Obscure Sonic Racing Game Footage Surfaces

Since the early 90s, following the original release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega's mascot has been featured in a variety of spin-off titles outside of the usual action-platformer genre that Sega fans know best. One of the earlier examples of the Sonic series branching out to other genres was 1994's Sonic Drift, a Japan-exclusive Game Gear title that American fans would play officially in 2003's Gamecube port Sonic Adventure DX.

Sonic the Hedgehog had almost as many Japan-exclusive titles as there were titles that its western fanbase would enjoy, especially during the 2000s during the peak of Sonic's 3D era. Sonic dominated the mobile device market with the highly acclaimed Sonic Advance series on the Game Boy Advance as well as actual mobile phones through the Japanese-only service Sonic Cafe. Of these Sonic Cafe titles, one racing game featured via its service resurfaced recently as fans uncovered lost footage of the mobile game in action.

A Japanese YouTuber originally by the name of "Ruwaga," submitted gameplay footage of the 2005 mobile racing game Sonic Kart 3D X on December 2020. Sonic Kart 3D X is the sequel to 2003's Sonic Racing Kart, which differs from the original top-down 2D perspective in that Sonic Kart 3D X features a 3D render of Sonic and his kart. The player has two camera perspectives, allowing players a choice between a birds-eye camera or a bumper camera. While the view of the bumper camera is obtrusive, the camera shows off Sonic Team's attempt at creating 3D graphics on a mobile platform complete with nostalgic smoke effects.

Perhaps what's most impressive about the Sonic Kart 3DX recording is that the footage was captured on actual hardware, using a Docomo SC-010. The SC-010 has HDMI capabilities thanks to its micro-HDMI slot, allowing game capture through the use of a converter box. The video initially flew under the radar of most Sonic fans, however, those who noticed the upload were soon able to post music from the game based on the gameplay footage, made easy due to the lack of in-game sounds.

Several other recordings of older Sega mobile game titles on his YouTube channel include a Super Monkey Ball title and a Shinobi game based on the PS2-era Shinobi franchise among other early mobile game titles from other Japanese developers. With many mobile games currently in development based on existing console IPs, including potentially a Persona title, it's interesting to see mobile gaming in its earliest and purest form as the concept of playing console games on a fan's phone was still fresh at the time.

There's a lot of classic characters that just didn't need voice actors at first. Mario is one of the most famous examples; Nowadays, nobody can picture a Super Mario game without Charles Martinet voicing the charismatic plumber. Martinet's performance brings Mario to life in a way that's impossible to imitate. Another character whose voice precedes him is Sonic. The star of Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most recognizable video game characters that fans can imagine. However, his voice might be changing soon, because Roger Craig Smith has announced that he'll be retiring from the role after playing Sega's super-speed star for more than a decade.