Sonic Limited Edition: The Lost Cartridge is an Analog Horror series made by jordangaming101
, based on the original Sonic.exe creepypasta.
It tells the story of a very early build of an unreleased "Special Edition" of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). But as the episodes go on, things start having a turn for the worse.
The entire playlist for the series can be viewed here.
Tropes used in The Lost Cartridge:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: In the first season, Sonath used a text-to-speech voice to communicate with others, and the voice used struggles with pronouncing certain words. This is likely intentional, to add to the creepiness. The voice improves slightly for its brief use in "The One on The Phone", but speaks through text for the rest of the episode.
- Adaptational Name Change:
- Sonic.exe's name in the original story was X, and in ASTRANOMICONX's new canon, he's now called Xenophanes, but here, his name is Sonath, with a codename "Igel".
- Originally, the player of the Sonic.exe game with Tails, Knuckles and Eggman was called Tom, but here, he's called James Smith.
- In the original story, Tom's friend was named Kyle. But here, James' friend is called Ned Brooks.
- In the original Round 2 pasta, the cult that worshipped Sonic.exe was called the Cult of X and its leader was called Shannon Goldman, here however, the cult is called Church Of Igel, and the leader is now called Sarah Goldman.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original pasta, Knuckles couldn't even hit Sonic.exe before being killed, here however, he manages to score a couple hits on Sonath, at least before he starts teleporting.
- James, to a lesser extent. While he's still stupid enough to keep playing the obviously cursed game to the point Sonath is able to take his soul into the game, he's able to call Ned directly and more effectively warn him of the dangers of the game. He even manages something the original Tom couldn't, being able to actually make Sonath angry through outplaying him.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: In the game, all of the characters have alternate color palettes, so Tails is black, Knuckles and Silver are brown, Eggman wears a dark red outfit, Sally/Goldman is pale and blonde with a white version of Amy's dress, and Metal Sonic/James is red with green shoes. Of course, this is one of the first signs that things aren't what they seem.
- And I Must Scream: Interestingly, this happens to Eggman. Sonath warps him to an endless void in which he slowly fades from existence. His section of "The Hallway" ends with him falling to the floor, exhausted and admitting defeat with no way out, before disappearing for good.
- Bait-and-Switch: In "Scrapped In The Industry", once Knuckles enters the underwater section of Labyrinth Zone, Knuckles's oxygen depletes while the drowning theme starts sounding, given this is a Sonic.exe work, you'd expect Knuckles to not get out of the water on time and die drowned, yet seconds before that, he manages to rise to the surface and avoid dying drowned.
- Cessation of Existence: Eggman's fate in "The Hallway."
- Cruel Mercy: Sonath, as mentioned previously, spares Eggman from being ripped apart like Tails and Knuckles...and instead makes his death slow and miserable.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the first level in "Scrapped In The Industry", you can see Sonath flying nearby Knuckles for a second, this happens seconds before the scenario falls apart and Knuckles falls into the void.
- Insistent Terminology: As shown in "The One In The Phone", Sonath refers to interfering with his plans as "cheating".
- Madness Mantra: One appears in "The Hallway.""I can't remember."
- Neck Lift: Sonath does one of this on Eggman before switching to the "..." level in "The Hallway".
- Off with His Head! / Decapitation Presentation: During "Scrapped In The Industry", when Sonath teleports in front of Knuckles, you can see that he's holding Tails' severed head.
- Playing with Fire: In "The Island", Sonath uses his powers to burn down Angel Island, and unlike his canon counterpart, he does it on-screen.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Just like usual, except that instead of having black eyes with red pupils, this time Sonath has pink/bloodshot eyes with red irises. His eyes do switch to the signature "black eyes with red pupils" at the end of "The Hallway", but switch back when he attacks Eggman and when talking to James. They are still purple in "The One on The Phone", implying the black eyes in this continuity are more of a scare tactic.
- Religion of Evil: The Church Of Igel, a cult that worships Sonath like a god and helps him trap people inside his world.
- Shout-Out: Sarah Goldman's message at the end of "Initiation Tape" is a direct reference to Bob and Larry's message at the end of every episode of Veggietales."Igel made you special, and He loves you very much."
- Signed Up for the Dental: Frank suggests that the cookies the Church of Igel provides is the only reason why anybody joins.
- Something Only They Would Say: James briefly mentions "the sock" to convince Ned that it's him in "The One on the Phone."
- Stop Hitting Yourself: Sonath's method of killing Knuckles consisted on ripping his fists off and then smashing his skull with them.
- Super-Strength: Sonath is as strong as he is brutal, being capable of feats of superhuman strength, such as ripping Tails' spine and then stabbing him with it.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: James' fate at the end of "The Hallway." His soul ends up in the Metal Sonic body shown at the very end. This also happens to the two officers who try to crack into the Church of Igel to discover proof of its wrongdoings, their souls snatched after Sonath (with help from Goldman locking the doors back out) ambushed them.
Tropes used in non-canon videos
- Take That!: The 2023 April Fools video pokes fun at JaizKoys' ego by having a parody of Exetior, named Sextear, who "leaked" the new episode of Limited Edition. Sextear claims to be the savior of the EXE community.Sextear: "#massivefuckingego."
