3D Sonic Games. Worse Than The Old, Or Not?

I think not, in my opinion.

Now, before you begin to say that I must be a newcomer to the fandom, or that I only have played the new games, or even that I'm just a Sonic X fan... let me clarify now that I'm among the longest in years of Sonic fans out there. I was a baby when the series started, and two when I first played my first Sonic game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis. Even though I lost track of the series for a while (7 years to be exact), I still played the old ones, and had Sonic Chaos for my GameGear. I'm a fan born in the 90s.

Now, anyway... I've noticed a lot of game review places and even people think that the newer games are "terrible", "horrible wastes of time" and "not at all original".

Well, that is their opinions and I can do nothing to change them. I can only have my own and stand by what I think.

I may have not played all the spin offs (Racing games, handhelds, and Storybook Series) yet, but I have played everything in the main series all the way to the end and again with all the Emeralds. So I know a thing or two (or three or four or...) about what's been in them over the years.

And really... I think every game has had improvement, and every one of the new ones have a concept that seems to be over looked:

Sonic Adventure: Sega's answer to Super Mario 64 (a bit late on time... but that's what it takes to make a game). Sonic's first true 3D adventure, which featured something that was quite new at the time: Intertwining stories and multiple characters to control with different attributes, skills, moves and controls. It also featured a complete redesign of everyone to make it more modern. People also don't seem to realize that this game is now almost a decade old!

Some notable features I'd like to point out:

The AI system that runs the Chao is the same kind as the one that ran the Nightmareans in NiGHTS into Dreams.
Levels were set up differently depending on the character.
Big the Cat. He's quite the opposite of Sonic, but he added a good balance to Sonic as well. Sonic is fast, and Big can't run much at all, and while Sonic levels were timed on speed... Big's ones were based on your patience.
The Story. It's beginning began in the past, and you learned more about it from each story, seeing each perspective.
E-102 Gamma. The first robot character that plays a part in the story that you can actually control.

Sonic Adventure 2: The sequel with a vast improvement. Gameplay was speedier, controls didn't need to charge up, voices were improved and the story had quite a twist. It introduced Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat to the cast, and allowed us to control Eggman!

Notable Features:

Chao garden improvement. Inclusion of Dark characters made it easier to change your Chao's alignment.
A 3D remake of Green Hill Zone Act 1 was an unlockable level, with only Sonic playable, just like the first game.
The choice to play as the bad guys for once.
Kart race, Chao race, Chao karate, and 2P feature added to the playbility.

Sonic Heroes: Set right after Sonic Adventure 2. For some reason, this game seemed unpopular. A new copy is quite cheap, and people complained about it. However, the game had a good theme: Teamwork. This game was also ill received because it was believed that it ruined the "death" of Shadow. If not for this game... I would have never heard of Shadow.

Notable Features:

You control a team of three, each with either Speed, Power, or Flight as their ability.
Shadow the Hedgehog returns from after what everyone thought was death, and his memory loss helps set the premise for his solo game.
Charmy, Vector and Espio return after nearly 9 years. Chaotix fans were happy (Though due to the team setup... Mighty could not be allowed).
Metal Sonic returns as an antagonist after a long time, and proves to be one of Sonic's best enemies.
Special Stages are reminiscent of Sonic 2 and Knuckles Chaotix's.

Shadow the Hedgehog: The darker, gritter and more mature side of the Sonic world. Another game that has been criticized, this one for it's cursing, guns and use of vehicles. What's wrong with that? I've seen PG movies that have worse content. I liked it. It was different, shed more light on Shadow and for once it was a game that Sonic wasn't the star in. Sonic needed that break!

Notable features to point out:

This game had an interesting concept that I want to see elaborated on in more games: The ability to choose between right and wrong. There were paths based on your choices and each one led to a new outcome and a different story. You don't have to use the guns. You don't have to help Sonic or Black Doom. You don't have to listen to anyone. It's all about what you think should happen to Shadow. You're in control.
The karma system was cool. It either helped or hurt your score.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006): Ah yes... the Big Flop as most people call it. The unfinished game. I for one liked it. Sure, the glitches, loose ends and load time annoyed the snot out of me... and I do strongly oppose to the SonicXElise pair up, simply because I don't think Humans and Mobians should love each other more than friends. I just don't like bestiality. If Elise was a Mobian, or just wanted to be friends... then I wouldn't mind. But other than that... not really... though there is some cute fan art, and I did like that Sonic gave her some good advice to live by.

This game seems to take a lot of hits though, and I think a lot of it's unfair. There are some game reviews on it that say it's a waste of time. But I noticed that they didn't play the game all the way through, or even unlocked Silver's story. How do I know? Simple: Quite a few of them when asked about what they thought of the character Mephiles the Dark (a few of you may know that I'm a big fan of him, and studied his character to a T)... many of them shot back with a: "Who the **** is Mephiles?!".

Mephiles played a huge part as a villain, and makes his first important appearance in Silver's story, which is unlocked after you beat Silver in a Boss Battle. That happens at least a couple of full levels in on Sonic's story. That means that they most likely didn't even try to beat anything.

Now, when I say this, I mean this for any game for any series: If you're going to write a review and give the game a score... at least be fair and play the whole thing. The entire game cannot be based on the first few levels alone.

Anyway, I found the story quite fascinating. In fact, it's of something a few English teachers might appreciate. And I'm talking about the use of predestination paradoxes, butterfly effects and deja vu. To understand the thing fully, you must watch the cutscenes again to pick up what you missed that plays a key part.

Examples:

*Mephiles had a grudge against Shadow for what Shadow did to him ten years ago. But because of Mephiles choosing to attack Shadow, Shadow has reason to return to the past ten years ago to the day in question and trap Mephiles, which begins Mephiles' hatred of him. But Shadow would have never done that if Mephiles hadn't tried to get his revenge. In other words: Mephiles drove Shadow to do to him what drives him to do what he did to Shadow. Because of Shadow traveling in time, he created an event that only happened because he was there. That's a Predestination Paradox, which can be tough to write anyway.

* E-123 Omega is found deactivated in the future for an unknown reason. Rouge realizes that it was to help Shadow, who is trapped in the future. When she returns to present time, she finds Omega and gives him an Emerald to hold on to for 200 years in standby so he can be there to help Shadow. That was actually a clever one, and I almost missed it.

There's more, but those are the best ones.

I should note that because the storyline was reset at the end, that this could have very well been a glimpse at another timeline altogether, and that the ending could have been deja vu, because Elise felt like Sonic was familiar to her. I like to call this the story that's "Unwritten".

Notable features in this game:

Different story perspectives on the same story.
Silver the Hedgehog has completely new abilities than Sonic and Shadow.
Amazing musical score.
Blaze the Cat's first console appearance.
Lacey Chabert (voice of Elise) was a non 4Kids' actor. You might know her as Meg from the first season of Family Guy and the voice of kid Vitani in Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. I'm a fan of that as well. ^^
Voices of Sonic and Shadow were greatly improved.

Sonic Unleashed: The newest adventure.

Am I the only one to notice that the Werehog was being dismissed as a bad idea long before the game was even released? Again... not fair.

What's really wrong with the Werehog? He's Sonic, he's fast, he's able to stretch his arms like Ristar, he's more powerful, and a bit easier to control.

It's still Sonic, just a new transformation. Sega and Sonic Team can do that if they want, it's their character and games. The fans wanted only Sonic as a playable... and we got it.

As for the daytime stages: Best fun I've had in ages! For once, there is a Sonic game that satisfies my need for a fast paced game. This really brings back the feel of The Blue Blur.

But as always with a new game... there's conflict with the fans.

We had the Supporters, the Haters, and the Neutrals. Once again, we had dispute, and one after another we had different opinions of the game, and I was afraid that it was going to be another repeat.

But... at least where I live, it seems well accepted. The game was sold out in quite a few stores, and Toys R Us was sold out of the Werehog figure in just weeks after it was on the shelf.

Notable features:

The Original Tornado from Sonic 2 and 3, as well as a few others
The spiky thing on the rails that was seen in Oil Ocean in Sonic 2
The stretchy arms and using them to climb from Ristar, another Sega game
The mini game in the 360 version where you had to collect Chao in a way like you had to in Flicky and Sonic 3D Blast
Eggmanland. How many of us remember that that was what he's wanted for years?
Chilidogs! It's been a long time in the games for that!
Chip felt like a callback to the early days between Sonic and Tails. Tails is now getting older in the games and going on his own adventures, so he's pulling away from Sonic. Chip brought back that feeling of a cute sidekick that wants to help you. In a way, Chip is also a callback on Tikal, because he helps you out in the same way, giving you hints to find your way across. ^^
Button combos with outcomes in boss fights.


But we still have people that think the games are getting dumb.

Maybe the fans are still the same... but because a lot of us been there since the beginning (I was a baby when the first game came out, and I was two when I finally learned how to play a game, which was Sonic 2), most of us are adults now, and have grown up, the new generation of fans only know Sonic through the new games, the new comics and Sonic X. Some probably didn't know there were new games.

That being said, I'm glad Sega has been releasing these compilations over the years to not only help us from the 90s to relive the good times... but to allow our fellow fans from the 2000s upcoming 2010s to see what we had. ^^

As weird as it may seem, Sonic has been around for nearly 18 years, and in a couple more, the Blue Blur is going to hit the second decade.

In all these years he:

* Was the first video game character in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade.
* Has had the most successful comic career for a video game character.
* Crossed over with his Nintendo rival Mario officially 2 times now, and will soon do it a third time.
* Has had a couple of movies.
* Has had 4 TV series.
* Has over 20 something games.
* Has had a gene named after him.

It goes on. Sonic has come all this way, and just like in the song "Endless Possibility" says... he's still has those endless possibilities.

I'm still staying true... and I won't stop being a fan ^^



This stamp is for all you who feel the same.