The Disastrous History of Sonic Xtreme | Gaming History

[@stedmangg]

So Yuji Naka threatened to quit over the prospect of STI using Sonic Team's engine, forcing STI to use their own, to then ask for assistance from a former STI member due to their work on that same engine. How amazingly ironic.

[@jforce321]

What I've learned of Sega in the 90s is that the Japanese side did everything they could to shoot themselves in the foot while the American side was the ones that actually got shit done. Sonic xtreme failed very specifically because of a bunch of ex-Sega Institute Japanese members who couldn't stop being butt hurt.

[@oddmontsoddington8961]

@@jforce321 It is almost like everything was bullshit. Which also explains late 90s sega

[@endymallorn]

Honestly, what Sega should have done at that point in time was show Naka the door. The engine wasn’t “his”, it was property of Sega. One stock-scamming abusive programmer and designer who put on airs above his station should not have been allowed to kill the company.

[@oddmontsoddington8961]

@@endymallorn You are not wrong. Please correct me If I am wrong, but Naka isn't exactly Shigeru Miyamoto. In fact, what else did Naka do? NiGHTS? Nights didn't exactly set the world on fire.

[@URFTBOUND4LIFE]

​@@oddmontsoddington8961It was unique and interesting game none the less only overshadowed by the competition. Everyone who played it considered it a overlooked gem.

[@Arthur-uu3px]

This is still sad to think about. I had a Sega Genesis as a kid, and I was really excited when Sonic X-Treme was announced. Young me was very disappointed back then.

[@FinalVibes]

Old me is still disappointed. :(

[@Henners]

I was part of the group that released the Jade Gully Saturn beta back in 2007, the cover I made that got included with the torrent often gets miscaptioned online as the official Japanese art. If you have more questions, I might be able to answer some.

[@Stuffies2022]

Is there any real Japanese art?

[@djberryhardkore]

Any chance of getting a full game made?

[@costby1105]

Fang the sniper was introduced in Sonic Triple Trouble in 1994, he wasn't a new character.

[@majamystic256]

also Fang the sniper is actually a Jerboa :3

[@SorcererLance]

@@majamystic256 originally named Nack the Weasel in the west, then finally officially renamed as Fang the Hunter

[@jesiah391]

Fang is a new character in extreme

[@CovenantAgentLazarus]

His name is Nack

[@costby1105]

@@CovenantAgentLazarus Apperently his Beta name was Nack but Nack is pronounced very closely to Knuckles by Japanese speakers and he was changed to Fang the Sniper. The US version of Triple Trouble kept the beta name but he was refered to as Fang for every other official game release. His name was changed to Fang the Hunter for Sonic Superstars. The only Exception is Sonic Generations' wanted poster easter egg where he is refered to by both.

[@opaljk4835]

It’s such a shame how much work went into this

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Hurts to see this never happening still

[@uncledot1868]

Sega Saturn Classic Mini with a finished version of Sonic X-treme.

[@TheBeird]

Any acknowledgment of the SEGA Saturn would be nice at this point 😒

[@overwatch761]

Sega Saturn mini without this jank - Sonic Xtreme always Looked awful to play.

[@bobafett4265]

@@overwatch761 tell me about, even looking at the footage with the fish eye lens makes me want to puke. Even if Sonic X-Treme did release in that state, I think I wouldn't pick that up with a Sega Saturn and instead go for their competitors.

[@overwatch761]

@@bobafett4265 Sonic Xtreme always looked shite, from the ridiculous fish eye lens to awfully shite stage design, even the choice of a 2D prerendered sprite instead of a 3D Sonic model. The Saturn has lots of great games, I don't see how anyone could want to play this.

[@SuperGoku14]

There's no finished version that exists.

[@BeeBN]

fang wasn't introduced in sonic fighters, he was in sonic triple trouble, which came out in 1994

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Ooh mistake. Thanks for letting me know. I'll add that to the fix notes shortly

[@Malamockq]

18:04 You didn't research this part as well as you could have. Yuji Naka spoke about this somewhat recently. He claims that he never threatened to quit, nor did he ever refuse to allow STI to use his engine. He asserts that the engine wouldn't have worked for the project they were making, and that there was no documentation in English on how to use it. In all fairness though, Naka's remarks sound awfully similar to rationalizations for why he wouldn't allow STI to use the Nights engine. I'm also not sure why documentation on how to use the engine couldn't have been made, or even better, why Naka himself couldn't help the STI team. Unfortunately it does seem like personal ambition, and ego got in the way. In-fighting, and competition among internal dev teams ultimately doomed Sonic X-Treme.

[@CopingContinuous]

Wow in all these years I’ve NEVER heard that multiple game modes were designed beyond Sonic’s stage and boss zones!! The princess having ‘classic Sonic’ gameplay and knuckles’ overhead mazes is such a wild proto concept for the adventure series

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeah it's pretty nuts but these were stuff Sega never officially released and we're straight from Chris Senn's website which is why we know they were considering all this

[@Thegrimmestking]

Can’t wait to cover this on my podcast! I loved Sonic ever since it first came out. I have a love for prototypes and loved some of the Sonic ones. Although, my favorite was the California Grapes unreleased NES game. Solid video though 👌👌👌 great research.

[@BeIlG]

this is crazy! I had no idea! Such a great video! I really enjoy your work in covering these things in your videos so much! Keep it up!

[@TheMrSonicFan99]

Super controversial hot take conspiracy theory: yuji naka let the American STI team fail on purpose because he wanted the Japanese Sonic team to create the first 3D Sonic game instead of the American team, he never had any interest in Sonic Xtreme and he always thought that the game would fail even when he saw the gameplay with the fisheye lens for some who might not know he was always skeptical and hateful towards the game and its concept. He was once in a meeting where the STI team showed him gameplay and he shook his head telling them "best of luck to you" this dude literally never had any faith in the game from the beginning. Thank you for listening to my TED talk

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I always had this conspiracy theory in the back of my head too, especially since apparently they did test a 3D Sonic back during Sonic 3.

[@OliveAnimates]

Tiara Boobowski sounds like something you'd hear in a beavis and butthead gag

[@Riz2336]

Talk about development hell, damn that’s bad

[@jennyholiday88]

Christina Coffin is one of my game industry idols. This girl was a wizard of coding

[@BR-jw7pm]

Great video as usual. Would’ve been interesting if this game released but then 3D Sonic may not be what it is today.

[@flibbityjibbity]

Yall i have been searching sonic xtreme on youtube for months now on repeat waiting for something new to show up and i just got absolutely jumpscared

[@MerkhVision]

Excuse me, her name was _WHAT!?_ Tiara BOOBowski?? You CANT be serious lmfaooo

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeahhhh

[@SMPandanic]

ok I'm not the ONLY one who thought that

[@kobaltsteel6418]

It's funny they called that a "reflex lens" because it's not really a proper "lens," but rather a curved world mechanic that is similar to what was used in Animal Crossing, except more EXTREME! Earlier versions do use that type of lens, which looks horrible, but later versions have the levels actually bend back on themselves in a spherical fashion... I actually managed to recreate that effect on Unreal 5 and... the results were something!

[@TheRandom1212Channel]

if i would make an sonic x-treme fan remake, evil sonic would have grey gloves, a little bit darker skin, the shoes would be neon red & an eggman simble on the chest

[@TryJapan]

Interesting and informative all the way through. Great work!

[@Jonjooooo]

Great video, lots of new information. This was one of many significant disasters in Sega's history, caused by too many egos, too much middle management, and a culture of not trusting any of its own studios outside of Japan. All problems that still afflict Sega to the present day, which is why it's dropped to a D tier publisher at best.

[@pablocasas5906]

Sometimes I cannot believe how SEGA went from selling more than 30 million Mega Drive/Genesis to the the Saturn and Dreamcast only selling 9 million units each

[@jforce321]

​@@pablocasas5906As far as I'm concerned, Sega of Japan never was truly successful with Sonic. It was always the American side or the fan community side that kept their asses going over these years.

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

​@@jforce321but despite all this all classic Sonic games were either developed or directed by japanese programers. They were the ones who made Sonic a great series.Sega of America only did the market.

[@FDW137]

They only had the money to make 9 Million of each. The Saturn stopped production before Bernie Stolars infamous quote. The Bandai merger failing was the catalyst for Sega's downfall.

[@Jonjooooo]

@@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526 With the exception of Sonic 3D

[@otwayrpg]

That was really petty of Sonic Team. Yuji Naka bit himself in the ass with that one.

[@DanielSantosAnalysis]

Every video I see about Sega's history, it just reveals how much of an asshole Yuji Naka was and likely still is.

[@SaddieMoon]

5:49 Fang was always a jerboa. Weasel was just a name. Early on, he even was part wolf until recently. Also, he dayviewed in 1994’s Sonic Triple Trouble.

[@teaoftraffic]

debuted*

[@SaddieMoon]

@@teaoftraffic *Looked it up My life is a lie.

[@SorcererLance]

Fang was always INTENDED to be a jerboa, but his renaming to Nack the Weasel had everyone in the west accept the idea he was a weasel until finally officially retconning it having him as Fang the Hunter nowadays.

[@SaddieMoon]

@@SorcererLance I know that already. I said he was always a jerboa and Nack was just a name. It’s just that his creator also has confirmed that Fang was also part wolf as well.

[@justthenamekevin]

STI is an interesting name

[@deepblue8143]

I loved how you kept showing Christina Coffin, by all means feel free to show more in the future. ❤

[@thogameskanaal]

Boobowski sounds like the stage name of a corn star...

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Only gets worse when you add "Princess" in from of Boobowski since that was what she was initially planned to be lol

[@NexusApollo]

I remember seeing E3 footage of a Sonic XTreme boss fight with Metal Sonic. Has anyone gotten a lead on who would have this build? Or has that build been leaked?

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I believe it has been leaked as assets of it do exist in the wild I noticed like Metal Sonic, but I haven't looked too deeply on it yet

[@DBTGAMER]

Yuji Naka in some ways doomed this game. Dick move.

[@DarkCloudCompendium]

💯, Karma got him in the end

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Naka's ego did get the better of him eventually as we saw in recent years. Bet the STI team laughed it up

[@chris_t2020]

Now that I think about it Sonic Lost World could be an spiritual successor of Sonic Xtreme due to the tunnel like design.

[@MrGametv1994]

I was just thinking the same thing.

[@deadpixel9964]

Not a single person has ever thought or said this. You are definitely the first person to ever bring this up.

[@joecross-wv5tu]

I heard the director of sonic Xtreme also directed sonic lost world too I forgot his name, Chris senn I believe but I thought the same thing too

[@StafyFan]

It's a coincidence

[@Themasktrooper]

This game kinda saw the light of day as Sonic Lost World they have the same idea and gimmick

[@Zadck1]

This! One of many reasons I hate people who say it's a "Mario galaxy rip off." It plays nothing even vaguely alike to mario and was clearly based on xtreme

[@DarkCloudCompendium]

Chris Senn later worked at Big Red Button who created Sonic Boom for Wii U

[@genyakozlov1316]

But completely different atmosphere.

[@URFTBOUND4LIFE]

​@@Zadck1Nah. It borrowed a LOT of Mario tropes (time limits, environment themes, level gimmicks the Zetti are basically Koopa Kids from SMBs) so the comparison was warranted.

[@URFTBOUND4LIFE]

​@@DarkCloudCompendiumI heard about that. Sega screwed him on that too. They were mid development when SEGA told them they had to make it on par with the upcoming tv series (which had a completely different tone with what they had planned for the story and lore) and a WiiU exclusive. Everything they had worked on was scrapped and everyone worked overtime to work around the new hardware they had no experience working with. All because Sega wanted out of their "three Sonic exclusives" contract with Nintendo and threw BRB under the bus so Sonic Forces wouldn't be an exclusive. Sega killed a entire gaming studio that just started for mediocre Sonic title to go multiplatform....

[@heart3460]

A long time ago I looked at what info we knew about Sonic X-Treme's development and it was there I started to learn of how much of an asshole Yuji Naka is. Also, just how do that many people come together to sabotage a project that would've been completed had they not?

[@jforce321]

The history of 90s Sega is really the history of Asians racism towards outsiders in all honesty. The Japanese would rather burn out in failure than let their pride be destroyed by others helping them.

[@mechajay3358]

That was so petty of Yuji Naka not letting them use Sonic Team's Engine to help create a "Sonic" game. Makes me feel less for when that he got busted for insider trading.

[@sonickidgaming]

That's sad that sonic xtreme got canceled

[@misterrabbit-m5114]

Oh yeah, cancel culture is merciless 😂

[@PhilipMurphy8]

This video is interesting history of Sega

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

Sonic franchise needed a break.Series sold less and less each new entry. A new Sonic game would not save the system.The public changedm Exclusive Tomb Raider in America or exclusive Final Fantasy VII in Japan would be another story. If Saturn had a least moderate sales in America /Europe Sonic Adventure would be a Saturn game by early '98 (with Virtua Fighter 3 and Shenmue). Sonic made by an all-western team was a stupid idea.

[@daddad9978]

agreed Sonic made by an all-western team Would Be a stupid idea

[@MerkhVision]

What’s with the random one frame close up of a live action Super Mario face at 5:59 LMAO

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Oh a slip from that trailer by mistake lol

[@Shiny_Gaming]

didn't Chris Senn even Work on Sonic X-Treme as a "fan" game later on too?

[@Shiny_Gaming]

Tetra bit said something of the Sorts, but i am not sure what and i honestly don't wanna look that up now lol

[@jamesprumos7775]

At one point he planned to make it again but later decided not to. He did end up showing off many of the game's assets though, especially the music made for it.

[@Shiny_Gaming]

@@jamesprumos7775 thank you.

[@muertovag4145]

6:21 I like the question mark over Sonic's head.

[@STARSVeteran]

I never saw that art of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, is it a mock up, or a beta art?

[@MattRevs]

Boobowski?!? That's the name they went with?!?

[@deepblue8143]

Love it.

[@deepblue8143]

Christina is beautiful, omg!

[@belphe8974]

8:33 Tails would be in first person. Obviously.

[@sam_64]

Fang The Sniper debuted in Sonic Triple Trouble. Not Sonic The Fighters.

[@crashban4t.f.s.b783]

Yuji Naka saved the day with this one. Sonic Xtreme wouldn’t have been good and I’m very happy that it got cancelled.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The game nearly killed two people and still ended up cancelled.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

An absolute nightmare working at Sega...

[@shalpp]

Sonic X-Treme would've been mediocre STI slop if the builds released were any indication - there just wasn't much of substance conceptualized that had much to set it apart from other platformers

[@daddad9978]

I Mean if the sonic x-treme games was release in 1995 it would have been the decent games to be fair 3d platformers was still very much the new concept before games like mario 64 or crash made it mainstream so the games like sonic x-treme would have got decent review but would have aged worse then mario 64

[@lovingthesauce]

18:23 hey that’s PJ Phil from YTV!!! Didn’t expect to see him lol

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Wait is that actually him??? I kind of thought it could be on first inspection but that's pretty nuts if so

[@youssef11223344]

YTV Canada baby!

[@lovingthesauce]

@@TheObsessiveGamer oh thats def the man himself. Just look at how *zoned* in he is

[@JuanGomez-ke5py]

Sonic couldn't work in 32 bit maybe we need to learn a Mario before a Sonic

[@deepblue8143]

Could have easily worked in 32 bits with thw proper vision.

[@Syper7]

This story will always be interesting and say lot to a the list of thing Sega didn’t get right, Nintendo continues to show to be far better

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Guess Sega really doea what Nintendon't; make bad choices during the console wars

[@SparkyMK3]

I held out for years hoping that someday, a near finished build of Sonic Xtreme would see the light of day, but going off what we now know about the games behind the scenes chaos, you come to realize that the game never even came close to reaching a finished state, and was basically a crazy-quilt of directionless and gimmicky ideas and a doomed concept from start to finish. It just doesnt look appealing or that fun to play, and doesnt capture the feeling of playing as Sonic in 3D at all. I cant believe SoA thought this game even had a prayer of competing with Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot when the gameplay and graphics were barely a step ahead of Bug! (which, oddly enough, was planned as a 3D Sonic game very early on). If it had gotten released, be it with fisheye lens or with the NIGHTS engine, it would have been dated out of the starting gate and turned the Saturn into even more of a laughingstock than it already was in the US. Even Sonic 3D Blast, flawed as it may be, felt more cohesive in design and truer to the feel of the Genesis games in comparison! So yeah, with all due respect to the team who busted their butts off on it, this project absolutely deserved to be put out of its misery.

[@sam_64]

There was no "Japanese branch" of Sega Technical Institute. Japanese staff were apart of the team, but the team was based in the USA.

[@CovenantAgentLazarus]

If they would have just stuck to 2D for one more console, they would have been just fine. It was just fine to continue the two-dimensional worlds

[@donkeykong6426]

hope for fans redoing it all the way for us have kinda like star fox 2

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Fans have done quite alot so far with the leaked assets. Hopefully fully complete one day

[@iggyfer97]

Nice vid! This story is always fascinating. What's the name of the game at 17:56? The isometric Sonic. Thanks!

[@StafyFan]

That was concept art of another scrapped sonic game

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks! Oh that's just Sonic Mars, the predecessor I mentioned earlier. You can see more of it in my Sonic Mars video

[@WeeklyTubeShow2]

They should've let Naka leave.

[@filipmartinez1162]

Greg Sewers? you mean "Suarez"??

[@deepblue8143]

Lol

[@mekman4]

Great Coverage.

[@typerightseesight]

nights into dreams never made any sense to me I always thought if sonic was that big of deal why didnt they buy that engine and put a hedgehog in it instead of a purple fairy.. or whatever. lol

[@mattwetfloorproductions]

They did that because Yuji Naka was tired of Sonic, he had been working in Sonic for that past 5 or so years

[@typerightseesight]

@@mattwetfloorproductions go freaaaking figure haha

[@pablocasas5906]

@@mattwetfloorproductions despite Yuji Naka's reputation these days, I think he had a point trying to move away from Sonic, at least for a while, SEGA made tons of games besides Sonic, but it seems they couldn't replicate the success, they weren't like Nintendo in that they had various original franchises that managed to sell millions of copies each (i.e. Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pokémon, Donkey Kokg, Metroid, etc.). I think it's a problem that still affects SEGA to this day, in which Sonic is still their biggest franchise, though they had achieved some success with Yakuza and the RPGs they acquired from Atlus, but others like Sakura Wars and Virtua Fighter haven't managed to be successfully revived

[@opaljk4835]

Nights is a fantastic game. You have to give credit to artists for trying new things, especially when they are as unique and fun as Nights

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

Because Sonic was never a hit in Japan.And Japan was the the prime market for Sega,Sony AND Nintendo until the PS3 era. Sega already changed mascot every generation anyway: Alex Kidd >Sonic> Nights.

[@alescano3504]

Of course, a lot of people will show up to blame Yuji Naka. As @Malamockq said, his refusal to give NIGHTs engine to STI is not entirely confirmed, and problably the situation wasn't so black and white. But even in the hypothetical situation in which he refused to lend the engine, let me tell you: i'd have done the same. Why would I surrender the hard work of me and my team to a company that will probably refuse to give me any credit afterwards? Look, SEGA is a multimillion company, and Naka for better or worse was just a very skilled employee. It sucks that on the other side there were real people with their own struggles, but sadly we live in capitalism and everyone has to look for their own career. Couple that with the super competitive and demanding work lives people suffer in Japan, and then you have all the explanation you need. After this incident, Naka resigned in the middle of another terrible disaster with 06, showing that the company had learned nothing, and that Naka (again) prioritized recognition of his team's work. People go after him to search for a culprit for all the bad stuff in the franchise, to say that 'we live in the best timeline' with the current direction. This is sad, because Naka was one of the key people in defining the franchise we know and love. His work will be timeless and his creativity is something untalented people like Kishimoto can only dream of.

[@ThootenTootinTabootin]

No way her name was "Boobowski"

[@PrimeStarStudios]

I wonder how the game would have played with the fisheye lens style. It looks very nauseating 😂

[@iMichael123S]

The last good Sonic was on the Saturn.

[@Slightly_Sadistic]

'Boobowski' rofl

[@BetoZayasGaoking]

Fang the weasel is not original of this game he was introduced way before this existed I he was introduced in Sonic triple trouble

[@Kazooples]

Menacingly lmao

[@XxPhoenixHarpyexX2]

boobowski? what kind of name was that?

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Good ol' western humour kinda name lol

[@deepblue8143]

A good one. We need more names like that nowadays. I'd much prefer that as opposed to the current trend of making every female character ugly in the west. I miss the 80s and 90s.