The greatest Sonic game we never got to play

It’s a “What if…” situation on a par with the dinosaurs not becoming extinct. Sonic games these days are the biggest joke in the gaming community, and 90% of the blame for their pariahship is rightly levelled at the miserable attempts to transfer the hedgehog into the third dimension. And Sega are well and truly out of the hardware business, having careened down a slippery financial slope ever since the Saturn failed to follow the success of the Mega Drive.

But a good 3D Sonic game? On the Saturn? Oh, how different things could have been. How beautifully, beautifully different. So what went wrong?

Well a hell of a lot went wrong. The story is one of the most turbulent and dramatic in Sega history, as well as one of the least-known. It’s a tale of political machinations, strained relationships, inhuman working conditions and a game that very nearly killed one of its developers. Interested in reading the full, gory story? Then click on, and we’ll recount to you the tragic fable of Sonic X-treme, the game that probably would have been Sega's Super Mario 64.

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.
Latest in Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic and Shadow clash in front of the moon in Sonic X Shadow Generations
Sonic gets an official lore timeline that goes "tens of thousands of years" into the past and 200 years into the future, and somehow canonizes a party game spin-off
Sonic and the Flash racing over water
We'll finally learn if Sonic is faster than the Flash as Sega's famous hedgehog and pals team up with the Justice League in a new mash-up comic
Sonic Unleashed Recompiled
Sonic fans are leading the charge on a new preservation tool that can help give any Xbox 360 game a native PC port
Jet The Hawk, Shadow The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog, Knuckles The Echidna, and Tails The Fox race towards us on a variety of vehicles in Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, emerging from ring portals depicting various levels from Sonic history
Sonic driving a car in Sonic Racing: Crossworlds makes perfect sense, and after 30 years I'm sick of explaining why
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds announcement trailer proves Sega is coming for Mario Kart 9's throne with transforming cars and a closed beta this month
BioWare's Sonic The Hedgehog RPG "actually uses Dragon Age: Origins dialogue system heavily streamlined to fit on the Nintendo DS"
Latest in Features
Kill Team: Blood and Zeal box on a wooden surface
Kill Team: Blood and Zeal pre-orders just went live, and I wish other Warhammer games were this weird
Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
DC June 2025 solicitations: 10 must-have comics to pre-order this month
Flow
Flow won big as this year's Oscars underdog against Pixar and Netflix, and it's proof of the power of storytelling over dialogue
Yasuke riding through a village looking for Knowledge in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows' prologue is the most gripping in franchise history, but I'm fixated on the tiny details
Naoe blends in among lush trees in Assassin's Creed Shadows while observing Amagasaki Castle from a rooftop perch
After 18 years Assassin's Creed Shadows cracks the ultimate stealth loop with its deliciously dense castles
Cabernet screenshot showing vampire protagonist Liza sucking someone's blood
Cabernet is the kind of vampire RPG I've been looking for since Masquerade Bloodlines, and I'm already plotting my next run 6 hours in