"DOOMSDAY HAS COME"
"An ancient legend says that on the day of the bloody eclipse, doomsday will come."
—The main quote on the game's GameJolt page
Sonic.EXE: Project Eclipse (referred to as Project Eclipse in-game) is a fangame based on the Sonic.exe creepypasta by Poyomakepe, serving as a combined remaster of all of their prior fangames related to the creepypasta.
The main focus of the game is to avert the classic tropes related to Sonic.exe, instead having survival in full focus instead of the Controllable Helplessness players are forced into in most games.
The game's demo saw release on October 27th 2023, and can be played here
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There are four major modes available to access in the game:
- Story Mode takes place 10 years after the creepypasta, and follows Team Sonic as they fly to South Island, which is now controlled and fortified by Eggman, to liberate the island and figure out just what he wants with it, alongside the signature "Project Eclipse" he's got in hand. However, trouble inevitably starts brewing soon enough...
- Arcade Mode (based on Sonic.EXE: The Last Hope of Mobius) pits characters like Tails or Knuckles into unique survival scenarios where their primary objective is to locate a set number of goal points, then escape the map. However, stealth and caution are key, especially considering that an EXE is always about to stalk the survivor during their run.
- Custom Mode (based on Sonic.EXE Broken Protocol) allows you to pick your difficulty level, your survivor, how many goal points you need to trigger, and what entities you wish to chance it against.note
- EXE Mode puts you in the hands of one of many EXEs as you aim to slaughter as many souls as you can in a set time limit. The prime aim is to earn as many points as you can by the end. Poyomakepe has also hinted that the mode will become more roguelike in the future.
Other tidbits
Story Mode Level List
Chapter 1
Act I (Tails)
- Green Hill Zone
- VS Eggrobo
- Green Hill Caves
- Underground Shipyard
Level List (Other Modes)
Arcade Mode
- Test Map (Threat: Exegod)
- S.A.M. Site (Threat: Exegod)
EXE Mode
- Green Hill Zone
Guest Fighter EXEs
- Exegod (from Sonic.exe: The Untold Origins)note
- The original Sonic.exe
- Exetro (from Sonic.EXE Forever)
- Phaton (from Sonic.exe Phantom Beginning)
- Corrupt (from Sonic: Corrupt Rising)
- SonicClone (from Sonic.EXE All-Stars)
- Puroto (from Glitched Amy: The Beginning)
This fangame contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Personality Change: Tails (simply dubbed his normal name, Miles, in this game) has hardened up a lot in the decade since the creepypasta's events, and is not above being a bit of a Deadpan Snarker to Sonic or to any EXEs. Exegod is quickly angered when Tails decides to taunt his claims of being God before starting Arcade Mode with him.
- Adapted Out: Story Mode has Amy, Cream and Sally completely absent, mainly in part due to Sally.exe never happening in the Project Eclipse universe. This pretty much means that only the male protagonists (even if Amy is an honorary member of Team Sonic) have a major role in the game's story.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Tails first encounters "Sonic" in Green Hill Zone, one would expect things to play out as they have many times before. However, when Tails does approach, he discovers, to his shock, that the Sonic in front of him was a hologram, and that he had just stepped into a trap. Cue the boss fight straight after.
- But Thou Must!: In the cutscene preceding the Test Map in Arcade Mode, Sonic.exe boasts this as such to the survivor when they ask if it's necessary to jump into the digital pit. Either way, Sonic.exe (stretching quite wide as he does so) pushes the survivor down anyway, kickstarting the level's events.
- The Cameo: Shadow is briefly mentioned by Tails during Chapter 1's intro, mentioning that he's temporarily working with Eggman to uncover stuff about the elusive Project Eclipse.
- Developer's Foresight: Should you not kill a single creature in EXE Mode by the time the mode ends, the EXE you're playing as, instead of striking a victory pose, will show utter embarrassment at this Epic Fail. You don't even get a single point for this, and instead of stating that the killer "destroyed the level" as it usually does, the results screen states that they failed. For bonus embarrassment, the game uses the Game Over theme from Sonic the Hedgehog CD (specifically its JP soundtrack).
- Forced Tutorial / Justified Tutorial: When you first play the game, you'll be sent straight to the tutorial to get used to how the game's mechanics work. On subsequent playthroughs, you'll go right to the Main Menu instead.
- Handicapped Badass: Ever since the decade has passed, one of Miles' twin tails is long gone, likely because of Sonic.exe a while back. Despite no longer being able to fly, however, he still has a double jump and dash ability to make up for it.
- I Shall Taunt You: Most of the available EXEs in EXE Mode have various taunts they can pull during gameplay.
- Mythology Gag:
- In Story Mode's opening, the whole sequence plays out akin to Hill Act 1 from the original creepypasta, including reusing Tails's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles sprites as the call-back.
- At two points in Chapter 1 Act I, flashbacks occur to Hill Act 1 and ... when Tails is at certain sections, starting with the normal levels, then where things go Off the Rails, and finally the fateful encounters with Sonic.exe when Sonic seems to show up in each area.
- Nightmare Sequence: Story Mode kicks off with one, depicting Tails in Green Hill Zone, but the world around him is frozen in time, and there is no other life around aside from him.
- Not So Above It All: Whilst overall an intimidating and deadly character, one of Corrupt's taunts has him doing the Monkey Dance, complete with a goofy smile on his face.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The Nightmare Sequence, Green Hill's second half and the underground shipyard embrace this in full, keeping suspension high with no sign of life anywhere aside from Tails. No Badniks, no dead critters, no darkening halls... nothing but an uneasy walk through the area before the sequence ends.
- Off with His Head!: Should you refuse to continue with Tails or Knuckles in the current Arcade Mode levels, Exegod will personally decapitate them brutally.
- Shout-Out: The EXEPedia used to read about the killers present in this game seems to take its name based on Wikipedia.
- Shows Damage: While neither Tails nor Knuckles show any injuries when taking damage, by the time they're down to a single health point in Arcade Mode, they'll start showing exhaustion in their idle animations instead of their battle-ready stances.
- The Smurfette Principle: As of the demo, Puroto is the only female EXE that's playable in EXE Mode.
- Timed Mission:
- In Chapter 1 Act I in Story Mode, Tails only has a couple of minutes to defeat the attacking Eggrobo before they reach the ground.
- Arcade Mode gives players a few minutes to complete their tasks and then get away.
- EXE Mode puts around 3-4 minutes on the clock to slay as many souls as you can find.
- To Be Continued: At the end of Chapter 1 Act I in the demo, the Iron Curtain still takes off, confirming Sonic failed to stop it. A card with the namesake is seen before a "WARNING!" prompt appears, mentioning that reality has been compromised and that an invasion (likely by the real Big Bad himself) is inevitable. Finally, there's a cut to the game's end credits with Eggman deploying his Badniks to combat the incoming threat.
- Wham Shot: Tails assumes throughout Chapter 1 Act I that Eggman's underground base is all but abandoned in Green Hill. However, once he finally gets inside, he discovers that it was not abandoned; rather, it was in full use as an underground shipyard for Eggman's super frigates.
