What Could Have Been / Vs Sonic.exe

The God, The Lord, And The Forbidden.

Despite the mod's success as one of the most popular FNF mods, it has also suffered a lot of Troubled Production during its history, leaving great amounts of cut content due to various reasons that ultimately lead to the mod's cancelation.

Cut content from Version 1.5:

• Alongside Sunky, an EXE known as Melthog was planned to appear, but was cut before he could be implemented.

Cut content from Version 2.0:

• "You Can't Run" originally wasn't going to have a transition to a 16-bit soundfont during the section that references "Green Hill Zone". The original version can be listened to here.
• In "Chaos", using the spacebar to dodge Fleetway Super Sonic's attacks was supposed to be a recurring thing throughout the song: however, the team couldn't figure out how to implement more than one of the attacks without the game crashing, so they scrapped it and just left the one at the beginning.
• A song named "Fate", made for a second battle with Lord X, was composed but scrapped at the request of Lord X's creator JoeDoughBoi. According to the accompanying Concept Art, Boyfriend and Lord X would duke it out on floating platforms while a waterfall of rising souls made up the background.^note The song, however, is set to appear in Ryzzon's mod Lord X Revenge with permission from Vania. JoeDoughBoi would later clarify that the concept art was early, and the idea was changed to a monochrome version of "Execution"'s stage before the song was scrapped. He would later reveal that "Fate" was scrapped simply because he felt "Cycles" was a more fitting song for Lord X.
• During Robotnik’s segment of “Triple Trouble”, the prospective was planned to be from behind Boyfriend, but it was changed to a side-view so the player could see Robotnik whole body.

Content planned for Version 2.5 and an early version of 3.0:

• "Slaybells" was originally supposed to be against both EXE and Lord X, the former being dressed up as Krampus; following allegations against EXE's creator, the song was reworked to be Majin and Lord X against Sonic.exe, though the song would never see the light of day before the mod's cancellation.
• A sister song to "Slaybells" where Sonic.exe and the Tails Doll sing against each other, known as Missletoe, was planned to be part of v2.5. The mod's cancellation renders the song as good as dead as well.
• A scrapped song for EXE called "GOD SPEED" was revealed in late January 2022, and as revealed in a Q&A Revie had on her Newgrounds, would’ve had a prelude track with Girlfriend going through corridors in tempo of the music and having to avoid EXE, but after the allegations against EXE's creator, the song was scrapped, and MarStarBro has forbidden anyone from using it elsewhere.
• A few days after "GOD SPEED" was uploaded, another scrapped song, titled "Burning", was released by its composer, Adam McHummus. It was inspired by the infamous "SONIC HAS PASSED" corruption from one of Vinny's streams, and the opponent was supposed to be a Robotnik EXE called Genesys, created by Revie_03. Similar to EXE, the concept was scrapped after the whole debacle with her. Unlike "GOD SPEED", however, Adam McHummus has allowed for the song to be reused, and there have been a few different fan takes with it. In a Newgrounds Q&A, Revie_03 elaborated on what the song was supposed to be: to really sell that that "Sonic has passed", his sprites were going to be glitched out versions of his original Sonic 1 sprites, and Genesys would be staring the player head on during his portions of the song. In addition, the song was supposed to be a random encounter that could activate while selecting a song in freeplay, after which it'd be freely accessible.
• A three-way collaboration between Vs Sonic.exe, Sonic Rhythm Rush, and Friday Night Funkin': Tails Gets Trolled was planned before the Revie controversy, and then shut down after that. All three were cancelled due to some reason or another.
• Sunky was planned to have a full week, consisting of “Sunky the Song”, a remaster of “Milk” (which would end up getting scrapped in favour of a better remaster), and “Cereal”, which would’ve also featured Silly.TIFF. While it’s possible this was still planned after the Revie controversy, it wouldn’t make it into the unfinished build.
• A song for Lord X by Echolocated called Judgement was planned for both versions of 3.0, but got scrapped in the new version of the update and left unfinished as Echo had left the team.
• There was a full week for Needlemouse Sonic planned, however it would end up getting scrapped due to ShutUpJoJo leaving the team in the new 3.0 update.
• There were plans for a Sonic.exe chase song, however no other info is known about it, and it was presumably scrapped following the Revie controversy.
• According to Madzilla, Demogri and Giratos were almost cut from Update 3 thanks to a "certain mod director" (all but stated to be Revie yet again) deeming them not unique enough for the mod, compared to characters like Needlemouse. She relented and said that they would be added back in if Madzilla made a popular animation of Knuckles being killed by Giratos, to which Madzilla reluctantly obliged (warning, loud audio!). After Revie was kicked off the project, Demogri and Giratos were fully added back into the planned update... before ultimately being cut later on anyway after their creator left the team.

Cut content from Version 3.0/3.5/4.0:

• Originally, Rightburst Ultra's Wechidna was going to be part of version 3.0, but was replaced by Chaotix, who was also cut, and moved to a separate mod called Friday Night Funkin': Parallax after Rightburst left the development team. Rightburst's character Satanos was also a considered character for version 3.0, but it was too moved to Parallax, following Rightburst departure.
• The first version "My Horizon", before Chaotix was cut, was to be replaced following allegations against its composer, JesterFrog, who was removed from the team shortly after. That version of the song was originally intended to be given to Wechidna in the aforementioned Parallax mod, with the old vocals restored before Wechidna was given a new song entirely. "My Horizon" was later reworked into "Our Horizon", which is described as the good end of Chaotix's own mod, ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION, but it would also be scrapped from that mod too due to the team behind the mod not feeling comfortable using any of JestFrog’s work in the mod.
• A new version of "My Horizon" composed by Armydillo was also cut from this mod after Chatoix's creator left the team, but did end up being used in ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION.
• Lastly, yet another version of "My Horizon" was created by MarStarBro which repurposes "Faker" (and presumably "Black Sun"), but, like the other two versions, was cut once Chaotix’s creator left the team. Unlike the other iterations, however, this final try has no further plans to be reused.
• Curse was a character by Jasper that was planned to have a song with different phases, switching from nervous to pissed to happy as the song went on. However, the character was cut following the Echo Leaks, and transferred to ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION.
• As mentioned in this video, the duel with Chaotix, when he was part of this mod, was originally meant to be in the regular FNF style, but AnarackWarriors, Fatal Error's creator, presented a version in the style of Knuckles Chaotix to averavary, and plans shifted to a pixelated style shortly after.
• Earlier versions of Sarah's sprites showed her as more happy and energetic compared to the more ominous looking sprites from the final "Round-a-Bout".
• Luther and all other Needlemouse related planned content, aside from "Round-a-Bout", were cut after Joseph's departure from the team.
• B4cksl4sh originally had MarStarBro himself replacing Boyfriend, but he was cut for unknown reasons.
• Demogri and Griatos were cut following their creator, MadzillaKOTH, leaving the team.
• A final song for Xenophanes titled "Final Escape" was planned, with concept art showing it taking place on a warped version of the game's logo; Xenophanes would be within the ring, chasing Boyfriend across the ribbon. While the song never made it into the Cancelled Build, it was restored by someone else as its own mod. However, MarStarBro, the song's composer, would later announce that he intends to finish the song, which will be made into its own standalone mod.
• At one point, Exetior (Sonic.Exe's counterpart from Sonic.exe: Nightmare Beginning) was considered for the mod, but he never made it past the concept phase. Revie later revealed that she would've loved to pay homage to other classic Sonic.EXE characters like Exeller (the counterpart from Sonic.Exe: Spirits of Hell) if she could.
• Revie also mentioned in the comments of her Creator Backlash post that she would've considered bringing SONIC (the creepypasta Sally.EXE infamously plagiarised from) into the mod, though Falsecow refused this, possibly due to feeling hurt at "the prospect of something that inadvertently ruined his character's perception getting in the mod".
• This all culminated in the entire mod being cancelled, along with everything planned for it. MarStarBro released the 2.5/3.0 build on his Twitter, with everything the team managed to get done and had permission to use.