Hi everyone,
In light of this week’s presentation on modding, I thought I would make a discussion post about a Japanese developer that is receptive to mods and an example of modding where modders essentially fixed a broken game (similar to Grand Prix Legends).
While it is true that Japanese developers in general do not support modding, SEGA has typically been receptive of mods (and fan games) in relation to Sonic the Hedgehog series.
SEGA has almost always allowed fans to mod or create fan games so long as profits are not being made from the game. SEGA has worked with fan creators before regarding porting games or even making new games as well. SEGA’s stance on modding has been especially helpful considering at times Sonic games release as buggy messes. A prime example of this is the game: Sonic The Hedgehog (more commonly referred to as Sonic 06) which is known for being a complete mess of a game.
Sonic 06 originally released in 2006 and is infamous for how badly the game functions. Sonic 06 is riddled with bugs, has very long load times and numerous glitches that force players to reset the game. Many of the games mechanics barely worked or did not work at all. For example, in Sonic 06 there are scripted sections in which the player should not have to press any buttons, and Sonic should follow a scripted sequence (almost like a cutscene). However, it was common in the game for Sonic to not follow the scripted sequence and often run off the platform during the sequence and cost the player a life. Players also often found themselves soft-locked in the game as well, resulting in players having to restart the game and lose their progress.
Sonic 06 was supposed to be an ambitious project making use of the new hardware at the time (PS3 and Xbox 360) introducing new characters and mechanics to the Sonic franchise but it did not live up to the hype. Sonic 06 is comparable to Cyberpunk 2077 on release (although probably not as bad) however, unlike Cyberpunk, Sonic 06 was never fixed properly by the developer.
Recently however, a fan mod for Sonic 06 (called Sonic P-06) was completed which fixed basically all the issues the original game had. Most if not all the bugs are gone, loading issues have been fixed and many of the broken game mechanics have been either fixed or improved. The mod also added new features as well as many quality of life changes to make the game an overall better experience for players. Nearly 2 decades later Sonic P-06 has shown fans what Sonic 06 could have been if it lived up to the hype. As the creators of the mod are not trying to profit from it, it is unlikely that SEGA will try to take the mod down. If anything, its possible SEGA may try to work with the mods creators in an attempt to remaster Sonic 06 on modern hardware.
If anyone has played Sonic 06 or has similar stories of modders fixing broken games please share them in the comments.
Thank you for reading!
Sources:
https://www.ign.com/articles/sega-is-mostly-okay-with-sonic-fan-games
https://codcourier.org/sonic-p-06-a-fans-bold-redemption-of-sonic-06/
https://www.engadget.com/2019-12-11-sonic-p-06-unity-pc-fan-remake.html
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Gamemods fixing broken games is a fascinating subject because they fix well designed older and modern games to be playable on a wide range of hardware. However, modding mechanically bad games to be great is something that is difficult to find (but still exists). I frequently mod games to fit what I consider to be my subjective optimal/ideal game-play experience but most of the time those games were already good.
If you consider Fallout 3/NV on PC, the game would crash on PC due to bugs and optimization issues which require mods to fix and improve. Another example is Base Dark Souls Prepare To Die edition on PC which was visually unplayable without the mod DSFix to improve the graphical options (resolution stuck at 720p, fps locked at 30 among other settings one would want to change). This was later fixed with the remaster. Nier Automata with its PC port required the FAR mod to improve it for running on all types of hardware configurations (fixes rendering, resolution, load times and, other issues). Most Yakuza games require some form of modding to make their PC port run better in patches called silent patch. Sonic 06 isn’t even the first time sonic games needed a mod to fix key issues, the PC port of Sonic DX drastically reduced features and design decisions from the dreamcast requiring a collection of mods called BetterSADX.
Its hard for me to think of mods that fix games that were broken/disliked due to mechanics like Sonic 06 into forms of higher enjoyment. Often times, there needs to be love for a videogame or series IP for a modding community to form to improve the title. While I haven’t played this mod, the less popular Zelda 2 has a mod called Zelda 2 redux that fixes the difficulty (which was a massive jump from 1 to 2). Outside of niche cases in with games for designed
If I consider mods that elevate already great games to be even better, Elden Ring Seamless coop improved an already great game with a much desired enhanced cooperative mod. Videogames are filled with VR mods for a different experience (especially those developed in the new Unreal Engine as its easier to port to VR). There are texture remaster mods for titles like Resident evil 4 (2005), mechanic modernizing mods like brutal doom or content enhancement mods in Slay the Spire. All these mods come from a base game that was loved by fans and improved. Sonic 06 benefited from the Sonic IP to attract the need for improvement similar to Zelda 2. Without that love of an IP or game, the modders likely wouldn’t come to improve.
So in sum, most mods I experience are those that keep loved base games alive on PC hardware or improve/enhance already good gameplay. Sonic has an IP beloved by fans where I see development on even fangames to fix issues with older sonic games like Sonic and the Secret Rings (Project Reignition). As you say, Sega is one of the most open companies on how it handles the IP of mods and I think they will continue to utilize the passion of non-Sega developers like Christian Whitehead, a developer of Sonic Mania and fangame/remaster creator.
Sam Honer
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the detailed response!
It’s really cool that you mod games yourself! As someone who plays almost exclusively on consoles I am unfamiliar with how hard something like that is.
It is really interesting that PC ports of games released by big developers like Square Enix (with Nier Automata) and SEGA (for the Yakuza series) require the fans to mod the games for the games to play optimally. One would think developers such as these would have the resources to provide adequate ports for their games. Even somewhat recently with the PC releases of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Elden Ring big developers (like Square Enix and Fromsoft) released their games in poorly optimized states for PC.
Sonic DX is an interesting case because it showed that SEGA knew how to make a 3D sonic game that was not riddled with unfun bugs that worsened the players enjoyment. Yet Sonic 06 turned out the way it did likely because of SEGA being to ambitious and rushing the release of the game.
I totally agree, if Sonic did not have such a large fan base, no one likely would have wanted to put the effort into fixing Sonic 06. I recently learned about Project Reignition and was very surprised by it, mostly because Sonic and the Secret Rings is not a popular game even among Sonic fans (to my knowledge). It also does not have a similar infamous status as Sonic 06 for being something that could have been great had SEGA spent more time with it.
Hi Reese,
Very interesting article! This reminds me of the mods made for Persona 3 Reloaded where the female protagonist from P3P was brought back in. Fans are very much behind the project and I have not heard of any legal action taken to stop projects like this for Persona. I wonder Atlus being under Sega has any influence on the franchise’s attitudes on modding as well.
Hi Clara,
That’s a good point. I also wonder how much modding of persona games has increased since they were only released on PC in recent years. I do remember Persona games receiving mods before they had PC releases but I’m sure modding those games has become easier with their PC releases.