The Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2026 is now underway, opening another week of playable fangames and indie projects through Sonic Fan Games HQ. This year’s event runs from September 11 through September 18, with the 2026 booths now public and downloads available for players to start working through.
SAGE also kicked things off with the SAGExpo 2026 Showcase, a video running for more than 20 minutes and moving through this year’s fan-game and indie lineup. The expo has expanded far beyond Sonic over the years, but Sonic projects remain a major part of the event alongside original games, ROM hacks, mods, frameworks and other playable experiments.
One of the more substantial Sonic releases this year is Sonic 1996 from YajiFr, a low-poly take on the classic Mega Drive/Genesis formula inspired by what a Sonic game might have looked like during the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 era. Rather than treating the style as a purely visual gimmick, the project still revolves around slopes, momentum and physics-driven movement, with an open environment built around ramps, springs and platforms.
The SAGE build adds a new campaign mode, currently featuring a full-length Green Hill Zone act playable as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles. The three characters have different abilities and play styles, while challenge modes offer separate score-focused tests of the movement system. The current version also adds built-in achievements. Downloads are available for Windows, Linux and Android, and YajiFr is keeping the newest build exclusive to SAGE until September 18.
Another newly available project is SONIC LIKE-A-WIND, a 2D fangame built around Modern Sonic-style gameplay. Sonic and his friends travel to Silverwind Island after receiving a call for help, with the SAGE 2026 demo containing four playable acts from the larger game. The 84.7MB build is available directly through Sonic Fan Games HQ.
SAGE 2026 also has something for developers. Orbinaut Framework 2.1 is a GameMaker framework built around recreating the physics and gameplay logic of the classic Sonic games. It supports Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, allows characters to be controlled by either players or the CPU, and supports up to eight-player split-screen. Amy uses abilities based on her appearance in Sonic Origins.
Version 2.1 also changes several underlying parts of the framework, including animation, rendering, backgrounds, culling and collision handling. It remains aimed primarily at Classic Sonic projects, although its creator also supports using the framework as the basis for original games.
Sonic City also covered SAGE 2025 when last year’s expo opened with more than 150 projects. This year’s event runs through September 18, giving players a full week to try the latest builds and see what else emerges from the 2026 lineup.
With Sonic 1996, SONIC LIKE-A-WIND, and Orbinaut Framework 2.1 already available, SAGE 2026 has plenty for Sonic fans to dig into from day one.
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