Are the modern Sonic games really that bad? - General

The only truly bad ones I can think of are Sonic '06, Sonic Boom (not even Sega), and MAYBE Sonic Forces. But everyone says Sonic's newer games are shit and it's all because of the negative reputation Sonic '06 gave to the franchise. I personally enjoyed Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2, and Heroes. Shadow the Hedgehog was okay, just a weird premise, Secret Rings was pretty fun at least in my experience, never played Black Knight so I can't really speak for it, Sonic Unleashed, Colors, and Generations were a refreshing awesome experience for me which gave me hope that the series was finally back on track. And then we got Sonic Boom but honestly, other than that and '06, were the modern games really that bad? Why did one awful game have to ruin the entire series' reputation?

Series of mediocrity and contradicting identity make them have a shaky reputation, meanwhile his Italian rival continue to be acclaimed.

I've played: Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 4 Episode 1 Sonic Advance 1, 2, 3 Sonic Heroes Sonic Rush Sonic Colors Sonic Generations Sonic Lost World And to be perfectly honest, I still don't understand Sonic, which annoys me because Sonic is a much more interesting character than Mario. The whole concept is that you're supposed to be super fast and move super fast, but every single Sonic game I've played actively punishes you for doing so. It constantly shoves enemies and instant death traps that you have 0 way of being able to react to unless you have the entire level memorized. It doesn't help that Sega are constantly trying to innovate their games. Whenever there is a good mechanic in a Sonic game you can bet your ass it'll be the only game that'll have that mechanic because the next one will play completely differently. Also I think it's super clear that Sonic fans are the same as Star Wars fans. By that I mean: "Sonic fans hate Sonic". I have literally never heard anyone say this.

Modern Sonic games are usually pretty hit or miss. A lot of them have some pretty good ideas but end up botching the execution.

Sonic is honestly not a hard series to bring into the modern era effectively. Just have Sonic Adventure styled levels dotted around an open world connected by highway-esque roads to allow the player into an effortless gameplay loop (akin to GTAs police chase mechanic) of running fast if they so wish. If you wanna run fast, you just run around the open world; if you want specific challenges or types of levels you simply go to the Sonic Adventure areas. Forget hub-worlds and segmented, closed-off areas; Sonic is about travel and freedom entirely.

The entire Sonic Adventure series was pretty rough, bearing in mind that Sonic Heroes, Shadow The Hedgehog, and Sonic 06 are basically Sonic Adventure 3, 4, and 5 respectively. SA1 was the most ambitious but also kind of broken in some places, SA2 was polished but was also probably the least ambitious title in the series, Heroes looked good but the combat made it very slow, and Shadow was a cynical edgefest. All of them had laughably bad voice acting and lots of bland cutscenes where characters just stand around talking. Since ditching the Adventure formula the franchise has been alternating between getting diminishing returns out of the one winning formula it has right now and releasing quickly forgotten experimental games. I'm sure Sega will find something to replace the Colors/Generations formula eventually, but my point is that Sonic is a very spotty franchise that tends to have big valleys between its narrow peaks.

Sonic might have an actual character, but because Mario is such a blank slate, he can be applied to a lot more games. You can't really remove Sonic's character from Sonic, which limits the type of stuff he can be in.

Sonic Forces is fine. It's not a train wreck like a lot of people were saying when it came out. Though it is fairly standard as far as modern Sonic goes, the biggest crime it commits is in being very forgettable. Actually the biggest crime is that the bosses are fucking boring.

The "Sonic fans hate Sonic" thing is true in a lot of ways; large portions of the fanbase want one thing while other portions want the total opposite and the like. Just in this thread you can see it, one person thinking Sonic games should really tie into how fast he's supposed to be and not be some slower platformer thing with puzzles or death traps from going too fast, and another person thinking it should be like that ala Sonic Adventure style. Fans, or even just average players in general that don't really subscribe to a fanbase at all, ask for one thing that others don't want and the others get pissed when it happens, and vice versa. It's a franchise that's literally not allowed to win. I feel kinda sorry for Sega and Sonic Team in that aspect, no matter who they cave to, a lot of people are going to get pissed off and call it a terrible game for one reason or another. Sure there were a few objectively bad games, but even the ones that get considerable praise, still get considerable hate along side it. Personally out of all the Sonic games I've actually played, the only ones I didn't like were Secret Rings because I just could NOT get a handle on the controls, everything else be damned.. and that Godawful GBA port of Sonic 1. Never played '06, I thought Sonic Heroes was okay (fight me), and I really liked the Werehog levels of Unleashed because I'm a hack n' slash/beat-'em-up fanatic. (DOUBLE fight me)

I don't mind most 3D sonic games, even the bad ones, because they were at least interesting to dissect and figure out what they're trying to do. They took weird approaches and made odd decisions with a lot of the bad ones. It's just kind of a fascinating series, since there so much weird shit going on with it. I feel like when they got into 3D and tried focusing on the character narratives with the Adventure games, it made for some really interesting and memorable stories. But after Unleashed, it felt like they started taking steps backwards and just started making really bare-bones, bland games. Sonic 06 is not a good game, but it's a memorable game. There's so much going on with every terrible bug and shitty storyline and weird dialogue delivery. Sonic Forces isn't a good game, and it's not even a memorable game. Nothing really interesting happens in the whole thing. You play it, it's decent-ish fun, but it's nothing special, and then it ends. And it feels like the games afterwards are going to be more of the same, just cookie cutter Boost games with some new plot slapped half-baked on top. I don't stop having fun with a game when it tries something that doesn't work, I stop having fun when it doesn't try anything at all.

Should we really feel sorry for them for that reason? It's because of them always changing up how Sonic games work that the fanbase became split with how Sonic games should be.

sonic games are supposed to simulate speed running a platformer. they're meant to have a higher barrier for entry than mario and be replayed for better times.