Sonic X-Treme

I am finally moving to the attic! More privacy from my brother and my annoying parents. We were setting everything up in the dark room as I grabbed a few blue plastic bags and dug around in them, trying to see if there was anything interesting to see. And there it was. A dusty SEGA Saturn console at the bottom of the bag. I pulled it out and dug for the cables, which I soon found aswell. I took it to my room and opened the lid. There was a game disk inside, which had "SEGA SONIC XTREME V.1.7". I squealed, realizing it was a demo for a long lost game. I didn't know where the disk came from so I went upstairs and asked my parents about it. They looked at me in a surprized way and said my mother used to work at SEGA and was to test the early prototype of the game out. My father told me not to play it. I hatred my father, so a "Don't" becomes a "Please do" in my eyes, so I went back downstairs to my room and connected the console to my TV before starting the game up.

It didn't have an intro or anything. It merely cut to the title screen with the logo of the game and a background of Sonic and Tiara Boobowski moving across the screen. I pressed start and the game started with the first zone. I was a little confused at the fish-eye perspective of the game and I needed a while to get used to it. The game was also very pixelated, like it was unable to load the right textures and the background remained a dark blue, even when I finished the first zone and went to the next one. It glitched and Sonic fell through the floor. I lost a life. I groaned loudly at the glitch, but it didn't happen the next time I entered the stage, so I kept going.

I eventually got to the first boss. I was surprized to see old school Amy, Rosy the Rascal. Then a cutscene started, Eggman floating over the stage in his weird hover-car, but then the screen suddenly cut to black. I heard a faint static noise as it cut back to the game, Rosy still standing there. She didn't do anything and Eggman was gone. I moved towards her and threw a ring at the cute little polygon model, which played a falling back animation. Was I supposed to beat her up? The model twitched back to it's idle standing animation. Rosy still didn't move, so I kept throwing rings at her. After the third ring I noticed red pixels coming from her. They were there before but it seemed to become more. I threw two more rings and Rosy fell over again, reverting to her normal size. The screen cut to black and I heard a squeaky voice say "Thank you."

What's going on? My thoughts were interrupted by Sonic's sprite appearing in a triumphant pose. I continued to the next zone. But this time, the background was more detailled and the level was less glitchy. The background reminded me of Green Hill Zone, only it was like the square background was rotting and the flowers were withering. The blue background had changed to a bright red, which hurt my eyes a little, but I kept playing, shrugging it off, guessing it was supposed to be after one of Robotnik's attacks or something.

Eventually, I got to the next boss level. There wasn't any music playing, like in the other levels. My smile faded as I realized I was about to fight my favourite Sonic character. Fang the Sniper. He appeared to be frowning. Another cutscene played, only it didn't cut out this time. The camera zoomed in to Fang, who appeared to be talking. He kept talking for a minute or so. There was a disorted voice as he talked. I couldn't make out what he was saying. Growing boring with it I tried to read his lips to figure out what he was saying. I noticed it looped over and over. A or I M O and Y were the only "sounds" I could make out. I was once again interrupted as the disorte d sound became a clear, slightly scratchy male voice and a little static. His lips moved along with "I'm sorry." The pitch changed extremely high and low again, but as it looped over and over I figured out he kept saying "I'm sorry." for no apparent reason. Was he sorry for his crimes? Nah, I always thought Fang was the fearless assassin I looked upon to. Robotnik floated over the stage, a laughing animation playing, but there was no laughing. A light blue beam went down on Fang, increasing his size, which I found senseless. The game finally cut to the actual fight. Fang rised his gun, but it wasn't the cork gun he used to have. It almost looked real. The next thing I was was a white line going through Sonic, a few red pixels landing on the floor before Sonic played his death animation. The boss level restarted. I had 2 lives remaining. I jumped over him and used a Power Ball on him. Fang fell over, shutting his eyes (Very similar to when he gets hurt in Sonic the Fighters/Sonic Championship) as I heard a loud static noise. A replacement for his voice? Fang appeared to "bleed" of red pixels more than Rosy did. I kept attacking him, even through it hurt me to see my favourite character getting hurt, but I had to beat him and see what happened next.

"Stop it."

I stopped attacking him as the purple weasel approached Sonic. I felt too sick to fight him any longer. He was hurt. To my surprize he stopped right infront of Sonic, looking at him. I still didn't navigate Sonic and slowly placed the controller down on the table infront of me. I looked back at the screen and jumped as I saw him not pay any attention to Sonic anymore. He was staring at the screen. At me.

I sighed and closed my eyes, waiting for him to finish Sonic off. I dodn't know why I didn't just turn off the game. I stopped and looked at the window as I heard a knock on a glass, but there was nothing. I looked back at the screen and jumped again as I saw Fang standing right infront of the screen, staring right at the screen. Me.

Fang was a really mysterious character. Was he really that much of a scumbag everybody wants him to look like? Or was he just a child, abandoned by everyone, having to steal for his survival?

I couldn't take my eyes off him, but quickly grabbed the controller as I saw him rise his revolver. Sonic attacked him with a final blow. Finally, Fang collapsed one last time, a pool of red pixels around him, he had his eyes closed. Sonic walked over to Nack and stopped, standing right infront of him as he reverts to his normal size. The screen didn't cut to black, not I could navigate Sonic. It went on for a minute of eerie silence until I found myself yelling "Get up!!"

Of course he wouldn't get up. Sonic killed him.

I killed him.

I grew sick of this game as I stared at the screen. Finally it moved on to the next zone, or should I say one simple, green platform. I walked around on the massive platform until I found a sprite figure standing there. Of course, I approached it. It appeared to be Tiara.

Surprizingly, I approached her automaticly and she started to talk in a normal, female voice. "You shouldn't toy around with others lives like this Sonic."

Blood. Death. Wasn't Sonic a kids game? I didn't mean to hurt them. I only wanted to explore the game.

"Robotnik got the Rings of Order. It's over, Sonic."

Oh right, I was supposed to collect the Rings of order. Too bad I wasn't able too in this glitchy game.

The Game Over screen showed up. It looked okay for a second before the text "GAME OVER" changed into "THE END".

Enough! I walked over to the TV and turned the SEGA system off. As I got back up and looked at the screen "THE END" was still there in big letters. Only Sonic and Tiara stood there, turned towards the screen, Fang standing next to them.

Stupid glitchy game. I can't sleep tonight.