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Which Sonic game(s) do you find mediocre?


Rey Skywalker-Ren

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I wanted to go a different apporach for this topic. So this isn't about which Sonic game is good or bad, it's for those you find mediorce, or "meh". These kinds of games are nether good or bad... just in between... just average. 

Sonic-Generations-beta.jpg

On the subject of mediorce games, this game definitely comes to mind. The you played the games before this, then this game is rather a "remember this" type of game as stages from older Sonic games were put into this game. While it does put in a lot of replayablitiy such as the ranking system and the missions, I feel most was underwhelming at best. The gameplay was a step up from Unleashed's gameplay when it came to modern Sonic and classic Sonic pretty much was modern Sonic with no homing attack since the spindash was his boost, the rest of CS's gameplay was very automated and misses the point of what made classic Sonic games great entirely. 

The level design was pretty good for most stages and meh for the others. I do feel that they missed a great opportunity to untise Sonic's friends. Some like Tails and Knuckles at least could have been playable and their classic counterparts, but they were mainly used as ether chatty cheerleaders or wisps to help you with missions. Your character choices like mentioned before were literally Sonic with a homing attack, Sonic with no homing attack. 

But yeah which Sonic game(s) do you feel are mediocre?

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Lost World Wii U is mediocre through and through. I can't think of anything that is truly special about it.

The game design is filled with potential that is never even remotely lived up to. Parkour is an intriguing gimmick that is never exploited for truly multifaceted level design. The Wisps are the epitome of tacked-on and add nothing of real value to the gameplay. Level design is seriously lacking and a chore to play through with the controls being as finicky as they are.

The soundtrack, whilst having a few gems like "Sea Bottom Segue", "Sugar Lane" and the final boss theme, is pretty forgettable for the most part. Most Sonic OST's tend to be very earwormy and memorable. SLW's soundtrack rarely exhibits that quality.

The visuals might be vivid and the game may run as smooth as a baby's backside at 60FPS but the backgrounds are seriously lacking in detail and the lighting is...just nothing special compared to what the Hedgehog Engine accomplished.

Controls are just....wut. Having a trigger button for running is an asinine decision and the feeling of momentum is completely off. Motion controls for Wisps before the patch made them extremely annoying and led to deaths to the point that I'd avoid Wisp's during my first blind playthrough. Parkour is hard to get to grips with due t finicky controls. This game really needed a tutorial yet never gave it.

The writing again has huge issues. Tails is mangled and comes-off as little more than a self-righteous little punk who thinks he's right about everything and is treated as if he's due something, the attempt at a message is undermined through plain bad writing, the Deadly Six are as dull as dishwater and don't get a proper send-off and Amy and Knuckles need not have appeared at all for all the influence they have.

 

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I think most of the franchise falls within the "mediocre" range for me. There's a very small amount of Sonic games that I would honestly recommend to those who aren't familiar with the series.

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For whatever reason, the words "mediocre Sonic game" always make me think of Sonic Heroes, even though I actually like that game. I think most of it is basically it being inferior to the Adventure games, Unleashed, Colours, and Generations, but also better than Shadow and 06, so it just sort of sits in this weird middle ground with that I have no strong feelings on it other than I enjoy playing it (but then I enjoy almost all the Sonic games, even the shit ones).

 

I suppose Spinball and Sonic Chaos are pretty mediocre too. Spinball because while it has a lot of charm, attitude, and surprisingly good design and cohesion, it gets frustrating at times, while Chaos is just so barebones, it feels very unfinished and while it's not horrible to play, it just feels pointless.

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Generations, definitely. Even if it's one of the better entries in the series, it does nothing to stand out. The story may as well not even exist, and the settings are all retreads of old levels. The Modern gameplay is just Unleashed Day gameplay with a few tweaks of arguable benefit, while the Classic gameplay mostly feels like a super stripped-down version of the Modern gameplay; it's technically functional, but it doesn't mimic what it's supposed to and it doesn't do anything interesting to make up for it. Generations' success feels like it's more due to it being mostly acceptable rather than being a genuinely standout game.

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2 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Generations, definitely. Even if it's one of the better entries in the series, it does nothing to stand out. The story may as well not even exist, and the settings are all retreads of old levels. The Modern gameplay is just Unleashed Day gameplay with a few tweaks of arguable benefit, while the Classic gameplay mostly feels like a super stripped-down version of the Modern gameplay; it's technically functional, but it doesn't mimic what it's supposed to and it doesn't do anything interesting to make up for it. Generations' success feels like it's more due to it being mostly acceptable rather than being a genuinely standout game.

Pretty much my thoughts on the game. This game is what I call "safe". It is passable by critical standards. I'm tired of passable games, I want a great game. 

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Sonic 4 Ep 1 - sorry Mik, I know it's your fave!

Functionally it's fine, but besides aesthetic niggles (why does Sonic look so weird? His running feet ball is too long!) the retreads of classic level tropes just switches me off. Green Hill, Casino Night, Labyrinth and Metropolis Zone are all fairly beloved and turn up in various forms in other Sonic games, so it just seems lazy.

From what I remember of Episode 2, they solved that a fair bit by either retreading levels that don't get done often, like Aquatic Ruin, or mix them up a bit. 

Heroes is a bit of this, too - I remember playing it a lot on my Xbox as a lad, but I have little or no interest in playing it again. Watching LPs has confirmed this - the level design seems really dull in points, just room of enemies to kill- fly a bit-loop-room of enemies to kill.

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I never played some new game of Sonic, just from Classic era and Adventure era. In Generally from 1991 to 2005. But this is some games that i don't think is excellent, but isn't awful.

I know that the Master System don't have an incredible hardware, but I don't like some games from the console, principally Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. They don't have the same emotion of playing the genesis games, some times I think that have some Sonic Café games are better. Sonic 3D Blast isn't a bad game, but isn't a good game, maybe removing the flicky obligation , the game would be a little better. In the Adventure era, Sonic Adventure 2 it seems to be good, but there many people that talk bad about the game. Other game is Shadow the Hedgehog, it's an interesting game, but have some bugs, but isn't a bad game and isn't a good game.

So I think it is, as I said before, I did not play many games from 2005 until today. These are the games that I consider mediocre.

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4 hours ago, Hyp3hat said:

Sonic 4 Ep 1 - sorry Mik, I know it's your fave!

Functionally it's fine, but besides aesthetic niggles (why does Sonic look so weird? His running feet ball is too long!) the retreads of classic level tropes just switches me off. Green Hill, Casino Night, Labyrinth and Metropolis Zone are all fairly beloved and turn up in various forms in other Sonic games, so it just seems lazy.

From what I remember of Episode 2, they solved that a fair bit by either retreading levels that don't get done often, like Aquatic Ruin, or mix them up a bit. 

Heroes is a bit of this, too - I remember playing it a lot on my Xbox as a lad, but I have little or no interest in playing it again. Watching LPs has confirmed this - the level design seems really dull in points, just room of enemies to kill- fly a bit-loop-room of enemies to kill.

I actually agree with you on Sonic 4, I did write something a while agoL

Sonic 4 (both episodes) were mediocre games at best. 

Sonic 4 Episode 1 as a classic game was a disgrace to all Sonic kind, but even as a stand alone, it was mediocre at its best. Unless you are like me, who likes to see if they can claim there cushioney throne by getting the best score in the time attack section, trying to get your lives over 1000 or is obsessed with getting all 12 achievements in the game no matter how hard you try, then it literally has no replay value.  Nothing in the game itself makes you want to replay it. There is no alternate characters, no alternate skills.... no nothing.

Episode 2 however does have SOME replay value if you count Episode Metal, but Metal Sonics story is very short and I expected him to have his own stages rather then go backwards in one stage. But yeah unless you are trying to get all the chaos emeralds or is like me, trying to shoot for the moon to beat people in the time attack section and get all the achievements in the game, there isnt much to do after you are done playing rather leave it hanging on your computer screens. Also yeah you can play as Tails but most people want to play as Tails by himself and not be forced to use Sonic for team actions. Id rather just play as Sonic at this point because.... nothing really changed.

When it comes to passion, Episode 1 clearly lacks it. I mean, Lost Labyrinth is my favorite and so is Mad Gear, but when you play the earlier games, then you start to see that these zones were clearly ripped off just to appeal to peoples nostalgia. Even in visual design, it just seems rushed. Looking at Splash Hill Zone... ugh. So much plastic grass I cant. Even Sonic 1 had a balance when it came to there Green Hill Zone. This goes for other zones in the game as well.

Episode 2 clearly surpassed this as the zones were beautiful. However the level design at its best were eh.  Do not even get me started on that hell hole called "Oil Desert Zone", it felt like Dusty Desert and Crisis City had a baby and this was the final product. Most stages are centered around being force to use the hover wis.... I mean Tails to get across certian paths. Actually the whole game was centered around teamwork done wrong. Level designs must not need to force you to use team certain actions in the form is a giant floating TV screen that says "yo asshole, yeah you! use Tails here you fucking dipshit!".

All and all these games as stand alones were mediocre games at there core. I mean Episode 2 has better gameplay, well if you eliminate using the Tails wisp as a problem, and it had better zones, Death Egg m2k rocked in my opinion. Episode 1 was my first Sonic 2D game into the series so dare I sit here and say this game is iconic for me. It is the truth. But when you step back and look at both of them, these games are hardly anything extraordinary compared to what Dimps has been able to pull off in the past. 

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Sonic Unleashed. I actually had quite the terrible experience with it on first play through and even through my second play through on YouTube, I continue to hold the grudge. I just... don't see what all the hype for the game is -_-

Sonic and the Black Knight for sure is a meh game. I don't mind the story, but the game play is pretty much waving the Wii Remote like an idiot, so pretty 'meh'.

Sonic 3 is very 'meh' for me. There's something about it that runs me the wrong way.

I can't say Generations though. First game in the series I played and it holds a very special space in my heart. I love it so much, no matter how many times I play one stage. It's never felt 'meh' for me to begin of with, though.

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Sonic Heroes for me. Not a bad game at all, but easily has some of the most uninspired level design out of all the more recent games. The milquetoast bosses don't help either. : /

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Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn) is a game I wish I could say wasn't mediocre, but here we are.

The Saturn version in particular has wonderful visuals, a top-tier soundtrack, and some of the best special stages in the series. Heck, even the level design for the normal stages is fun! It's just that the game itself plays like a load of poop, and that's mostly because of the Flickies.

Now, the Flickies wouldn't even be a bad thing in the game either if they were optional (or were required to go into the special stage or something, rather than ring count). This would've meant that there was a reward to collecting Flickies rather than being forced to get them, as it meant getting the good ending (getting all emeralds) was tied to getting all the Flickies or something. But instead, the game becomes a collectathon that moves at a pretty slow pace despite the name of the hedgehog on the tin.

Does that mean it's bad? Nah. Like said, the game is still fun and has some semblance of goodness from almost all corners. But it is pretty mediocre. If the game were centered around getting to the end, combined with slightly longer stages, then this could've been a more than reasonable middle step side-game between 3K and Adventure imo.

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Mediocre? Oh man so many to chose from. Does this count? 

Mario_and_Sonic_at_the_Olympic_Games_box

 

The main problem with this game really comes down to the controls. I got this game the same year I got my Wii and me and my family were playing Wii sports and that game controlled great so when we got this game I was baffled. How the hell do you mess up something a glorified tech demo got right a year later? The only events that actually worked for me were the racing ones, trampoline and the javelin throw. Even then sports don't feel as fleshed out as say the mario sports game these feel like Mario Party mini games without the board to keep things interesting.

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Sonic Generations 3DS

Without a doubt, the laziest, most bare-bones Sonic game ever created. You'd think for a big anniversary game, they'd at least attempt something better than this.

Dimps, despite their shortcomings, is better than this.

  • Cut-and-Paste level designs from Sonic 1-3, offering absolutely nothing new (seriously, there's still a checkpoint before the boss would be in Mushroom Hill, right before the signpost)
  • Giving Classic Sonic the homing attack to make up for their lack of level-design skill. Not a "classic purist" or anything, but seriously? What's even the point of having him there then? Sonic Advance was able to have classic style gameplay, and Dimps made that 10 years before this.
  • Generally bad level design in the original stages, either being cheap or boring. Not fun or rewarding.
  • Bosses are "eh". At least this Time Eater was a little better though, I'll give it that.
  • To top it all off, the game is like two hours long. 3DS is capable of more than this, even if Sonic games are generally short and simple

You know, it's not even mediocre, it's just bad. I'll stick to the Sonic Advance or Sonic Rush series for portables, thank you.

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Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles... Sonic Colors Wii. I don't find myself going back to Sonic 4 much either.

I used to really like Sonic CD too, but after beating it once it wasn't all that appealing anymore.

Sonic Free Riders too. It worked relatively well for me but wasn't all that great. I wasn't fond of 3DS Generations or 3DS Lost World.

The first M&S game too, but later installments improved a bit. I guess Tails Skypatrol (even after cheating to get all items it was still pretty boring) as well.

So, mostly spin offs and the Genesis games.

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Everything past (following) Sonic 3. I mean most Sonic games after that era rank pretty low in my book. For the first time I played Unleashed and Generations I thought they were quite brilliant. Now I feel Unleashed isn't very interesting and I`ve played Generations til death it gets boring. ?

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I would have to say Sonic 06. It's actually not nearly as bad as people try and dramaticize it to be, Sonic Heroes was a billion times worse, Sonic 06 to me was just 'blah'. I could possibly play it again or something but it's not really on my list of things to do.

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I've only played the classics, the Advance series, Sonic 4 I and II, Generations, Unleashed, Colors and Lost World (and the racing ones, but I guess they don't count).

I'd say Sonic 4 ep I is quite mediocre. Ep II is not as good as it should, but I wouldn't call it mediocre.

The rest go from acceptable to gorgeous.

Sonic 4 ep I is Sonic franchise disgrace XD

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  • 3 weeks later...

I like Sonic Chaos, but I have to admit it's a bit on the mediocre side. It's pleasant, but it doesn't stand out as particularly great in any way, and like Semi-colon e said, it feels a little pointless. It just feels unremarkable all-around, particularly in terms of gameplay and graphics. But as forgettable as it is, it's still enjoyable to play and doesn't really have any severe problems, and even though I don't like to be a negative Nelly, I have to admit that "doesn't really have any severe problems" is more than you can say for many Sonic games, even ones I love. So overall, I'd say Sonic Chaos is pretty mediocre, but at least it's on the "upper end" of mediocre.

A game on the lower end of mediocre is probably Sonic Blast for the Game Gear. In theory, it seems like it should be an okay game, and it is at times...but yet, overall, it's not that pleasant to play. The controls and huge sprites just make it feel, well, clunky. There are also a few annoying bits with the level design too that drags the experience down even more. It's too bad, because it had several cool aspects, including being the only 8-bit game in which Knuckles is playable.

In my personal opinion, if you averaged out all three gameplay styles in Sonic Adventure 2, the end result could easily be called "mediocre": the Sonic/Shadow stages are great, the Tails/Eggman stages are pretty worthless, and the Knuckles/Rouge stages aren't bad but they feel too frustrating to be worth it too often, and the potential for tedium is antithetical to what I want in a Sonic game. Of course, it's debatable this "averaging out" strategy makes sense, since the Sonic/Shadow stages are definitely a million times better than "mediocre" in my opinion. Even if Sonic Adventure 2 could possibly be considered "mediocre" as a whole package, it certainly has aspects which are downright great, so is it really fair to call it a "mediocre game"? I'm honestly not sure. And it should be noted that how good a game Sonic Adventure 2 is is very subjective; it all depends on how much enjoyment you got out of the different gameplay styles, which varies a lot from person to person.

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sonic 2 feels like a special snowflake, i roll my eyes when people say its not only one of the sonic games, but also one of the best games of all time. i mean really? its apparently as good as something like shadow of colossus or half-life 2.......yeah no. don't give me a list of games you like. i would probably know what they are. ExoParadigmGamer  earned a large majority of my respect  with his review.

i would also say 3&knuckles for wanting to feel like a troll or something, but i wouldn't say its bad/mediocre. but i say its not the best game in the series. because of bizarre things like that fucking barrell. and those memorization based special stages.

sonic colors gets a honorable mention for feeling like a poor man's treasure game. for score-attacking purposes. and for feeling like a megaman/slow level design purposed game. the ds game was hundreds time a better game than the wii version.  no i don't give a crap sonic 4 was a disappointment for the vocal-majority. the ds one atleast felt like a sonic game. and is overall better game to good at and trying to 100%

and while its not technically sonic. ill throw smash brothers under the bus. for feeling a lame easy party game that masquerades as a fighting game using mascots making them look like sellouts to sell units. powerstone 1 and 2. and the outfoxies both put smash brothers down to waste.

other than those, i feel like iam one of the only sonic fans who doesn't sound like a hipster. and actually plays other videogames that aren't the first four/five sonic games and nintendo published ips.

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Shadow comes to mind before anything else, honestly. The core gameplay and neutral missions are pretty solid but the monotonous alignment missions and boring level design can make it a chore to play.

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Sonic Heroes is a pretty mediocre game. I actually liked the theme of the levels, and it made the game more fun. Mystic Mansion and Hang Castle stood out for me. Unfortunately the team gameplay was poorly implemented, so it would lead to some frustrating moments. I'd also like to say that giving enemies health bars wasn't a good idea, those giants were a chore to dispose of. I'd be fine with just 2-3 hits but having to stop the momentum of the game to take out a normal enemy just ruined it. Overall I think they could have actually had something decent with Sonic Heroes if they would have put more time and thought into it.

I actually don't think Generations was that mediocre of a game, short yes but I definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of it when I first played it up 5 years ago.

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Sonic Adventure the first, maybe its just me. but there were alot of things that annoyed me. and no you cant blame those things on this game being old.  my main gripe would be that the story timeing got confusing with all the stories. i will say that i enjoy all of the game types... minus Big. 
 

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