A Blast from the Past: Metal Sonic Quest

[BlazeHedgehog]

Most people probably won't remember who HedgesMFG is, just know that he's a SFGHQ oldbie of my caliber. Ages ago, he made a series of games known as Metal Sonic Quest. The other day, he contacted me, having given MSQ and it's sequel minor touch ups (fixing typos, etc.), asking me if I could upload the games for him and post them here. I agreed.

A Word of Warning: Before we go any further keep in mind that these games are old. Standards were very, very different back then. These games are probably going on 4-5 years old by now. They were classics, but they are old classics.

MSQ1 Refined w/installer

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PONNS36V

MSQ2 w/installer

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T0IK5PBZ

MSQ3 MIDI FILES

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L9RZTDTE

Hedges also has his own words to say regarding these games:

"It’s been a long time, a very long time since I first discovered the whole fan-game scene. Some of you who haven’t been around the whole Sonic community for that long may be wondering why I’d even bother to re-release such an outdated and amateur piece of work. Why? I can’t really say for sure, perhaps it’s a small attachment I still have to something unique I was able to accomplish at a young age. Perhaps I just want to give the “fans” all that exists of the projects so you can do with it what you will. Perhaps a small part of me just finds the game still a bit of fun to play and would like to share that with the rest of the community. Whatever the reasons, here is what you’ll get…

What is Metal Sonic Quest? Quite simply, it’s a fan game series where you play as the original mechanical rival of Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic. The game was released somewhere around late 1999 with a revamped and expanded “Special Edition” following a year later… and the half completed sequel being created in the following years before it was finally canned, with a plans for a 3rd and final game never fully realized. However, why did I make something like this…and looking back on it now, what do I think of it? That’s what I’m going to write about today.

Mid-year, 1998

Finally gaining internet access at the delicate age of 12 (despite having extensive computer experience since I was literally 2), I immediately begin browsing around to learn more about my favorite video game series, Sonic the Hedgehog. I eventually come across what was, at the time, a very scattered community of those who use game-making software to create their own Sonic the hedgehog based titles, the first of which for me, was the original Sonic Robo Blast. Though often long forgotten now, Sonic Robo Blast was, at the time, an intense piece of work for an amateur project. It’s graphics were crude, it’s gameplay physics untrustworthy, but the game itself was ‘immense’, and many bosses were legitimately challenging. This game greatly inspired me to begin working on fan-game projects of my own, and the homages and blatent ripoffs in my later productions were fairly direct…

Late 1998 - Late 99

I originally began talking with another sonic community member about working on a fan game of our own. I wanted to base the story off of the Sonic the hedgehog Archie comic mini-series called “Sonic Quest” since the Death Egg had always been one of my favorite zones and concepts of the classic games. Eventually, taking the Metal Sonic sprites, created by Michael Stearns, from another dead-end Sonic production called “Sonic 2000”, I whipped up a simplistic Games Factory engine that allowed you to play as the antagonist, Metal Sonic. The rest of the graphics were crude and hand-drawn, and the story essentially was set in it’s own odd continuity and took elements from the comics, games, and the Sonic the Hedgehog anime OVA that heavily featured Metal Sonic. The graphics were crude, the engine simplistic, and the music ripped off from numerous sources. However, the project just kept getting bigger, and bigger. Every time I thought I was done with it, I impulsively created more cutscenes and another zone, eventually reaching 10 in the original version, and 11 in the revamped “special edition”. Much of it’s development was crude, but there was still a sort of twisted logic to almost every bit of story or gameplay I added. Much to my surprise, the “community” that existed at the time actually liked and even praised the original game!

Mid-Year 2001

As time passed, I began toying around with the idea of a sequel, since the ill fated “Sonic Quest” would obviously never come to pass. At first, I created a long lost little intro and opening title and first level of a game called “Metal Sonic’s Revenge” where the Metal Sonic from the first game was revived and you were able to do ‘purely’ evil things… but as I found people who were willing to do newer and better graphical work, and as I became slightly more experienced and wiser as a “fangame designer”, I retooled the game into Metal Sonic Quest 2: Return and Revenge. The game actually began as another experiment where the new Metal Sonic sprites I was given would fight against the final 2 bosses of the game itself… meaning that I created the game’s ending first and THEN went back and started the rest from scratch. Hence why you can still play the uncompleted game from start to finish and most of the plot should be pretty clear. As time went on, more and more delays happened… I managed to create 3 of the main zones, or a little over half of the original planned game, and extensively planned for the existence of the 3rd game. Somewhere around late 2002, I finally gave in and scrapped the project, no longer having the motivation or assistance I had needed to finish the rest, while also finding myself being more heavily involved in other fan-based projects like Sonic Epoch and Sonic Robo Blast 2.

So where does that bring us now, almost 5 years later? The original MSQ was designed to run on slower processors than most conventional PCs now have, and when playing through it one day, I had found that much of it had become virtually unplayable on a modern PC… about a year ago I tooled around a fixed these glitches so that the original game could be fully playable again, and even, out of boredom, replaced a few graphical pieces and revamped some of the dialogue. Whereas, a full demo of the second game was never really even publicly released outside of a forum post or 2 when I gave up on the game.

Long story short, this was the toil and trial and error work of my younger years. It’s both fun and a little bit laughable, so take it as you will. I have fond memories of the fan game days and wanted to give them a good send-off… having now moved on to a different time in my life.

Metal Sonic Quest 3 – “Major Spoilers” Below:

So now you’ve beaten the first 2 games and may be wondering, what did I have in mind for the 3rd? While many of the plot details are now fuzzy, the basic gist of it would’ve gone like this. The robot you see waking up at the end of MSQ 2 was Silver Sonic 2, or the version of Silver Sonic that was seen in the tubes in Sonic Adventure. He was specifically designed to be a failsafe device should himself ever perish. In the same way that Metal Sonic was endowed with Sonic’s brain paterns and mental capacity, SS2 was given Eggman’s brain capacity, but programmed with a single mission… to avenge Eggman’s demise through violent genocide, potentially destroying the planet in the process. His armada’s first strike would’ve been an all out nuclear assault on the Floating Island, and the power of the Chaos emeralds, taking no prisoners, and essentially rendering Sonic and co helpless to stop them. Metal Sonic 2 would be forced to take up the fight again, upgraded for the task, and periodically taking down SS2’s operations and forces until he came face to face with SS2’s final operation; a plan to throw a massive asteroid endowed with a sort of mysterious energy into the planet, permanently extinguishing all life with it. SS2, while intelligent and close to sentient, was primarily driven by his pre-programmed goal, and would’ve reflected the darkest potential within Eggman gone mad. He would’ve gladly sacrificed himself to destroy everything since the world saw fit to reject Eggman by killing him off. In the end, MS2 would’ve made it onto SS2’s asteroid faced off with him, and sacrificed himself to divert the Asteroid off course and destroy SS2 once and for all, permanently giving Mobius a happier and more stable future. The plot was something akin to a Gundam movie, Sonic Adventure 2, and even a little bit of Sonic Robo 2 all combined. But of course, none of that ever happened, and the game never saw any production beyond a few original midis composed by a community member named Red XVI.

P.S. For a special level select in the first game, just press random directions on the title screen til you hear a sound confirming your success. It was supposed to be a code ala the Genesis Sonic games, but my attempt to program it apparently failed. Plus, in the Milky Way Galaxy Zone, press L or H for some nifty little secrets…"

I will be mirroring these files as per his request very soon. I should probably post this in the submissions forum, too... though I dunno how the MIDIs would fit.

[twodee]

Wayyyy oldschool.

[Asuma]

Indeed. This was cool back in the EzBread days.

[shadowgoten]

Man blast to the fucking past all the way, I loved these games.