Hidden Palace has come through with another treasure trove, this time from Sega Technical Institute programmer Ken Rose. Ken shared his collection of prototypes and source code from his time at STI, most of which are from projects that never made it out the door. One such project is Treasure Tails, a proposed Genesis game starring Sonic’s two-tailed sidekick.
Treasure Tails has been a known entity for some time now. Unlike your typical Sonic game, Tails’ game was intended to be an isometric puzzle-adventure through an ancient ruin. Artist Craig Stitt previously revealed concept images of the game on video, giving a strong impression of the game’s direction. But it was assumed that’s all it ever was — a concept.
Until now. Mr. Rose has revealed that a “playable” prototype was also produced! Now, that’s “playable” in quotations, because there’s really not much of anything to play. What you see is quite literally what you get. You have a plain green grid with some raised platforms in the center, and a single still frame of Tails to maneuver around it. Tails (pulled straight out of Sonic 2) can hop around on a per-tile basis, though he lacks any kind of sprite animation. He automatically scales the platforms as he moves.
…And that’s it! No audio, no enemies, nothing to collect. The level is very small and becomes corrupted as you move around it. All in all, it’s an extremely slight, buggy demo. But it’s surprising even this much exists in the first place.
Still, I think there’s enough all around to get the imaginations roaring. Considering the plethora of Sonic fan games being produced today, I think this could still be a concept worth exploring in the future. Maybe someday, somebody will deliver their own vision of what Treasure Tails could’ve been. Until then, we’ll just have to be content wondering what if.