Sonic Adventure’s Scrapped Content

One of the most interesting things about video games, as a medium, is the fact that sometimes we as viewers can see the previous layers that made up the product before it was considered ready and finished. This can come in the form of betas, previous builds, or even scrapped content in either the form of hidden material in a game’s build or from press information used to show progress on the game. One game that is near and dear to many of us is Sonic Adventure for several different reasons, but given the time at which it was released, there were several bits of scrapped content that would never be implemented into the final game release for the ill-fated Dreamcast or for any of the other re-releases of the game on other platforms.

Today, we are going to examine a few of the most interesting bits of scrapped content for Sonic Adventure to see just where the developers were going and have some fun examining the little bits of history scattered throughout.

For starters, did you know there was a two-headed mecha dragon that was removed from Sky Chase? The boss was originally supposed to attempt to stop Sonic and Tails as they made their approach to the Egg Carrier during Tails’ playthrough? The enemy was seen in a beta of Sonic Adventure DX that was leaked online. The dragon was a white/red robot that would puruse the players all the way up to the point where the Egg Carrier shoots it’s laser at the Tornado. The enemy could do a fire breath attack and may have possibly been planned to be in both Sky Chase acts. This comes from the fact that in some prototype footage of the boss, the sky background is dark, similar to how it appears in Sky Chase Act II, whereas the leaked beta version of the boss with it’s flapping animation is shown in Sky Chase Act I.

While there isn’t much evidence to go on other than the lone screenshot provided, there was a possibility that Twinkle Park was supposed to look completely different from what we received in the final game. In the image we have, Big the Cat appears to be doing his “end of the level dance” in a strange corridor or opening to a room. The tunnel behind him has the texture to suggest there are lights in it and the ground looks like it has arrows that might thrust the character or their vehicle forward. None of the other images of Twinkle Park look similar to this and the image appears to possibly be from an advertisement or beta version of the game. It is a very different take on the park and although the graphics were a little too colorful, it is very cool to see this version of the place, with Big doing the jig.

Another cool scrapped bit from the conceptual stage of the game involves the presentation of Dr. Eggman and his considerably different design when compared to previous versions of Sonic games to this point. In the sketch, you can the good doctor still has his original red shirt with the yellow half-cape, tight pants, and no goggles. On the same sheet, you can see the transition to where Eggman has his goggles and it resembles closer to the final Adventure design. The interesting thing, with the side profile, is that Dr. Eggman loses some of his body mass with the redesign but still retains the lanky arms in both official artwork and in his character model. The addition of the flight-suit, in my opinion, helped to age the doctor into a more serious villain to reflect with the older target demographic that Sega was going for at the time.

The original Windy Valley level that was shown in the prototype of the game is so different from the final version. In one of the videos for the prototype, we see Sonic in a very different place from the floating collection of island formations that make up the final version of Windy Valley. Instead, the ground is all just one big terrain, with several stones scattered across the ground. It looks more like a typical valley, with a reaching overhead raised cliff that looked like the characters would do more foot traffic, instead of using so many platforms and springs to traverse the level. What is even more interesting to note here is that there is a prerelease image that shows what could have been an in-level Chao garden, with a surrounding circle of pillars encasing the small creatures to the shelter. In screenshots of Tails’ trek through the level, he comes in contact with a similar area to that of the Chao garden but there are enemies that appear in the shot.

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Two other characters that originally do not play on the stage are seen in shots as well, Big the Cat and Amy Rose, specifically. Big the Cat is shown with Boa-Boa Caterpillars swooping through the air. These enemies do not appear in any other of Big’s stages because of the mechanic needed to defeat them; he simply cannot reach the enemies. Likewise, Amy is seen wielding her hammer in what appears to be a much greener (literal and otherwise) version of the game on an advertisement. The landscape seems to mesh up against a large mountain face, possibly indicating the mechanic of Amy using the hammer to traverse more vertical parts of the level.

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While there are certainly more bits of scrapped content between graphical differences, version updates, and characters being in areas they are not supposed to be, the purpose of this particular article was to highlight some of the more interesting pieces of the content. It is always interesting to note that most of the differences comes from a time when the media was transitioning back in 1998. Several screenshots were submitted for magazines and websites from earlier builds and prototypes of the game in order to build hype for the game and attempt to gain traction for Sega, which was losing it’s place in the console wars between Nintendo and Sony. Had it not been for these images, which featured amazing details at the time, people would not have been nearly excited about our favorite blue hedgehog and that could have spelled out a different path for Sonic altogether.

Did you know about this scrapped content? Got a different piece of information you think should have made the list? Shout out and let us know and as always, thanks for reading!