An overview of this project’s purpose, plus some key Q&As.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Sonic 5 is an unofficial, 2D. pixel art Fan Game that aims to conclude the unresolved story of Sonic 4: Episode II, while delivering a faithful follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
In Sonic 4: Episode II, even if the player acquires all Chaos Emeralds and all Red Star Rings, there is frustratingly no Good Future ending;
Little Planet remains trapped inside the Death Egg Mk.II, which only powers down rather than being definitively destroyed.
I really want to do something about that!
While I endeavour to finish off Sonic 4: Episode II’s cliffhanger ending, I’m also aiming to produce a faithful follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles
in terms of scope, soundtrack, level design, storytelling, physics engine, collision detection, the works.
Additionally, I’ll be fleshing out and giving life to some scrapped gimmicks and story elements from Sonic Mania.
This project is currently in the Alpha stage of development, with no solid release date nor release window.
A Five Zone Preview Build is planned for public release at some point in future,
after enough development work has been completed; stay tuned for this playable demo of the first five Zones!
Click the thumbnails in the Header Navigator, or the buttons in the Footer Navigator, to browse various aspects of Sonic 5 Fan Game,
from music tracks, character details and development credits to gameplay features, game design insights and project guardrails.
Furthermore, there are a bunch of Behind The Scenes sections sprinkled around some pages,
containing developer comments from me that provide bits ‘n’ bobs of development info’.
Thank you very much for stopping by and checking out my passion project! 😃
— Naean H.F. (Nez Man)
Project Founder & Head Manager
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Covering certain introductory points that I believe are especially pertinent.
When you say “faithful follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles in terms of
[...] physics engine, collision detection”, do you mean that literally?
Yes, this project will implement Sonic 3 & Knuckles gameplay precisely, down to the crucial details.
While Sonic Mania is a fun game overall, it has some irritating inaccuracies
and lacks some fluidity functionality compared to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Concerning collision detection, Sonic Mania is noticeably too strict when it comes to crush deaths.
In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, if a character is only slightly close to being crushed, more often than not
that character will be pushed aside instead, giving the player a few pixels of leniency; meanwhile,
Sonic Mania can treat a character’s single pixel in the way of a moving block as a crush death.
As far as physics engines go, Sonic Mania’s implementation of Knuckles is significantly clunkier;
his ability to fall into an instant Crouch from a cancelled Glide, then quickly charge and execute
a Spin Dash, all in seamless succession, was not carried over from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
On the topic of smooth movesets: In this game, Tails will have the
ability to cancel out of Flying and Swimming into a spinning drop.
Nailing specifics like these can mean the difference between a good game and a great game.
This isn’t me claiming that Sonic Mania is a bad game, but it’s definitely missing movement
nuances which elevate Sonic 3 & Knuckles to a more satisfying level of gameplay flow.
Why did you call this fan game Sonic 5 and not Sonic 4: Episode III?
While SEGA did officially plan for Sonic 4 to have an Episode III, and while this project does aim to
conclude Sonic 4: Episode II’s incomplete story, I decided to go with Sonic 5 instead because the
ambition and content quantity in this game are way larger than Episodes I and II combined.
For example, Episodes I and II contain 5 Zones and 7 Special Stages each,
compared to this game which has 15 Main Zones and many Special Stage
Acts for the Super Emeralds, Hyper Emeralds and Master Emerald.
As such, I think titling this game Sonic 4: Episode III would be unfitting, the difference in
scope is simply so significant that distinct numbering feels much more appropriate to me.
Why did you rename the different kinds of Emeralds?
Because it very highly bothers me that Chaos Emeralds provide Super Forms,
while Super Emeralds provide Hyper Forms! 🤨
I find these naming associations to be quite messy mismatches and so unnecessarily confusing.
Therefore, in this project, I’m fan-retconning them so that the Emerald types actually match
their abilities: Super Emeralds give Super Forms and Hyper Emeralds give Hyper Forms.
Simple, logical, consistent. 😌
Simultaneously, I’m also not entirely abandoning the Chaos Emeralds naming; instead, in this
game, that term is used to categorise the Super, Hyper and Master Emeralds collectively,
since they are known to cause chaos after all!
What are some examples of other fan-made media
which particularly motivate you and your project’s work?
I’m frequently inspired and influenced by a wide variety of media in general;
that being said, specifically notable Sonic fan media for me are the following:
🎶 Fan album Sonic 4 Episode 2 Music Proposal from XCubed / cubedtothex.
🎶 Fan album Sonic Hysteria from NicoCW, Chillius, Izzyience,
SuperSMZ, Misty, Emma, Tales499, Larz T. and RetriDoti.
🎮 Fan game Sonic After the Sequel from LakeFeperd / Felipe Ribeiro Daneluz.
🎮 Fan game Sonic the Hedgehog Time Twisted from Overbound Game Studio.
🎮 Fan game Sonic and the Fallen Star from StarDrop.
🎮 Fan game Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit from Noah N. Copeland.
🎮 Fan game Sonic Galactic from Starteam.
— Naean H.F. (Nez Man)
Project Founder & Head Manager
DISCLAIMER
Sonic 5 Fan Game is an unofficial, non-profit project. Series and its characters belong to SEGA.
This video game, and all of its related media, will be released 100% for free, with zero paywalled content.
