Through Twitter (which I refuse to ever name “X”), Sega has revealed screens of the canceled Sega Saturn title, Sonic X-treme.

Sega had a extremely tough time within the late ‘90s. The launch of the Sega Saturn was an absolute cluster of confusion, as that they had one foot in 2D whereas sticking one other proper up in 3D. To not point out, Sega of America misunderstood its personal market and thought that including life help to the Sega Genesis was the most effective concept, delaying the arrival of the Saturn in Western markets. Some folks blame its failure on the truth that there was by no means a mainline Sonic the Hedgehog successor on the platform. Positive, yeah, that could be a part of it.

Improvement on Sonic X-treme started shortly after the completion of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It began on the Genesis/Mega Drive earlier than bouncing to the 32X and at last the Saturn. Initially, it was simply going to be a better-looking side-scroller, however by the point it reached the Saturn, it grew to become a hybrid of 2D and 3D, the type of which could be very a lot apparent in these screenshots.

It’s onerous to say precisely when these screenshots are from. The event of Sonic X-treme was marred by unclear {hardware} specs, developer fallout and turnover, the dysfunction between Sega’s Japan and American branches, and life-threatening sickness. It’s a completely weird improvement story. There have been loads of totally different revisions to the sport, all of them very totally different.

Hopefully, with these photos unearthed, we’ll get to listen to extra of the story. For now, we are able to solely look and surprise how Sonic X-treme would have turned out.