Everyone's take on recent Sonic games

I had the same problem, but then I focused really hard, made sluggish movements, and engaged in gameplay that simultaneously aggravated me and bored me to tears. Then I beat it.

 

You must not have played enough shitty old platformers from days long past like the SNES Beavis and Butthead game. So many pampered platform gamers who can't deal with shit physics...

 

Haven't been able to play too many old platformers, but I like to consider myself part of the group who can put up with shitty physics (see Sonic Heroes through Sonic Unleashed). Like I said, I got used to the crap physics and beat the game.

 

Yeah, but if you were truly hardcore, you'd be able to take those same shit physics, turn it into a challenge and derive pleasure from its shittyness. Thats the mark of a truly psychotic gamer.

 

And now my friend, you have finally realized the true perfection that is Sonic 1 in the GBA.

 

Scale of 1-10, 1=BURN, 10=love it

SA1 - 9/10 - Nice level design. The movement from crazy zones to a human world was jarring but fun. Camera was shite, controls were slippery at the best of times. FUCK Big...
SA2- 7.5/10 - For some reason, a fan favorite. Sonic/Shadow was great, every other type pf gameplay was shit. Story was good. CGI was sub-par for some reason, even SA1 had better CGI...
Heroes - 8/10 - The PS2 version was shit. The gamecube version was very good. Interesting level design (not perfect). Beautiful sonic-y colours. Shiny Charater models bugged me. The story was minimalistic, if a bit campy. Switching rails was a bitch.
Shadow - N/A - I played the first level at a friends house. It felt.........odd, Speed and gunplay don't mesh.
Sonic 2006 - 5/10 - The music was so very good. I though it was a good mix between orchestral (Crisis City), Drum adn Bass (Aquatic bass) and Rock (Flame Core). The physics were akward at best. Mach-speed were uncontrollable. Silvers gameplay.....nice try.....but shit
Sonic Unleashed (PS3/360) - 7.5/10 - Suffered a simmilar fate to SA2. Day was awesome, night was Meh. If Knuckles was the werehog, people would have complained less. Music was in a simmilar vain to Sonic 06 - Good. Graphics were so good, they were almost as good as the CGI cutscenes

Sonic Adv. - N/A
Adv.2 - N/A
Adv.3 - N/A
Rush - 8/10 - sure it was mindless speed, but it was so much fun. The soundtrack was fucking awesome........Wrapped in black, black, black, Wrapped in black - *people stare* - What!?
Rush Adventure - Played the first 3 zones, after which my copy was smashed and ruined. Coudn't get passed the third stage. Much better level design than Rush.

 

Adventure - My favorite out of the Adventure games.
Adventure 2 - It would be more fun if not for the large amount of shooting/treasure hunting compared to running levels.
Heroes - Pretty great. I don't know why people kept complaining about bugs, I never saw any (GCN version)
Shadow - If you play this game, don't pay attention the story at all. The guns were actually kind of fun to use.
'06 - Spare yourself the pain and just watch the let's play
Unleashed (360/PS3) - One of the better 3D games so far.
Unleashed (Wii/PS2) - Never played it, sorry
Advance 1 - Good
Advance 2 - Can't remember
Advance 3 - I liked the partner mechanic
Rush - Pretty fun
Rush Adventure - Improved greatly on Rush and I loved it

 

Adventure - It's, by far, one of the best Adventure-style games to date. And I'm saying this as a SEGA fan. Because it was ALMOST perfect. The story, the music, the level design, PART of the gameplay and the characters. (...After I played Big, I raged to infinity. Really.)

Adventure 2 - Sure, this is a fan favorite, but it's not AS POWERFUL as SA1. Yes, Sonic/Shadow gameplay, the music and the story were good, but the rest was...eh. Just.. too bland.

Heroes - I DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO FINISH THIS PIECE OF SHIT. Sure, it had good music. THAT'S THE ONLY THING. I'm giving it another chance on the PC version, because the PS2 version was purely fucked up. /outrage.

Shadow - I recieved this on my 11th birthday. I played the first level. 4 years later, never played it and gave it to someone else. Guns + Speed = Does Not Compute.

'06 - ...*sigh*. *starts outrage* WHY DID I SPEND 30 FUCKING EUROS ON THIS PIECE OF HORROR? I mean, SERIOUSLY. The gameplay was completely screwed over, Silver's completely useless, story was really, REALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE (it looks like a fanfic from a obsessive fangirl, don't you agree?) And the only good thing? The music. Because the graphics on the PS3 edition were the WORST EVER. I mean, wow. WOW. Good job, SEGA, you killed my Adventure experience with this game. THANK YOU VERY FUCKING MUCH. /outrage

Unleashed (360/PS3) - I only have one problem with this version. It's the medal system. How in the world will I get x Sun Medals just to access a level in the game? I mean, in all honesty, everything in the game looks good (except, of course, the Night levels.), but that system ruins the whole game. I call this version the "Expert" edition of Unleashed.

Unleashed (Wii/PS2) - This was the best version of the game. Because it was really like a Sonic game to me. The day levels were perfect, the night levels were still bollocks, and it was really well-made. This is the "normal" version of the game.

Advance 1 - Bought this. Loved it. Still have one of the fastest records in Neo Green Hill (0:36:37). I loved when + - in the Final Zone, Dr. Robotnik uses the machinery from Sonic 1 and 2. THAT was a nice touch.  

Advance 2 - Never got around to play it.

Advance 3 - Never got around to play it.

Rush - This was a GREAT addiction to the DS. The level design was great, the music was awesome and the Special stages were...well, easy. If Sonic 2 had touchscreen support...

Rush Adventure - Never got around to play it.

 

The only recent Sonic games that I haven't been able to get into to some extent would be the Rush games, Advance 2 and 3, and the Rivals games. The reason for that is partly 'cause I'm not into portable games, mostly because I just can't get into their design mentality. As far as I'm concerned, there's no real reason for a 2D Sonic game to play like Rush or Advance 2, and the speed just doesn't seem to work the way it should in 2D. For 2D Sonic, the classic gameplay works, so I believe the classic gameplay should be used.

The 3D games I see a lot of good in, and a lot of bad. Heroes, Shadow, and especially '06, I would consider Sonic's dark ages. I loved Unleashed to death despite the Werehog and medal hunts (I'm not including "hub worlds" in the list of cons because I actually did enjoy the hub worlds), and I see the Day Stage gameplay becoming something truly awesome if it's developed and given central focus—because with the camera facing forward, for one thing, boost-dash gameplay actually fucking works.

(I played the Wii version as well, and it's alright, but I didn't finish it. The 360 version's just infinitely better in my eyes.)

Adventure 1 I have a love-hate relationship with. I hate the lack of polish. I hate the glitches. I hate that its art style and presentation is ultimately inferior even to PS1 games. And I don't like Big the Cat. I do, however, give this game props for one awesome thing that it does that Adventure 2, '06, and Unleashed didn't do: let you play through Sonic's story without constantly interrupting you with other styles of play. You could choose when to play as Tails, you could choose when to collect Emerald shards as Knuckles, you could choose when to endure the uncanny boredom of Big the Cat... you could choose to just run straight through Sonic's story from Chaos 0 to Egg Viper and never once touch anything else in the game, if you wished. It's awesome.

Adventure 2 I really do enjoy, but constantly being interupted by Tails, Knuckles, Eggman, and Rouge stages when all I really wanted to do was blaze a trail as Sonic or Shadow was, honestly, a bit of a pain, even though I never found shard-hunting or shooting overly bad.

Not to go off on a tangent or anything, but I'm pretty sure you could regulate your speed by only tilting the analog stick partway, which is a standard feature of most analog-controlled games, actually...

 

Here's mine:

Adventure - Back then, I really liked it. A lot. By "it" I mean Sonic/Tails/Knuckles stages. Amy, not so much. Big? Wth? That was Sega trolling?

Adventure 2 - Same as above, but with less "Big" in it. Didn't like Tais/Eggman stages so much. A bit worse than the first one, but still great.

Heroes - I liked it. Not "loved", liked. It was fun for what it was.

Shadow - Oh God, why.

'06 - Well... It's bad. I did like some of the stages, but overall, I got annoyed many times while playing it. Horrendous storyline.

Unleashed (360/PS3) - Loved the day stages. I mean, loved as in "it was one of the best games I ever played", Sonic-related or not. Werehog? Tolerable. After finishing it, at least 2 times a week I put it back in my 360 to play the day stages. Never played the night ones again, since then.

Unleashed (Wii/PS2) - A weak version of the "next-gen" one. Easier, smaller, with worse physics and level designs. Still fun, somehow, but not as much.

Advance 1 - Great game. It isn't perfect, but it was going in a nice direction. Liked it.

Advance 2 - Same as Heroes. Liked it, but not so much. Too easy in some parts, too cheap in others.

Advance 3 - As with the first one, I think it's a great game. Some nice ideas, some bad ones.

Rush - A worse version of Advance 2.

Rush Adventure - Even worser version of Advance 2.

 

Sonic Adventure - It was a good game, at least Sonic's portion, and it was the only game that got even close to perfecting Sonic in 3D motion. It was a nice start, and a good retro to modern transitional game. A bit too RPGish though, and the extra playable characters really didn't do much save waste time, I did like E-102 though. Sonic controlled beautifully, it's a shame they scrapped it though. The level design though was pretty bad, mainly as it was so linear. But Sonic could go underwater in this game and not die. That's a good thing. I wish they would rerelease this game with updated, Unleashed like graphics, no adventure fields, redone cutscenes and voice acting, and a reworked camera. Ya it won't happen, but one can dream right?

Sonic Adventure 2 - It was the start of one of the worst things about modern Sonic. Grinding. Oh how I hate grind rails. Anyways, Sonic and Shadow had some decent gameplay, but beyond that this game leaves little to be desired. Even more linear than the last game too. And with the 3D Green Hill Zone, you wonder what stops them from multiple paths in 3D? That level did it perfectly. The fuck is their problem?

Sonic Heroes - I can't play this game beyond team Sonic anymore. It's always the same fucking thing. These levels already repeat themselves within the level, so why would I want to play that same 10 minute snooze fest 3 more times? Oh right, I wouldn't. The levels were way too long and boring and there were too many teams (as only 1 was really needed). Also horrendous level design. Bottomless pits everywhere. They had the right idea environment wise though, but Sonic was so small compared to the levels themselves they still looked out of place.

Shadow the Hedgehog - I don't remember too much about this game, because I haven't played it in a while. It was... ok? I sold it because I was tired of it, but I 100%'d it. It wasn't bad, a bit repetitive. Could have lived without the guns but it fixed the Heroes engine slightly. I had to play as Shadow though, that was probably my biggest problem with the game.

Sonic 06 - I 100%'d this game for achievements. I did that, and I never looked back. I sold the game as I couldn't stand it. The game was a horrendous glitch fest. Every character outside of Shadow, Sonic, and Blaze felt like a chore to beat the game as as they were all too slow, especially Amy. They could have looked at SA1 for how the characters should play, but no, they scrap that and do whatever the fuck they did. This game is so reliant on the homing attack that jumping doesn't even hurt. JUMPING. That's not right.

Sonic Unleashed Wii - Not bad. Too much werehog though. I don't know what you guys are talking about with less werehog in the Wii. There is 4x more werehog than Sonic. Sonic doesn't get a second act. He gets a mission in the level he just played. No you get to play 5 acts as the werehog though. Fuck that. The game didn't look that nice and both characters controlled strangely compared to their 360 counterparts. The Gaia gates were an interesting idea though, I wish the 360 version had those instead of HUBS (I guess they kinda did with those level select HUBS, but still).

Sonic Unleashed 360 - the closest to awesome 3D Sonic probably ever. Despite not feeling as silky smooth as Sonic Adventure, I felt like they near nailed a good 3D style for Sonic. Stick with it Sega and improve it. It's a shame they didn't have a spin dash though that crouch button could have led to the first good 3D spindash. Werehog wasn't that bad either, probably should have been Knuckles though. It could have used some work though. Note Sega, You need shadows under you when jumping on a platform. The camera makes it hard to judge if you're landing on something or not. I still play it to this day, I love it. Also it looks beautiful. Best 3D Sonic model to date. Stick with that as well Sega. So much right in this game, but so much that could have not been in the game at all.

 

Adventure is one of my favorite games ever.

Adventure 2 is also pretty good.

Advance 1 may as well have been called Sonic 4.

Advance 2 was linear and full of poor level design. The bosses were a neat gimmick, though.

I only played Advance 3 for a bit. It felt alot like Advance 2 but better, which is a backhanded compliment.

I only played the demo for Heroes. The physics are fucking awful, and stage was a straight path with no deviation. If the whole game is like this, then fuck it, otherwise I withhold opinion.

Shadow was very similar with it's shitastic friction, but at least I wasn't running in a straight line the whole time. This game was like an Ed Wood movie, but with more hedgehogs.

Like Heroes, I only played 06' at FYE. Same typical post-Dreamcast grease physics the series became known for. How disappointing.

I got Unleashed for PS2 last Christmas. Needless to say my Christmas was ruined. Daytime levels sucked; Advance 2 all over, pressing right to win, linear stages, no design whatsoever. The werehog stages were actually the highlight of the game imo; Sonic games are difficult to make well, but any jackass with a programming degree can make a decent brawler. It played like Wario World, and that beats playing like Advance 2 by a longshot.

BTW, I also played the demo for the HD version. Looked better. Played mostly the same, from my limited experience with it.

I don't have a PSP, or whatever, so I never tried the rush games.

 

It gets more complicated as it goes. As does the Wii version, but the HD Day Stages are faster and have more to react to.
(EDIT: That's not what my better runs look like, but I thought it'd represent the game engine better than old, shitty webcam does.)

 

My opinion on all the Sonic games from Adventure to the present? Well I would have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Adventure and Adventure 2. The hand held titles I also enjoyed quite a bit, however, even though I didn't like the Rush titles as much as the Advanced titles I still had fun playing them. Never really got into any of the racing genre Sonic games like Riders or Drift. Heroes was just kind of meh for me personally and Shadow the Hedgehog was not fun at all for me but I never liked Shadow as a character in the first place.

Unleashed I enjoyed more than Adventure in some ways. I even enjoyed the werehog more than I did any other gimmicks in a Sonic game since Adventure. So personally my favorite 3D title would have to be Sonic Unleashed. Sure it isn't the exact same as the originals but Sonic was meant to be fast and show off a fast processor. So for me the fact that Sonic Team had to create an engine to allow buildings to be drawn fast enough to keep up with Sonic, kind of, mimics the idea of showing off how fast the Genesis processor could be with the original Sonic games.

So I'm kind of a 50/50 person with Sonic games. I have older Sonic games I enjoy and newer ones that I enjoy as well. Oh yeah and Sonic 06' was an absolute disaster.

 

Adventure - Probably the closest to the classics out of the 3D games but hasn't aged well in my opinion.
Adventure 2 - My favorite 3D Sonic, but it's not really anything like a classic Sonic game at all. But it's a really solid action/adventure game.
Heroes - Moderately fun, the fact that you have to play it four times is dumb though.
Shadow - ahahaha
'06 - bahahahahahahaha
Unleashed (360/PS3) - Day stages don't really feel like a true Sonic game but were fun in a completely different way. Everything else about the game was a waste of time
Unleashed (Wii/PS2) - Gimped version of the real thing
Advance 1 - Best classic style Sonic since 1994 but that's not saying a lot either. Still I enjoyed it.
Advance 2 - Terrible, too fast, too linear, too hold right to win, special stage entry was also a load of bull
Advance 3 - Just a tiny bit less terrible, for all the same reasons save for the special stage thing
Rush - Bottomless pits ahead, folks. That about sums it up
Rush Adventure - Actually pretty decent. The adventure elements were amusing, the level design was better than Rush. But Marine needs to be shot.

 

I'll be really serious here, most of the people that complained about the Rush series only playied it on an Emulator, that simply makes their comments invalid, the experience is 100% different. =P

 

Explains why I tolerate the game so much. :P

To me games like Sonic Rush are basically a button combo game or something, (the Special Stages pretty much are), but put into the Sonic engine, then with more speed. This makes them less like the "Holy Grail" Genesis games ( ) but fun in their own way. One problem however is one mistake or desire to explore in the wrong area can be fatal.

 

Adventure 1 and 2 - Started the camera trend that I thoroughly despise
Heroes - Proof that good things do not come in threes
Shadow - 89/100 in single-player, big fat 0/100 in two-player
'06 - Arrguably the lowest point in the franchise, one that should have taken its cue from its own story and never exist.
Unleashed (All platforms) - Picture Sonic as designed by the designers of Windows XP while doing a seance for Lon Cheney.
Advance 1 - Passable, lack of original music.
Advance 2 - Tied with 3 as best of the portables
Advance 3 - Tied with 2 as best of the portables, and the way to do hub stages right.
No opinion on Rush or Rush Adventure, as I haven't played them.

 

So, I guess this is my list?

Sonic Adventure - Absolutely blew me away all the way back in 1999. I think the moment I fully comprehended the game's kick-assitude was when Sonic goes down the first steep incline of Speed Highway. Everybody except Sonic was kind of a chore to play as, but the content was still awesome, so it was cool. Sonic Adventure was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood.

Looking back, it's hard not to see the game through nostalgia-tinted glasses, but then again it's also hard not to see the game's flaws. The 3D graphics are increasingly primitive-looking, the collision control is spotty, the lack of an option to see completed cut-scenes on demand is a downer, and the Chao Gardens are needlessly tedious to access. Regardless, the game gets well-deserved points for having a shit-ton of content, a literal world full of distinct locales, action, lovable characters (yes, including Big) and perhaps the most engaging story of any Sonic game ever. Sonic adventure, indeed.

Sonic Adventure 2 - I sort of had a similar reaction to Sonic Adventure 2 as I did with Sonic Adventure, but... less so. Everything feels fine, it's just that treasure hunting and shooting are kind of bleh and sour the experience a bit. I did, however, have tons of fun in Sonic and Shadow's stages (which felt more thrilling than the action stages of Adventure, if a little more shallow) and the chao gardens. I also remember unlocking Green Hill Zone, raising a level 99 chao, and playing against my best friend in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. And I've always loved the story of the game. It's less of an visceral experience as I remember in Adventure, but more of a thinker. I think my 13-year old mind was really wrapped around the mystery and intrigue of Shadow and Gerald Robotnik.

Sonic Heroes - I've always adored this game for its aesthetics and loathed it for its gameplay. A few select stages are up there with Adventure 1 and 2's best when playing as Teams Sonic and Dark: Seaside Hill, Ocean Palace, Egg Fleet, and my personal favorite Hang Castle. There are a lot of really great moments in Sonic Heroes... It's just that you have to sift through heaps of dung to get at them. I also fondly remember the Egg Pawns as charming.

Shadow the Hedgehog - I kind of had the opposite reaction with this game than I did with Heroes: The art looked like ass and the gameplay was fairly varied and tolerable. I guess those two canceled out into lukewarm indifference, because that was my primary reaction to the game. Shadow the game, while a questionable concept, easily could have been better than it was. But for some reason I played through the whole thing, Hard Mode included. I've always been a bit of a glutton for punishment...

Sonic and the Secret Rings - When I first played this game I got up to Levitated Ruin before quitting in disgust. Months later, I played the game again and it really grew on me. I enjoyed toggling Sonic's stats, the locations were nice and colorful, and steady stream of extras kept me coming back for more. That's why I absolutely hate it that 2% of the game is basically unplayable thanks to fucking retarded rail mechanics.

Sonic Unleashed (Wii) - Nice aesthetics. I really liked the daytime levels the first times through, but they start to get predictable after a while. For their credit, though, not all of them were strips of highway over bottomless pits. I actually liked the Werehog, if only because the combat was kinda engaging and at least out of regular Sonic's gameplay.

Sonic Advance - A nice slice of classic-style gameplay. I absolutely loved Casino Paradise and Egg Rocket. Amy was a good addition to essentially give the game a "hard mode". Nice bosses, although the Super Sonic boss was a bit of a pushover. If Tails and Knuckles had some unique routes, this would've easily compared with Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

Sonic Advance 2 - Loved it when I first got it, and although some of the initial thrill has worn away, I still really like this game. It easily has the best music and graphics of the Advance titles. I also like the speedy gameplay, including the on-the-go bosses, while realizing that it is a completely different horse than Sonics 1 through 3+K and Advance 1. Best Tiny Chao Garden between Advance 1 and 2.

Sonic Advance 3 - Kind of forgettable. The graphics and music are inexplicably either bland or horrible, with the exception of Chaos Angel. And while I respect the level design for attempting to be the crazy bastard child of Sonic Advance 1 and 2, the physics and many of the character combinations were terrible. I do fondly remember the final boss of Alter Emerald for being kick-ass.

Sonic Rush - Had a blast with the first few levels, got mildly annoyed by the end of the game. The way Sonic moves in this game is a perfect marriage between the precision platforming of the classics and the rush-induced high of Advance 2, with the exception of that cheap-as-hell insta-dash. So I was kind of disappointed to see the level design tilted a little more in favor of high speed, especially in later levels. I also thought the level tropes were woefully unoriginal, except for Water Palace and Huge Crisis. Good music, though, and the best special stages of the Advance or Rush games.

Sonic Rush Adventure - I wasn't as impressed with this as I was with Rush. The level design continues to tilt towards mindless speeding, the ship mini-games got stale fast, and Marine was hella annoying, not to mention all the time you spend at sea trying to gather/discover shit. As a sucker for art and music, I gotta say that the aesthetics were a notch below Rush. The awesome bosses (seriously, there is not one lame boss in this game!) almost make the excursion worth it.

Sonic Chronicles - Loved the Earth-bound levels with their lush graphics, fairly diverse enemy sets, and moderate number of optional quests. Hated the Twilight Cage levels because they lacked all these things. I also would've preferred a smaller set of more competent party members, rather than the small group of awesome elites (Shade, Knux, Cream) and the remaining ragtag losers who you're sometimes forced drag along. Navigating the playing field was tedious. At least I found the ending to be a hoot, mostly because Omega calls Sonic a meatbag during the credits.

So yeah. There you go.

 

Adventure- Still really fun, though things I overlooked as a kid I now find kind of irritating. Still, I love the game.

Adventure 2- Best 3D Sonic. Loved the subtle touches, like the misty flip when you go from a roll to a jump and I liked the overall art style of the game. This game had the best utilization of Shadow; I wish they would have kept him as he was in this games in the follow-ups, or would have just kept him dead, though.

Heroes- Pretty fun, but the controls didn't feel quite right. Wasn't a big fan of the character models, but loved the return of Metal Sonic as the main villain.

Shadow- Not unplayable, but also not that good. The cursing just felt weird and didn't add anything and the characteristics of Shadow and the weird backstory with the Black Arms was, to put it bluntly, dumb.

Sonic '06- Had to force myself to finish the game. The loading times made me feel like I was getting whiplash and I didn't bother with the town missions because of how clunky it felt. The controls were wonky and were absolutely frustrating. The story and voice acting is cringe-worthy. Some of Silver's levels I did enjoy and I also enjoyed Kingdom Valley as Sonic.

Unleashed- I've only played a demo of the daytime stage and it was alright. Sonic's jump felt kind of sticky to me, though.

Sonic Advance 1,2,3/ Rush/ Rush Adventure- Haven't played 3 or rush adventure, but 1 was awesome (wish I could find it again) and 2 was pretty fun, though Sky Canyon was torture. Rush was fun as well, but I would have preferred something in the vain of Advance 1. The music was... weird, but it did the job.