It appears Sonic Classic Collection for Nintendo DS was originally going to be a much bigger collection at one point, with more games and content. The Sonic Stadium has found images on the portfolio of former SEGA Studios Australia employee Brooke Luder that reveal Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast (aka Sonic 3D Flickies’ Island) and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine were all part of the collection during development. This would explain why sprites from Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast can be seen in the credits roll.
Another image shows that video content was planned too, though no examples are given. You can check out more images in the gallery at the bottom of this article.
SONIC CLASSIC COLLECTION
SEGA Australia had the good fortune (WOOO!) of acquiring the Sonic Classic Collection port to Nintendo DS.
I created all the UI artwork for the port. This included recreating all the game logos as Sega no longer had the original editable logos. It also involved designing and creating the in-game assets for all the front end menus and ingame menus that weren’t part of the original game play and creating sprite sheets for the EFIGS language conversions.
Studio: SEGA Australia
Fun Factor: OMG!
Publisher: SEGA America
Release Date: 2010
Platform: Nintendo DS
Position: Senior UI/UX Artist
Software: Photoshop, Illustrator
Skills: Graphic Design/Layout
In non-Sonic news that will no doubt disappoint a lot of SEGA fans, Luder’s portfolio reveals that a Crazy Taxi 4 pitch was made by SEGA Studios Australia. No information about the pitch unfortunately, but we’re shown the above piece of concept art at least.
CRAZY TAXI CONCEPT ART
A concept piece created for the Crazy Taxi pitch from SEGA Australia. Illustrated in Photoshop and logo design created in Illustrator.
Studio: SEGA, Australia
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Software: Photoshop, Illustrator
Skills: Illustration, Logo Design
Luder has also shared some concept art of SEGA Studios Australia’s official video game for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS CONCEPT ART
I was involved in early stage graphics prototyping for SEGA’s London 2012 Olympics game. As part of this experience I created some of the early stage pitch art for game play prototyping.
Studio: SEGA Australia
Fun Factor: Gold!
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Position: Senior UI Artist
Software: Corel Painter
Skills: Illustration, Concept Art
Brooke Luder’s portfolio: Sonic Classic Collection, Crazy Taxi 4, London 2012 Olympic Games
SO essentially, it would’ve just been the Mega Collection for DS.
I’m happy with what we got, Spinball and Mean Bean Machine are pretty meh anyway, and I wouldn’t want the collection to be over-encumbered as to cause any performance issues. I was happy to play the original trilogy again, and anywhere I wanted, and also have the ‘& Knuckles’ expansions as separate games. It’s probably my favourite game collection to date.
Does SEGA really think that an Olympics game without Sonic and Mario would sell at all? I mean, come on. Otherwise I agree with Jakeiiii. I found the Sonic Classic Collection enjoyable just the way it was and it certainly did its job properly.
I agree with everything you just said. I’m also pretty bummed out about Crazy Taxi 4…*sigh*
Why wouldn’t an Olympic game sell well? It’s not like there aren’t or have never been games featuring realistic true to life events before. e.g. International Track and Field, California Games etc.
Well… … Y’know. 😀
Them placing Modern Eggman and E-1000R in Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine’s logo is just funny to me for how much times have changed since Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
I’m fine without Sonic Spinball, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, and Sonic 3D Blast though. For a Sonic collection on the go, I still find it pretty good.