Hey, have you heard of GameHut? If not, it’s a really cool YouTube channel by Jon Burton, a director of 29 years for Traveller’s Tales/Tt Games. There, you’ll find all sorts of neat stuff from behind the scenes of such games as Mickey Mania, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, various LEGO titles, and more! But for our purposes today, we’re looking at their work with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
In particular, there is some music from Sonic 3D Blast that Burton has been sharing as of late. These aren’t just any tracks by some rando, though — these were composed by none other than legendary Sonic composer Jun Senoue himself! Here’s the most recent one, which was made for the Special Stage in the game:
Now, despite being “unheard,” you might nevertheless find the tune familiar. As Burton explains, it was “Originally to be used in a special stage that never made the game,” and that “a version of this music was eventually used as both the game intro music and the Gene Gadget music.” Folks in the comments section point out that it was actually used in Panic Puppet, rather than Gene Gadget, but nevertheless. Some also note that it was used again for Twinkle Park in Sonic Adventure, which seems to be common to several of the tracks Burton has shared.
“This demo track was recorded by SEGA for my approval before it was used to base Sonic 3D‘s music on,” Burton further explains. “I’m preserving it here. After the fires last year and new ones nearby recently, I would hate this demo to be lost forever.”
Here are some of the other tracks which have been uploaded in order to preserve them:
Never heard demo version of Green Alley Zone Act 1 music. It’s called Green Alley Zone as that what the level was going to be called early on in development. It was later changed to Green Grove Zone.
Never heard demo version of Casino Night Zone Act 1 music. It’s called Casino Night Zone as that what the level was going to be called early on in development. It was later changed to Spring Stadium Zone.
Never heard demo version of the Boss fight music. There are two versions, one with a minor key intro and one with a major key intro.
And finally, a few short snippets that include long and short versions of the opening, as well as Power Up music:
GameHut has been operating on YouTube since Aug. 30, 2017, and has amassed quite a few neat things for those who like discarded and behind-the-scenes elements of video games. For the Sonic fan, there’s also some Sonic R stuff available, so head over and check out their archive!
