The Most Loved and Hated Sonic Games According to Backloggd

I think my list would be similar, but with some games placed higher, and SA2 placed lower.
And this is not including the 8-bit games, most of them would be badly ranked.

THE CREAM OF THE CROP
Sonic 2 (16-bit)
Sonic 3K
Sonic Mania
Generations

THE GOODIES
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Frontiers
Colors (Wii)
Adventure
Sonic 1 (16-bit)
CD

NOT QUITE AS GOODIES
Adventure 2 Battle
Unleashed (PS3/360)
Unleashed (Wii/PS2)
Sonic Heroes
Lost World (Wii U)

BAD
Shadow the Hedgehog
3D Blast
4 Episode 2
4 Episode 1
Forces

THE TIER WITH SONIC 06
06

 

P-06 upgrades the visual fidelity, makes gameplay less buggy, and decreases load times. It's also a technical marvel and one of, if not THE most impressive fan-made project to come out of this community (and that's saying a lot). The creator ChaosX didn't even play 06 before they started; they mostly eyed gameplay footage for the first half of it's development. It's brilliant work, and I can see why people buy into the hype.

But it doesn't really "fix" 06. The game is still clunky to steer, the physics are still half-baked, the level design is still rife with automation and death pits, the characters are still grotesque, the roster is still bloated, certain gimmicks (mach speed / vehicles) are still borderline unplayable, the tone is still embarrassing and the story is still at the bottom of a pretty tall Sonic story trashpile. Despite everything, it's still Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. Still a bad game.

And it's kinda crazy that some fans have convinced themselves it's the BEST 3D Sonic game, but I guess nostalgia is a powerful drug we should never underestimate; not even for the mid-2000s. Regardless I don't think we should count fangames as on par with official games, lol.

 

You pretty much nail it. I personally still don't enjoy the game much, but I'm glad that P-06 exists and is still being worked on, and I probably will even fully replay it when they finish the entire project down the line (or at least try...). I just wanted to present a counter argument that solidly states why it's gained such a cult status so quickly. Storywise, Sonic X Elise is the only thing I truly disliked about it, but I despised the gameplay style of pretty much everyone who wasn't the core 3. It's now refined to be a lot more tolerable, but I don't think I can ever look past tails throwing ring bombs that you can't even pick back up. Such a wonky and dumb mechanic even for this series.

 

If you were "there" back then, and hated it with a passion: give it a serious second chance.
Way too many people are making fun of it without realizing what they're missing out on. I mean, there's nothing quite like it. The series hit puberty, and fell on its arse, because, according to adults, life is much too tough to allow such a thing as a Final Fantasy Sonic.

It's got the spirit, but got beaten down. Guess which part was more funny.

P-06 doesn't quite do it for me, because it fiddles too much with the metaphysical experience. Lol I like some graphic enhancements, though.

 

Eh, I gave it a chance and it just confirmed to me 06 would've been aggressively mediocre at best if it was ever completed. ChaosX really is doing something magical but at the end of the day a polished turd is still a turd.

Anyways about that list, its about what I expected. It is funny seeing Forces and S4 Ep1 next to 06 but I can understand why people feel the way they do about those games.

 

P'06 impressively polishes a turd to a radiant lustre. But it's still a turd.

 

Yeah, I keep seeing people say how amazing it is now, but I still can't cohesively play it like I can any other Sonic game. The spit n' shine ain't gonna fix that!

 

Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog are objectively worse games than Sonic 4 but those are funny bad so I'm still glad to see Sonic 4: Episode 1 at the absolute bottom. Episode 2's a marked improvement but the overall Sonic 4 package is still pretty awful and I'm glad SEGA more or less brushed it under the rug with Mania and Superstars.

 

Honestly, these are games I'd like to see remade by fans in various ways, personally. Episode I will never be good, but it'd at least nice to get a version of it where the physics at least reach a GBA Sonic level of competence.

Of course, I guess I should rather see the GBA titles themselves remade and improved before we get to that point. Or Sonic Chaos and Chaotix as far as Classic titles go... modern 3D Blast Saturn port, ect ect ect

I have a pointlessly long list of games I wish could be fixed. Silly old me.

 

Most people's ideas in fixing Chaotix would ruin the game that is already there. They would rather just make a new game that takes the name "Chaotix" and I don't want that.

 

Whatever the rankings if sonic blast isn't always considered the worst then the list is wrong.

 

There was a whole thread about it. Many suggestions involved simply removing the rubber band mechanic.

 

I really think the rubber band could be fun. I find a decent amount of enjoyment in Chaotix as it is though.

I think most people just want Sonic 2 or 3 but with Chaotix’s level theming and music.

 

Glad to see fans still hold S3K in higher regard than Sonic 2, as it should be, and not like all these stupid gaming YouTubers would have you believe otherwise.

 

Really I don't think it's the rubber band that let it down as much as the level design and the poor character mechanics. The game is literally designed to be cheesed unintuitively. Making the layouts less barren and make more entertaining use of the character and rubber band abilities would have led to a much more developed game.

 

Yeah, that would have worked too but I think designing the stages with the rubber band in mind is probably very difficult. I doubt the intention from the beginning was to make the levels so empty. I imagine the current design was either the result of play testing showing that most gamers would constantly be getting hit due to balancing the movement and rubber band, or the devs just flat out not being able to make something as entertaining as Yas.

So in my mind, there are 2 ways to really fix Chaotix:

1. Redesign the game as a traditional classic Sonic game with 2/3K’s level design philosophy.

2. Make the current game more challenging and fun.

I think the first option is much easier to imagine for most gamers.