Fan Works

SAGE Highlight: Sonic Axiom

When browsing through the forums earlier, I noticed a new link in forum member Mercury‘s signature where he linked to a post on his blog reviewing several of the games presented at this year’s Sonic Amateur Games Expo. Among the games he gave feedback on, he praised one heavily in particular–Sonic Axiom, one of the later entries into the expo, having appeared on the second day of the event as opposed to on its premier; as a result, I–and assumedly others–ended up missing out on this little underrated gem. By his suggestion, I decided to give it a shot.

What I found after a few hours of play was an extremely solid fan game that, despite its issues, was graphically stunning (despite its re-use of existing Sonic level graphics), fun to play and–most importantly–complete. Or, well, as complete as it can get as a work in progress.

Featuring 5 fully playable levels, some pretty great level design, fantastic music choices ranging from remixes to original music, and a mix of familiar and innovative level tropes and gimmicks, Sonic Axiom does what few fan games seem to accomplish these days–pure, completely unadulterated fun, totally in the Sonic spirit.

The abundance of one-level demos in the history of the Sonic fan-gaming scene has proven to be both underwhelming and tiring over the years; Axiom delivers by offering the experience of a full game despite not having even reached completion yet! I felt that I could fully appreciate the game having been given more than a fair taste of what its creators had to offer. While there are a few things that hold the game back–the use of the outdated and rather wonky Sonic Worlds engine, the poor performance of some of the additional level elements, the natural performance and space hogging of MMF/Game Maker games–Sonic Axiom provides a Sonic experience that many of us haven’t seen in a long, long time.

Check out Axiom‘s SAGE booth this year here, where you can download a playable demo of the game.

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12 Comments

  • Reply

    I played it, didn’t really feel it. Yeah some of the graphics looked cool and I liked some of the re use in the Cavern type level (Using HPZ styled rocks as well as the Endless Mine S3k level) However over all I didn’t like. I’ve never been a fan of the Sonic CD approach (or Sonic CD) and some of the physics really pissed me off.
    A lot of recent hacks have just sucked really. Sonic 2 XL is the only good hack this year. The rest are all just trashy mishmashy pieces of crap. Not saying I could make a better one as I can’t make hacks, but I could sure as hell design and think of better ideas. The only hack I’m looking forward to is the Sonic 3 and Knuckles New Lease Of Life.

    • Reply

      It’s not a hack, just so you know. That is all.

      • Reply

        It’s still shit.

        • Reply

          And I didn’t actually call it a hack, I just said that a lot of them recently have sucked.

  • Reply

    The download link nearly gave me a virus. Luckily, I didn’t fall for the malware trick and deleted the program correctly. BE CAREFUL!!!

  • Reply

    “Download Limit reached” 🙁

    On both links. Anyone have a mirror?

  • Reply

    Damn, as above, both links are dead. Please can someone give a new link.

    Thanks

  • Reply

    The topic in the sage forums seems to have a mirror in it.
    http://sonicfangameshq.com/forum/showthread.php?s=ba34e3c4fe5af62e445362bf5ba16457&t=6572

    Thanks “Overbound” 🙂

  • Reply

    I liked it. Things that need work are the physics, the enemies, and the bosses. The enimies are kinda boring, they all just go back-and-forth, and the bosses seem alittle choppy in how they move.

  • Reply

    Despite some glitches and flaws and obvious needs work and improvement parts to the game I think it is really well done and has a lot of potential and a lot going for it. The music is pretty good, and I love the level designs especially Neon Night Zone, I think that one along with Volcano Meltdown or whatever it was called are my favorites. The game isn’t finished its just a demo so I think its kind of unfair to hate on some of the obvious issues that need improvement because its not the final product. I also like how he made his own type of flowers for each level and thought Neon Night Zone looked really beautiful and the catching the 1ups was portion was a lot of fun.

  • Reply

    This game looks beaut! Good work on that front! It does handle like shit though so unless you’re a toilet cleaner, it will feel odd.

  • Reply

    Despite its flaws – Being on Sonic Worlds. I have to give this an overall 8/10.
    It needs a lttle more refinement in the art and music, and it will be a really good game. Maybe a few more levels.

    I have to ask though. Who is man enough to port this to the Megadrive or Mega-CD? 😛

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