminded me the intro video of Ecco The Dolphin, that mid-afternoon sky...loved it! Definitely deserves all the success! Thanks for the video!! 👏🏻😁

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Ecco was such a pretty game that made absolutely no sense. Such a confusing game as a kid

[@Roddy_Zeh]

@VideoGameEsoterica Agreed! Specially for someone like me, so young when I used to play AND...who knew nothing of English back then. I had no idea what I was doing. 👏🏻😂😅👍🏻 Only many years later, did I learn more about the game's story, plot, even the last boss, which I obviously never reached.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha even if you knew English it was still super confusing

[@Roddy_Zeh]

@@VideoGameEsoterica True! 😅

[@Hepponisme]

I wish we had a 2d sonic on sega saturn....

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It was a huge miss back in the day

[@AyeYoYoYooo]

Any chance this would make it to Dreamcast ? Zero chance for Saturn…

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

If the devs want to perhaps. All down to just what they want to do

[@alanf8622]

@@AyeYoYoYooo What does that even mean?

[@CptJistuce]

We'll always have Sonic Blast! ... What do you mean that's worse than nothing?

[@freddiejohnson6137]

Not a supersega exclusive then?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

🤣

[@maxden80]

😂

[@johnblue5399]

Fangames are often overlooked gems, and it would be great if Sega took the Sonic Mania approach with this project. Thank you for bringing this lovely title into the spotlight, downloading the demo now.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it! I’m always happy to do videos on projects like this :)

[@TitchgamerRG]

Looks beautiful! Will look forward to seeing your video once its complete so I can pick it up 😊

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Worth playing now as the demo is quite large

[@spiritualastralsoul]

I absolutely love Sonic Mania, so seeing this makes me happy, thanks for sharing, I will check this out.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to share. Enjoy it!

[@beingsupersonic7499]

Looks cool! And that music is so good and fitting🤘🏻

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Music is top tier

[@balaam_7087]

This is awesome. I was waiting for a good Sonic game since Sonic Mania, we’ve been in quite the drought.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Overture 95 and the others listed in the description have scratched the itch

[@Jabjabs]

Also check out Sonic and the fallen star. Absolutely top effort fan title that will scratch that itch.

[@ferrarikangaroo9271]

Looks great. Hopefully it's ported to the MD or Saturn in some form one day :)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You never know what’ll happen

[@OllyDee123]

I've literally just finished playing the demo. What impresses me the most is the animation, it's absolutely fantastic.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes the fluidity is top notch. Honestly I couldn’t find anything to say “this is amazing but I wish X/Y/Z was different / better” about

[@OllyDee123]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I think where Sonic fan games usually fuck up is the level design, hard to strike a balance between exploration and speed. Lets see how the rest of the game shapes up.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

So far zero issues here. Speed is great, no obstructions to ruin the flow and enough exploration to satisfy

[@GzegzolkaDA]

There is lot of fan games and demos , some about speed and some about exploration. Personally I love those ones that have many routes and dead ends to explore rather than long speedy sections​@VideoGameEsoterica

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The dead ends kill me haha. I get those types of games but they kill my motivation. But that’s just me

[@gorofujita5767]

At this point in time, the thing that I'm really interested in seeing going forward is a 3D Sonic game with 32-bit style low-poly graphics. Something akin to a mixture of Sonic R, SRB2 and Sonic 3D's special stages, with a lot of Traveller's Tales flavor. IMO there's a lot of personality and SOVL to the Sonic-related work of Traveller's Tales during the Saturn era _(which was always developed under the supervision of Sonic Team btw; the map layouts for Sonic R came straight from Japan, for example),_ and it would be amazing to try to see fans try to recover these synergies and create a few fangames inspired by that era.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’d love to see it too but that’s just such an extra effort to go to 3D. Maybe one day

[@bardhi09]

They came from Yasuhara who was living in the USA not from Japan

[@gorofujita5767]

@@bardhi09 Your point? Yasuhara is ethnically and culturally japanese, and deeply involved with the creation of the original games, with both Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima.

[@tveye363]

What makes it better than Sonic Mania? That's insanely high praise for a simple demo.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

For me it’s the palette used. Those colors just hit. Mania was amazing but the remix of old with the new just left me wanting to see a Sonic Mania 2 with “all new” stages. But I’m not knocking Mania. It’s a 10/10

[@tveye363]

@VideoGameEsoterica Understandable. I assumed you were knocking down Mania in order to hype this up.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Nah. Mania is a banger

[@aryudsoh]

I saw the trailer when it released. I'm going to wait for the final game. It looks so good!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s def as good as it looks

[@noctissky794]

Having an issue saving my progress in the demo. I'm playing on a MacBook Air (m2 chip). When I select a new game there is an error message about the save script. Anyone else seen this?

[@GzegzolkaDA]

Awesome game, I remember playing few weeks ago 2020 demo. It nails perfectly balance between speed and exploration, and also those robots are well designed and have interesting attacks and behaviors. I hope it will be finished sometime in future just like other great fan projects - Legends, Overture, Uprising, Moon Facility, Aural.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes the balance is just perfect

[@noctissky794]

@video game esoterica, I have been saying the same thing; Sega needs to pay these devs and have this be an officially released game.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You never know but I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath

[@AllieRX]

This game looks amazing! I really hope it gets finished and not stuck in limbo like the Sonic Chaos remake from A+ Start.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I hope it gets finished too

[@ccricers]

Hopefully it gets ported to ARM platforms like gaming handhelds as it was with the Sonic Mania decompilation project

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Once it’s done maybe it will get some ports

[@granglerarcade1950]

Just downloaded looks great thanks.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it!

[@granglerarcade1950]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Woke up 145 in morning could not sleep been playing for 2hrs fantastic game.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha good choice if you can’t sleep

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Wow! i want to play this right away VGE. Thank you for sharing this with us. I mean... Wow! 8^)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

One of the easiest “recommends” I’ve made in months. It’s just legit that good

[@T1BillionX]

Sega Saturn 2D Sonic hit the nail on the head. Would be crazy if someone ported it. Would have been great to have a couple of 2D Sonic games on the Saturn then a 3D one to transition to Sonic Adventure. Just imagine ifnthe Saturn launched with something like this and Sonic Jam. I appreciate 2d and 3d Sonic a lot. Been a fan since the beginning.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

We really missed out in the Saturn era not getting a Sonic game

[@maroon9273]

I will love to see a sonic fan game using the clockwork engine and a proper sonic 4 2010 fan game.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Would be fun to see

[@JopieHaargel]

Sweet mother of homebrew, this looks fantastic. If they were to somehow release it on a physical PS5 disc, I would probably buy it twice.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

We’d all buy it. Sega just needs to be smart and pick it up

[@JopieHaargel]

@@VideoGameEsoterica They need to pick it up twice!

[@RetroFrito]

Someone smarter than me should port this over to Saturn so people can print it out and add to their game collections

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Lotta requests for Saturn on the vid. Glad the system is getting more popular the last few years

[@METR0lD]

There's actually a Mac version of the demo! Huzzah! 🍎🤘

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Finally you aren’t left out in the cold

[@ciaranmccarthy]

Sega fans eating good this Christmas.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

2024 really was the year of Sega

[@Imgema]

Are the stutters from the game or the video?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Smooth on my end minus the water stage but that slowdown is physics

[@Imgema]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Looks like it's just the the video recording. Most of your videos have this stutter in random time intervals. I have seen this in some other channels as well. Do you think it's possible you can find the cause and fix it for future videos?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It could be a YT compression issue. Thats the one aspect nobody can manage at all

[@Imgema]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Could be. But some channels don't have it, i can watch 60fps scrolling games without stutters. So, who knows.

[@AJ-po6up]

Knowing Sega they will probably ignore this completely (but hey at least they won't sue them like Nintendo does) but I would love to be proven wrong and see this get the Mania treatment. Visually this demo is just delightful, a treat for the eyes, I had a blast playing it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes if the worst thing Sega does is ignore it that already makes them cooler than anything Nintendo would do

[@bunnybreaker]

God bless Sega for letting stuff like this live. #SegaDoesWhatNintendont

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Sega has always been cool like that

[@aaronking9332]

I wish someone would get it to run on sega saturn once finished

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’d enjoy seeing that too

[@Holammer]

There are tons of awesome looking fanmade Sonic games out there. IMO, said it before... Sega should offer to publish them officially under a Sega Fan label. Just need some basic rules, no Sally Acorn, graphic violence and such.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Sega should legit just hand this dev team a bag of cash and a promise to publish the final game

[@r3troid]

Graphics and colors looks amazing Sega saturn was the best console for 2d games back in time and sega developers should make this game insted of wasting their time try to make sonic 3d game with poor frame rate

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

We should have had both. 2D and 3D Sonic on Saturn. Instead we got nothing

[@KayMayhem777]

😔How do you play the demo on steam deck? I added the windows executible to steam as a non steam game but it's not launching. Edit:Nevermind, Proton makes it work! 😌

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Try proton layers. If that doesn’t work then it just doesn’t work yet

[@KayMayhem777]

​@@VideoGameEsotericaYup, you're right! The latest Proton makes it work. Maybe I'll try that FIRST next time lol. Thank you!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha just glad it worked

[@TruthSword7]

This looks great, please let Sega bring this to Switch!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Let’s have it in all platforms :)

[@TruthSword7]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I want a Mania and a Galactic port to Saturn.

[@METR0lD]

You lied to me! The video went live about 38 seconds late!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You can wait. What else is there to do in Wisconsin?

[@EnigmaHood]

Sega should have funded 5 of these games by now. No idea why they didn't greenlight more Christian Whitehead Sonic games. We got Sonic Mania, a DLC pack and that's it. Christian also made a new isometric 3D engine and the game, Penny's Big Breakaway, it's very good! I hope Sega lets him make a Sonic game with that engine.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s very confusing as to why Sega just doesn’t swoop in every few years, find one of these amazing fan games, pay for extra polish and the rights and release it. It’s basically a win win

[@EnigmaHood]

@@VideoGameEsoterica It might be an ego thing. As crazy as it sounds. I can't say this applies to Sega, but I heard from a fan project that makes Metroid fan games that Nintendo sees them as "infringing on their rights". And that they don't want to encourage that behavior. It's very silly.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Well that’s Nintendo. They have their finger so far away from the pulse of their fans it’s flatlined

[@CptJistuce]

​@@EnigmaHoodDifference is Sega loves their fans, Nintendo actively hates their's.

[@gillianseed4419]

if it was a nintendo ip they would send a cease and desist letter, sega might publish it

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha yes Sega takes a totally diff path than Nintendo does

[@alextirrellRI]

Overall it looks good, but it's very light on objects, particularly badniks. Yes, some of the early games can be quite brutal on the placement, but having things to jump on/break/etc is a big part of a Sonic platformer. I also don't really love Sonic's sprites here. Something just seems off with the look and the animation.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Really? I loved the animations

[@Appley81]

Its a brilliant but as with mania the levels are way way to long, the water level felt like a real chore .. sonic levels are to be short and fun.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I enjoy the short vs long combo but yes the water level is longer than the rest. I didn’t mind but I could see how it wouldn’t be everyone’s fav

[@retropulse03]

god let it have a 4:3 mode

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I can’t remember if I saw it in settings or not

[@Magicktech]

Impressive!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s polished like Sega themselves made it

[@Magicktech]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I can tell

[@martinevans1206]

Sign them up, SEGA!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

If they were smart they would

[@nicktronson2977]

rad

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

A fun development for sure

[@mdiGrilo]

This needs an Android version

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I mean PC is pretty ubiquitous

[@Popclone]

Your titles should be more clear what console the game is for.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Remember I only get 100 characters and 40 of those trail off and can’t be seen in notifications / listings

[@rancid_]

This could be Sonic Mania 2

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Absolutely

[@sixtyfps]

1:18 Rita's Rewind also knocked it out of the park with the sprite-scaling effects. Check out the Digital Foundry Best Graphics of the Year 2024 at 17:34

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll have to take a peek. Thanks for the rec

[@alanf8622]

It's literally hard to understand you sometimes. Please take more effort in pronunciation and such.

[@mikef8846]

I usually have not liked a lot of the these retro remakes because they are too retro. But this looks excellent. This is retro without being archaic. The sprites look amazing.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s modern in the ways it needs to be but still with the retro vibes. The best combo

[@Nemozoid]

It's really unbelievable (or maybe it isn't?) in this day and age that we have indie developers making significantly better games than the OG companies. Sega's CEO just came out and said they were not supporting old games and trying to move onto future games; meanwhile, announcing new games based off old IP (facepalm). These passion projects are the types of games EVERYONE wants! VGE, your review was SPOT ON and having tried this demo based on your reco the game (if completed) could absolutely go toe-to-toe with Sonic Mania as one of the GOAT Sonic games. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I can't imagine the ROI on making deals with these indie guys to finish their passion projects and then releasing them wouldn't be significantly higher than the current dev they have on some of the new games they are working on

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I don’t get why Sega just doesn’t snap these up. Release it for $30. Make some cash. Make fans happy. Everyone wins

[@GzegzolkaDA]

Big companies work in a ways we do not understood. Like following some financial data to earn more but as a result become disconnected from what people really wants - fun games that play well and sometimes good challenge and well written story.​@VideoGameEsoterica

[@bardhi09]

Visuals are very impressive but I'm not sure about the level design The levels just look boring to play through which was a huge issue I had with Mania and what brought that game down for me These fans just can't design levels as varied and fun to play through for long sessions like in 3&K The boss fight music you showed sounded wimpy like Diet Tee Lopes. And I already wasn't a big fan of the regular boss songs in Mania. I also feel like the opening level music you showed was weaksauce too. Compare this to Green Hill, Angel Island etc. and it's a complete joke It's honestly insulting to say this is as good as anything Sega has ever released because this does not compare to 3&K or 1 or 2 or CD This has great visuals and great creative ideas but that's it 3&K > 1 > 2 > CD > Advance 1 > Mania

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Everyone gets their opinion. I stand by mine