What I Believe Is Sonic The Hedgehog's Only Appeal Since His 3D Blunders Began

Let's face it people, Sonic games in 3D work as they were envisioned back in the 2D era only when he's played in the vain of "Day Levels" ala Sonic Unleased. I always get stumped when I see Sonic walking around in a wide 3D area ala Sonic Adventure. I always tell myself "This isn't Sonic, just get me to those speed/rail-griding levels quick please!".

Yet, I'm always finding myself looking back fondly on my game time after recently completing 3D Sonic games (except Sonic Heroes, couldn't stomach it). The funny thing about this is that I never owned a Sega console until the Saturn, and the first Sonic game I played from start to finish was 3D Blast, and I only knew of his games through gaming magazines (pre-internet era) and hearing my friends talking about it and some gameplay videos here and there on TV. I also gamed a bit with my cousin on 2-Player mode with his copy of Sonic 3 at one time, but that doesn't count as Sonic experience.

So, why do I keep looking forward to future Sonic games and feel nostalgic whenever his 2D games are brought up? The fondness is surprisingly not stemming from the games themselves, but actually the character itself. Remember, it wasn't just the games back then during his 16-bit prime, he was everywhere. Cartoons, books, toys, clothes, watches, you name it. His image pretty much invaded my childhood, especially the first syndicated cartoon.

To summarize, I believe his current appeal and a big chunk of his dedicated fanbase praise him mostly for the nostalgia and not the quality of recent games. He's just a symbol of fond memories and better days for Sega to many, including myself. Younger fans who weren't old enough to experience his games back in his prime turned to fandom thanks to the creation of Sonic X's universe, story arcs and their characters. That's my 2 cents anywho.

P.S. Sonic Generations is the best gaming anniversary package in video game history. Though, it boggles my mind why Ice Cap Zone was left out. Michael Jackson's involvement/copyright issue is my guess.

I'm one of those fans that has stuck with Sonic forever. Is any of that due to nostalgia? Maybe a small part, but truth be told I've enjoyed most of Sonic's recent games as well as his older ones. Sonic was easily my favourite franchise of the 16 bit era. Easily. Not even a contest. I think what set Sonic apart from other platformers of that era was how freaking accessible the games were! Most platformers of that time were absolutely brutal. Sonic was a much more accessible and fun game to play. You could attack enemies from any angle as long as you were in ball form, and the ring system was very forgiving compared to most platformers where if you made mistakes you were really punished for it. It made Sonic really accessible for kids and it's a big reason why it was my favourite franchise of its time. Obviously it had fantastic level design, music and a cool sense of speed to go on top of that.

As for the 3D games, it's been hit and miss, but quite frankly the misses have been cancelled out by the fantastic handheld titles. For every Sonic 06 there was a Sonic Rush in its place. My first 3D Sonic game was Heroes, and I loved it for the most part. I only had a PS2 last gen so thats why it was my first 3D Sonic. My next 3D Sonic after that was Secret Rings, which I hated at first. It kinda grew on me after a while once I got used to the controls, but it was still pretty meh. Then I went out and tried the GC versions of SA1 and SA2 on the Wii. Needless to say, I hated them. I finally started to actually see what the big deal with the 3D Sonic hate was, and why people hated the other characters so much. Truly awful games. The Sonic gameplay was good and pretty similar to Heroes without the character switching mechanic. But the other 70% of those games were trash. With the terrible reception of 06 and Unleashed I waited a long time before getting them. I got Unleashed about a year after it came out, and I hated it. There were things about it I liked, but the majortity of the game was truly awful. From the absurdly long werehog levels to the stupidly designed hub worlds to the excessive medal collecting. Even the day stages had tons of problems thanks to trial and error level design. The redeeming thing about the game was the fact S ranking the day stages was an absolutely fantastic and challenging gameplay experience. It really made the replay value of Unleashed massive. Also like all Sonic games, the game had awesome music.

Then Colours came out and I thought it was fantastic. Once of my favourite games of 2010 without question. It was a real exception to the rule in recent years. The normal rule is that the 3D Sonic coming out would have massive problems but the 2D Sonic would be great. Turned out Sonic 4 sucked major balls and Colours was awesome. Very strange. Oh yeah and I played 06 around this time as well. Yeah it sucked, though to be honest it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Only marginally worse than SA2 imo. Then Generations came out and it was great. It lacked a bit of the magic of Colours for some reason, but it was still great. I dunno. It was missing something that Colours had. It doesn't help that Sega ruined the game by revealing EVERYTHING about the game. Worst marketing of all time. It's better to reveal little to nothing about your game than to reveal everything and spoil it.

Sonic Advance 1, 2, 3, Rush, Rush Adventure and even Colours DS were all great games and they cancel out the bad 3D games for me. I've enjoyed enough of the modern games for my love for the series continuing doesn't have too much to do with nostalgia. If I don't like a Sonic game I'll say I don't like a Sonic game. Me bothering to try out games I knew were bad before playing them probably is to do with nostalgia. It was my childhood franchise and I just had to know what was so bad about these games. But Sonic games old and new that I do like is what makes me love the series. Not nostalgia. Nostalgia may be why I bothered to buy certain games in the series, but it has nothing to do with why I love the series in general.

do you even realize topicstarter that sonic 3d games sell very well and sell very well by kids?? they must like them but not for nostalgia factors as they weren't around when sonic was 2d. the recent sonic generations game is 2d again and is excellent I hope they continue that way as 2d sonic is amazing and in 3d sonic adventure 1 and 2 were very good. the others weren;t too bad either but the 2d were just so incredible that people were disapointed. or at leats the disapointed people you always hear. the games still got ok artes and sold very well

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Panzer_Zwei

I agree. sonic is getting way too much unfair hate for what are very good games and the line is going upwards for a few years now. yes it;'s different than 2d and I will alwats prefer 2d that's why with generations they have don well by doing both 3d and 2d

My favorit 3D sonic game is Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube. I enjoyed the game alot and even manged to beat it 100%.

I also have Sonic Generations. The game is pretty good aswell, though I will say that atm I like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle better. But enough talk about Generations as that game is not Legacy meterial yet.

I haven't played Colors or Generations, so I can't speak of those. But I do have Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 and thought that it was fantastic. But then that kind of supports what the OP was saying about 2D vs. 3D Sonic, since that was a 2D game. The only 3D Sonic game I've ever really enjoyed was Sonic 3D Blast, and I didn't even like it as much as I did the 2D games, which are fantastic.

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Panzer_Zwei

Sonic should have retained 2D gameplay imo. It doesn't really work well otherwise.

I really enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on GC... so Tc is lost on me.

P.S. Sonic Generations is the best gaming anniversary package in video game history. Though, it boggles my mind why Ice Cap Zone was left out. Michael Jackson's involvement/copyright issue is my guess.

Aero5555

It boggles my mind that they left out the Mystic Ruins or Final Egg from Sonic Adventure. Instead they chose Speed Highway which seems like such a random choice. That one wasn't nearly as memorable as the Mystic Ruins or Final Egg.

And maybe for Sonic 06, they should've done White Acropolis instead of Crisis City.

And I can't believe Casino Night Zone wasn't included as a real level! Instead it's DLC mini game. DX

Thanks for the comments everyone. It's apparent to me that some of you unfortunately read the summary and didn't bother with the essential rest of the OP that fleshed it out. What I'll do is quote the arguments and then post a quote from my OP below it in bold which will point out how I actually brought up said argument on OP.

do you even realize topicstarter that sonic 3d games sell very well and sell very well by kids?? they must like them but not for nostalgia factors as they weren't around when sonic was 2d. yes it's different than 2d and I will alwats prefer 2d that's why with generations they have don well by doing both 3d and 2d.

bultje112

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Panzer_Zwei

Younger fans who weren't old enough to experience his games back in his prime turned to fandom thanks to the creation of Sonic X's universe, story arcs and their characters.Sonic games in 3D work as they were envisioned back in the 2D era only when he's played in the vain of "Day Levels" ala Sonic Unleased.

P.S. Sonic Generations is the best gaming anniversary package in video game history.

Aero5555

To close this post, I'd like to point out that it's alot easier to impress kids than it is to impress adults. Think of all the games you absolutely adored as a kid but now find them boring, repetitive, broken, and sometimes even downright absymal. I'm also now playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the weekends, beat the "Hero Story" segment and will do the rest soon. It's likeable with the usual Sonic 3D frustrations. That last stage on Hero Story.... UGH !

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

Heirren

uh yeah because you said so.

Thanks for the comments everyone. It's apparent to me that some of you unfortunately read the summary and didn't bother with the essential rest of the OP that fleshed it out. What I'll do is quote the arguments and then post a quote from my OP below it in bold which will point out how I actually brought up said argument on OP.

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Aero5555

Younger fans who weren't old enough to experience his games back in his prime turned to fandom thanks to the creation of Sonic X's universe, story arcs and their characters.Sonic games in 3D work as they were envisioned back in the 2D era only when he's played in the vain of "Day Levels" ala Sonic Unleased.

P.S. Sonic Generations is the best gaming anniversary package in video game history.

Aero5555

To close this post, I'd like to point out that it's alot easier to impress kids than it is to impress adults. Think of all the games you absolutely adored as a kid but now find them boring, repetitive, broken, and sometimes even downright absymal. I'm also now playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the weekends, beat the "Hero Story" segment and will do the rest soon. It's likeable with the usual Sonic 3D frustrations. That last stage on Hero Story.... UGH !

kids of today have much high standards in gaming than we did as kids. you can't compare that. gaming has evolved sooo much

Recent games like Colors and Generations have been of a very high quality, actually.

Panzer_Zwei

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

bultje112

uh yeah because you said so.

No, because the platforming is very basic.

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

Heirren

uh yeah because you said so.

No, because the platforming is very basic.

Yeah, that's not right.

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

Heirren

uh yeah because you said so.

No, because the platforming is very basic.

The 3D Sonic games really only earned this bad reputation because of a string of bad games like Shadow, Sonic 06 and Unleashed. I thought Heroes was pretty good but I've never played any version other than the Gamecube version which is heralded as the best port of it. I didn't think the rest of the 3D Sonic games were bad at all, yet they all could have used a bit more polishing. Even the Sonic Adventure games were not as polished as they could have been, as the controls definitely needed to be tighter. Just trying to run perfectly straight in the Adventure games took a lot more effort than it should have.

As for his appeal he's Sonic how many video game characters are as instantly as recognizable with the exclusion of Mario and Link?

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

uh yeah because you said so.

Emerald_Warrior

No, because the platforming is very basic.

Yeah, that's not right.

Yes, it is. The platforming is more complex in Mario 3/World. I like Sonic, but the platforming segments are rather poor.

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

No, because the platforming is very basic.

Heirren

Yeah, that's not right.

Yes, it is. The platforming is more complex in Mario 3/World. I like Sonic, but the platforming segments are rather poor.

Mario is more complex, no doubt about it. But Sonic isn't a basic platformer.

Kids of today have much high standards in gaming than we did as kids. you can't compare that.

bultje112

If anything they should be grateful for what they have these days, not spoiled rotten. I used to freak out if I heard a voice clip on a video game. Now all the kids care about are the "grafix". This statement is de-value~ing your argument more than supporting it IMO. If you don't agree with my opinion that's fine, but if I'm gonna go through the "I'm-Gonna-Counter-Your-Opinion-Until-I-Prove-You-Wrong" cycle then forget it. If there's one thing I find rude it's when someone doesn't respect others opinions and insists on making them sound stupid. Apologies if I sound like an a** right now.

And yeah, it's a basic platformer because he said so. Get over it or just keep it to yourself and let it go.

As for his appeal he's Sonic how many video game characters are as instantly as recognizable with the exclusion of Mario and Link?

lordoftheleft

Again, he was everywhere. Not just the games but also merchandise and cartoons. People recognized him as a cartoon character as well. Having 4 cartoon series, including an insanely popular anime, speaks volumes publicity-wise.

Mario, other than his iconic status as THE video game mascot besides Pac-Man, also had a very popular cartoon back in the 80's along with merchandise. And Link was on merchandise, cereal, memorable 80's TV advertisements, and the benefit of being the central protagonist of a game that revolutionized 3D Action-RPGs and is even mentioned on the Guinness book of world records. It's all PR.

Definitely. And from I hear the changes for Sonic 4 episode 2 might turn out well.Eikichi-Onizuka

When I saw the logo for episode 2, I was like "Oh great... Sonic 2: The Reboot... I see what you're doing Sega". Not that I'm against it, I'm actually for it.

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Sonic has always had a little more style over substance. The platforming is very weak compared to super mario.

Heirren

uh yeah because you said so.

No, because the platforming is very basic.

so a basic platformer has less substance?? the less basic the simpler the gameplay the more addicting. less is more. it's just as simple as mario in 2d which was great too until it became 3d

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="bultje112"]

uh yeah because you said so.

bultje112

No, because the platforming is very basic.

so a basic platformer has less substance?? the less basic the simpler the gameplay the more addicting. less is more. it's just as simple as mario in 2d which was great too until it became 3d

Think of if more along the lines of music, as a lot of the best 8/16bit platformers relied heavily on rhythm.

Well, I beat Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. And as I predicted, aside from the annoying Knuckles/Rogue stages, it was fun. Ending was very anti-climatic though.

Having beaten it, I so wanna play Shadow The Hedgehog now. Had it awhile back but it always froze mid-way through level one. Aint half-bad but it's probably because I'm used to the Sonic 3D frustrations by now. It's the only 3D one left I haven't beaten. Sonic '06 doesn't exist.

So I started Shadow The Hedgehog and got 4 endings outta 10 up to now. However, I'm playing it with a gameshark due to how frustratingly difficult it gets because of its poor design and unpolished nature. Story's interesting enough, though I don't get how all 10 endings will come together in the end to form the true last stage in the game. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Please don't spoil.

The game just further proves the point I'm making in the OP. Unless you're a Sonic completist like myself, avoid at all costs.

I thought the Sonic Adventures were both good. After that things started going downhill though.