An unfinished build of the Sonic fangame Sonic & The Moon Facility has been released online, letting players experience a mostly playable version of the cancelled project.
If you cast your mind back to August 2023, you may remember hearing about the promising upcoming Sonic fangame, when it was initially revealed at Kaze Emanuar's F3 2023 games presentation. Described at the time as "Classic Sonic meets Mega Man Zero 3" and a "quasi-sequel" to the fanmade Sonic and the Fallen Star, the game was being developed by a small team of passionate developers, led by the individual StarDrop, and was an incredibly stylish project that had many people in the Sonic fan community excited.
However, it was eventually cancelled back in February 2024, reportedly due to "behind-the-scenes issues that demotivated everyone involved", with the team later going on to work on original projects.
Rather than letting all that good work go to waste, though, the team behind the project has recently taken it upon themselves to publish a final build of the game to the public last week, allowing people to experience a version of the game, albeit not "the original vision" the developers had initially set out to make. This version of the game is playable from start to finish as Sonic but also lets you play some of the main campaign as Tails.
Here's the description of the game, provided by the developers:
"Sonic and The Moon Facility is a 2D Sonic fangame that follows Sonic and Tails on an adventure to discover the secrets of a mysteriously reactivated research facility.
This build includes all the levels in the game, however only SONIC can complete the main campaign of the game. Debug tools will unlock once you beat the game, or if you know how to access them already."
If you're interested in trying it out, you can download the game now from GameJolt.