The Missing Mechas of Sonic X-Treme

#mechamarchmadness #sonicthehedgehog #sonicxtreme
There are a lot of Sonic robots out there, but what about those that never made it off of Robotnik's assembly line? Let's take a look at one of the wildest concepts of the unreleased Sonic X-Treme!
A huge shout out to everyone mentioned in this video, including Maxitox for providing such detailed sources you will see below. Be sure to give them a follow on Twitter: / astromaxitox
Metal Sonic Gameplay:
• Sonic Xtreme Metal Son...
Sonic Z-Streme Mod:
sonicfangamesh...
X-Treme Gameplay:
• Okay, Now An Actual So...
Sources provided by Maxitox:
Mecha Sonic designs: info.sonicretro...
Info about Chris Senn: en.wikipedia.o...)
segaretro.org/... (More links and references on those sites)
Senntient (Wayback Machine): web.archive.or...
Senn's blog about Sonic X-Treme content (Wayback Machine): web.archive.or...
Senntertain: www.senntertai...
And to the kind gentleman who provided insight on Rocket Metal -
Biggestsonicfan Twitter: / biggestsonicfan
You can of course pitch in for fun extras and Discord access over at Patreon:
/ gameapologist
You can also follow me on Twitter:
/ gameapologist

[@itsgab5745]

Mark III is just my all time favorite. I love the idea of Mecha/Metal breaking away from being a copy and becoming his own. It feels like untapped potential for a story.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

They could easily have a story harkening back to SA1 where MS is the monster hunting for (insert macguffin here) to slowly increase his power and differentiate his design ever so much each time.

[@itsgab5745]

@@KaiserMattTygore927 Or a more Heros kinda story possible, where he takes over and proceeds to upgrade himself. Forcing Eggman to seek help as MS consumes everything. With instead of some weird metal madness design. It's more similar to that of Devil/Dark Gundam.

[@greenluck10]

Mark III has to be my all time favorite

[@someperson4536]

agree

[@YTSirBlack]

Mark III is back

[@GmodDiesel]

Fun fact: the red one on the left in the thumbnail is now used as the true final boss in the Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit remake

[@Someguyonline24]

That’s so cool

[@kurichan355]

It’s a shame that phase 2 and 3 are the same robot, would’ve been cool if it used another of the unused designs

[@bagelgod946]

They kind of look unworldly to me. Like some alien found blueprints for metal or mecha and made there own versions. Except for the last one that looks more like a normal badnik, not something on the level of other sonic duplicates.

[@Flaco2393]

Looks more like a mass production badnik by the actual Mecha Sonic. Pretty good design, just not threatening enough.

[@driveasandwich6734]

9:03 the one the most to the right seems to me to be purposefully imitating Ristar. From the quill shape to the pose. Kind of a cool nod to Sonic's conceptual sibling!

[@zonix_9748]

Imagine a sequel to ristar with this gender neutral term for dude

[@noodle4438]

​@@zonix_9748 i respect you trying to avoid libtards getting mad about pronouns gg man

[@Gilbot9000]

The massive disparity between versions reminds me of Frieza's transformations. Given that they pulled inspiration for Super Sonic from Super Saiyans, I wonder if there's any foundation for that concept. I had no idea any of this ever existed, so this has been an incredible education. Thanks, Nick.

[@kellenwong1321]

Frieza was literally the first thing I thought of the first time I saw these designs.

[@dluxx3719]

Nick just feeding us good this week with the content

[@waypastcoolkid]

Gotta be well fed before the movie

[@stefcannon2580]

@@waypastcoolkid Yesss!!! 😁😁😁 Got my ticket ready for Sunday morning!!

[@waypastcoolkid]

@@stefcannon2580 dude, that’s rad! I’m seeing it next week!

[@stefcannon2580]

@@waypastcoolkid Yay!!! Enjoy!! 😁😁

[@johnr.deluca4258]

It's also worth noting that Andrew75 is also the lead creator of _Project AXSX_ (the first piece of _Sonic X-treme_ footage we see in this video), which is an amazing attempt to remake Sonic X-treme as if it did reach gold, and showed that the game actually had potential to be good. Going VERY slow but steady for almost 16 years (and has also been very stop-and-go as of late), it has made *AMAZING* progress so far since that intial gameplay footage seen in this video. I hope he'll find the support he needs to speed up the process he has made, because as a self proclaimed _Sonic X-treme_ historian, this has to be one of my most anticipated Sonic fan projects ever. Going by his blog posts on Sonic Retro, Andrew75 has had connections with Chris Senn from time to time when developing his project , so he knows a thing or two about _Sonic X-treme_ that not many people know about.

[@RedTygon]

From what I understand of Sonic Xtreme, it was developed by Sega of America but Sega of Japan, the main branch, got jealous and threatened to pull the plug on the American branch if they continued. Such a dumb, petty reason really.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

I misread the thumbnail as “kissing mechas”, that would’ve been a _very_ different video 😂

[@tariqthehedgehog]

5:42 this robot actually appeared in sonic triple trouble 16 bit as the second and last phase of the games True final boss

[@chippotato5647]

Mark III looks like a wild redesign of Crash Man than Sonic, and you know what? I kinda dig it.

[@theanimatormustachegrunt3307]

Pun intended?

[@gonkdroid5851]

I think the evolution feature would work (if we are considering all the marks as different stages) like this: mk.5->mk1->mk4->mk2->mk3.

[@doozy5184]

Mark III looks like it would have been a cool Megaman Zero boss.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

That mark 2 design looked pretty sick, but also somewhat reminiscent of Shadow before he was even thought of.

[@comicfan1324]

I like how they brought up the idea of sonics duplicates using rings as health just like how he does. I’m glad that idea was eventually used in Shadow’s Bossfight from Sonic Generations

[@darklink64]

@litt le brobgonal Shadow relies on rings in his Generations boss fight.

[@TheReZisTLust]

This is more quality Sonic content in a week than sonics last anniversary

[@TheSydneyLad]

Talking about all the other prototype designs of characters, I've always wanted to see other prototype designs of Silver (there's meant to be over 50, and there's only, like, 4 or 5). I wish they kept the whole, 'hair is naturally curled back, but shoots straight up when Silver uses telekinesis' idea for Silver.

[@MegaMask335]

Really cool seeing what could've been from Xtreme if it were actually released, especially when fans put in a lot of effort to recreate some of the concepts. Something about MK III's design reminds me of Pulseman, which makes sense considering Sega published it back in the early 90's and it would also fit with the Ristar reference in MK 5's design. I'd love to see these kinds of references to older Sega properties in more Sonic games in the future (Forces did an ok job with the whole costume DLC but something like Super Monkey Ball's cameos would be nice). Also that busted-nose Mecha Sonic looks unsettling.

[@Magicghost23]

Always love looking at unused art work it makes you think of could have been.

[@DrDeez-do9zo]

It's cool that the red mark 3 mecha sonic got reused as the true final boss of the sonic triple trouble remake (albeit a little redesigned)

[@Soufriere84]

I was one of those kids who was ultra-hyped for Sonic X-Treme, saw all the promo materials for it in magazines, and then let down when it didn't happen, so I appreciate _anything_ related to that game. Thanks to you and all the deep-divers!

[@dprototype6431]

Hell yeah, I knew you’d get to them eventually! They’re the perfect combination of goofy and cool. Mark II and IV are my personal favorites, they take some liberties while still feeling like they could be actual Mecha Sonics in a game with some adjustment.

[@ViroVeteruscy]

Always appreciate the level/amount of designs and roughs of characters like these. Just an artbook of scrapped ideas is enough to get the mind going

[@vitorpereira2163]

crazy this red mecha was used in sonic triple trouble 16bit as metal sonic's evolution. Great work.

[@KingofBeasts444]

Wait people lose Sonic's noses? I mean I'm a hardcore collector and I'm not gentle with my figures at all and I have never seen a nose go missing for Sonic... Although I can definitely understand them breaking off. Just didn't know that was a thing.

[@TheReZisTLust]

I got the 30th anniversary Controller holder figure & his nose better not fall off 😐

[@Soufriere84]

In the old plastic Sonic toys from back in the mid-90's, the nose was always the first place the paint flaked off. Not sure about other toys actually _losing_ noses. That never happened to any of mine.

[@KingofBeasts444]

@@Soufriere84 yeah, had paint fade but never lose a nose. 😅

[@SocksFCGameArchives]

I had a Classic Sonic figure in late 2000s (before it was known as “Classic”) that had a busted nose from being dropped

[@bananabike279]

Wow I didn't even know Sonic X-treme was supposed to have mecha's! That was really interesting and would love to see an extended video with your thoughts on the game as a whole

[@Velio11]

Nick, I cannot find somewhere in the discord to talk about this but you have been working your ass off so much this week just to get stuff out for mecha march madness you have all of my respects and hopefully everyone else’s respect. P.S. please take a break after march

[@glitchtherabbit9631]

Hype to see this video. Love these mechanical wonders made to beat a blue abomination against nature In other words metal sonic cool

[@jamiemanning4944]

Wow! I've never heard of a lot of this stuff! Thanks for the interesting info Nick (although I am pretty sure you could make any topic interesting)!

[@goldenlightning8842]

That red mecha "sonic" actually really looks like it takes a lot of design elements from Ristar more specifically Kaiser Greedy, The final boss and Inonsis the final bosses scientist henchmen ake the second to last boss. Which is even funnier given the last robot actually looks a lot like Ristar. Do u think Sonic Xtreme would have had some ties to ristar at all or maybe just the design elements given that Ristar was a SUPER late genesis game right before the saturn? Idk just spit balling here

[@goldenlightning8842]

These designs looking like something straight out of Ristar CANNOT be a coincidence I refuse to belive so I'm the biggest ristar fan on the planet I know my boy when I see him lol

[@MSC_807]

I would have loved sonic Xtreme as a kid. Shame it got cancelled

[@Cap1001kyle]

5:46 I like how triple trouble 16 bit used the “drill mecha sonic” as the true final boss lol

[@guyonyoutube3850]

I want to give people the knowledge that Sonic X-streme was supposed to have a love interest for Sonic named Tiara Boobowski

[@brandonharper6508]

I get the feeling that mark 4 was meant to be an ice level boss. Spike feet in early 3d give me that feeling, can't spin-dash but can make tighter turns. Maybe some sort of figure skater moveset.

[@muysaxy]

Papa Nick has blessed us with 3 vids in a week. Huzzahhh!

[@GamingintheAM0801]

"Green Hill Zone of the Enders" is a super underappreciated pun.

[@GIJOEFAN-ys8gp]

I would love to see you make a video on Sonic X-Treme and it’s development history. It’s just fun looking at pieces of media left on the cutting room floor and speculating about what could have been.

[@razorionxvii638]

MK III looks like whatever it is that Starline was working on…… Also, i’m starting to call the model “The Metal Driver” due to all the drills.

[@jaredtherock5692]

Holy crap, I thought Mk. III Mecha Sonic was fanart for the LONGEST TIME. Really happy this video came out

[@Koopak13]

How cool would it be to do a sonic game in which Metal and Mecha have major narrative roles and take opposite reactions to their defeat at the hands of sonic? Metal tries to become the 'perfect sonic' while Mecha tries to abandon his origins as a copy of Sonic?

[@RubyGalaxyYT]

I love the fact that you know of Zone of the Enders, the most underrated mecha series of all time, the best designs for mecha

[@EdgardoJCruz-dk5kv]

The "Red MS" Mecha Sonic looks like a less crazy smaller variant if the Kaiser Metal Sonic from Chaotix. It's Neo Metal Sonic equivalent if you will. The Mark. 4 design looks cool to me. It's kinda sleek.

[@Mentleif]

That last one would work better as a Badnik. Also, Mk3 just looks so much like Crash Man, lol

[@nessthecat1]

The red Mecha Sonic looks more like Crash Man from Mega Man 2

[@BunnyTPerson]

Some of those robots reminds me of the Metarex from Sonic X

[@savingthrows719]

Man, every Mecha March Madness is a treat. I had no idea any of these designs existed, I woulda went crazy if i saw Mark II/III as a child. Fantastic video as always dude. But I wanna ask, have you ever thought about talking about Jimmy the Motobug? or any baseline badniks? They are mechs too if you think about it hard enough.

[@TehJellyLord]

I know a lot of people don’t think Xtreme would have been good, but I still wish development would have gone smoother and it was able to release for the launch window of the Saturn. It couldn’t have hurt, especially with knowing what happened with the series later on. If anything it would have helped with Saturn sales cuz Sonic was that big at the time. And hell, I think it looks pretty unique and interesting. Might not be the best Sonic game had it released, but Sonic seriously missed out on that era of consoles. People like to say Adventure is Sonic’s Mario 64, but we didn’t get that until the Dreamcast on a console that was much more powerful than the Saturn. We never got to see and early 3D Sonic game constrained by the limits of technology and I feel it is sorely missing. Hey that’s just me tho.

[@BComet]

If only Yuji Naka wasn't a selfish prick and lent the dev team NiGHTS engine, things could have been different.

[@dripydripster2014]

YO SICKK I learned so much about these unused mecha/metal sonics!

[@shibumi8]

They should bring these guys back as a separate crew of bosses. Maybe for when next time Metal decides to make a run at world domination. 😊

[@SmokeTheHorsehog]

Mecha Sonic MK3 looks a lot like a radical redesign for Crash Man.

[@Basher.G]

Mecha Sonic just straight up be like: This isn't even my final form!

[@richieosborn2639]

There’s one more Sonic robot and that’s from a fan series: Super Mario Bros Z! Actually, there’s Turbo Mecha Sonic from the original version and the reboot has Metallix.

[@goob_goob_gooby_goob]

It'll be cool if we get to see Metal Sonic or even a new version of Metal Sonic in Frontiers. I'd love to see them bring in some new ideas, levels, etc. for the game but it'd be so cool to see something similar to this come to fruition someday

[@slateoffate9812]

I remember going on the Sonic Wiki to learn as much as I could about Sonic X-treme so I could write down a hypothetical compromise of it, and basically I imagined Tiara as having gravity powers that'd fit more in an Escher-inspired game than Sonic and reimagined the red Mecha Sonic as an Eggman mech fought by Super Sonic. The idea for the story was basically Eggman took over Tiara's island, enslaved the inhabitants to rebuild the death, while Eggman himself built an army of new Sonicbots, but by the end a vaguely hedgehog-inspired gundam is all he has to show for it.

[@ConekillerConfuzor]

This is so awesome! Ive never seen any of this before and I'm loving it!

[@madengineerkyouma]

Green Hill Zone of the Enders is probably your best joke/reference yet.

[@axelprino]

Mk 3 looks like it could have been it's own boss character independent from Mecha Sonic. I remember the Senttient site having a lot of info and concept images about Sonic X-treme, it's sad that the site no longer exists.

[@deepstrike9750]

I hope idw makes it its own character

[@NeoGraena]

5:45, this reminds me of Metal General EX from Kirby's Return to Dreamland

[@judahbeeisrael1446]

7:22 you have committed RISTAR

[@gillythekid]

5:05 this is inarguably fact

[@HateSonneillon]

These different metal sonic designs make me think of megaman bosses. Which makes me want like a megamen style sonic game where you can choose between 8 different levels in any order you want that each have with a unique boss fight at the end. Though I imagine the bosses would be integrated into the level as well like you're competing against the boss on the way to the boss room, much like the metal sonic fight. Maybe the 3 act structure can be kept such that act 1 of each stage is just the stage with more focus on platforming, act 2 you race against the boss or deal with whatever the boss throws at you, and act 3 is the boss fight.

[@Parakarry077]

The one on the left reminds me of the final form of Metal Sonic in STT 16-bit

[@RadikAlice]

Funnily enough, Mk. IV may be my favorite. IDK he's just, so damn cool-looking to me Though in the context of Rocket Metal I'm starting to notice a personal trend, angular and spiky is cool. Nice pun with Mk. II, well done. Another favorite, and Mk. III is cool is his own way It looks like a Burrobot designed for fighting to me. Which would be cool when we consider the "Badniks as bosses" idea And as Drive A Sandwich pointed out in his comment, Mk. V might be intentionally designed to look like Ristar. But my personal reading is Eggman went head-first into making the fastest thing he could. Hardcore function over form, kinda like with Rocket Metal. And man I love X-Treme and the never-ending mystery it presents, for a game that got canned it sure gave us a lot The "moving around a planet" thing that people say was a ripoff of Mario Galaxy? Present and accounted for Little colored aliens you gotta save? Also a concept that started here, or maybe Sonic Saturn. Can't recall

[@ssjtk5928]

You actually turned sunset city into a podcast I thought that was a joke in the metal virus saga

[@Zaverganietz]

Thank you so much for "Green Hill Zone of The Enders", miss those games haha.

[@MrSkysenGames]

Mecha Sonic Mk1 looks like it could be a MegaMan boss.

[@SubwaySpyro]

I guess we can pretend Mk4 is an existential crisis painfully folding back in upon itself with a big old Sonic fin bursting out harder than ever through his fractured head. -and then Mk5 is core Sanic, everything condensed beyond the guy he’s replicating, an eternal spindash.

[@AkiDave]

“Dommy mommy” Had me rolling

[@WebstersYouTube]

"Green Hill Zone of the Enders" You sounded proud of that one :P

[@GameApologist]

IT WAS A GOOD JOKE!

[@greenlightning6803]

Man we are just getting spoiled this month now I absolutely cannot wait for knuckles November

[@TjocCreation]

I'd like to imagine an alternative universe where sonic 3 and knuckles mecha sonic would evolve into mark 2 and 3., and not stay on scrapnick Island. Just imagine how cool that could be.

[@superofsrb2196]

the idea at 4:00 about a character's clone changing into robot form remind me of mecha knuckles from sonic advance 2.

[@MjolnirRecon]

What's funny is that Fallout and Sonic both planned to have games called "x-treme", and they both got canned.

[@TW13024]

They have a Bossfight that relies on rings just like sonic the shadow fight in sonic generations

[@spaceburrito646]

you know what next month should be Kameo April Madness

[@matthewwonks2534]

One day we'll get Sonic X-treme. We just have to believe hard enough to trick ourselves.

[@FungusFindersBeware]

Mecha mark 1 through 4 look cool as hell! Mark 5 on the other hand is just a goofy little goober. Id like to see all of these mechas again at some point.

[@seanmorris440]

Looks like those robots lock together to make one giant sonic robot.

[@InsideYourWall]

I love all those design but mainly Mark 2 and 3

[@WakoDoodle]

i like to think m3 failed to sonic, so mecha sonic decided to adapt yet again to become sonic, since he is stronger. Then mark 5 would take sonics most powerful parts and amplify them to surpass sonic himself. Removing sonics biological weaknesses like his torso and allowing the head to be more streamlined.

[@oj9690]

would have been so sick if it started as mark 5 and then each time you fought it it would mutate its design slowly through out all of them until it eventually ended up as mark 3

[@immaturepeasant]

I liked Metal Sonic from the Sonic BOOM show. He looked so evil and heartless. And he never had those comedy moments making him a truly evil aspect of the show

[@willtws9577]

Man, it's really cool seeing all the wackass Designs for robots in sonic. I always thought all the mechas were amazing, and I really wish we saw more of these, especially Mark III. Love a transforming robot.

[@MilkshakeSkunkette]

great video! every time i hear that sonic X-treme song it fills me with a yearning to play this game that never was~

[@RakoonCD]

Mecha sonic just slowly became Crash Man. Holy shit mk5 looks like my robot master oc, Razor Woman lol.

[@littlemonster7917]

It’s the final day of MECHA MARCH MADNESS

[@TheMr.L01]

4:36 The rival battles in SA2 relied on rings.

[@Kingbeat1]

I can’t believe sonic robots were going to be sonic xetreme

[@KilosFoxo]

shadow in sonic generations has his health determined by how many rings he picks up

[@TruthPeace]

Mark 5 looking less dangerous than the first version isn’t that bad for me. I’m a DBZ fan, and I’ve always thought Frieza’s final form looked less threatening the the rest of his forms, but it was his most dangerous one!

[@eggdog0_0]

Im just thinking of eggman making different designs on mecha finding the perfect one

[@coca-soula532]

You know I believe all the metal Sonic's represent mechasonic strength, metal Sonic speed, and silver Sonic defense.

[@DianaSttar]

Whoa these remind me of smooth early 2000 game promos these looks really good honestly

[@plasticeatersworldwide]

doesnt it suck that we have to go back to the past for cool and mysterious things like this? the moment a company finds a character his "comfortable place" all experimentation is thrown out the window

[@aluminum8160]

Bro this is the best, so much videos are comin out

[@Tondo-is-cool]

Actually I remember seeing footage of the metal sonic fight in what looked a interview with one person holding a microphone talking to the person playing the metal sonic fight on a sega Saturn

[@jer6ipepe371]

recently knowing of this, there is a metal sonic called shard just throwing that out there

[@mistersp3753]

I always wanted a Ristar/Sonic crossover. I guess I have to settle for a weird robot from a canceled game.

[@Legoluigi26]

What if the Werehog was originally 3D Ristar? I have no evidence, and it sounds stupid (so does the idea of Sonic becoming a werewolf), but hear me out. The Werehog's playstyle is slower-paced combat and platforming with inexplicably stretchy arms. Ristar is a game about slower-paced combat and platforming with stretchy arms. I hypothesize that Sega was originally going to make a 3D Ristar game in the mid 2000s, but it didn't work out for whatever reason, so what they already had was tweaked and folded into the then-upcoming Sonic game for 2008. This idea of taking unreleased Sega games and repurposing them in a Sonic game isn't unheard of, since Silver's focus on telekinetic physics came from a cancelled 7th gen game from Sega.

[@judahbeeisrael1446]

@@Legoluigi26 makes sense to me

[@dashylongfoot]

am I the only one finding metal sonic intimidating for once?

[@carrclubmusic]

There is actual official footage of Sonic X-Treme fighting metal Sonic on KZbin. I’m surprised no on in the comments mentioned it.