1994 SEGA
Platform: SEGA Mega Drive
Please note that this is just a quick placeholder post, where we have split up an old post which flagged up 3 entries. The original text that follows is from our old team member Alex Ross-Shaw in 2012. No doubt there have been further discoveries since. We’ll try and update this page with any links to resources at a later date – or please feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments and we’ll update as we go.
Of course Sonic 3 wasn’t an unreleased Mega Drive game, and it went on to become one of the top ten best selling games released on the system. However, budgetary and scheduling issues meant several planned levels had to be cut from the game.
Presumably these were at least in a state of near-completion when they were canned and given the stature of the series you would hope that something remains of these unreleased levels. Yuji Naka was part of the Sonic Team that produced all the Megadrive Sonic games and we’ve tried to get in touch but had no luck so far.
Due to the high profile of Sonic it’s possible, perhaps even probable, that Sega and anyone who still owns the copyright to Sonic 3 that there would be reticence to release unreleased material into the public domain, but it would be nice to see it archived publicly for posterity given the importance of the blue hedgehog to gaming history.
With thanks to Fever for the suggestion of breaking up into a separate entry.
