Sonic Heroes/Beta elements

This article pertains to the beta elements of Sonic Heroes.

Formation quotes
In the game, each character would mention the team formation that is needed to be in control at different points. However, in the game files, some voice clips indicate that they were going to mention the formation by calling out the teammates' original names.

Unused Eggman/Neo Metal Sonic's quotes
There are quotes that were supposed to be used by Neo Metal Sonic during Robot Storm or Robot Carnival. All of them are insult to each team:
 * "Try coming back in about a million years"
 * "Team Sonic? You must be joking!"
 * "Without me, Team Dark is nothing but a bunch of buffoons!"
 * "Rragh! This is no place for little girls or a big fat cat!"
 * "You call yourselves "detectives"? Just run along now."

Final Fortress' lasers
In the game files, there are comments explaining how the lasers work in Final Fortress. These quotes state that the colored lasers fire along the rail of the same color, even though all rails are in the same color. In addition, there are comments about the rails lightning up.

Japanese leftovers
Two unused Japanese voice clips for Shadow can be found in the English voice files:
 * "That hedgehog..."
 * "I see. I guess there's nothing left to do but listen, then."

Weights and Klagens
Every character that is caught under a Weight will say something to describe what they feel when getting slapped by this gimmick. However, the lines they say are different from some written in the game files. This difference also goes when caught by Klagens.

Omochao gates
In the game files, there are hidden lines about a gate that belongs to Omochao. However, nothing like that exist in gameplay.

Team Battles
In Battle, each opposing team can use Team Blast without any specific time limits. However, in the game files, each team seem to know when their opponents will use their Team Blast, and will order their teammates to take down one of the opponents to stop the move. This is rather pointless, as it will not prevent the Team Blast.

In the game files, there are also unused quotes for all the characters, beside the Speed Type characters, that describe what they feel about the battle.

Invisible Metal Sonic
According to some quotes in the game files, Metal Sonic was supposed to have some invisibility power:
 * Knuckles: Where'd he go?
 * Sonic: He's gone!
 * Tails: Watch out everybody!
 * Espio: Even when he's invisible, he'll briefly appear when he attacks! Play close attention so you can locate his position!

Team Chaotix and Team Rose's Stages
Both Team Rose and Chaotix have shortened versions of Team Sonic and Team Dark's Stages. However, in the game file, the user can find several lines said by both teams. These lines can also be discovered through glitches that allow the player to reach more sections of these stages.

Room full of doors
Some comments refer to a room full of doors and a switch in Mystic Mansion. However, none of these descriptions fits such an area in the final game.

Charmy goes alone
There are some clips that indicate that there was supposed to be sections in Rail Canyon where Charmy has to leave his teammates behind:
 * "If they can't come over here, then I guess I'm on my own!"
 * "Wonder if that switch did anything? Maybe I should check!"

Team Rose being shot
There are some comments that Team Rose were meant to say after being shot out of the second cannon in Bullet Station. However, that part does not belong in the final game. To top it all off, Amy's voice clip is empty:
 * Big: Wow, that was scary!
 * Cream: Yes it was!

Original Tornado Jump abilities
Amy and Espio had their original tornado jump ablities when the game was under development. These were replaced with their own tornado jump attacks after the developers came up with the ideas of Tornado Hammer for Amy and Leaf Swirl for Espio. The tornadoes also play the following voice sound effects that go to these attacks:

Amy Rose wall cling
While the game was under development, Amy was able to cling on walls with the Triangle Jump with the running animation being used. However, the developers decided to revoke Amy's Triangle Jump maneuver in the final game.

Amy and Espio's Light Speed Dash
While Sonic and Shadow have this in their moveset, the light speed dash move was locked for the other two speed character's movesets maneuver in the final game. Like with Amy's wall cling, the running animation was used as a filter to prevent the game from crashing.

Unused enemies
Renders for the Unidus and the spiked balls used by it is present in the game files.

Metal Madness
When fighting Metal Madness, the Hint Ring at the right makes Team Rose say that the boss will shoot fire if you grab his right arm. There is also an early image for the PlayStation 2 version of the game which shows that Metal Madness was originally going to have a white lower body.

Characters renders
There are some early renders for most of the characters used in the cutscenes of the game. Found at Vision Scape's website, the company responsible for the creation of Sonic Heroes' CGI.

Characters

 * In the Alpha version of Sonic Heroes, there are several color schemes that differ from the final version. For Big, his belt buckle is black, and for Eggman in Robot Carnival, his goggles and eyes are white.

Seaside Hill

 * In the Alpha version of Sonic Heroes, playable characters have no shadows, unlike the enemies.
 * Some images from the Alpha version show Team Rose doing their victory pose at where Team Dark and Team Sonic finish their versions of the Stages, despite Team Rose's Stage ending much earlier than that in the final version.

Special Stages

 * In the early Alpha version of the game, the Special Stages were far from finished, being graphically incomplete and only had the basic formations done.
 * The Special Stages lack the water effect surrounding the courses which the final version has.
 * The Alpha images for the prototype of the game's Xbox version show that Sonic the Hedgehog's Formation Leader icon had the Nintendo GameCube's button, hinting either an error or a placeholder icon.
 * Team Sonic appear heavily shadowed for no reason.

Flower Festival

 * In the Alpha version of Sonic Heroes, Team Rose's Flower Festival lacks the petals and flowers display.

Seaside Hill

 * In the earliest video for Sonic Heroes, the Formation Signals for Fly Types have a wing on them. In the final game, the wings are replaced with the word "FLY".
 * Several Formation Signals were removed from the final version.
 * The first part of Team Sonic's version of this Stage is littered with unbreakable containers and several Dash Rings. In the final version, the unbreakable containers are replaced with wooden containers and the several Dash Rings were removed.
 * Team Rose's Stage originally had more areas to explore.
 * In the final game, Team Dark's final stretch to the Goal Ring is blocked and requires the usage of Dash Rings to pass over. In the early version of the game, this stretch of the Stage is more similar to Team Sonic's version. Several platforms have also been altered from the early version on the game.
 * In the early version of the game, the enemies' health bars were without a speech bubble.
 * In the early version of Team Chaotix's Stage, the player could reach the outmost areas of Seaside Hill like many of the other teams could. Their Stage also originally included some sections from Team Dark's version.

Ocean palace

 * In the early images for the game, Team Rose would begin Ocean Palace from the same starting point as Team Sonic.

Power Plant

 * Some prototype images for Sonic Heroes show the Power Plant with black clouds in the background. However, these clouds were corrected in other images.

Rail Canyon

 * In the final game, when the track breaks apart near the end of the Stage, Team Rose fights two Egg Pawns. In an early video for the game, they fight three Flappers.
 * Parts of Team Dark's Stage where the player would have to use a Fan was added to Team Rose's version in the early game. However, in the final version, Team Rose's stage ends before the player can reach it.
 * This screenshot, released on 28 August 2003, shows a lot of minor things that have been changed from the final version. Firstly, the Speed Formation Signal has a Power Sneaker icon on it instead of the word "SPEED", similar to how the Fly Formation Signal originally included a wing. Secondly, the Flapper is red instead of green. Also, the second alternate route through this section is missing.

Hang Castle

 * In the original version of Hang Castle, the player has to find 181 keys. In the final version, the player only has to collect ten Castle Keys in each mission. It is unknown if the object is still a "Key" or another item.

Prototype E3 cutscenes
Several changes were made to the game's cutscenes between the final version and the prototype version shown at E3:
 * In an early video from e3.sega.com, the sequence with Eggman bobbing his head while pointing is lacking the machinery and robots found in the final version.
 * Another video shows Sonic running through a Green Hill-esque area. In the final version, the checker pattern textures were changed to those of the first Stage.

General differences

 * If a player has not done anything for about thirty seconds, it will be forced to be sent back to the title screen via the "Coming Soon" screen.
 * Sonic and Shadow's tornadoes have slower animation and the trails extend when Tornado Jump is used on an enemy.
 * The tornado used for Leaf Swirl and Tornado Hammer are blue colored and was left unused since Team Sonic is the only playable team for the build. The codes to play as other characters were found on the GameCube E3 build by a researcher and can be used using the codes posted on the [//forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=33359&view=findpost&p=857156 Sonic Retro thread].
 * Because the game did not have complete voice overs at the time of E3, there was no chatter between the characters, and any Hint Ring would just show the text with a blue semitransparent rectangle surrounding it. The text is different in the final game, and the blue rectangle was deleted.
 * Because there are no Power Cores in the E3 build, the Level-Up indicators do not appear on the characters' icons. Also, whenever the player passes a checkpoint, they would receive an item. For example, when passing with Sonic, the player got High Speed and when passing with Knuckles, the player would get a Barrier.
 * The blue box was created for the interface to make the subtitle text easier to read.
 * The Balloon-shaped Item Boxes are much smaller in the demo than in the final version.
 * On the city levels (which crashes when accessed using a code), there are several model and texture differences (for example, the cloud texture quality is lower).

Seaside Hill

 * At the very beginning of Seaside Hill, three Dash Rings would appear after a Fly Formation Change Gate, which would let the player fly to the top of a small hill. The final game does not include this.
 * In the final version of the game, there are two flat platforms in Team Sonic's version when they first run into the Egg Pawns. The E3 demo does not have these platforms.
 * In the E3 demo, there are three Rainbow Rings in the first section of Seaside Hill which can be used to take a higher route. In the final version of the game, they were replaced with a Dash Ring and a stone step
 * In the middle of the Stage, where the split beaches can be found, there are nothing on the first beach except for a Cannon. In the final version of the game, columns and Egg Pawns were added.
 * In the last part of Seaside Hill on the final version of the game, there would be an additional platform right in front of the arena and four breakable blocks. In the E3 demo, the platform is missing and there are only two blocks..

Rail Canyon

 * Several Badniks and platforms in the final version of the game were not included in the E3 demo.

Bullet Station

 * The sky and the geometry is completely different from the final release as it only contains the rail collision on the bottom of the concrete train properties.

Egg Hawk Boss

 * The rings and the breakable tower objects have not been placed and whenever a shrinking Sonic head transition occurs, the game will crash.

Camera
The camera is not fully functional in a few minor places and tends to get slightly locked in some instances. This does not occur everywhere, but it is noticeable, as the angle becomes awkward. In some places, the camera is a tad different too, being closer to the characters, almost as if the no pre-scripted camera was present.

Menu/Data

 * The default language in this prototype is Japanese. However, the player can select English and others languages from the game menu.
 * The Menu navigation is pretty strange. For most menus, it is a one-way, linear navigation unlike the free-form navigation in the final game. For the main menus, the player can only use up and down despite there being options to move left and right.
 * In Challenge Mode, each character is in a completely neutral stance with blank expressions, and sometimes messes up.
 * The Stages and bosses are separated.
 * Finishing a Stage in Challenge Mode brings the player back to the start-up sequence, making it impossible to access the Bonus Challenges and Emerald Challenges, thus making Metal Madness and Metal Overlord impossible to access.
 * Emblems have a very different, unfinished and unpolished look to them.
 * "Special Stages" gives the player emblems. Also, the timer the player has is significantly larger than in the final game, and the amount of points that are gained from some actions is significantly larger than in the final game. The layouts are also quite different. However, "Emerald Challenges" seem unchanged.
 * Some of the translations, particularly in the main menu, sometimes showed bad grammar in other languages.
 * The game would display glitching and unfinished save/load slots.
 * The names of the videos are already unlocked. In the final story, they are called "???" if not unlocked. However, the videos are present on the CD.
 * The audio menu is partially in English and fully unlocked. However, the tunes do not work.

Team Rose

 * Power Plant is much longer and ends at the bottom of the energy storage tank with a key behind the Goal Ring.
 * Ocean Palace starts off where Team Sonic and Team Dark start off.
 * The Team Blast for this team is slightly different. It is shorter, the animation is slightly different and it sounds slightly off compared to the final version.
 * There are several layout changes in their Stages.

Team Chaotix

 * In Lost Jungle, there are only fifteen Chao, not twenty, even though the objective list states there are twenty. The counter also says "x/15".
 * The designers had not yet closed off the natural ending for Team Chaotix in Lost Jungle, allowing the team to get to Team Sonic and Team Dark's ending areas, but with a Back Ring instead of the regular Goal Ring.
 * In Seaside Hill, the layout is quite different and the crabs are in different locations. The player also cannot complete the Extra Mission, as there are only nineteen crabs. There is also an end to Seaside Hill based on Team Sonic's path if the player passes the last Warp Flower.
 * In Ocean Palace, the Warp Flowers do not exist, allowing the player to enter the turtle section. There are a lot of enemies, albeit they only come in two types. Also, some objects are missing.
 * In Grand Metropolis, the final Warp Flower acts as a Back Ring, and there are only 84 enemies, not 85.
 * In Bullet Station, the cannon does not work, but if the player dies, the capsules reset, allowing the player to finish the Stage anyways.
 * Chaotix Recital is longer compared to the final PAL/NTSC-U release, matching the NTSC-J version of the final release.

Other differences

 * Bobsleds are not fully properly implemented in this version.
 * Super Hard Mode contains an almost blank Seaside Hill which is believed to have no object layout; not even the Goal Ring is present, making completion impossible.
 * Some Dash Panels are lower than in the final game. They almost look like part of the ground itself, rather than machines placed on the ground.
 * Flowers look different, and their opening animation looks mechanical and unnatural.
 * Certain lines that were taken out of the final version are present in this version, such as the explanation for using Big the Cat's umbrella.
 * Scoring is a lot more strict than in the final version, making an A Rank much more difficult.
 * The game may crash upon entering the "Soundtrack Select" on the real hardware in some cases.
 * Robot Storm plays the "Faker" music from Sonic Adventure 2.
 * Camerons can only be killed from certain angles by some of the Power Type characters, due to a bug.
 * During the Metal Madness boss battle, the clouds enter the playing field, unlike in the final version. In the very last battle, there are not any clouds in the death animation at all.
 * Metal Madness' voice is unfinished/unfiltered. The boss can also glitch if defeated by Chaos Inferno.
 * Cutscenes have awkward stripes at the bottom of the screen.
 * During the Metal Overlord boss battle, the player starts with 100 Rings. This fight may or may not load, depending on game's settings. The characters also say a phrase that is only achieved for the "A" rank for the Egg Emperor in the final game.
 * Even when the Japanese language is selected, there are some lines the characters say in English.
 * When the player goes out of range for the objects registered by the game and then back into range, all the objects will re-spawn.
 * The tint for the rain effect when a Giant Frog is summoned is different.
 * It is possible to use a Warp Flower as Charmy without needing to stand on the flower. This is done by hitting it from the side as it is opening.
 * The paths in Grand Metropolis and Power Plant are not working perfectly and will even slow the player down rather than speeding him/her up.
 * The Egg Emperor is harder while the Power Cores easy to get, in some cases being placed right in front of the player's start position. Also, the Thunder Shoot does not stick to the Egg Emperor, its animations are very short, it is very fast and the collision boxes for its attacks are noticeably larger.
 * Some limbs for Shadow the Hedgehog seem to be made from his parts in Sonic Adventure 2.
 * Triangle Dive seems to be faster than in the final version.

Gamecube's Sonic Heroes Prototype 11.18

 * The debug menu is accessible by pressing L+R buttons at the same time.
 * The title screen looks similar to that for the E3 Demo released on the Xbox.
 * All the music and CGI cutscenes are unlocked from the beginning.
 * Inside the game, some of the music is changed. For example, Mystic Mansion is missing a guitar while some of the Versus mode tracks are WIP tracks.
 * The Blue Tornado and Black Tornado cannot be canceled.
 * In Team Chaotix's Seaside Hill, the platform with the block and Spring in the first Cannon area has not been removed yet. The player can see it in Team Sonic's Seaside Hill.

Sonic Heroes/Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Bonus Disc
As a reward for pre-ordering "Mario Kart: Double Dash!!", customers received a bonus disc containing demos and videos of various upcoming games. One demo was Sonic Heroes, which contained some differences from the final version.
 * There are only two teams and two Stages playable: Team Sonic (Seaside Hill) and Team Dark (Bullet Station).
 * Some sounds are different, and Omega's voice is not filtered.
 * The subtitles use linear dodge alpha instead of regular, and its drop shadow is invisible.
 * Some Stage objects have been rearranged.
 * The opening lacks sound effects.
 * "PRESS START BUTTON" was changed to "Press START" in the final release.
 * The title screen lacks "Licensed By Nintendo".

Prototype music
Early revisions of the songs in Sonic Heroes popped up on the internet before the game was released:
 * Early version of "Sonic Heroes".
 * Early version of "What I'm Made of...".