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Description
My four favorite games are closely linked to stages in my life. Commander Keen was the first game I ever played, Sonic 3 and Knuckles was the game I memorized down to a science, Saturn Bomberman was the reason I held onto my Sega Saturn as long as I did, and Megaman Legends was the killer app that finally made me trade in my Saturn for a Playstation.

Sonic in particular though... MAN it's painful to watch him these days. I know there are a lot of people out there that like modern Sonic games and that's fine. Actually I guess I should be happier that people can still like Sonic, but what I really want to see again is Sonic give Mario a run for his money. He doesn't even have to do anything particularly spectacular; he just has to be in a game that's as good as the comparatively basic New Super Mario Bros. series. And in that area, he's just failed over and over and over and over and over and over again.

So here are my thoughts on at least 24 different Sonic games that I've played, however briefly. I think writing these out allowed me to lock on to what I believe is the source of the boy's blues. Bringing up all this again made Sonic depressed too, which is why Razz had to comfort him here.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The first game immediately established Sonic as a challenger to Mario's throne. Key to Sonic's success was a physics engine built around momentum, offering a gameplay experience not seen anywhere else and that wouldn't be seen again after 1994 until The Fancy Pants Adventure. Sonic was a speedy little guy, but he was also a hedgehog for a good reason; curling into a ball and barreling down slopes as a deadly buzzsaw was how he reached his highest velocities. Half the time this marble chute-style gameplay was used as a reward system and the game would treat you to high-speed sections after finishing its tricky areas. In this way, the game balanced the rush of speed with the perils of platforming, holding player interest even when the zones forced you to slow down or die. It deserved every bit of its success.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Sonic's career of pummeling red guys with mustaches continued here, taking the engine from the last game and tweaking it further. The Spin Dash was an invaluable addition, aiding the marriage of speed and exploration via slinging yourself off ramps to find different routes and secrets depending on how high your velocity sent you. This game perfected the basic Sonic formula, taking the established conventions to their extremes. If you do not like Sonic 2, something is seriously wrong with you.

Sonic CD: The Genesis trilogy's quirky cousin. It was a bold endeavor that was not quite up to par thanks to a half-implemented Spin Dash, the time travel mechanic not changing much aside from level visuals, and the level design being all over the place in a Bubsy-esque way, so it was easy to get lost and exploration was a bit intimidating instead of being as much fun as in the Genesis games. The power-ups could have used a kick in the pants by this point too. Rings and plain shields get old after a while, and Mario never got as far as he did with only his mushroom and fire flower. If only the elemental shields had been introduced here, the game could have used them to great advantage.

Sonic Spinball: The first worthy spinoff game. What makes it really good is that Sonic retains his platforming physics in it, so he's not just a ball that ricochets around uncontrollably if you're bad at pinball. For this reason, even if pinball isn't your kind of game, you may want to give it a play through anyway.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles: My personal favorite. I can understand why some people think that Sonic 2 is better since Sonic 3 cheated a bit by being one game for the price of two and there's that infamous Carnival Night barrel and other nitpicky details to consider, but I say the epic scope more than makes up for all that. It also implemented water sections the best; instead of throwing them at you all at once via a Labyrinth Zone, they were shorter and more evenly paced, appearing in almost every zone (at least until Sonic and Knuckles). Regardless of which game you think is best though, the original Genesis trilogy remains the gold standard for the series to this very day, which is kinda sad when you stop and think about it.

Sonic Game Gear games: Not as forgettable as you may be tempted to think. Because the 8-bit handheld couldn't show off speed the same way, the developers had to be a little more inventive in how they went about things, so spread out among them are a nice handful of ideas that probably deserved to be ported over to the main series at least once. It's cute to watch the games gradually figure out how to reproduce shuttle loops too. The first scripted loop actually appeared here in Sonic 2 and wouldn't rear its ugly head again until Sonic Adventure.

Sonic 3D Blast: In retrospect, this game should have served as a warning that Sega was not as competent as many would have liked to think. While their rival Nintendo has always leaned more toward the art end of the scale, Sega has always been more like, well, a business, and at the time they just wanted to promote and plaster Sonic's face everywhere, even on games that weren't very Sonic-like. It makes me wonder if the Genesis trilogy owes some of its high quality to happy accidents.

Sonic Jam: A stellar compilation package, and you may actually be able to argue that its Sonic World minigame is the best 3D Sonic game ever made. It was essentially a stopgap measure though. The time between the last main Sonic game and the next ended up being long enough that the old development team likely quit entirely, leaving behind a new team with no idea what they were supposed to do.

Sonic Adventure: Definitely not great, but still a worthy addition, being flawed yet forgivable. Little did anyone know though that the seeds planted by this game (scripted loops and speed sequences, over-reliance on the homing attack, fishing and other weak gimmicks, awful camera controls, etc.) would result in Sonic's destruction.

Sonic Adventure 2: Also worthy of the franchise, especially with how it further expanded the Sonic mythos. Anyone who gave either of the two Adventure games a score in the 9.0 range was not a very good reviewer though. Even back then it should have been clear that Sega was beginning the trend of ignoring or covering up Sonic's most notable flaws instead of addressing them.

Sonic Heroes: It's not awful, but it's not as good as the two Adventure games either. The team system was an excellent idea, but by this point things were starting to get shaky. With this game, it became clear that something was very, very wrong with Sega. Many fans pinned this game's faults on it having too many characters, but they were more of a symptom than the problem itself.

Sonic Advance: Almost as good as the Genesis games! It just needed a little more fine-tuning, a little more reward for exploring, and a little expansion. Lack of secrets in levels is especially egregious for Chao Gardeners who could benefit from finding a secret stash of 50+ rings in most acts. It did so much right though, and really only needed a sequel to perfect the formula.

Sonic Advance 2: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. How could the developers take the winning formula from the last game and trash it for the sake of cheap gimmicks that show off how awesome Sonic thinks he is? Sonic is not fun when he spends every level simply running to the right just like how Garfield isn't funny when all he does is eat and sleep. This was probably the first deliberately bad Sonic game, the catalyst for all the disasters that would ensue.

Sonic Advance 3: A very cool tag-team system is put into a game that doesn't have levels designed to take advantage of it, no doubt thanks to someone on the development team thinking that the previous game's levels were some of the best ever. All in all, a shame and a waste.

Shadow the Hedgehog: All fail Shadow! This was the franchise's first major failure and the second for those fans who were really paying attention, but it could also be seen as a shrewd business tactic. By using this game to shatter the Sonic fandom into a gazillion shards, Sega created a consumer environment full of fans of every color, ensuring that someone out there will keep liking and buying Sonic games regardless of their quality. This may be a major reason why all modern Sonic games have merely been "good enough" at best.

Sonic 2006: This is the form the franchise took on when it finally hit rock bottom, and its echoing crash caused people to look back and wonder if Sonic was ever any good in the first place. It still haunts the series to this day.

Sonic and the Secret Rings: A better title for this would be "Sonic 2 Special Stages: The Game". That about sums it up. The Special Stages got away with their trial-and-error gameplay because they were optional and your reward for finishing them was often the ability to break the difficulty curve over your knee. Sonic and the Secret Rings had no such excuse though. It was alright, but also a grave warning about what Sonic could (and would) become in the hands of truly stupid people. In the end, this game became the prototype for modern Sonic gameplay even though it shouldn't have been.

Sonic Unleashed: I gotta be brutally honest; the people who say that the daytime Sonic stages could have been Sonic's return to form have no idea what they're talking about. They have no idea what they're missing. Probably the kindest thing I can say about this game is that it abandoned all pretense of the series having taken place on Earth. Could everyone please move back to Planet Mobius now?

Sonic Rush: This game tried to hex me with its boost system, but all the bottomless pits snapped me out of that trance, enabling me to see it for what it really was. The infamously bad physics from Sonic 4 actually originate here. Enough time had passed since Sonic's glory days that it's quite possible that the developers simply forgot about the physics engine that made Sonic the icon he was, but it's just as likely that they deliberately got it wrong for the sake of shoving the boost system down players' throats. Overall, definitely one of those games that is nowhere near as good as many might have you believe.

Sonic Rush Adventure: This sequel brings levels that are friendlier and more fun, tragically proving that you can't make a reasonably good game with this sort of engine without nerfing the difficulty and suggesting that Sonic may be a Mary Sue. The focus on material collection could have been used to create rich, expansive levels ala Sonic 3 and Knuckles with lots to see, do, and discover hidden in them, but instead it's the same simple boost-to-the-end fare. Another waste of good ideas.

Sonic Colors: In this game, the Homing Attack and Boost System are clearly cemented into the series as crutches meant to support the shoddy gameplay and physics engines. Boosting in particular feels like a replacement for the normal rolling attack and Spin Dash, except it's worse because its use is limited by a meter. It would have worked as an additional move, but having it replace Sonic's normal moves is like Mario having his punch-punch-kick combo replaced by F.L.U.D.D. The Wisp system is excellent, but it should have been in a better game than this. The game did at least bring about a good new attitude for the series though.

Sonic Generations: Along with Sonic Colors, this formed a hope spot for the series the likes of which hadn't been seen since the two Adventure games. We all know what happened last time though, so it's difficult to look upon them without wondering if history will repeat itself. Overall, both Colors and Generations are worthy yet amateurish, creative yet unpolished, warm yet broken, a glimpse at how Sonic could once again be as good as Mario but also a confession that he would never again reach that level of acclaim.

Sonic 4 Episode 1: Not worthy. Why does Sonic always, always struggle with the basics? Classic 2D Sonic is a momentum-based game, so due to completely lacking a momentum-based game engine, Episode 1 is barely a Sonic game. Even more damnable is how the physics were deliberately cut and pasted from Sonic Rush because the developers wanted to force players to use the Homing Attack. Basically, they cut out Sonic's famous gameplay for the sake of promoting a weak gimmick.

Sonic 4 Episode 2: Definitely better than episode 1, but also very definitely flawed, leaving lots of room for improvement. As usual, the game just doesn't feel right, though I was kinda surprised to realize that the way Sonic tends to lose speed when in ball form is actually fairly realistic. All rolling objects in the game tend to work like they do in real life, no doubt thanks to the Havok physics engine. But classic Sonic was so much fun mainly because it got the physics "wrong". It used to be that in a tall half-pipe, you could can gain a LOT of speed just by spinning back and forth inside it. With proper Sonic physics, it's as if Sonic reaches his highest speeds as a ball, like Kirby with the Wheel ability or something, so Sega won't ever get Sonic's physics right until they learn to get basic physics wrong. There are also other questionable and nonsensical design decisions scattered around this main issue, and to make matters worse, by this point Sega had spent so long trying (and failing) to reinvent the wheel that it became really tiresome to watch them flail. With this kind of output, why should anyone care about an Episode 3?

Sonic Lost World: Though it possesses shoddy construction characteristic of modern Sonic games, it also does something fundamentally right. It may not be a great game, but it's a thinking man's Sonic game, something that hasn't been seen in a couple decades. At long last, speed is used in interesting ways by allowing you parkour across levels, which is far more fair than forcing you to crash through a series of obstacles you have no time to react to. It also serves as an indicator of how old of a gamer one is. If a person is relatively new to the medium, they'll compare this game to Super Mario Galaxy. If a person is a veteran that's aged like a fine cheese, they'll compare this game to Sonic X-Treme, the canceled Sega Saturn game. Remember when Sonic used to be able to out-Mario Mario?

Sonic Boom: You know... what's funny is that video games have ultimately been a rollercoaster experience for Sonic. He's always had more solid success in other mediums, like comics and television shows. Sonic Boom is basically a decent television show and comic series with stereotypically awful licensed video games. They're not literally worse than Sonic 2006 as the gameplay and mechanics aren't as broken, but they're more Uwe Boll bad than Ed Wood bad, so it's not surprising that some consider them the absolute worst games the series has seen so far. Hopefully these at least taught the young ones that even the high points in the series, like Colors, Generations, Adventure 2, and even the original Genesis trilogy in retrospect, are ultimately flukes. NEVER get your hopes up for a Sonic game. Ever.

Description
My four favorite games are closely linked to stages in my life. Commander Keen was the first game I ever played, Sonic 3 and Knuckles was the game I memorized down to a science, Saturn Bomberman was the reason I held onto my Sega Saturn as long as I did, and Megaman Legends was the killer app that finally made me trade in my Saturn for a Playstation.

Sonic in particular though... MAN it's painful to watch him these days. I know there are a lot of people out there that like modern Sonic games and that's fine. Actually I guess I should be happier that people can still like Sonic, but what I really want to see again is Sonic give Mario a run for his money. He doesn't even have to do anything particularly spectacular; he just has to be in a game that's as good as the comparatively basic New Super Mario Bros. series. And in that area, he's just failed over and over and over and over and over and over again.

So here are my thoughts on at least 24 different Sonic games that I've played, however briefly. I think writing these out allowed me to lock on to what I believe is the source of the boy's blues. Bringing up all this again made Sonic depressed too, which is why Razz had to comfort him here.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The first game immediately established Sonic as a challenger to Mario's throne. Key to Sonic's success was a physics engine built around momentum, offering a gameplay experience not seen anywhere else and that wouldn't be seen again after 1994 until The Fancy Pants Adventure. Sonic was a speedy little guy, but he was also a hedgehog for a good reason; curling into a ball and barreling down slopes as a deadly buzzsaw was how he reached his highest velocities. Half the time this marble chute-style gameplay was used as a reward system and the game would treat you to high-speed sections after finishing its tricky areas. In this way, the game balanced the rush of speed with the perils of platforming, holding player interest even when the zones forced you to slow down or die. It deserved every bit of its success.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Sonic's career of pummeling red guys with mustaches continued here, taking the engine from the last game and tweaking it further. The Spin Dash was an invaluable addition, aiding the marriage of speed and exploration via slinging yourself off ramps to find different routes and secrets depending on how high your velocity sent you. This game perfected the basic Sonic formula, taking the established conventions to their extremes. If you do not like Sonic 2, something is seriously wrong with you.

Sonic CD: The Genesis trilogy's quirky cousin. It was a bold endeavor that was not quite up to par thanks to a half-implemented Spin Dash, the time travel mechanic not changing much aside from level visuals, and the level design being all over the place in a Bubsy-esque way, so it was easy to get lost and exploration was a bit intimidating instead of being as much fun as in the Genesis games. The power-ups could have used a kick in the pants by this point too. Rings and plain shields get old after a while, and Mario never got as far as he did with only his mushroom and fire flower. If only the elemental shields had been introduced here, the game could have used them to great advantage.

Sonic Spinball: The first worthy spinoff game. What makes it really good is that Sonic retains his platforming physics in it, so he's not just a ball that ricochets around uncontrollably if you're bad at pinball. For this reason, even if pinball isn't your kind of game, you may want to give it a play through anyway.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles: My personal favorite. I can understand why some people think that Sonic 2 is better since Sonic 3 cheated a bit by being one game for the price of two and there's that infamous Carnival Night barrel and other nitpicky details to consider, but I say the epic scope more than makes up for all that. It also implemented water sections the best; instead of throwing them at you all at once via a Labyrinth Zone, they were shorter and more evenly paced, appearing in almost every zone (at least until Sonic and Knuckles). Regardless of which game you think is best though, the original Genesis trilogy remains the gold standard for the series to this very day, which is kinda sad when you stop and think about it.

Sonic Game Gear games: Not as forgettable as you may be tempted to think. Because the 8-bit handheld couldn't show off speed the same way, the developers had to be a little more inventive in how they went about things, so spread out among them are a nice handful of ideas that probably deserved to be ported over to the main series at least once. It's cute to watch the games gradually figure out how to reproduce shuttle loops too. The first scripted loop actually appeared here in Sonic 2 and wouldn't rear its ugly head again until Sonic Adventure.

Sonic 3D Blast: In retrospect, this game should have served as a warning that Sega was not as competent as many would have liked to think. While their rival Nintendo has always leaned more toward the art end of the scale, Sega has always been more like, well, a business, and at the time they just wanted to promote and plaster Sonic's face everywhere, even on games that weren't very Sonic-like. It makes me wonder if the Genesis trilogy owes some of its high quality to happy accidents.

Sonic Jam: A stellar compilation package, and you may actually be able to argue that its Sonic World minigame is the best 3D Sonic game ever made. It was essentially a stopgap measure though. The time between the last main Sonic game and the next ended up being long enough that the old development team likely quit entirely, leaving behind a new team with no idea what they were supposed to do.

Sonic Adventure: Definitely not great, but still a worthy addition, being flawed yet forgivable. Little did anyone know though that the seeds planted by this game (scripted loops and speed sequences, over-reliance on the homing attack, fishing and other weak gimmicks, awful camera controls, etc.) would result in Sonic's destruction.

Sonic Adventure 2: Also worthy of the franchise, especially with how it further expanded the Sonic mythos. Anyone who gave either of the two Adventure games a score in the 9.0 range was not a very good reviewer though. Even back then it should have been clear that Sega was beginning the trend of ignoring or covering up Sonic's most notable flaws instead of addressing them.

Sonic Heroes: It's not awful, but it's not as good as the two Adventure games either. The team system was an excellent idea, but by this point things were starting to get shaky. With this game, it became clear that something was very, very wrong with Sega. Many fans pinned this game's faults on it having too many characters, but they were more of a symptom than the problem itself.

Sonic Advance: Almost as good as the Genesis games! It just needed a little more fine-tuning, a little more reward for exploring, and a little expansion. Lack of secrets in levels is especially egregious for Chao Gardeners who could benefit from finding a secret stash of 50+ rings in most acts. It did so much right though, and really only needed a sequel to perfect the formula.

Sonic Advance 2: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. How could the developers take the winning formula from the last game and trash it for the sake of cheap gimmicks that show off how awesome Sonic thinks he is? Sonic is not fun when he spends every level simply running to the right just like how Garfield isn't funny when all he does is eat and sleep. This was probably the first deliberately bad Sonic game, the catalyst for all the disasters that would ensue.

Sonic Advance 3: A very cool tag-team system is put into a game that doesn't have levels designed to take advantage of it, no doubt thanks to someone on the development team thinking that the previous game's levels were some of the best ever. All in all, a shame and a waste.

Shadow the Hedgehog: All fail Shadow! This was the franchise's first major failure and the second for those fans who were really paying attention, but it could also be seen as a shrewd business tactic. By using this game to shatter the Sonic fandom into a gazillion shards, Sega created a consumer environment full of fans of every color, ensuring that someone out there will keep liking and buying Sonic games regardless of their quality. This may be a major reason why all modern Sonic games have merely been "good enough" at best.

Sonic 2006: This is the form the franchise took on when it finally hit rock bottom, and its echoing crash caused people to look back and wonder if Sonic was ever any good in the first place. It still haunts the series to this day.

Sonic and the Secret Rings: A better title for this would be "Sonic 2 Special Stages: The Game". That about sums it up. The Special Stages got away with their trial-and-error gameplay because they were optional and your reward for finishing them was often the ability to break the difficulty curve over your knee. Sonic and the Secret Rings had no such excuse though. It was alright, but also a grave warning about what Sonic could (and would) become in the hands of truly stupid people. In the end, this game became the prototype for modern Sonic gameplay even though it shouldn't have been.

Sonic Unleashed: I gotta be brutally honest; the people who say that the daytime Sonic stages could have been Sonic's return to form have no idea what they're talking about. They have no idea what they're missing. Probably the kindest thing I can say about this game is that it abandoned all pretense of the series having taken place on Earth. Could everyone please move back to Planet Mobius now?

Sonic Rush: This game tried to hex me with its boost system, but all the bottomless pits snapped me out of that trance, enabling me to see it for what it really was. The infamously bad physics from Sonic 4 actually originate here. Enough time had passed since Sonic's glory days that it's quite possible that the developers simply forgot about the physics engine that made Sonic the icon he was, but it's just as likely that they deliberately got it wrong for the sake of shoving the boost system down players' throats. Overall, definitely one of those games that is nowhere near as good as many might have you believe.

Sonic Rush Adventure: This sequel brings levels that are friendlier and more fun, tragically proving that you can't make a reasonably good game with this sort of engine without nerfing the difficulty and suggesting that Sonic may be a Mary Sue. The focus on material collection could have been used to create rich, expansive levels ala Sonic 3 and Knuckles with lots to see, do, and discover hidden in them, but instead it's the same simple boost-to-the-end fare. Another waste of good ideas.

Sonic Colors: In this game, the Homing Attack and Boost System are clearly cemented into the series as crutches meant to support the shoddy gameplay and physics engines. Boosting in particular feels like a replacement for the normal rolling attack and Spin Dash, except it's worse because its use is limited by a meter. It would have worked as an additional move, but having it replace Sonic's normal moves is like Mario having his punch-punch-kick combo replaced by F.L.U.D.D. The Wisp system is excellent, but it should have been in a better game than this. The game did at least bring about a good new attitude for the series though.

Sonic Generations: Along with Sonic Colors, this formed a hope spot for the series the likes of which hadn't been seen since the two Adventure games. We all know what happened last time though, so it's difficult to look upon them without wondering if history will repeat itself. Overall, both Colors and Generations are worthy yet amateurish, creative yet unpolished, warm yet broken, a glimpse at how Sonic could once again be as good as Mario but also a confession that he would never again reach that level of acclaim.

Sonic 4 Episode 1: Not worthy. Why does Sonic always, always struggle with the basics? Classic 2D Sonic is a momentum-based game, so due to completely lacking a momentum-based game engine, Episode 1 is barely a Sonic game. Even more damnable is how the physics were deliberately cut and pasted from Sonic Rush because the developers wanted to force players to use the Homing Attack. Basically, they cut out Sonic's famous gameplay for the sake of promoting a weak gimmick.

Sonic 4 Episode 2: Definitely better than episode 1, but also very definitely flawed, leaving lots of room for improvement. As usual, the game just doesn't feel right, though I was kinda surprised to realize that the way Sonic tends to lose speed when in ball form is actually fairly realistic. All rolling objects in the game tend to work like they do in real life, no doubt thanks to the Havok physics engine. But classic Sonic was so much fun mainly because it got the physics "wrong". It used to be that in a tall half-pipe, you could can gain a LOT of speed just by spinning back and forth inside it. With proper Sonic physics, it's as if Sonic reaches his highest speeds as a ball, like Kirby with the Wheel ability or something, so Sega won't ever get Sonic's physics right until they learn to get basic physics wrong. There are also other questionable and nonsensical design decisions scattered around this main issue, and to make matters worse, by this point Sega had spent so long trying (and failing) to reinvent the wheel that it became really tiresome to watch them flail. With this kind of output, why should anyone care about an Episode 3?

Sonic Lost World: Though it possesses shoddy construction characteristic of modern Sonic games, it also does something fundamentally right. It may not be a great game, but it's a thinking man's Sonic game, something that hasn't been seen in a couple decades. At long last, speed is used in interesting ways by allowing you parkour across levels, which is far more fair than forcing you to crash through a series of obstacles you have no time to react to. It also serves as an indicator of how old of a gamer one is. If a person is relatively new to the medium, they'll compare this game to Super Mario Galaxy. If a person is a veteran that's aged like a fine cheese, they'll compare this game to Sonic X-Treme, the canceled Sega Saturn game. Remember when Sonic used to be able to out-Mario Mario?

Sonic Boom: You know... what's funny is that video games have ultimately been a rollercoaster experience for Sonic. He's always had more solid success in other mediums, like comics and television shows. Sonic Boom is basically a decent television show and comic series with stereotypically awful licensed video games. They're not literally worse than Sonic 2006 as the gameplay and mechanics aren't as broken, but they're more Uwe Boll bad than Ed Wood bad, so it's not surprising that some consider them the absolute worst games the series has seen so far. Hopefully these at least taught the young ones that even the high points in the series, like Colors, Generations, Adventure 2, and even the original Genesis trilogy in retrospect, are ultimately flukes. NEVER get your hopes up for a Sonic game. Ever.