Sonic.exe: Nightmare Beginning
is a fangame based on the game, and by extension, creepypasta of the same name, Sonic.exe. It is created by JaizKoys. Its sequel is Sally.exe Continued Nightmare: Eye of Three.
This game is currently being remade to be more consistent with the sequel. The first section is in closed beta.
Sonic.exe: Nightmare Beginning provides examples of:
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Tropes Present in the old version of Nightmare Beginning (ALL SPOILERS UNMARKED)
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: The final battle of the game takes place in Sonic's mind, with both Sonic and Exetior battling for the control of Sonic's body.
- Bittersweet Ending: There are three cases:
- The good ending where Exetior is defeated but Sonic doesn't manage to flee his destroyed mind in time and dies, with only his spirit living on.
- The average endings where Exetior is permanently killed in Fatal Fog by the remaining survivor of the group.
- The worst ending, where Sonic commits suicide after killing Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman by directly jumping onto spikes, killing both Exetior and him and with the girls safe from Exetior, as he's unaware of their existence.
- Broken Pedestal: Sonic becomes this for both Tails and Knuckles in their respective average endings, before they end him.
- Downer Ending: Naturally, if you let everyone die, but besides that, there are variations of this:
- The bad ending where the ghost of Tails and Knuckles encourages Sonic not to commit suicide and try to save the rest. This doesn't work, as Sonic falls into despair and allows Exetior to take over his body and plan to kill the girls.
- If you fail the final boss, Exetior absorbs the Chaos Emeralds and becomes an unstoppable menace to all of Mobius.
- Driven to Suicide: Sonic in the worst endings. In one, he jumps into a line of spikes, while in the other, he is stopped by the ghosts of Tails and Knuckles, who try to encourage Sonic to not do it by reminding him that he could still protect the girls, only to fail as now Exetior is aware of their existence and takes over Sonic's body again to go after the girls.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Eggman may still be a villain in canon, but in his average ending, he considers Sonic to have gone too far after seeing him kill his friends, and orders Metal Sonic to snap his neck and end him for good.
- Golden Ending: The best ending has Exetior being successfully defeated, with Sonic surviving the ordeal.
- Subverted, with the revelation that Chaos Hunter was the result of this ending. Sonic and Exetior's personalities have merged into one being... with horrifying results.
- Heel–Face Turn: At the end of his average ending, Eggman tells Metal Sonic that taking over the world doesn't seem as appealing anymore.
- Light Is Not Good: You must avoid touching the lights in Eggman's stage for his survival.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In one of the worst endings, the ghosts of Tails and Knuckles encourage Sonic to not commit suicide by telling him that while he couldn't protect them, he could still protect the others. This backfires horribly as Exetior learns about other survivors and motivates him to take over Sonic's body and go after the surviving girls.
- Press X to Die: In the worst ending, the game tells you to press Z to jump into the spikes to end Sonic's life.
- Taking You with Me: If Sonic fails to hit Exetior enoughnote in the final battle, he will latch onto Sonic during the Escape Sequence, slowing him to a crawl and making it impossible to escape, resulting in both Sonic and Exetior dying and leading to the good (not the best) ending.
- Villain Respect: Eggman has this for Sonic, but in his average ending, he loses it after witnessing the murders of Sonic's friends.
- Walk of Shame: Sonic does this in the worst endings, as he slowly walks depressed looking and stopping at his victims corpses. After witnessing Eggman's corpse, he comes across a line of spikes and stops before deciding to end it all or not.
Tropes Present in the Nightmare Beginning remake
NOTE: As this game is still in development, please update this list whenever possible.
- Death by Origin Story: In the trailer for Eggman's route, it's revealed that he had a daughter named Jessy who was killed by the Freedom Fighters due to a misunderstanding.
- Killed Offscreen: Compared to the original, this is Tails's fate no matter what happens in the race (except for if he and Exetior break into a tie, leading him to be shredded in half as he reaches the course's end).
- Rage Breaking Point: Should Metal successfully bypass all of Exetior's tricks and rescue Robotnik to get him to his base's depths, Exetior absolutely loses it upon failing to stop the doctor's escape, more than likely causing Metal to go down in mere seconds afterwards.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Tails. His failed demonization in Desolation Scrap made him an easily irritable individual.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In a hidden route for Tails in the remake, Sonic, in spirit, gives this to Tails when he's about to be shredded to pieces by Sark, giving the latter the confidence to fight back.
