Sonic and religion barely, if ever, cross paths, but in the new Sonic 3 & Knuckles hack Hellfire Saga (as recently spotted by CD Romance_Spike), we see the blue hedgehog do battle against the infernal hordes of hell as he tries to escape back home to his home world.
The hack has been in development for over five years and came out at the end of last month. It is the work of Red Miso Studios, a group of enthusiasts and game developers from across the Sonic community.
Hellfire Saga takes advantage of art and assets from various games including Castlevania (Bloodlines, Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, Symphony of Night, Super ~ 4, Java), Ghosts 'n Goblins, Demon's Crest, and more. The soundtrack, meanwhile, is a combination of new, original tracks and covers. Together, all of this adds up to a surprisingly impressive experience, with intimidating boss fights, diverse stages, and a thumping metal soundtrack.
The hack's project lead Narcologer posted the following about the hack's release on SonicResearch.org:
"It's time for Hellfire Saga to be released after 5 years - and that time period is quite a saga in of itself.
In that time, the game has gone from an amateur little Sonic 3 and Knuckles hack to a full-fledged game project with a development history worthy of a whole book, with lots of time dedicated to the concept, development, audio and visuals.
Red Miso Studio finally opens a portal to the devil's frying pan... so try not to get fried in the first few minutes."
You can download the hack here. Something to note is that Red Miso recommends emulating the game in BlastEM, Genesis Plus GX, or Kega Fusion, or using real hardware, to avoid issues or glitches with emulation. You can watch a playthrough of it in action below: