Gratitude #37: Sonic GT – Miners in the Sky

More Sonic nostalgia? Well yes, but also not quite.

Out of all of the little sonic fangame demos which explore the idea of larger, sandbox-like levels for the character to zoom through, I think the Sonic GT project has been the most promising so far. Its level design is unorthodox in that it presents the player with tons of routes at once. Ironic to the particular level being highlighted here, it doesn’t railroad the player into any particular path, instead encouraging them to abuse Sonic’s momentum physics to take any high road or shortcut as they see fit. In some places, it’s almost like the structure of Advance-era 2D Sonic games was translated to three dimensions with nothing lost along the way. I’m inclined to believe this kind of design approach might only ever have a home in fan-works – it breaks a lot of rules and conventions that any game made for a broad audience would know to keep, and it isn’t afraid to let the player get lost or overwhelmed in trade for keeping their options as open as possible. Yet, I’m sure it’s exactly those kinds of design compromises that make diehard Sonic fans appreciate even more than I do.

The game also has a soundtrack that completely understands the assignment. I couldn’t think of a better track that matches the kind of ‘flow state’ that Sonic GT and other works like it steer the player to achieve. The live-played guitar riffs glide right beneath the breakbeat percussion and reverbed piano chords, and the lead transitions from strings to synths to brass are cleaner than I ever imagined possible. It was a welcome surprise to discover a track in a fangame which both compliments and stands up to its inspirations.