Lost & Found: Sonic Concept Art

[Mike Arcade]

One of the creators of Sonic 1 & 2, Hirokazu Yasuhara, spoke at the Poland game industry conference Digital Dragons and revealed never before seen concept art and maps of Sonic 1 and 2, showing and completely confirming the concept of Sonic 2 originally having time travel aspects.
 

 

This was wonderful to finally see, and it shows just how far they were considering Time Travel as the base concept for Sonic 2. I always figured that it was a brief consideration with only Rock Zone as a mild footnote for it as a plan but I'm so glad to be proven wrong. Just goes to show you Sonic 2 could have been this close to be a completely different game then what we got, by extension Sonic CD as well.

With that in mind perhaps this is the perfect time to discuss not only the concept art that has just been revealed to us now, but concept art of that past we have found and that has been released over the years!

So any thoughts everyone? Would you have liked or wanted a Sonic 2 based on Time Travel then what we got? Is thre other concept art do you wish they ended up going with instead? Let us know what you think of these concepts Lost & Found.

[WarTraveller]

It's quite interesting that the infamous Dust Hill Zone was supposed to be an alternate Bad Future for Green Hill Zone itself...which seems to have happened as of Sonic Forces anyway! Just a little bit confusing. And it's interesting to see that Wood Zone was actually considered at one point...but if it was cut so early why is there anything in the final game at all?

As for the whole Sonic 2 Time Travel thing, eeeeeh...it's hard to tell. I mean the cliche of sequels was sort of normal/world tour/in space/time travel thing, so having a time-travelling game probably would not have gone down so well. It probably needed its own game to flourish...which is got in Sonic CD.

[Mike Arcade]

34 minutes ago, TheRedAuthar said:

Actually that's exactly why we got Sonic CD.  They originally were going to be the same game.  

That's actually not true, they started as two separate games though it's been said that both teams talked to each other regarding concepts and such. Sonic CD originally started off as a Sega CD port of Sonic 1 and turned into a new game developed around the same time as Sonic 2. Why that happened is due to how Yuji Naka wasn't treated well after Sonic 1 came out and quit, only for Sega's US Branch wanting him to do the sequel with several members from Sonic Team moving over there with him while Naota Oshima had his own team to work on an Sonic game developed in Japan. Both teams just so happened to funnily enough think of using Time Travel for their own games. 

I can understand why you'd confuse it as originally the same game as both are tired pretty well together regarding their history and what could have been.
 

17 hours ago, WarTraveller said:

It's quite interesting that the infamous Dust Hill Zone was supposed to be an alternate Bad Future for Green Hill Zone itself...which seems to have happened as of Sonic Forces anyway! Just a little bit confusing. And it's interesting to see that Wood Zone was actually considered at one point...but if it was cut so early why is there anything in the final game at all?

As for the whole Sonic 2 Time Travel thing, eeeeeh...it's hard to tell. I mean the cliche of sequels was sort of normal/world tour/in space/time travel thing, so having a time-travelling game probably would not have gone down so well. It probably needed its own game to flourish...which is got in Sonic CD.

Perhaps, granted we can't read what it says on the corner of the other pictures but it seems that way. Remember though originally Sonic 2 was suppose to be much bigger with a lot more Zones then it ended up with and Wood Zone was on the Simon Wai Beta, it was just another Zone that got cut throughout it's development due to time constraints like Dust Hill, Rock/Rock World, Hidden Palace, Winter, and Genocide City before it and aside for some code from the Hidden Palace Zone everything else was completely cut out of the Final Game. Time Travel concepts aside that were abandoned early on we would have gotten a much bigger game either way, there were plans for a Sonic 2 CD port which might have put in the unfinished levels but no one really knows as that didn't get very far.

I do wonder how that would have ended up, I doubt the Time Travel would have been like in Sonic CD though. It could have been a lot more linear then that in some regards or have a few branching paths maybe but who knows how it could have ended up, though the concept of how the time travel would have gone up there is telling. From the early maps it seems as it would have taken place on South Island rather then West Side Island considering Green Hill is on there and the first map looks much like South Island in Sonic 1 for Master System and Game Gear.

As for how it would have been either way I think we'd still get a great game or perhaps one similar to S3&K with a Time Travel plot if they had enough time to develop the game as they intended, would have changed basically everything about the series and Sonic CD would have been a much different game in turn. Though it is crazy to think the first sequel could have been so Timey Whimey, but then again some sequels jump in with Time Travel after the first game with varied results so it's not all that crazy to imagine.

Despite their time constraints they still turned in a game that is regarded as one of the best entries in the series and one of the best games of all time, it's amazing how well it turned out really unlike others in the series.

[Mike Arcade]

Regarding this topic, this should be used for all matter of concept art found in Sonic throughout the series, therefore in light of some recent concept art I bring to you guys the until now unknown lost character of Sega Sonic Arcade, Max the Parrot!

https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/975790031632719873
 

From what this artwork implies with an early version of Mighty and Ray, it looks like not only was Vector intended to be in Sega Sonic Arcade, but also this character as well. Whose design seems to also be originally one of the designs that was submitted to be Sega's Mascot. Of course we know that Sonic ended up being said mascot and main character though it's quite interesting how this character folded out and yet never saw the light of day. Gotta admit he looks pretty cool and said concept art for the design competition also loosely resembles Sharps the Chicken of Sonic's cut band for Sonic 1's Sound Test. I suppose they really wanted to attempt in having a cool looking avian character back despite it never getting any off the ground for the series, until arguably The Babylon Rogues I suppose. I'm even more surprised on how Vector's design is literally the same from Chaotix, someone really must have liked his design to have it floating around up until he finally made his debut on the 32X.

With that all said what do you guys think? Would you have liked to have Max in the series or to make an official debut someday? Let us know what you think.

[Mike Arcade]

Don't mind me guys, just wanted to post this up here. It's from the Sonic 25th Anniversary Art Book and this was shown in a preview of it online that while has been up here and there aren't in the wikis bar a closer look at the concept art of "Madness Mountain" and Death Egg and I just wanted to post that up here.

But hey let's give some a piece of Sonic 1's concept art here some love too.



I didn't notice but in Sparkling Zone (Spring Yard Zone) they have a weird giant hand creature there. XP

Okay so I found the bigger, more higher quality picture exempts from the art book online. What I find funny is that the Sonic wiki DOES use a lot of them for obvious archive reasons yet doesn't for a bunch of Sonic 2's Concept art. They're the same as up above though with a much closer look though to save space I'm gonna put them in a spoiler tag so this topic doesn't get too cluttered.
 

 

 

 

[Mike Arcade]

Got some cool stuff here, Craig Stitt (worked on Sonic 2) on Facebook revealed his concept art for the rumored turtle sidekick. Meet Boom Boom the Turtle! Yes, that's what it says in the concept art. I just call him Boom the Turtle.

During Sonic 2's development, there was an internal contest to design Sonic's new sidekick, this character was Craig's proposal. However, he was rejected as Tails won out. The rest is history, but at long last another forgotten character has been resurfaced.

[Akessel92]

9 minutes ago, Mike Arcade said:

Got some cool stuff here, Craig Stitt (worked on Sonic 2) on Facebook revealed his concept art for the rumored turtle sidekick. Meet Boom Boom the Turtle! Yes, that's what it says in the concept art. I just call him Boom the Turtle.

During Sonic 2's development, there was an internal contest to design Sonic's new sidekick, this character was Craig's proposal. However, he was rejected as Tails won out. The rest is history, but at long last another forgotten character has been resurfaced.

Hmmm... a turtle friend of Sonic with metal and cybernetic parts... Tommy?

[TheRedStranger]

On 5/18/2018 at 4:09 AM, Mike Arcade said:

Don't mind me guys, just wanted to post this up here. It's from the Sonic 25th Anniversary Art Book and this was shown in a preview of it online that while has been up here and there aren't in the wikis bar a closer look at the concept art of "Madness Mountain" and Death Egg and I just wanted to post that up here.

But hey let's give some a piece of Sonic 1's concept art here some love too.



I didn't notice but in Sparkling Zone (Spring Yard Zone) they have a weird giant hand creature there. XP

Okay so I found the bigger, more higher quality picture exempts from the art book online. What I find funny is that the Sonic wiki DOES use a lot of them for obvious archive reasons yet doesn't for a bunch of Sonic 2's Concept art. They're the same as up above though with a much closer look though to save space I'm gonna put them in a spoiler tag so this topic doesn't get too cluttered.
 

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Seeing art like this is important. It helps us see what the intent was despite technological limitations of the Genesis. The colors, and more complex designs and forms, should be the gold standard for anyone seeking to make more up to date iterations of classic Sonic material. Good work finding this stuff, Mike.

[Mike Arcade]

https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Sonic_the_Hedgehog_3/Concept_Art
 

A Special Thanks to @WarTraveller for sharing this over on our Discord.

The Knuckles concept art was recently revealed as an unlockable in Sonic Origins, showing where they started in making a Rival for Sonic, that wasn’t a robot in this case.

The Earliest depiction of a Pre-Knuckles design was a Hedgehog, and funny enough in the design doc it’s said that Tails likes the Rival because he looks like Sonic. Which is a lot like what would end up with Shadow.

By the time the Hedgehog design fell out, they have a sketch for a Black Cat, and a Mole! I guess the Sonic OVA had a good reason to see him as a Mole after all. Also, at one point Knuckles’ name could have been Stealth.

There’s also an early design for Super Mecha Sonic as well.

Lastly, in a more cleared up image from an MTV document, has an image of The Doomsday Zone. With Super Sonic fighting a Dragon! This, being a precursor to what would be Chaos in Sonic Adventure.

It’s really interesting to see how Sonic 3 came to be, and I’m glad we finally got to see the designs for Knuckles before he became the Echidna we know him as today.