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Sonic
and Tails Rumor
Dispelling the widespread tales of Sonic
and Tails characters in Melee...
Sonic
the Hedgehog
Screenshot from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle |
If I had one dollar for every e-mail that I've
received concerning Sonic and Tails in Smash Bros Melee, I'd be a
very rich man... Your quick answer: Sonic and Tails are NOT characters
that can be earned in Melee. |
Tails
Screenshot from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle |
In the April 2002 edition of EGM, players were
told that they could unlock Sonic and Tails in Melee. There was a
daunting task required to earn these two characters from Sonic The
Hedgehog: It was stated that they could both be unlocked by defeating
20 challengers in the 1-Player mode's Cruel Melee. However, countless
players accomplished this challenging feat only to find that Sonic
and Tails were not unlocked. |
Anyone familiar with Goldeneye 007 probably
knows of the infamous 'All Bonds' cheat. The former James Bond actors, Sean
Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton were playable characters at one
time during the development of Goldeneye 007. They were apparently removed
for legal reasons. The character select photos of these Bonds were left
in the game's memory, and were discovered by Gameshark hackers.
After Goldeneye was released (and the 'All Bonds' characters had been removed),
EGM published the requirements needed to earn the "All Bonds" cheat. The
method of earning this final 24th cheat was supposedly to complete the Aztec
level on 007 difficulty - with the enemy settings at 100%. Needless to say,
this was no easy task to accomplish. Later on, we learned that it was all
just an April Fool's joke. One that many player's believed to be true, even
after finding out that it was just a fake code.
Brosnan,
Connery, Moore, and Dalton
Gameshark Screenshot from Goldeneye 007 |
The strange thing, is that EGM based the 'All
Bonds' Goldeneye rumor on something that had a little bit of truth
to it... Those former James Bond actors were actually in the game
before it was completed. They were removed before the public could
get a chance to see them. A few screenshots, and those character photos
are all we really have of them. |
But could EGM have based this Sonic and Tails
rumor on a partial truth? SEGA's Sonic Adventure 2: Battle was released
exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. Is it possible that Sonic and Tails
were actually characters intended to be found in Melee? There are two
empty spaces on the character select screen, even after you've unlocked
everyone. Plus, EGM based the 'All Bonds' rumor on something that was
in Goldeneye at one time. So, it's not completely far-fetched that Sonic
and Tails may have been considered as possible Melee characters during
the game's development. Of course, this is just my own speculation, and
I'm in no way saying that it's true. Just some food for thought...
I've been asked many times about the actual
magazine article that first boasted that Sonic and Tails were hidden characters
to be unlocked in Melee. So, I've finally decided to post the piece that
started it all. This publishing of this little bit of misinformation sure
has led to one hell of a lot of messages in my mailbox, and is pretty
much the equal to Goldeneye's "All Bonds" cheat, a rumor that
was started by the same magazine...
Click for a larger view
Something else that I decided to post here,
was this fake screenshot of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Corneria stage.
I'm not positive who sent it in, but it's been sitting on my hard drive
for years. It's purely fictitious, but it's really well done. Seems as
if it was made for entertainment value only, judging by the great big
"FAKE" watermark on it... Unless someone found it and decided
to label it themselves.
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