Sonic Before the Sequel

* Main Page
* Unused Content

## System requirements

Newgrounds Flash Player (Optional, For Cutscenes)
Clean Flash Player (Optional, For Cutscenes)

***Sonic Before the Sequel (AKA Sonic BTS)*** is a Sonic Fan Game developed by LakeFeperd that is chronologically set after the events of *Sonic the Hedgehog* but before the events of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2* . The game is the first in the ***Sonic Between the Trilogy*** series and was developed in Clickteam Fusion 2.5 on the Sonic Worlds Framework (Version 0.5).

The game was originally released in 2011 but saw an enhanced re-release the next year with a new sprite-set for Sonic and completely original soundtrack composed by Falk Au Yeoung, KgZ, Andy Tunstall, and Funk Fiction which released alongside the re-released version. On October 22nd, 2016 the game would go open-source allowing anyone to modify the game's code or preserve it.

2. **Gameplay**2.1. Power-Ups
3. **Zones**
4. **Reception**
5. **Remakes and Remasters**
6. **Trivia**
7. **References**

### Story

After the events of ***Sonic the Hedgehog*** Sonic is teleported by the Chaos Emeralds to the Hilltop Heights Zone, here he discovers Dr. Eggman's Latest invention - a space station known as the Death Egg. A Young Miles "Tails" Prower also notices it as Sonic sets off to put a stop to whatever scheme the mad doctor is hatching along the way he rescues Tails from some Badniks. Tails, amazed at the sight, sets out on his own journey to follow Sonic eventually being attacked by a new robot of Dr. Eggman's named the Mother of all Badniks or M.O.A.B for short.

Tails defeats it as both him and Sonic continue on their journey until things finally reach a head when the two step foot into the Metro Madness Zone, as Sonic and Tails finally meet only for Tails to be taken away by a capsule that caries him to the Perilous Paradise Zone afterwards the two bump into each other again, with Sonic allowing Tails to tag along as the two scale the Titanic Tower Zone.

Tails is thrown off the Tower into the clouds, as he navigates the Death Egg initiates launch forcing the young fox to make a mad-dash to make it to the vessel in time. He just barely makes it before being caught by Sonic as the two enter the Death Egg now planning to take it down from the inside the two make it to the top of the Death Egg where due to an explosion Tails is thrown off again Sonic takes the fight to Dr. Eggman only to be thrown off the side himself as the 7th Chaos Emerald appears and Sonic uses it to transform into Super Sonic where he destroys Dr. Eggman's Body Suit.

Sonic fails to stop the launch of the Death Egg falling to earth in the process, where he's caught by Tails as the two land in the Emerald Hill Zone on Westside Island due to the Tornado being low on gas thus kicking off the events of ***Sonic the Hedgehog 2.***

### Gameplay

The game plays similarly to the Sonic the Hedgehog titles on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive due to being built on Sonic Worlds 0.5 due to this the physics are not 1:1 with those games as many describe it feeling "floatier" compared to the classic titles a more complete build dubbed "Sonic Worlds Delta" being released sometime later. Sonic has the ability to use the Spindash from Sonic 2 and the Super Peel-Out from Sonic CD though it works differently from how it did in that game as like the Spindash the Super Peel-Out can be revved up.

Tails caries his ability to fly like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, allowing him to access secret areas. His levels are built around these abilities being more puzzle-oriented. As the game progresses the player will switch between Sonic and Tails on a per-zone basis , the game is based around a similar Act structure to ***Sonic the Hedgehog*** with each zone having 3 Acts and a Boss Act. Sonic's Bosses have him running ala Sonic Advance 2, while Tails's Bosses are more like the classic games.

**Power-Ups** InvincibilityBubble SheildSpeed ShoesAll the power-ups from *Sonic the Hedgehog* appear, with the addition of the Bubble Sheild from *Sonic the Hedgehog 3* however in this game it doesn't give the player a bounce move instead it grants them a double jump if the player takes damage with it whilst underwater, they will simply lose their rings as if they didn't have the shield equipped instead.

### Reception

***Sonic Before the Sequel*** received praise for being the first fully finished Sonic Fan Game in some time, with many noting that for it's time it was the fan game that most accurately captured the feeling of the classic trilogy, second to ***Retro Sonic***. The Soundtrack has garnered praise as well so much so that *Jun Senoue* - a long-time composer for the Official Sonic Games, and guitarist for Crush 40 stated that he has listened to it and likes it.

The game was so highly praised many fans actually used headcannon to consider it the canonical story however 2022's ***Sonic Origins*** would confirm that not to be the case. In the modern day however the game still receives critical acclaim but not as much as it did on release as many have denoted how the game graphically hasn't aged as well as other fan game from around the time and earlier such as ***Sonic Robo Blast 2*** despite this the game has received scores of 80 - 90% and 8/10's from most reviewers.

### Remakes & Remasters

***Sonic Before the Sequel*** has received various remakes and remasters since it went open-source in 2016 with one of the main purposes being to attempt to fix some of the issues the Original had and in some cases attempting to make the Definitive way to play the game.

 ***Sonic Before the Sequel: Plus*** by Lelod671
 ***Sonic Before the Sequel: Reprise*** by Xernius
 ***Sonic Before the Sequel: Redux*** by FennekoZero

### Trivia

* The Games Cutscenes were produced in Adobe Flash it's for this reason they are broken in the modern day as attempting to boot the game with cutscenes enabled will result in a crash. While the cutscenes can be disabled this will lock the player out of the true final boss.
	+ This is because the cutscenes required Adobe Flash Player to run which was discontinued in 2020 due to "Potential Security Exploits" that were found. While it can still be downloaded it's recommended you do ***not*** install it as unsupported software is prone to future exploits.
	+ Safer alternatives however, do exist in the form of the Newgrounds Flash Player and Clean Flash Player they are safer to install and will allow the player to re-enable the cutscenes and unlock the true final boss. There even exists a collection called the Sonic LakeFeperd Collection that includes all of LakeFeperd's Sonic Fan Games and comes bundled with Clean Flash Player. Just remember if you're playing the originals to run them in compatibility mode.
* ***Sonic Before the Sequel*** has some songs in-game that were oddly omitted from the Official Soundtrack: Star Shores Zone (Fuzzy Induced), Lost Levels Zone (Icy), Lost Levels Zone (Desert), Titanic Tower Zone (Lights-Out), and the games ending theme "Departure" sung by Yuri Matsurra.
	+ The In-Game version of Death Egg Zone's track "Hard Boiled Premonition" is also slightly different to the one one in the Soundtrack as the soundtrack's version ends way earlier than the one in-game leaving a portion of the song unused. All of these tracks were added back in the Sonic LakeFeperd Collection.
* ***Sonic Before the Sequel'***s Boss Rush Mode may seem like just that - a simple boss rush, but there are a few Extras that can be found if one decides to play it, for one it includes a fight against Mecha Sonic Mk.0 which is a boss originally intended to be used after Arcane Altitude Zone Act 2. Finally Completing the mode is one of 2 ways the player can be awarded the "Fake Ending" the other is by completing the game in under an hour.
	+ The Fake Ending is one in which Sonic & Tails succeed in destroying the Death Egg the reason it's fake is because if such a thing actually happened it would completely prevent ***Sonic the Hedgehog 2*** from happening as in this context it happened because of all the setbacks the duo suffered in the game if they succeeded in destroying it they'd never have to land on Westside Island and wouldn't have to stop it as it was already dealt with.
* The name for Tails's Second level, *Lost Levels Zone* is likely a reference to the Japanese *Super Mario Bros. 2*, which released in the United States bundled in Super Mario All-Stars under the name ***Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels***.
	+ There are also Turtloid badniks in the level that support headbands and perform moves from Street Fighter - there are 2 variants of these: the White Shelled Turtloid will do a spinkick while screaming "TATSUMAKI!" and the Blue Shelled one will shoot a blue energy beam and exclaim "HADOUKEN!"
* The 2011 version of the game had a different soundtrack consisting of songs from other games such as: Kirby Superstar, Dragonball Z Kai: Ultimate Butoden, and a full playlist of the 2011 Soundtrack can be found here.
	+ Earlier on in 2011 a demo of the game released and in it the Intro cutscene was different from the Final Game's as it features a title card not seen in the final release, though it's easy to see why since that's essentially what the Title Screen is for.
* As stated before Sonic Origins ensures this game can't happen in the Official Timeline Chronology however in TailsTube #4 a series focused on discussing Sonic Lore Tails acknowledges the existence of the multiverse and in a Twitter Takeover he acknowledges the existence of fan games in the same series it's shown that adjacent events can occur in other universes or exist in other forms.
	+ Given this one could head-canon that ***Sonic Before the Sequel*** and the rest of ***Sonic Between the Trilogy*** take place in an Alternate Universe and timeline where the *Word of God* statements from the late 2010's and *Sonic Origins* are ignored making it so *SegaSonic the Hedgehog* begins the timeline with Lake's games taking place where they claim to.
	+ As for how they affect the Core Continuity - they don't in that continuity they likely exist in the same form they do for us, simple fan games that the cast could play if they so chose.

### Refrences

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://sites.google.com/site/sonicworldsguide/act-1?authuser=0
2. ↑ https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php/threads/36084
3. ↑ https://www.lifewire.com/what-happened-to-flash-2617986#toc-why-did-flash-shut-down
4. ↑ https://youtu.be/x\_Evvz3acGQ?si=O-1VFEK8Fno9bbhv&t=1158
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://gamejolt.com/games/soniclakecollection/846396

# Unused Content

Sonic Before the Sequel has a few bits of content that go unused in the final game most of which can be found in the games source code be they files or Level Layout Data.

2. **Hilltop Heights Zone**
3. **Rocky Ride Zone**
4. **Sunset Star Zone**

#### Level Select

In the games files are assets for an unused level select, these assets appear to be the only thing that remain as there doesn't seem to be code associated with them and even if there was the game appears to be hard-coded to spawn the regular level select on top of these assets. While unable to be accessed anymore to the right is a mockup of what it may have looked like.

#### **Hilltop Heights Zone/Hilltop Zone**

Turns out the secret Hilltop Zone level was an early version of Hilltop Heights, and in that level is an area with a few sheilds amongst these is the original Bubble Sheild still fully functional, as in Sonic Before the Sequel the Bubble Sheild is present but gives a double jump and can't be lost underwater. This version acts like it does in *Sonic the Hedgehog 3* with a downward bounce and is able to be lost - even underwater.

There are also various signs in the level that are just out of view that teach the player how to spindash while used in Hilltop Zone they are unused in Hilltop Heights - that however, is not the only secret it's hiding as there is a pathway in Hilltop Heights Act 1 that is blocked by walls in the final game hacking the game to remove the walls will make the pathway accessible revealing a Teleporter that warps the layer higher up the level near the end of the stage. It's unknown if this was intended to be part of the level or if it was added by Lakefeperd as a developer shortcut.

#### **Rocky Ride Zone**

A few unused tiles can be found here but found in the boss fights for Titanic Tower and Death Egg Zone is an early version of Rocky Ride Zone's Boss it can be added back into the game revealing it has a programmed floating animation however, it can't be damaged as there's little to no remaining programming for it. Besides this there's also an unused sign depicting a platform in the level on it, with unknown purpose.

There's also an unused tile of a tunnel similar to the S-Tunnels from Sonic the Hedgehog in the zones files, it doesn't seem to have collision but it seems to be an unused piece of level geometry. It's unknown what purpose this would serve but would likely work similarly to those tunnels forcing the player into a ball state while navigating them.

#### **Sunset Star Zone**

Below the Room for Sunset Star Zone Act 2a unused sprites of buildings can be found, likely intended to be used as parallax pieces for the background. They can't be spawned in-game however and it has 3 variant one facing left, one facing forward, and the other facing right.
**Metro Madness Zone**

In the data for the level are 2 unused signs one teaching the player how to use the fan switches, and the other teaching the player about the laser puzzles, neither are used in the final game and are replaced with holograms instead, of which also has an unused graphic as in the final game only Tails's hologram is visible but on rare occasions players have noted a hologram of Sonic spindashing appearing above some of the fan switches.
It's not possible to play as Sonic in Metro Madness in normal play but the source code can be modified to spawn Sonic into the level, the fans don't work as advertised but the code for them can be modified so that the unused behavior can be restored which can be seen in the video that you can find below.

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