10 Cut Video Game Levels You Won’t Believe Exist

Cut content will always be a sort of forbidden knowledge when it comes to gaming. In film, books, or TV, unless a creator directly talks about their initial plans, you rarely get to learn how they planned the whole thing out, and what they scrapped along the way.

In the world of video games, however, these delicious secrets are usually tucked away into the game itself, nestled away in some unused files for an intrepid explorer to stumble upon, and then share for the internet's viewing pleasure.

As such, we know a whole lot about countless areas and levels that never existed in the game proper, but still provide entertainment for those interested in what went into developing a certain franchise.

These range from fun simple levels, to areas that contained some pretty huge plot reveals, only to be cut away when developers became unsure about including such drama.

Creating a video game takes hard work, a lot of time, and the kind of coding skills some of us can only sigh and dream about having in a Matrix-style fantasy. And so we should celebrate even the levels that didn't make it to the finish line - because they're still a part of the weird and wonderful process.

Four levels were scrapped from the final cut of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - that were at varying stages of completion when they were removed.

Of these, Dust Hill is technically the most complete, as loyal have created a version of it based on the mock ups shown of the area. It's not anything you wouldn't have seen somewhere before, as it's just a desert level occasionally interspersed with ice - but it's still interesting, as it's a little extra bit of insight into one of the most iconic and recognisable games of all time.

Presumably, this Zone - much like the other removed parts of the game - was cut due to time constraints, as nobody was going to lose sleep over there not being a little less time in the desert than previously expected.

If you're a dyed in the wool fan of the fastest cartoon animal known to man, though, it's still something that's definitely worth seeing, even if that's just so you can see the commitment than others went to in order to see this cut content still be in some way playable.