under APPRECIATED Sonic games

[Chaos Incarnate]

Colours isn't so much a story as much as it is a disjointed series of poor jokes that force themselves so close to the forefront that plot and character development largely gets punted aside. I've said it before; The game has the same issue as ShTH - It places too much priority on it's tone to the detriment of the characters and story.

 

I agree that SatSR has a very under-appreciated story. Unlike what came before it, it didn't contain in any way, shape or form an idiot plot, actually developed the relationship between the two most prominent characters very well without it looking awkward (No, I don't regard Shahra's and Sonic's pinkie swears and Sonic's final wish even the least bit narmtastic), had intriguing plot development and plot points and a main villain that was diabolical and competent.

 

I value that so much and still stand by my view that SatSR has the best story. It's not overly serious, not overly light-hearted, it's just very well-balanced in terms of tone and it held my interest from start to finish. Sonic was written quite wonderfully and Shahra and Erazor were very interesting and decently-developed one-shot characters.

 

The fact that is was written so competently is such a contrast to '06 especially since it was released so soon afterwards.

I remember originally not liking the story and voice acting to Secret Rings when I first saw it, but after watching it when Clement let's played it, the story grew on me tremendously. I like the way it and Black Knight are presented, being told in art panels. I just love how it makes Sonic look so expressive. The ending is great too, it shows Sonic isn't selfish in the slightest. He could easily wish for something more selfish from Erazor, but instead he just wants to return the Arabian Knights back to normal and bring Shahra back. It's even sadder that Sonic will never see Shahra again.

 

Still though... I've got to say I enjoy Black Knight's story more. Merlina being revealed as the villain was a great plot twist( even though it was probably spoiled for you if you heard the final boss theme before you heard her piano theme song), and I love seeing Sonic put the Knights of the Round in their places.

[Wraith]

I do like the Riders Series, and it should definetly be on this list... Except Free Riders.

Zero Gravity is a pretty ok game on it's own.......but I hate how much good stuff from the original they took out. It makes me like it less.

[Kuzu]

I still, to this day, have not played zero gravity. I heard it was a but step down

[Chaos Incarnate]

I still, to this day, have not played zero gravity. I heard it was a but step down

Tried it with the Wii remote, and it controls like ass. The story and voice acting is quite good though, and is an improvement over the story in Riders. Also, the theme song Ungravitify is awesome on so many levels.

[HelenBaby]

~ the Sonic Rivals games (especially the second one)

~ Sonic Chronicles

~ Black Knight

[Speederino]

I keep forgetting Chronicles exists until someone else brings it up. I may as well make a quick post on that I guess.

 

I liked it just fine, but...I can't honestly remember it very well anymore. I remember the gameplay fine enough (which is why I know I liked it), but the story...lessee here. The echidnas were back, there were Chaos Emeralds in space...uhhhhh....yep. Damn, I need to track this one down sometime and give it another whirl.

[Tara]

I actually really like Sonic Riders Zero Gravity.  It's only bad by comparison to the original Sonic Riders, but on its own merits, it's a pretty solid game.  For everything they took out, they seemed to add plenty of things that I liked as well.  Now if they would just make a fourth Riders game that combined the best of both worlds... and wasn't on Kinect... that would be nice.

[Cyrus]

The Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors.

 

People say that it's a terrible game because it's a "watered down 2D sidescroller". Well, y' know what I gotta say to that?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MfzLqvfsFc

 

Let's not forget that the console version was, like, 95% 2.5D sidescrolling platforming.

 

This is, in my opinion, Dimps' best work in the Sonic series. The graphics and sound direction we're fugly, it could've been in 3rd person perspective, (If Nintendo could do it with SM64DS, it shouldn't take you 8+ years to do it for Sonic, c'mon now.) and the physics could use work, but it's a damn fun game. The level design is way better than Sonic Rush's, having extra routes and well hidden red rings that are fun to hunt, the wisps add so much to the level design by sometimes being the keys to high paths, and the special stages are actually fun *audience_gasp.WAV*.

 

I have no idea what happened to Dimps when they were designing Sonic 4: Episode I and Sonic Generations 3DS. Those games had such subpar level design, especially Dimperations, but Sonic Colors DS was like if Sonic 1 and Sonic Rush had a baby. A glorious baby.

 

I hope more people give this game a chance and see how awesome it is. I think its level design a bit better than its blocky, more linear Wii counterpart.

 

(Oh, and it's giving me my good-portable-Sonic fill while I wait for SLW 3DS, and it's doing a great job, so that's a plus.)

Edited August 24, 2013 by Auto

[castell-neath]

Ill agree with Colours DS. Its a bloody fab game. Still working on those red rings as we speak!!

[Mr. Taxi]

Sonic Heroes (PS2 Version) Is not under appreciated as it deserves all the hate it gets, it's a shoddy, half assed port with cut off dialogue, terrible frame rate and sometimes the music for a stage doesn't even play, not to mention the graphics look even worse on it for some reason.

 

If you wanted to give Heroes a fighting chance, then the version on the Gamecube is the way to go.

 

As for under appreciated games, I'd say Advance 3 and Battle merely because SA3 get's blamed for the start of bad level design in games and cheaply placed enemies, which shadow it under it's prequels, it's also quite divisive due to it's locations in game, like in SA1/2 they all sort of go together, but in SA3 there's shit like a Toy Kingdom? A futuristic Tech stage? It just doesn't gel well with the rest of the game and makes it a bit random, but I can't hate it since it offers decent music and I love the hell out of Cyber Track despite it's frustrating level design, to me it was just incredibly challenging compared to it's prequels.

 

Battle also gets a lot of flack due to how slow the game starts off, when Emerl is really shit with basic, slow moves, and it's got that whole get beat up and lose to gain better moves to fight sort of gameplay which drives away a lot of players, it also has an insane learning curve and can feel a bit repetitive, but there is a really nice game under all that.

 

I thought Sonic Advance 2 was the game with the first really, really terrible level design. But I think these are under appreciated too. Sonic Battle is fun and... how can I put it...? Cozy. It's, like, you can feel the world around you in this game and it's quite comfortable to stay there.

 

I think Sonic 3D Blast is under appreciated, too. Not that it's an incredible game, but it does have some interesting features that could be studied more, like the level layouts and perspective.

[Iggy]

[Nepenthe]

Why do you kinda like it? Image macros don't do much good for conversation.

[Iggy]

Why do you kinda like it? Image macros don't do much good for conversation.

True, but they are good for laughs.

I know Sonic Heroes isn't really the Sonic franchise at it's finest, but I just can't muster up anything but general liking for it. It's defiantly because it was basically my first introduction to Sonic. I was only 6 years old when my brother got it for his birthday. At the time, the only reason I knew what Sonic even was was because of Sonic X. Now, we all know that kids aren't the best at judging movies, games, etc. If the controls are sloppy, you just think you're the one doing it. If the levels are too long and boring, you just think that you have a short attention span. You don't know the general factors of a good game, so you really can't judge it until you learn them. I had a good time playing Sonic Heroes when I was little. I sucked at it because I was 6 years old, but it was fun to me and I couldn't see it as anything other than a good time.

I know saying this makes me sound dumb, but I know it has issues, and for some reason I just still enjoy it today.

[Jet Prower]

I agree with some of the others that most of the handheld games are underappreciated in general. I need to actually go out and buy some of the handheld versions of some of the games. I haven't bought a sonic handhelf game since I bought Rush adventures. I need to get a hold of some of them, such as the olympic games, the colors game, and some other handhelds I haven't played just yet. It just shows that most people want the console versions if they are available.

 

I do think Sonic Battle and 3D blast though are underappreciated. With Sonic Battle, you just have to be very patient with the game, since its all about collecting, practicing, and taking your time. There are several battles that are just very difficult and some that are just downright cheap of course. The game is alot more fun and rewarding once you learn the mechanics though. You just have to be patient.

 

With 3D blast, as long as you aren't expecting some super fast 2D side scroller, I dont see why you wouldn't enjoy it. I never minded it, and I have played it many times and own it on three different consoles, genesis, saturn, and GC. Its a good game, despite its wonky controls.

[Nattala]

Can I ask about the PS2 version of Heroes? Particularly where the people who got the bad version of Heroes are from. Because... I never really encountered any problems like people say, no music stopping, no cut-off dialogue, the frame-rate seemed fine to me. And I'm wondering if it's a regional difference like one region got a horrible version or something. Also I didn't buy the game at launch, maybe they fixed it? Because seriously, there's nothing wrong with my PS2 version.

 

I mean you could just say that I'm stupid and I didn't notice these things but I've played Sonic Adventure DX and I noticed the horrible framerate there. When I tried to play Sonic Heroes on my old PC I noticed the horrible framerate that sometimes happened when it couldn't load the game properly.

But on the PS2? Nope. And I played that game A LOT. For awhile it was the only Sonic game I has access to and when I was younger it was my favourite Sonic game (because I sucked at playing the classics). 

Glitches, I did encounter but they were rare. I can't even remember most of them except for the fact that certain moves could be exploited to get you past areas where you would normally have to switch characters. Like how Shadow's tornado could teleport you through objects or how Amy's hover would move you vertically if you hit an enemy while doing it.

I think maybe the hit detection was off at times? That's possibly a PS2 glitch.

 

Oh and ofcourse there was that homing attack glitch where pressing the jump button sometimes acted like you pressed it twice and made you homing attack instead but that was in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle as well.

 

So I think only some PS2 versions are dodgy. I mean I've heard enough from people to believe that some versions are definitely dodgy but I've also heard enough from people whose versions are running fine.

[Blue Blood]

The main difference with the PS2 version of Heroes is framerate. It's a steady 60fps on GCN and XB, but it's an unoptimised 30fps on PS2. It brings some bugs too, but that's the biggest issue. There aren't any regional differences. It's ultimately just a lot worse than the others.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Blue Blood

[Nattala]

Ok thanks, I wasn't sure because compared to the DX port of Adventure, Sonic Heroes PS2 has a lot less issues.

[Blacklightning]

 

This game catches a lot of flack seemingly on the sole basis that it's lumped with Skypatrol, another Tails spinoff which is virtually unplayable without savestates. Fuck these people. While Tails Adventure hardly plays like a Sonic game, instead it's actually a rather charming Metroidvania of sorts, where nearly all of your attacks are bombs. While it sometimes suffers from early-era issues like "where the fuck am I going" and "goddamnit how do I beat this", there's a hell of a lot of extra items to discover and there's not many of them that don't add something new to the gameplay, and I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who skipped over this gem just because it wasn't more of the same.

[The Chairman Of The Board]

Sonic Triple Trouble

[LATER BUDDY]

Sonic Triple Trouble

 

If you could elaborate that'd not only be awesome, but would also be following the rules. Thanks!

[Cyclone T-301]

This game catches a lot of flack seemingly on the sole basis that it's lumped with Skypatrol, another Tails spinoff which is virtually unplayable without savestates. Fuck these people. While Tails Adventure hardly plays like a Sonic game, instead it's actually a rather charming Metroidvania of sorts, where nearly all of your attacks are bombs. While it sometimes suffers from early-era issues like "where the fuck am I going" and "goddamnit how do I beat this", there's a hell of a lot of extra items to discover and there's not many of them that don't add something new to the gameplay, and I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who skipped over this gem just because it wasn't more of the same.

 

Yeah, the closest to a metroidvania regarding Sonic games. It's great. I enjoyed exploring the places looking for items, and finding new routes while using said items. My only issue was that Tails feels too slow. I haven't played the game in years so I don't remember how slow he was. Perhaps I'm wrong and only exaggerating.

[Blacklightning]

Yeah, the closest to a metroidvania regarding Sonic games. It's great. I enjoyed exploring the places looking for items, and finding new routes while using said items. My only issue was that Tails feels too slow. I haven't played the game in years so I don't remember how slow he was. Perhaps I'm wrong and only exaggerating.

Once you find the Spindash (or "Sonic" as it's called ingame) you'll find there's a very good reason for that. It's crazy powerful and launches you about as fast as you'd expect one to, but with all the hazards around the place it's almost universally

suicidal to rev one up.

That being said, I remember there being running boots someplace within the game which also helps alleviate whatever problems you have with movement speed greatly.

[Jet Prower]

I do remember Tails adventures being rather frustrating in the fact of what in the world do I do now, since there is no explination of stuff. I may have had to use a guide to advance a few times. I do remember that I did beat the game, but I remember next to nothing about it since it has been so long. I do feel Tails deserves another chance though at a game. He has gotten tot he point where I think they could pull it off if done properly and advertised well as well. Also, letting Sonic in the game likely wouldn't hurt somewhat.

[baba_944]

Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast

 

Shadow The Hedgehog was a fantastic final entry in the Shadow trilogy. It had multiple story routes, guns  (what? I was 10), and the difficulty was awesome. And the music was fitting for this game. Crush 40's "I Am All Of Me" and "All Hail Shadow" are the perfect fit for Shadow unlike "This Machine" by Julien-K in Sonic Heroes. And this game, literally, ended the Shadow trilogy with a bang. 

 

Sonic 3D Blast: Why does it get so much hate? It basically takes the classic Sonic game's formula, saving animals, and puts it in a isometric perspective. It also have some fantastic music (SS/PC) like, for example, "Diamond Dust Zone". I prefer act 1 to two though, but they are still great. I listen to act 1 30M every day in December leading up to Christmas.    

 

EDIT: Oh and Sonic 3D Blast introduces the "Homing Attack" which is a staple in the 3D Sonic games.

Edited August 25, 2013 by baba

[Mr Useful]

Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic 3D Blast

 

Shadow The Hedgehog was a fantastic final entry in the Shadow trilogy. It had multiple story routes, guns  (what? I was 10), and the difficulty was awesome. And the music was fitting for this game. Crush 40's "I Am All Of Me" and "All Hail Shadow" are the perfect fit for Shadow unlike "This Machine" by Julien-K in Sonic Heroes. And this game, literally, ended the Shadow trilogy with a bang. 

 

I gotta say, when I played it the difficulty wasn't awesome. It felt too hard because of how shadow controlled like Luigi on ice yet the stages wanted precision platforming and all of the kill x enemies missions made you stick to one route and if you missed one enemy you had to run through the stage all over again.

 

Multiple story routes don't mean anything because 6/10 possible endings are automatically thrown out the window because the final story takes place on the black comet.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Dom