I’ll take it over a few of the 3D mainline games
Sega has done its best to bury some ofSonic‘s history; notably when they took down a handful of 3D entries that got lower-than-average Metacritic scores many years ago. But it’s also easy to forget about all of theSonicside projects. LikeMega Manbefore it, Sega was keen on bringing Sonic into the RPG realm, but with BioWare of all studios. Video game animator Jonathan Cooper (formerly at BioWare) is here to give us the fullSonic Chroniclesintro to remind us that yes, this game did come out in 2008, you weren’t dreaming it.
According to Cooper, “this fantastic 2D work was inexplicably cut by Sega so the game shipped with the same song backing gameplay footage.” Indeed!You can watch the original intro here, which isn’t really an intro so much as an “arcade demo mode.”
Joel MacMillan (lead artist) and Nick DiLiberto (animator) worked on it, and Cooper notes that Nick in particular draws a lot of their style from the influential 1981 animated epicHeavy Metal, which you can really see in theSonic Chroniclesintro, embedded below. I love how haggard this Eggman is!
While I’m fine withmore attempts to capture the magic of old 3DSonicgames, I wouldn’t mind seeing a wild swing likeChroniclesevery now and then; for better or worse.Sega has been very safe with the IP in recent years, but that statement could apply to the industry as a whole.
Sonic Chronicles (2008) unreleased 2D intro cinematic. This has never been shown before in its entirety.pic.twitter.com/T7wgxKqmb6
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim)July 21, 2025
