I've always just thought it went like this: 1991 - 1998, the Classic Era 1999 - 2006, the Adventure Era 2007 - Present, the Modern Era
When did this community ever state an "Adventure era"? Everything was simply Sonic with no distinction until '06 was bad and then "Modern Sonic" became a thing that was retroactively applied to Sonic Adventure onwards.
I mean it's mostly just because the genesis titles, adventure games through 06, and unleashed onwards all feel vastly different in terms of tone, gameplay and just the overall vibe of the games, so it's convenient to categorize them into little eras even if their boundaries are relatively blurry. Also, sega officially made it a thing with generations.
How about: Classic era - 91-94 Saturn era - 95-97 Dreamcast era - 98-01 GameCube era - 02-04 Boost era - 05-09 Pontac/Graff era - 10-21 (dear lord...) ? era = 22-?
What's funny I find is that even though the Pontac era was long, it had some of the least game output. Obviously developing games and scope has changed since the early 90s, but main game wise anyways the classic era had the same amount of games the Pontac era had (Sonic 1, 2, 3, K, CD - 5, 4 if you consider S3K one game; Colors, Generations, Lost World, Forces - also 4) Weird how the Pontac era began and ended with Sonic Colors lol
Nah, there’s definitely always been a distinction for the Adventure era. Even before Shadow the Hedgehog was out there was media saying that this would wrap up the Adventure arc, and that afterwards Sonic would be heading in a new direction. This well pre-dates Sonic Generations. Anything from 2006 onwards has been distinct, be it console or handheld titles.
The only people clarifying an "Adventure era" are the ones whose childhood games were SA1 and 2. For pretty much everyone else, it's Classic and Modern: for the original fans because of the drastic design change in SA1, for the newest ones because there are two Sonics in Generations and Forces.
In the late '90s and early '00s fans didn't use "Modern Sonic" so much. "Adventure" was the go-to shorthand. There'd be discussions about how the Archie Comics introduced "(Sonic) Adventure Amy" and "(Sonic) Adventure Eggman". The distinction would be between "Genesis Sonic" and "Adventure Sonic" or "Classic series" and "Adventure series". Until Sonic Heroes was revealed, "Sonic Adventure" was what the new-look 3D Sonic was. Even then, there was talk about Vector, Espio and Charmy's "Adventurised" or "Adventure era" redesigns. It was similar to the way we talk about Sonic Boom now.
I find it funny that by the 2 eras definition, modern sonic has been "modern" for 20+ years now. Eras are just convenient at face value, since the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s games are all vastly different from one another.
Eh. My "childhood games" were the MD games and I recognize the early 2000s games as being notably different from the 2010s games in gameplay, writing style and characterizations.
The current "modern age" of comics began in 1985, so that's not so unusual. As a non-fan who thinks of Sonic in "original 2D era" and "everything else era," the only thing this discussion has clarified for me is that there is no agreed upon division of eras, and everyone has their own personal definition. Which is fine.
Wow, that was great, thanks for sharing. With that background music it really was full on 90s Britain. Also I love the way video game journalism and slightly surreal comedy have always come together in the UK!
Anyone ever notice before in Master System Sonic Chaos, Gigalopolis boss, which tube you go through to face him determines the difficulty of the boss (size and number of hits to kill)? Probably yes given the detail of the research on this site, but for me, it's a recently noticed little quirk! Top tube is the one you want btw :D
If that's true, I didn't notice, I just had this tendency of taking the upper tube because jumping to get there was more fun than just running through the longer tubes.
I didn't know, but now I'm going to test it, and if it's true I'm going to make a video about it and give full credit to you. edit: ha, it is true, and I think nobody ever documented it before. A video is on its way.
@nineko did it work? My testing (using bizhawk) it was Top pipe - 5 hits, 3 balls Middle - 8 hits, 3 balls Bottom - 10 hits, 4 balls
