Untitled Sonic Fangame is a fast new take on classic 2D Sonic

Untitled Sonic Fangame looks familiar at first. Sonic runs, jumps, grabs rings and tears through colourful 2D stages at high speed. Give it a few minutes, though, and the differences start stacking up. This isn’t trying to copy one specific Mega Drive Sonic game. Instead, developer LiquaFusion has built a faster and more flexible movement system around the old formula. Sonic can air dash, homing attack, wall jump and use several other tricks that give the player much more control once he’s left the ground. The result still feels like Sonic, but the way you move through a level is noticeably different. The project has been in development since 2022 and currently exists as a Windows demo made in GameMaker. It’s still unfinished, but the available build already shows what the game is aiming for.

Sonic has far more control in the air

Classic Sonic games rely heavily on momentum. You build speed, hit a slope, launch into the air and deal with whatever comes next. Untitled Sonic Fangame keeps that basic idea, but it gives you more ways to react.

The air dash is one of the biggest changes. You can use it to adjust Sonic’s position after a jump, push forward, gain a little extra height or get back towards the ground. It sounds simple, but it makes a big difference once the levels start asking you to combine several movements in quick succession. There’s also a homing attack for dealing with enemies and reaching certain areas, while wall jumping opens another option when a normal jump isn’t enough.

Even the spin dash works a little differently. Rather than simply hammering the button to build power, it uses several charge levels. That makes the move easier to read and gives you a clearer idea of how much speed you’re about to release. You quickly stop playing it exactly like a traditional Sonic game.

Energy stops you from spamming every move

All that extra freedom comes with a limit. Several actions use an energy meter. Jumping, rolling and chaining certain moves can drain it, while staying grounded gives it time to recover. You can’t simply mash every ability forever.

That creates an interesting rhythm. Sometimes the fastest option isn’t to keep attacking the controls. You may need to land, regain some energy and then start another sequence. It’s a small system, but it changes how you think about movement. Instead of treating every jump as a separate action, you’re often planning several moves ahead.

The camera gives you more room to think

The camera also sits farther away from Sonic than you’d expect from the 16-bit games. That wider view isn’t just cosmetic. Sonic can cross the screen very quickly here, especially when dashes and aerial moves enter the mix. Showing more of the level gives you extra time to spot platforms, enemies and alternate routes before reaching them.

The HUD also stays closer to Sonic rather than sitting permanently in a traditional corner position. It keeps important information within your immediate field of view, which makes sense when you’re constantly watching the character’s position. It’s a different way of presenting a 2D Sonic stage, and it suits the faster movement system.

Familiar Sonic ideas are still here

Despite all the changes, this hasn’t abandoned the basics. Rings still protect Sonic from taking a direct hit. Enemies still sit along the main routes. Springs, slopes and platforming sections still shape how you move through each stage. Dr Robotnik is once again causing trouble, with Sonic and Tails caught up in another hunt involving the Chaos Emeralds.

The game doesn’t spend much time stopping for dialogue. Story moments are kept fairly visual, so the pace stays focused on movement and action. There are familiar power-ups too, although some have slightly different roles. Invincibility lets Sonic ignore enemy damage for a short time, while a lightning shield provides protection and attracts nearby rings.

One of the more unusual abilities slows down the action around Sonic while he continues moving normally. It gives you extra reaction time during tricky sections and fits surprisingly well with a game built around very fast movement.

A compact PC fangame with its own ideas

Untitled Sonic Fangame is currently available as a downloadable Windows build. The game uses GameMaker and requires DirectX, while the download itself is relatively small compared with most modern PC releases. The current version remains a demo, so it’s best viewed as a work in progress rather than a finished platformer. Even so, the core direction is already easy to understand.

LiquaFusion isn’t just rebuilding classic Sonic physics and dropping them into new stages. The project changes how much control you have, how quickly you can correct mistakes and how often you can chain movement together. That’s what separates it from a straight retro recreation.

Untitled Sonic Fangame still has the rings, speed, slopes and side-scrolling structure people associate with Sonic. The difference is what happens between those familiar pieces. More air control, wall movement, an energy meter and a wider camera turn the basic formula into something faster and more hands-on. It’s still Sonic at its core. It just gives your fingers a lot more to do.

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