So how *do* you feel about newer Sonic games?

[Speederino]

I know when you ask that question on the internet, you typically get the answer of "There hasn't been a single good game since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast." Sometimes they might throw in that the current handheld games are alright, but typically they just don't mention them. But being this is a forum full of Sonic fans, I'm curious to see what you guys have to say. And sorry if this was done before recently, I browsed through the backlog a little bit but I didn't see anything *quite* like this.

While I do believe the console games have declined ever since Sonic Heroes, that doesn't mean I think it's been as bad as everyone else says. I thought Shadow the Hedgehog was actually pretty alright for one thing, and I've been enjoying the storybook series. (As blasphomous as the sword was, I have to admit I had fun with it) And the day levels in Unleashed are some of my favorite Sonic levels EVER, including the Genesis games. On top of that, I still love Sonic on the GBA and DS. Some people bash them for being too fast, and I can certainly see why. But I just consider these and the classic Sonic games to have different play styles, both of which are good. The old ones feature platforming, while Rush is more about moving fast and not getting hit by anything. Works for me =P

What I really don't get is why people treat the entire last decade of the franchise to be pure crap when the only games that got extremely negative reviews were Shadow and Sonic 06. Everything else has gotten at least mixed reception. Since when did two bad games = an entirely bad franchise? I know people have different opinions, but that's just the general vibe I've gotten in the last few years. There just doesn't seem to be much middle ground where people think a particular game was even just okay, it's either it really sucked or it was pretty good. And people seem to forget the 90's had their share of terrible Sonic games. Sonic 3D Blast and Labrynth, anyone?

Just don't try to tell me Sonic doesn't work in 3D. IMO, Sonic Adventure made the transition perfectly. You speed through levels while dodging stuff and jumping on platforms, and the controls work perfectly. What more do you want?

Edited April 6, 2010 by Speederino

[Remy]

There hasn't been a single good game since Sonic Heroes

[Sean]

Sonic Rush Adventure is great.

Everything else has been either mediocre, fun but doesn't last, or absolute garbage.

[Jay H]

I think the argument that "Every Sonic game in recent years have sucked!" is greatly exaggerated. They mostly look at the canon Sonic titles such as Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and Sonic Unleashed and base the entire performance of the series off of that. It's a very narrow-minded way of looking at it, and it's quite unfortunate. Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, and Sonic Unleashed I think have been the best Sonic titles in recent years. I also think Sonic Heroes has it's enjoyable moments as well.

As to the state of the franchise today, I think it's been somewhat stable. There's the occasional title that gets negative reception, there's one that gets huge praise, and there's others that get mixed reactions. I've noticed that since Sonic's sppearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and then Sonic Unleashed, I think we're seeing the beginning of a turning point. A turning point where we're seeing more effort put into each game that comes out. Each title recently have turned back to the blue-sky SEGA treatment, and Sonic seems to be regaining more of his cocky personality. Gameplay wise, it seems they're at least trying, and I think they are getting more and more development teams that actually give a damn about creating a fun game. (Sonic and the Black Knight may have faulted in gameplay, but story and feel were very successful I thought.) In terms of overall thinking about the newer Sonic titles, it's been a rough road, but hopefully getting more onto a smoother surface. I think the timing is right, especially with Sonic's big 20th Anniversary next year.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Spyne

[ovarloard]

I am going to be killed for this.

I enjoy the modern games. I don't care that "Sonic's on a hoverboard tho he's the fastest thing alive", I care that the gameplay is fast and fun.

Unleashed's nighttime levels were a bit of a disappointment; they didn't seem like a Sonic game, obviously, but they were fun in their own right. Secret Rings was challenging and fun, and I loved Black Knight. Spinning with the sword as a blade felt like a natural extension of Sonic's natural spikes. I can't speak for Heroes, seeing as I've only ever played it once or twice, but Shadow the Hedgehog was a great game to play with some friends, who enjoyed seeing Shadow run around and shoot aliens.

The only modern Sonic game I have a problem with is Chronicles, because it is NOTHING like the main series at all; without the characters it'd be another game completely. Of course, the same thing could be said for the Werehog levels in Unleashed, but at least Unleashed had the daytime stages to fall back on.

As for Sonic '06, well... I'm not going to pass judgement on this one. I've played it, but not enough to make a final decision.

Haven't yet played ASR, the Advance and Rush series were awesome, and the Classic Collection doesn't count.

Edited April 6, 2010 by DreadLoRd Chuckles

[Silencer226]

When it comes to newer Sonic games, I'm disinterested. In fact the closest thing to recent Sonic in my collection (which is like 3 games) is Sonic Heroes, the last Sonic I can honestly say I had some fun playing. But after that it's downhill, Sonic 06 was trash and Unleashed was just boring, especially that bastardized qte fuckfest version of Sky Chase.

As for Sonic '06, well... I'm not going to pass judgement on this one. I've played it, but not enough to make a final decision.

Judgement has already been passed on that, I'm afraid.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Silencer226

[Rusty Spy]

So many missed opportunities. Every game (except ShTh) had a lot of potential in it's gameplay gimmicks, but as always, Sega just screw it up or do not take the gameplay to it's limits, the worst example as of recent being SaTBK.

[Guest]

I loved them all, main games at least, except Heroes and Unleashed,. Secret rings was pretty bad too, never played SatBK or Unleashed PS360.

I don't get the hatred of all the newer games, not all the old games were good. Labyrinth? Blast? 3D Blast? CD? (Okay, so people like that one...)

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

The newer games have some good concepts, but they have poor execution.

The Adventures had a good formula, albiet shaky at times. Heroes felt repetitive and offered no variety between the four teams presented to you, and would've been better off as one team. Shadow was unnecessary, and Sonic 06 was absolute garbage. Unleashed was the most polished Sonic game we've had in a long time, but even that still had flaws as it's daytime levels were nothing but something for you to speed through feeling akin to running through a hall; the werehog got repetitive after a long while, and you begin to get tired of them at around Skyscraper Scamper.

The main problem with the newer games is that whoever gets the ideas for the game draws the ideas right out of a hat and jumps straight off the cliff with the ideas. Not that they're doing that exactly, but that's how it feels when they carry on with the direction of the series. They should have a good solid formula and stick with it while improving it as they progress along the years.

And generally make some of the content optional. A lot of people hate Shadow, simply because he's Shadow, so if they don't want to play as Shadow I don't see why they should have to play as him to complete the whole game. Basically if they want to play as something, they can do so; if not, they're not forced to, and they'd be incredibly silly if they bitch about optional content.

Also the story needs some serious work. Unleashed was a good step in the right direction, now I want to see them do better than what they did.

[Chooch]

I think the best way for me to answer this question is to go one by one through each 'main series' one released since Adventure 2.

Sonic Heroes

Sonic Heroes had a nice concept and I can sort of see why other people like it but.. I honestly can't stand it. I think the level design is awful along with the visuals, the storyline, and the majority of the music. As I said before, it had a really nice concept but I feel that it was executed so unbelievably poorly that it just made the game really slow, monotonous, and un-fun. The monotony only continues when you realize that you have to beat the game four times in order to get the real ending. Tack on the terrible voice acting and the constant hand holding that goes along with it and you've got something that's just plain frustrating to play. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog is an odd one. I absolutely hated the concept of it and outright refused to play it for a while. The reception it got didn't help its case. Then.. I randomly got a copy of the game for Christmas (I didn't ask for it, of course), so naturally, I played it. The game really isn't that bad at all. In fact, I think it's a really solid and enjoyable experience. Once you quit being immature and get over the 'WHY SHADOW HAVE GUN??' nonsense, you might actually be able to see that it's a decent game. The worst thing about it is playing Westopolis ten times. And honestly, I'll play Westopolis 100 times before I'll go through stages like Sonic Heroes' Bullet Station again.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

This is a bad game. A really bad game. And yet.. I still find myself enjoying it whenever I play it. If this game had another year under it so that the long loading times and bugs could be ironed out, it'd be golden. Fucking golden. Say what you want about the story, but I really thought this game had an unbelievable amount of potential, and it really shows when you learn how to get past a lot of the bugs (I don't care what you say, most of them are avoidable). The level design is good, and there were a lot of really good ideas here (I don't think I need to explain the Rainbow gem). You want Sonic Adventure 3? Here it is. Its similarities to the first Adventure game are obvious and rather blatant. It's a real shame the game was pushed out before Christmas. It really could have been fantastic.

Sonic Unleashed

This is one of my favorite Sonic games ever. Not even kidding. I love this game and I'd argue that it's better than Adventure 2. The Werehog may be a stupid concept, but I find it hard to say that it doesn't play better than most if not all of the other gameplay alternatives to Sonic over the past few years. And I had fun with those. The day stages are great, and the night stages are a nice break from the day ones. My only real gripe is the difficulty jump between Jungle Joyride and Eggmanland. I did rather well on Jungle Joyride, but Eggmanland just.. raped me. Bad.

So yeah, to sum up, Sonic Heroes was the okay game that I hated, Shadow was a pleasant surprised, Sonic '06 was the bad game I liked, and Unleashed was sex.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Chooch

[Speederino]

The Adventures had a good formula, albiet shaky at times. Heroes felt repetitive and offered no variety between the four teams presented to you, and would've been better off as one team.

Yeah, that's my biggest problem with Heroes. It has four teams, but it's really more like it's just making you play the game four times in a row. And the game isn't even all that good to begin with, it's glitchy and the level-up system is wonky. Also, the dialouge is so horrendous and the rock music is overly cheesy. I'd honestly rather listen to the rap music from the Adventure games. The in-game music was good, at least. Heroes is the only recent game I've played that I absolutely didn't care for much. (Unless you count Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, which I don't.) Though I've yet to play Sonic 06...I'll see where that goes. The person above this post seems to have the same opinions I do, so if I had to guess that's probably what I'll think of it.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Speederino

[Remy]

When it comes to newer Sonic games, I'm disinterested. In fact the closest thing to recent Sonic in my collection (which is like 3 games) is Sonic Heroes, the last Sonic I can honestly say I had some fun playing. But after that it's downhill, Sonic 06 was trash and Unleashed was just boring, especially that bastardized qte fuckfest version of Sky Chase.

This is pretty much me as well, actually. After playing shadow 10 times or whatever to get the goddamn ending I just odn't feel like playing sonic games anymore. the fact that 06 and unleashed are both mediocre sealed my disinterest.

[Meow]

Sonic Heroes is alright, didn't like Shadow, some elements of 06 I like, and Unleashed I thought was great. I like Rush, but I never play it after I beat it, but Rush Adventure is super fun. I liked Chronicles and hope for a sequel. I'm also eagerly awaiting superdramallamacreator the hedgehog 4.

[Sega DogTagz]

I think that for the most part people just treat Sonic with the first party pedigree he built up on the Genesis through the Dreamcast. Even if newer games are decent, or even good, that is just not acceptable for a major first party franchise (regardless of Sega’s current status).

If the next two major Mario games were simply “okay” wouldn’t people have a problem with it? (I would scream about galaxy at this point but this is not the time nor the place). Recent sonic games have been buggy, glitchy and in some cases broken which certainly does not fit the hedgehogs lofty pedigree. As such, we see the faults in his recent endeavors being somewhat magnified into what we see everywhere today.

Personally, I cant find fault with this logic (shock, horror). I know that I carry Sonic with an aura of greatness and no game short of perfection will do him justice. He deserves that much. I still adore the franchise and have found enjoyment in even the games I liked the least *stares at storybook series*. Unleashed at the very least showed their commitment to a psudo-first party development cycle, with the new engine and all.

To sum up, I like the new gen games. I probably eek out more enjoyment out of titles such as Unleashed, than I do out of the original MegaDrive ones. Could they be better? God yes. But in the end I am hardest on the things I love most. I am very hard on this franchise for a reason.

[Octarine]

Ah, yes. Hasty ranking time.

1. Rush Adventure is good. Really, genuinely good. It's absolutely my favourite post-Dreamcast game, and the only one that I'd really be willing to hold up as an example of Sonic done right.

2. Rush, Unleashed and the Advance games were pretty decent. Not perfect, with wonky physics, linear levels, the Werehog, bottomless pits and QTEs showing up here and there, but definitely enjoyable. All of them had aesthetics and plots that fit well within the series, and they all at least provided a good sense of speed.

3. Heroes and Black Knight were mediocre. Heroes started out with some great ideas, but it tried to shoehorn too much stuff into a simple package and the result was a confusing mess with several levels that are absolute chores to get through. Its attempt to return to the classic style was admirable, but I really dislike it for screwing it up so badly. Black Knight had a really enjoyable story and script, surprisingly good voice acting and very nice graphics; it's just too bad it wasn't very much fun to play. I haven't got a whole lot to say about it beyond that, really.

4. Shadow and Chronicles were pretty bad, but I enjoyed them. Playing Shadow years after it came out, it reminded me of a schlocky B-movie... so bad you just can't not have fun with it. The swearing, the guns, the over-the-top plot; it was all a blast, and I have to credit it for having far more stable gameplay than Heroes, even if it wasn't as interesting. Maybe it's just because I didn't pay much for it and I didn't get to experience the (surely horrifying) period where it looked like that was the new direction the whole series would be taking, but I had some guilty fun with it. Chronicles felt a lot like Black Knight to me, in that I liked the story and characters, even if I found them a little off, but the rest of the package was pretty shoddy. It just felt incomplete, and from some of the things we've seen it looks like it actually was. I liked it, but I'd never call it good.

5. '06... bbblllllrrrgh. Terrible story blah blah glitches blah loading screens blah blah blah ruined Blaze's backstory blah blah too slow blah boring graphics blah blah pretty good music though blah. It's all been said before, and I concur with most of it. This game is pain.

...I haven't played Secret Rings, but I think that's the only major omission.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Octarine

[XavierRussell]

When SA1 and 2 both first came out I loved em. I still find both of them, the remakes included, to be really good.

I got Heroes pre-ordered (and got this iron-on T-shirt XD) and couldn't wait. Loved it as well, except for Team Chaotix. Egg Fleet is still one of my favorite levels. Great Concept.

I stayed away from Shadow because I thought it was a dumb idea, and when I did play it felt it was a step backwards from Heroes. I don't think it's a bad game, just a strange one.

Sonic 06 is another weird one. I know it's a bad game but I love playing it. I like alot of stuff about it, and think Shadow plays in a way he SHOULD'VE been in his own game. I won't defend its technical issues, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Unleashed is great, loved everything about it.

SatSR I haven't finished yet, mainly because I'm PS3 obsessed atm, but I enjoy it too. Controls can be finicky at times but once I find my comfort zone it's alright.

SatBK I finished and felt it was much better than what I did play of SatSR. I like how the sword worked, and how Sonic looks with it equipped. Not bad at all.

In Brawl, Sonic is too hard to control, and can't K.O. a damaged character to save his life =/ I was disappointed.

All the handheld titles have been great. I felt they only got better as they came out. Sadv1<Sadv2<Sadv3<Rush<SRA They were all a good time and they all have really good levels and epic last bosses. Every single one of them does.

I think Sonic is doing just fine and can't wait for Sonic 4. =D There hasn't been a Sonic game I can honestly say I disliked since like...Sonic shuffle. And that time I tried Sonic Labyrinth. I'll give Labyrinth another go someday though. Oh, and Sonic Blast on GG, didn't like that. I enjoyed 3d blast alot though =D

I love Sonic games

[Doctor MK]

While I'm fully aware that the newer Sonic games are by no means masterpieces, I still generally find enjoyment in them and have fun playing them.

People are always asking me "how can you like that shit?!", but I guess I'm just one of these people who can realise the flaws in a game yet still enjoy it.

For example, Sonic and the Secret Rings. It may be regarded as one of the "better" new Sonic games but it's not perfect (namely frustrating controls). When I played the game, yes, I died time after time thanks to the controls. However, I still think very highly of the game. I don't really know what it is about it - the game's setting, the game's story, the art style... something about it just drew me in. The same goes for Sonic and the Black Knight, which I should apparently be ashamed for somewhat liking

And then you've got the other games - Adventure 1/2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Unleashed (Wii)... I found fun in them all, in some way. I haven't played Sonic 06 so cannot really comment on that one.

So all in all - I don't think new Sonic games are the best things ever made, yet at the same time I don't always think they deserve the hatred they get. That said, I would still rather play some classic 2D Sonic, which seems to have been consistently good throughout even the 3D era (Advance, Rush).

[-Mark-]

You want my honest opinion (although I'm sure it's going to be controversial)?

I'm of the minority that doesn't think Sonic has gone to shit in recent years. I can honestly say that I've loved, or at least liked, most of the Sonic games released in the last decade (bear in mind I've not played the Rivals games and barely played '06, but still).

Hell, I even liked Shadow the Hedgehog. Love both the Riders games. Like Black Knight.

I'd say the only Sonic game in recent years I can say I was honestly disappointed with was the Wii version of Unleashed. The levels themselves weren't bad, but the whole game was just thrown together in such a half-arsed manner. I mean, okay, there's the bigger, main HD version, but when it's as painfully obvious that things have been as drastically cut down as they had, it just seems shoddy to the extent where it destroys my immersion in the game.

I still want to facepalm whenever I think back to that part where you have to fight still pictures of monsters as a QTE. I mean, really, what made them think that was okay to do in 2008? Same goes for the Wii/ PS2 'hub areas', really. Ooh, clicking around a picture of a map to talk to still images of characters. That'd have been considered outdated on a console ten years ago, and they could barely get away with it on a handheld nowadays. D:

But yeah- I'll admit that the games aren't quite as good as they have been since SA1/ SA2, but at the same time, I'd say it's generally only been a slight decline, rather than the usual "OMG SONIC HAS BEEN SHIT FOR A DECADE" stuff that you usually see thrown around. Sure, the newer games aren't quite as good, and even within those, some are better than others, but hell, even counting the shoddy Wii Unleashed, I can't say I've ever come across a recent Sonic game I'd consider 'bad'. Wii Unleashed came the closest for me, but even that wasn't that close, by any means.

[Octarine]

I still want to facepalm whenever I think back to that part where you have to fight still pictures of monsters as a QTE. I mean, really, what made them think that was okay to do in 2008? Same goes for the Wii/ PS2 'hub areas', really. Ooh, clicking around a picture of a map to talk to still images of characters. That'd have been considered outdated on a console ten years ago, and they could barely get away with it on a handheld nowadays. D:

I sort of recall having heard that the monster QTE thing was supposed to be a joke... a reference to another game/genre of games or something; I don't exactly remember. Of course, it was still only there because there weren't any hubs for an actual fight to happen in, so yeah. Uh.

[Doctor MK]

*words of many a number*

I pretty much totally agree with you, I've found enjoyment in all the recent Sonic games (bar Rivals and 06, which I haven't played)

I disagree slightly about Unwiished though, having played a bit of the 360 version I much prefer the Wii version. Dunno why really, even though it's obviously missing a lot of stuff I still find it to be the better version of the game. But then again I like Black Knight, so I must be weird

[Marcello]

Haha, I was playing through the series again a month or two ago an dI have to say my opinion has changed on some of the games from when I played them the first time..

Sonic Heroes:

I only played the Team Sonic story again,but it was so much more fun then in my memory. Sure things like Badn- err, Egg Pawns taking more than one hit was annoyingand so were the Egg Pawns in general. To this day they are my least favorite robotic enemys in the series, even though alot of people hate the 06 ones more, I liked them and there was even a Rhinotank in the game :-/.

Also it brang back my favorite character to the series- Espio(He became my favorite character for the stupid reason of being purple and purple being my favortie colo at the time of playing Chaotix xD).

I still don'T like it as much as the Adventures, but it was still fun.

Shadow The Hedgehog:

When the game came out I really disliked this, I didn't hate it and I was excited when I bought it, but when I played I noticed Shadow controlled like he was on ice and the enemys yet again took forever to kill with them homing attack and even too long with guns.

The thing that bothered me so much were the voices. At first I just thought "Huh, Sonic sounds strange" After an hour it dawned upon me that there were new voices so I checked the manual, then remembered that I didn't know the old VAs names xD.

But when I replayed the controls seemed tighter than in my memory; Not perfect, but better. Also, only playing through it once and going straigh to the final story (Instead of having to get each ending) helped

I think.

Sonic 06:

When I played this for the first time I was dissappointed. The graphics weren't that good to me, Sonic wasn't fast outside of the high-speed chases, the 4Kids voices were still around.

However this game brought my favorite prerenders of the characters, like Knuckles:

I like how the body is squarish and stuff.

Sadly, he looks crappy ingame :-/ This is also a negative point of the game: While the Prerenders are beautiful, the characters look weird ingame.

The side characters almost all play like shit. I did and do have fun with Blaze and Omega, though.

This time through, I enjoyed the story more and actually had alot of fun playing through as Sonic. The other 2 characters are slightly less fun, though. All in all, I think the game is good and more fun than Unleashed.

Also I love Sonic's quills here

Sonic Unleashed

Probably my least favorite 3D Sonic game. The day time stages were cool the first time through but got quickly annoying and boring. Searching for Medals annoyed the hell out of me and the Light Gaia vs. Dark Gaia was the most annoying shit ever.

I did however love the Werehog bosses (The day time bosses sucked, in my opinion). Especially the bird. And I did have fun playing Super Sonic with the cool music.

I liked the human design less than in Adventure. I don'T know why, and I know most people like it more, because its cartoon with the cartoony Sonic characters, but I always found the contrast between the cartoon animals and the semi-realistic humans awesome.

To the Handheld games(since Advance): I liked them all, but I do suck at Pinball Party and Battle :-/ Also I haven'T played Rivals 2, but I want to because Espio is in it xD.

Lol, this post was longer than I expected and I did sometimes rant about random things xD.

Edited April 6, 2010 by MarcelloF

[Thirsty Pocket]

It's not that there haven't been any good games at all, but rather, a severe drop in quality. The only games I can truly say I didn't like were Rush & Rush Adventure, Advance 2 & 3, Black Knight, and 2006 ( and I didn't even realise I disliked 06 until I finished and went online and read fan rage. )

Sonic Heroes and Shadow were A OK in my book. Advance 1 was worthy of the name "Sonic 4" in my opinion. Unleashed is "okay" on the PS3, but the ( too much ) speed and platforming really shouldn't be seperated, needing Medals to advance was bogus, and the beat em up parts got annoying fast... I don't think my expectations for games aren't as unreasonably high as most gamers though, so Im probably alot more forgiving towards the all the series I love that are supposedly screwing up hard lately.

[eXtaticus]

I know when you ask that question on the internet, you typically get the answer of "There hasn't been a single good game since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast." Sometimes they might throw in that the current handheld games are alright,

Well, yeah. You were expecting something other than the truth?

[Roorii]

Sonic has been abused by Sega. The name has been tarnished beyond repair, and there will never be another good Sonic game. Sega is treating Sonic little the little whore-cash-cow that he is, and you idiots keep buying these games, and funding Sega's little piggy bank.

Ah well, we can all reminisce about the good times right?

[-Mark-]

It's not that there haven't been any good games at all, but rather, a severe drop in quality. The only games I can truly say I didn't like were Rush & Rush Adventure, Advance 2 & 3, Black Knight, and 2006 ( and I didn't even realise I disliked 06 until I finished and went online and read fan rage. )

That means you didn't dislike it. You only decided you did when you saw the hate everyone else was giving it and was (maybe) influenced by their opinions. D:

Sonic Heroes and Shadow were A OK in my book. Advance 1 was worthy of the name "Sonic 4" in my opinion.

This. Seriously, if it had been a console release, it would have been Sonic 4. It plays exactly like the classics.