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Sonic Ride is an unreleased arcade ride made by Sega where the ride-goer would get a feeling of running alongside Sonic during a typical level, in 3D CG. The ride itself was never released, but the video which would play during the ride was released as an extra on Sonic Jam. GamePro accidentally mistook images from the video as the first released images of Knuckles' Chaotix in an article of one of its issues. Parts of the video were also used in a music video for "They Call Me Sonic".
Sonic Ride was also unveiled in an interview with Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima in an issue of Saturn Power.
The Ride
After briefly drifting through a casino-themed area designated as the Casino Zone from midair, the camera will land on a pinball table and head towards the drain. Suddenly however, Sonic will appear in front of the camera and run towards it in an area resembling Green Hill Zone. The camera then switches perspective to behind Sonic, who takes the right turn at a fork in the road in a forest/jungle area. Sonic will then run down and up a hill before arriving at another fork in the road, which is in front of a high-tech city. The camera then changes to a first person perspective from Sonic's perspective, as he runs through the Green Hill Zone-like area again. While running, Sonic dodges a Buzz Bomber and bounces off a red Spring. While high up in the air, the viewer gets a overhead shot of the Zone. Eventually landing on the ground, the camera (still set in a first person perspective) will follow Sonic as he runs around a loop before running into a rocky canyon. There, the camera follow Sonic as he jumps between the walls while dodging startled-looking Moto Bugs.
After this scene, the camera changes to a telescope view of Sonic running towards it. The camera then shows that the telescopic view was shown through a telescope belonging to Dr. Robotnik, who is looking through it. The camera then zooms further out and reveals that standing next to Robotnik is an Eggman Empire-emblazoned contraption that is meant to drop a two hundred ton stone weight on Sonic. Putting the telescope down, Robotnik walks over to his contraption's trigger lever and takes another look through his telescope. The camera then shows the telescope view again while Sonic runs straight towards the camera. Excited and in a hurry, Robotnik throws his telescope away and immediately pulls his contraption's trigger lever. As he does that however, Sonic runs past Robotnik and the contraption, leaving a brown trail of dust in his wake and making Robotnik and his contraption spin out of control. After both the contraption and Robotnik move back and forth a few times, a dizzy Robotnik regains his balance and strikes a pose, only for his contraption's weight to fall down on him and crush him into a pancake.
