Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)/Unused Abilities

To do: Proper formatting, images. Most abilities have been documented at this point, but there might be a few states for the Supers. Doubt it, though.

Common

Edge Grab

Most of the characters were meant to be able to grab ledges, as can be done in Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog. However, the coding for this move isn't finished and thus doesn't work properly.

Sonic

Gravity Jump Dash

Sonic's gravity-based Jump Dash arc from the E3, Xbox Live Arcade and Tokyo Game Show '06 demos is still present in the final build's data. However, due to a bug that also affects Knuckles and Blaze's used arcs, Sonic can no longer attack physics-based objects, with such objects simply canceling the attack instead.

Super Transformation

To do: Document unused sounds and particles.

Using the Rainbow Gem, Sonic would have been able to transform into Super Sonic in regular gameplay and not just for the final boss. Presumably, Super Sonic would've played like he did in Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. Super Sonic's remnants can be acquired by editing the Rainbow Gem into a save file, or pressing Left Bumper (L2) with Debug Mode enabled and saving. With the upgrade, Sonic will perform a transformation animation when the right trigger is pressed. This is all that the state is coded to do, indicating this did not get too far into development. However there are unused sounds and particles that are in the game files that would've been used for the transformation.

Super Speed Sonic

Dramatic Jump

This ability works identically to the normal jump besides playing the dramatic jump animations. These animations are the same ones as Sonic's rainbow ring animations, including the unused ground transition and landing animations. The looping animation seems to be incorrectly assigned, however, creating a jarring transition.

Homing Attack

Like his regular counterpart, Mach Speed Sonic was intended to be able to use the homing attack. The move itself would have been faster and the jumpdash would have covered a longer range. Due to the high-speed nature of these sections, the enemy placement, and the player's inability to aim or move after the dash, this was probably deemed impractical and scrapped extremely early on. The only remnants are parameters in the lua file, an unused reference in the pkg to the TGS homing animation, and an animation slot to play it, the latter of which lacks any sounds or particles.

Knuckles

Punch Charge

Knuckles would have been able to charge his punch, possible part of the screwdiver attack present in the final game.

Elise

Homing Smash

While this move is used by Sonic alone via the White Gem, the state module for Sonic and Elise together loads the state despite not being able to use the gems. The state itself is exactly the same as Sonic's, including the need to release the Y button to perform the attack, so this is most likely a leftover from when the move was an A-button based upgrade.

Shadow

Chaos Smash

A leftover from the Xbox Live Arcade and Tokyo Game Show 2006 demos, this move is Shadow's counterpart to the Homing Smash. Unlike the aforementioned XBLA demo, the move is fully functional and effectively behaves identically to Sonic's, knocking enemies into each other and stunning shielded Egg Rounders/Commanders. The move differs from the Homing Smash in a few ways. While Sonic's charging and attack states are unified, Shadow's version of the move is split across two states: one for charging the move, and the other for performing it, though both moves will revert to the standard homing state if they aren't fully charged. The speed for charging Shadow's is also faster, being only 0.2 seconds compared to Sonic's 0.5. Interestingly, restoring this move makes the Chaos Snap less buggy.

Blaze

Claw Attack

Blaze swipes at an enemy with her claws. The coding for this doesn't appear to exist, but the animation data is present and the effect module even loads particle effects for the same slot as Sonic and Shadow's spinkick attacks, implying that the devs intended to but never got around to implementing it. It probably would have behaved similarly to other characters' melee attacks.

Combo Moves

Combo moves such as Silver being able to throw Blaze at iblis were intented. Those moves would have been usable in the first and third fight with Iblis.

Scratch Attack

An unused animation depicts blaze scratching the air while descending from a jump

Boss Sonic

Chain Jump

Sonic was supposed to be able to perform chain jumps in his pinch phase. The move doesn't function as intended, making him get locked in place, though he's still vulnerable to attacks and can be knocked out of the state. This could be due to missing chainjump objects, but the cause is unknown.

Boss Silver

Uplift

This attack damages everything in its radius, including the player. While it shares its name with the Silver's PSI Marker state and is performed from the ground, it's functionally more similar to Silver's Psycho Shock. It's identical to the one that is used in the Xbox Live Arcade demo, and the particles are still missing.

Jump On PSI

Silver will hover in the direction of his target until he gets close enough. This is a leftover from the Xbox Live Arcade demo, where Silver would hover onto objects before lifting them up. Silver's states are still coded to use this, but it's impossible to trigger it.

Ride Smash

Another leftover from the Xbox Live Arcade demo, this move allows Silver to lift up objects that he's standing on. Like the Psycho Shock, it hasn't changed at all.

Homing Catch

Silver stands in place, waiting for the player to approach. If Sonic or Shadow enters the move's radius before Silver releases the attack, he'll be stunned and Silver will throw them. Unlike the Grab All (Object Throw) attack, which is used, Silver can't grab objects or damage players; players will be flung away in their spring state instead.

Unused Shield

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In the "POWER-UP ITEMS" section of the game's manual, the Shield is listed as an available powerup that can be obtained from Item Boxes, yet no Shield powerup boxes are seen anywhere in-game. Despite this, the Shield exists in the game's code and is fully functional, allowing the player to take a hit without losing their Rings, though it doesn't play the activation sound like it should and it doesn't cause the player to enter their "hit" animation, which would be somewhat disorienting. The Shield can be placed in a level by changing an Item Box's parameter to 8.

Note that the Speed Shoes (referred to in the manual as "High Speed") are in fact used, in a 2-player layout and one of Shadow's town missions. They're fully functional, playing the invincibility theme and causing the player's top speed to increase temporarily.

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