The Definitive Development History of Sonic Fan Remix

[@GameFactsSpecial]

Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBLE! Appreciate it! :)

[@shadowopsairman1583]

This is just a Tech Demo, it was never completed

[@GameFactsSpecial]

@@shadowopsairman1583 Yeah we talk about all the versions released in t he video. Which version is your favorite?

[@Larry]

I still reckon Sonic 4 only exists, because Sega saw how successful Capcom were with Mega Man 9, but completely missed the point of why people liked it so much by just porting an unfinished mobile game.

[@kurichan355]

I’m sure that if it wasn’t for retro revival of the 2010s then sonic 4 wouldn’t have happened, or would’ve just been kept as sonic the portable.

[@AguFungus]

"Built from the ground up"

[@Mentherex]

"But that's just a theory" oh wait, wrong youtuber

[@MiniCrew11]

​​​@@AguFungusik they said that but doesn't it use the Rush engine?

[@ECartmanist]

New Super Mario Bros was a few years old at that point too

[@BlackBlur888]

this fan game is the reason why sonic 4 ep. 2's starting zone's (castlevania land or w.e.) grass looks the way it does.

[@CrozyOMD]

I think it was called Slyvania Castle

[@gnoLeDwerdnA]

EP2 is basically a collection of half hearted attempts to make it seem like they are listening like the big slope in act 2 to make it seem like rolling is useful but that is never used again and rolling is useless just use the rolling combo win button instead, Tails is here but with a chunky action system that breaks flow plus you can’t play as him in single player, new Eggman bosses but they drag on forever just like in Rush and the recent Superstsrs, here’s a pretty snow carnival zone but it’s barley doing to anything with that theme and indeed wastes a whole act on a ugly underwater level, here’s Little Planet for a pointless callback that might have been a setup for episode 3 because they couldn’t dream that Sega would pass on it

[@TheCelerBolt]

​@@CrozyOMD*Sylvania* Castle

[@Raymi20-]

Bro CASTLEVANIA LAND ☠️🙏⁉️

[@Mike14264]

Castlevania Land is a much funnier name lol

[@CanaldoZenny]

The positive reaction to Project Needlemouse's announcement always seemed so weird to me. It was like the entire wirld had forgotten about the Advance trilogy and the two Rush games on the NDS. Sonic 4 never had anything special besides the name, because 2D Sonic never left, it was alive and well on Nintendo consoles.

[@WillieCorley]

It was a big deal we were going to get a brand new HD Sonic game for home consoles...we just did not expect to get a game as underwhelming as Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I. That's part of why Sonic Fan Remix was such a big deal at the time. It was such a stark contrast to what was offered by Sega at the time.

[@Cam10_84]

Not to mention it was being made by those same guys doing the games on Nintendo as well.

[@cliffturboadvance2377]

That is what I never understand. They make it a big deal that Sonic is back, while we have like 5 other choices between GBA and DS

[@WillieCorley]

@@cliffturboadvance2377 Yeah, but those were standard definition handheld games. A high definition 2-D Sonic game for consoles was a big announcement in 2009. Keep in mind that HD gaming was still kind of novelty back then, where as nowadays, it's just the norm.

[@gnoLeDwerdnA]

It wasn’t well at all those games beyond Advance 1 were plagued with the same problems Sonic 4 had, to response in some communities when it was quickly deduced off the 5 second reveal clip that it was based off Rush was absolute dread. Dashpads everywhere, nerfed useless rolling and spindash and the godawful bottomless pits everywhere all come from Rush. There was hope at the time that whatever Needlemousewas that it had no association with Dimps

[@Vantoxify]

when I was a kid, I thought this looked too good to even be a game. I thought it was an animation of some kind

[@WillieCorley]

I am thrilled this episode is finally finished. I did extensive research when I wrote the script.

[@Niosai]

Whoa, I totally forgot about this game. I remember this AND the Sonic 2 HD project being incredibly promising. Great video!

[@jed4276]

I just realized that sonic fan remix hasn't gotten an update in a while.

[@AnActualPersonInASeaOfIdiots]

Because it got cancelled.

[@VcArena]

Unfortunately. It had lots of promise going. I was waiting and waiting too.

[@linkthehero8431]

Say what you will about Sonic 4 Episode 1, but nothing beats making Sonic fall asleep vertically on a wall.

[@Some_Cat_]

😂

[@LsAdventurer]

Sonic: *nah screw u physics* ima sleep on this *wall* 😴😴😴

[@l-eaglestone]

Just wanted to comment that someone translated 'Mr. Harinezumi' (Japanese word for 'hedgehog') literally part by part, hence the 'needlemouse'. It's as if someone took the English word and translated each component separately to another. Just imagine someone talking about Sonic the blue 'bushpig' in Spanish... So yeah, Needlemouse is western lore made thanks to gaming journalism from 90s, propagated until it became accepted as the truth.

[@hyperbloomEN]

I remember playing it on crappy PC at 10FPS when it released. Decade later they ported it to android, it surprissed me they didn't abandon one of the best fan game. Also for the first time I play at 60FPS on my phone lol.

[@Poyostar]

Y'know, it's almost a shame this fangame got cancelled, because I would've loved to see how a complete Sonic Fan Remix would've been like. Either way, this is a great little retrospective!

[@Shamii]

Oof I did not expect to see an SSMB post from 10 years ago with my name and photo on it lmao

[@gamindanny2773]

you know the fan game is good when SEGA THEMSELVES acknowledges its existence

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

Probably going to get alot of hate for this but, I actually really like Sonic 4 Episode I and II, I find the homing attack very fun to abuse and i like finding quicker ways to get through the homing attack chains.

[@AguFungus]

And this wouldn't be the first time fan developers put Sega to shame by delivering a better game than what Sega was offering at the time. Remember when Stealth made a better Sonic 1 port for Game Boy Advance than the official Sega release?

[@justsans.]

Bro they literally supported Sonic Fan remix and still made the same mistake for Sonic Superstars. You could see their genuine inspiration from Fan Remix in certain aspects, such as the amount of detail in Bridge Island.

[@TSMSnation]

Is...this script ai generated? This doesn't sound like words written by a human.

[@WillieCorley]

I find this comment fascinating because I did extensive research when I wrote the script to this video. What makes you feel like this script was written by Ai technology? I'm genuinely curious.

[@ABlob]

@@WillieCorley I think the most AI-ish sounding part of the script is at 21:22 due to a lack of a factual sources or interviews or quotes regarding the claim that Christian Whitehead provided them a Sonic physics engine that Arzest could build on top of, followed by jumping to an opinion piece on Reddit (Bing AI does this a lot) and then coming to a conclusion that brings up a previously brought up point ("...so, Sonic Fan Remix might have had an influence to Sonic Generations and Sonic Superstars"; Bing AI and Chat GPT do this needlessly repetitive conclusion part a lot too). And then also bringing up another comparison to a similar 2D Sonic game, happens a lot with Bing AI. Bing AI would be like "Sonic Fan Remix is a fangame released in 2010 by..." and then ends with "The entire Sonic Fan Remix concept is also similar to the concept of Sonic Mania, which has a similar concept to Sonic Fan Remix". The "red string"/flow across sentences just feels a bit robotic because it feels like it jumps from topic to topic. Also, not naming the modder is also a bit odd...

[@ClydeJHatbird]

I was actually wondering if the voice over was AI myself. The voice, cadence, delivery of lines, and constant use of the game's full titles, things like that. You make an interesting point on the script though, because I started paying more attention to what was being said and found it really weirdly paced. Like, while discussing checkpoints and Tails, it suddenly brings up Stardust Speedway and just assumes that stage would have been included, without any prior mention that the game was going to feature other stages until after the point was made. Plus the way that sentence came out was strange, saying the zone name twice like that. Seriously though, if that is someone's narration voice, please work on your delivery and lower your pitch if possible. It sounds like you're about to cringe into awkward forced laughter on every other line. It was really hard to take in information.

[@ABlob]

@@ClydeJHatbird I didn't want to mention the way the narration was done, but yes, I hated how repetitive the inflections on the script read were and how fake the enthusiasm sounds like. I still wouldn't say it's AI, because some people just want to narrate a video while making the mistake in choosing to sound like that in their video, but it was annoying to sit through. Try not to do that, please.

[@AlexHidanBR]

Meanwhile some videos out there were made in AI but nobody could tell

[@crimsonlycaondc143c6]

I gotta be the only one who doesn't like how sonic fan remix looks. While it's impressive the movements of pretty much everything look weird and the game is more like a cinematic with a lot of colors that blend too much. It has no contrast at all and for me the details in everything are too much..overdesigned and oversaturated I know I'm going to get hate for this and be taken as a sonic 4 defender but I just don't think this is something that the sonic team couldn't do. Fangames in general seem to be for hating the sonic team instead of sharing why we love this franchise..people praise mechanics for being in a fangame like momentum and the bounce when those things were already made by sega..most of the fangames if not all take something important from the sonic games and people seem to forget it and say the sonic team does things terrible (they do..but not as often as people claim) I gotta add, the game looks way better without the blue tint

[@EngineMusic]

exactly what i was gonna say, even back in the day, i thought the colors and details were too much. the contrast is so high, and the details are overstimulating. it tries to hard to look like the thing that it could be saving time and resources, by just imitating. this is why its so important to have an art director on board. (as well as every other occupation in a game dev team). it is still admirable to see how far they did get on their own! im glad that now, there is more understanding of the inner workings of these projects, and with that, higher quality fan games, and indie projects!

[@oh5079]

This takes me back man😭 still amazed by the game

[@ClaudioFirsoff]

Yeah, the sad part is that Sonic Fan Remix was not continued...so the fans never win, one case or another.

[@joshwillcox7141]

And yet almost 15 years Sega still can't compare to fan games...

[@umar4481]

Man if I were to grab a team and tried to revive this incredible fan game project I would bet my soul for it to make it happen

[@frickerrific2813]

JIM STERLING? Some video game journalist he turned out to be. I can’t take someone seriously who doesn’t have a problem with the Sonic 4 physics.

[@Diibug]

Cybershell Reference

[@frickerrific2813]

thank you

[@genyakozlov1316]

I hate Stefanie Sterling with all my being, and I have the problem with classic physics, not with Sonic 4 ones. The best classic games were always the 8-bit ones, which didn't give you problems with walking up slopes with their dumb momentum focus, and also had more actual platforming.

[@frickerrific2813]

@@genyakozlov1316 damn you should genuinely give the 16bit games another chance, play the definitive fan ports though they’ll make you really love the games. Like the physics based gameplay is hard to wrangle I understand but once you get used to it you will GET IT!!

[@gnoLeDwerdnA]

Cybershell is unironically right

[@dri_him]

So confusing when you're reading dates based on US format, "Month-Day-Year".

[@WillieCorley]

That's because the script was written by an American who has lived in California his entire life...me. LOL

[@backloggamereviews]

As an American month day year makes the most sense

[@dri_him]

@@backloggamereviews all I heard was the Month followed by numbers, confusing.

[@WillieCorley]

@@dri_him How was that confusing?

[@glowdonk]

Do y'all know the controller at 9:54? I REALLY like how it looks

[@sithlordmikeyp]

5:34 Wtf happened to Jim Sterling?? He defended Sonic 4 so vehemently back then too. I recall the phrase "bizarre furry bastards" being thrown at anyone who didn't like it.

[@rat_isntreal]

1:33 Aight, I’ma have you stop you there. The adventures games, last time I checked, are regarded as the best.

[@stick101x2]

it was different back in 2010s.

[@phil2160]

Idc I still love Sonic 4. Episode I and II.

[@akioasakura3624]

Same

[@SagyTity1]

@@akioasakura3624mid

[@MrMartellSincere]

Never knew it existed of Sonic fan remix and i bought Sonic The Hedgehog 4 2 episodes. Glad fan games had influence Sega to make Sonic Mania

[@gezeo750]

This was too ambitious like Sonic 2 HD.

[@CrappyProductionsOfficial]

my only issue with Sonic fan remix is that it's too cluttered. It's difficult to see what enemies are infront of you because they blended into the geometry

[@GeovaneSanciniSR]

When I saw back in the day, I was amazed a little by the screenshots, but when I saw the game in motion... I don't know, it looked too visually polluted, like too much on the screen

[@Konic_and_Snuckles]

Can you direct me to where the 4-level update of SFR with playable Tails is?

[@lukegamerzw]

Sonic-16 is true Sonic the Hedgehog 4 tech demo developed by one of former Sega Technical Institute. Change my own mind.

[@malic_zarith]

This is why Sega needs to focus on hiring fans instead of just doing whatever. I guess superstars was ok, but they really have to keep hiring fan game developers.

[@Mari_Izu]

They don't hire fans, no company does. They hire developers and some happens to be fans. No, Mania devs weren't hired for being fans, they were devs that proved themselves by porting Sonic CD for mobile using their engine and they only had the pitch for Mania greenlit after also porting Sonic 1 and 2.

[@genyakozlov1316]

​@@Mari_IzuSega leaned into the fact Mania developers were fans during marketing, with the whole "By the mania for the mania" thing, leaving people with a wrong impression that they hired a group of fans intentionally, rather than being impressed by their Sonic engine and hiring them for mobile ports first, not because they are fans and not for the sake of creating Mania, which at that point wasn't an idea yet.

[@_veloxity91]

@@genyakozlov1316 Yeah, but that was just a way to reassure people that they'd get it right a third time. Not to mention it wasn't their first time working with SEGA either.

[@Dima064]

Enjoyed learning about SFR's development, however a bit of a criticism towards the voice of the video. I'd suggest going a little more monotone towards the pronounciation, because it was not pleasant to listen to to be quite honest.

[@Criticmasterz]

I wish sonic fAn remix got done either by original dev or devs who took over the code tbh.

[@Super_sonic_Velocity]

Sonic 4 is a pretty low bar tho

[@WillieCorley]

LOL

[@genyakozlov1316]

Better level design than Sonic 2 and most of 3. Better music than 2 also. I don't care if the physics are not accurate or whatever. I grew up playing Sonic Mega collection plus, and my favourite games on there were always the 8-bit ones, which didn't have the dumb momentum physics.

[@BlueTakBlur]

@@genyakozlov1316 can you please tell me why you like being wrong? if you don't care about momentum physics the boost games are the best sonic games then. but instead you want to be wrong.

[@_veloxity91]

@@genyakozlov1316 BETER MUSIC???? NANANNANANANANAH

[@Super_sonic_Velocity]

Guys let's not be toxic about this. Everyone can have an opinion. For example I actually think sonic forces is decent. And I like the boost games more then the adventure games. There see.

[@bswalem]

Why havent they comissioned the Mania team to create Sonic 5? 😢 It would be an almost guaranteed slam dunk

[@MetalMightGames]

HellOo...?? Where do I download the fan remix of Sonic Fan Remix?

[@OhKayEl]

Sonic Fan Remix isn't even a finished game...

[@Ky_Grey95]

PartnerNet leaked tons of stuff back then

[@Manquant]

This fan game lives rent free in my head and every day I prayed it got another development update. I didn’t even know there were mods.

[@UtSonicAM_NavySketcher]

Yeah, 3 Acts for Emerald Hill and not for a certain stage before Sky Chase... 4:03

[@SunkDaMunk]

Why am I just now hearing about this

[@The-deppressed1]

He sounds like that one terraria channel

[@malic_zarith]

I think a Sonic game by the og creator would be cool, but I think he's unfortunately in jail or something for stock stuff. Fan creators are probably the best bet for Sega to go with from now on.

[@sometf2player752]

incorrect thats only the co-creator who was arrested for inside trading the actual original creator was involved in sonic superstars

[@SonicTheBlueBlur15]

@@sometf2player752yuji naka made sonic game, naoto ohshima made sonic himself

[@sometf2player752]

@@SonicTheBlueBlur15 yeah

[@pkthefirst1524]

It’s crazy how sonic fan remix even looks better than sonic superstars

[@EWOODJ]

Not really crazy.

[@AstraCrits]

I'm not sure if I'd *quite* go that far. It looks great in a lot of areas, don't get me wrong, but I feel like the Emerald Hill landscape in the demo feels a little too...busy, especially in motion.

[@TreadywayYT]

I never disliked Sonic 4 titles I think the problem is that it’s too many better Sonic games out there..it’s not bad it’s just not the best but still over all a fun game people need to stop worrying about graphics in a Sonic game 😊

[@zariaalhajmoustafa2573]

Sonic 4 is just originally name Sonic mobile it's just a cheap Sonic mobile game took the game and put and just call it Sonic 4

[@GameFactsSpecial]

It was actually named Sonic the Portable in development. We go over that in the video.

[@JerehJerry]

3:57 its not tru-jillo its true-heo

[@GameFactsSpecial]

Lol sorry such an American pronunciation.

[@RealMilson]

Why do you sound exactly like the youtuber Terraria Slime?

[@mischiefthedegenerateratto7464]

Dude please change the way you talk in videos, I can guarantee you don't sound like a presenter for a childrens show in real life.

[@davidolukotun2870]

Comparing this fan game to STH4:E1 shows just how far SEGA went down the drain when it comes to Sonic games.😢

[@MellowedGrooves]

I wish it continued

[@dashi-musashi351]

Genuine question, why are you talking like that?

[@GameFactsSpecial]

that?

[@torterratortellini6641]

That’s not much of a rare occurrence.

[@felmaguin]

Good video. Narrator talks like someone impersonating a human tho

[@GameFactsSpecial]

His name is mcgen he voices lots of yt channels

[@inktendo]

And somehow Fan Remix still looks and plays better than Superstars...

[@Cletus99]

Love the video, but bro you gotta improve the gameplay 🙏😭 PLEASE I cannot keep saying Sonic getting hit every clip

[@boomerthedingo2196]

STEPHANIE LOL

[@TreadywayYT]

Sonic 4 imo wasn’t that bad

[@unnamedlionoc8268]

It's been 14 years, and it's still better than Sonic SuperStars

[@TCperry]

Jesus loves you!