Which Sonic game would you recommend to a newcomer?

Sonic Origins seems a logical choice because it has the numerical classics & CD, infinite lives and multiple playble characters (probably easier for newbies to play with Tails & knuckles).

Also Colours & Gens as they are some of the easiest 3d Sonic games. Simple games, easy to pick up and play.

 

Sonic 2 2013 decomp with S3 shields.

 

Any of them would probably be fine outside of a few quality pitfalls in the middle. They're all designed to be someone's first. I'd probably just show off a few of them and see which one resonates.

 

Sonic 2, easy.

 

I would recommend Sonic Origins to newcomers. It gives people easier access to 1, 2, 3K, CD and if they get the plus DLC access to the Game Gear titles as well.

 

I think we should disqualify collections because they're not an answer to the question. The question is which Sonic game (singular) you'd recommend.

 

I'm a complete cliche nowadays but I would always say sonic 3 and knuckles.

 

Sonic Mega Collection has always been a perfectly designed compilation. I’d still leave CD to Gems as the next game, because it’s probably a more difficult path to jump from S1 to SCD for new players rather than going for the more universally appealing Sonic 2.

 

I'm optimistic Sonic x Shadow Generations will be a good jump-on point for new/lapsed fans to the Modern gameplay. For the 2D series, Mania is the singular choice.

 

I think Mania is too hard for beginners. It definitely ramps up the difficulty from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It also loses some of the magic if you don’t understand the relevance of some themes and references.

 

Origins and Mania for 2D, Colors/Generations/Forces for 3D.

Frontiers I guess is also a possibility (easy mode really is piss-easy) but it's a different enough kind of game that it doesn't really represent a large chunk of the series as a whole.

I'd love to recommend the Adventure duology, but I can't do that without jamming my hands in their computer and installing all the QOL mods and updates I use. If SEGA themselves were to put out remasters competitive with what fans have done, that might be an option, but the publicly-available versions are just not ideal for new players.

 

Sonic 3 AIR and Sonic Mania for 90s era Sonic. (You have to experience Hyper forms)

Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations for Present Sonic

 

Generations is not only one of the best in the series, but it’s also probably one of the best for newcomers. The classics get hard as fuck, and many of the 3D games are filled with jank and weird choices. Generations is very consistent from beginning to end and is actually mostly pretty easy.

 

What classics have you played? The ring system makes these games pretty easy.

 

To be fair, Sonic 2 is way harder than both its predecessor and successor. Every level is covered in spikes from top to bottom, there's a lot more bottomless pits, the Special Stages are quite literally impossible unless you have them either memorized or are playing the mobile/Origins version, coming back from a Special Stage resets your ring count to zero, Metropolis Zone exists and Death Egg Zone can drain your lives very quickly if you don't know about the foolproof strategy.

I myself haven't struggled with the game in years, obviously, but the spike up in difficulty from Sonic 1 was very noticeable on my first playthrough.

 

Yeah. I'm pretty sure a lot of beginners would struggle in Metropolis and Wing Fortress Zone.

Don't get me even started on Death Egg Robot boss fight.

 

LOL, forget Metropolis. A lot of beginners struggle in Chemical Plant.

How can we forget this doosey? A completely sinister piece of level design dropped on new players in only the second zone of the game:



This section is BRUTAL if you're not used to how Sonic handles underwater. (I know you can "stay ahead" of the rising water, but a new player will not be that adept).

It's the 2nd Act of the 2nd Zone, and the game is asking players to handle precise platforming on platforms which move in an odd pattern in a tight space that are also crushing hazards using underwater physics on a time limit because Sonic can drown.

Nevermind the fact that it's followed immediately by those tiny quick-moving platforms, which reverse direction immediately instead of easing into left/right movement like all the other platforms in the game so far, tricking players into falling (which most players will do their first time), requiring them to re-try scaling the rotating block platforms all over again, except the water has risen so it's now completely underwater and they have even less time than they did previously.

You won't see anything that hard again until Metropolis. The next few zones are a relative cakewalk.

EDIT: I also know there are ways to bypass this section. A new player won't find those either. This is the main path through the level.

 

This! I would regularly spend multiple lives redoing this section under water because I couldn't navigate the tiny quick-moving platforms above it.

Then I would die in the boss room after defeating the boss because if you just jump on him without counting to 8 you fall through and insta-die.

 

Those are good points about Sonic 2, but that doesn't mean that "the classics" (as in, at least a majority of them) "get hard as fuck".