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GAF's Top 10 Sonic Games

1. Sonic 3 & Kunckles
2. Sonic 3
3. Sonic & Knuckles
4. Sonic Generations
5. Sonic 2 (MS)
6. Sonic 2 (MD)
7. Sonic CD
8. Sonic Spinball
9. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
10. Sonic 1 (MS)
 
The soundtrack is too good. I don't remember too much of the gameplay but I guess it could be a good thing that I don't, haha.

Yes, yes it is. (good that you don't remember the gameplay)

I prefer that soundtrack with the lyrics off though. I do agree it's good in that situation.
 

Par Score

Member
Boy, I love Sonic, but picking 10 is pretty challenging :/

1. Sonic 3 - Really can't be beaten, if only they'd had time to finish it.
2. Sonic 2 - The tightest Sonic game, only just pipped by 3.
3. Sonic & Knuckles - A disappointing 'ending' to 3.
4. Sonic Generations - The closest they've come to greatness in a long time.
5. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - Better than some Mario Karts, which is higher praise than it sounds.
6. Sonic 1 - Was revolutionary, now feels old and busted.
7. Sonic Adventure - Was revolutionary, now feels old and busted.
8. Sonic Adventure 2 - The Sonic / Shadow bits are good... ish.
9 .Sonic R - Just for the music.
10. Sonic Rush - Even more just for the music
 

Lan_97

Member
1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
2. Sonic 2
3. Sonic 1
4. Sonic Adventure
5. Sonic Advance
6. Sonic Rush
7. Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)

Honorable Mentions
Sonic Battle
Sonic Heroes
Sonic and the Secret Rings

Transcends Time and Space
Sonic R
 

Mesoian

Member
1.) Sonic 3 + Knuckles (I Just hate the new sprites)
2.) Sonic 2
3.) Sonic CD
4.) Sonic 1
5.) Sonic and Sega All Star Racing Transformed
6.) Sonic Generations
7.) Sonic Colors
8.) Sonic Adventure 2
9.) Sonic Advanced 2
10.) Sonic Spinball
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
I will never understand the Sonic Adventure love. I never played it until last year and the game is terrible. The voice-acting is awful, the camera is bad, and it just wasn't fun at all.
 

NZerker12

Member
Heres my Top 5

1) Sonic 2 - My favourite and has the best soundtrack in the 2d sonics

2) Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Very close to Sonic 2 but I dislike the Sonic sprite

3) Sonic Generations - The best 3D Sonic game to date and great package.

4) Sonic Colours - Although not as good as Generations in terms of the gamplay and level design, however its soundtrack is one of the best in the series. Plus it also introduced the return of the ability to turn super sonic in stages.

5) Sonic CD - Crazy level design and great soundtrack but lacks the feeling of the megadrive games, imo.
 
I'd prefer to do a Top 5 rather than Top 10:

5. Sonic 1
4. Sonic Advance
3. Sonic CD
2. Sonic 2
1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Honorable mentions

Sonic Advance 2 and 3
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Colors
Sonic Generations

1. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

That's it, there are no good Sonic games.

This is a pretty convincing argument, I got nothing. :(
 
I will never understand the Sonic Adventure love. I never played it until last year and the game is terrible. The voice-acting is awful, the camera is bad, and it just wasn't fun at all.

I've owned SA2 for years but I only played SA1 around 3 years ago. It wasn't really great other than the Sonic/Tails levels. Knuckle's/Rouge's levels are even worse in SA2 because the radar only tracks one emerald piece at a time, making it feel very slow pace. I don't really mind the Tails sections that much but I can see why people would dislike them. Sonic's stages are pretty much the only consistently good parts of both games, though there are one or two bad apples.
 
#10 Adventure 2
#9 Adventure 1
#8 Sonic 2 (Gen/MD)
#7 Generations
#6 Sonic 3D (Saturn/PC)

#5 Advance 1
#4 Sonic CD
#3 Sonic 3&K
#2 Sonic 1 (Gen/MD)
#1 Racing Transformed
 

crash-14

Member
I'll never understand the people that put Sonic Adventure above Sonic Adventure 2, like fo real... The only 3D Sonic game with momentum implementation (just cuz the rails implementation of course).

Also I will never understand the people that liked Unleashed with those "flat" stages and lack of platforming
 

Gunstar Ikari

Unconfirmed Member
Toss Up:
10: Sonic Advance 2
9: Sonic Advance
8: Sonic Advance 3
7: Sonic 1 (Genesis)
6: Sonic Colors (Wii)
5: Sonic Rush

Definite:
4: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
3: Sonic Generations
2: Sonic 2 (Genesis)
1: Sonic 3 & Knuckles
 
01 - Sonic & Knuckles
02 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles
03 - Sonic 3
04 - Sonic Unleashed
05 - Sonic 2
06 - Sonic Generations
07 - Sonic Adventure
08 - Sonic 1
09 - Sonic Rush Adventure
10 - Sonic CD
 

Nishastra

Banned
Not counting Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as their own games here.

1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
2. Sonic Advance 2
3. Sonic Adventure
4. Sonic Rush
5. Sonic Colors
6. Sonic Generations
7. Sonic Adventure 2
8. Sonic Advance 3
9. Sonic Rush Adventure
10. Sonic 2

I'm not really confident in the order of this list. I know which games I like more in each individual series that has multiple entires, but I'm not sure how I rank the series themselves.
 

sniperpon

Member
Of the ones I've played, my top 10:


  1. Sonic
  2. Sonic 3
  3. Sonic Adventure
  4. Sonic 2
  5. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  6. Sonic Advance
  7. Sonic 8-bit
  8. Sonic Pocket Adventure
  9. Sonic 2 8-bit
  10. Sonic & Knuckles
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Sonic 2
Sonic Generations 360
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic Unleashed 360
Sonic Colours Wii
Sonic Rush
Sonic Rush Adventure
Sonic Heroes
Sonic Colours DS

I think those are my favourite ones. Luckily, I like all major syles of Sonic games: Classic Mega Drive style, Rush style, Adventure style and Boost style :).
 
Great list,
really glad to see Sonic 3 at the top, as it's my favorite Sonic game of all time. It's also really nice to see Transformed, Generations, and Colors represented. Modern Sonic has had some serious failures, but these games show there was some great stuff in there too. Generations and transformed in particular are excellent, I just hope we see more Sonic games like them.
 
Lots of good and bad Sonic games; all that really matters on these lists is that Sonic 3 & Knuckles needs to be #1.


edit: look at all these fellow Sonic avatars! Hello, friends!
 

Dunkley

Member
I hope I don't insult people with what Sonic Games I like over others. This kinda feels like a best Final Fantasy thread. Do note that I split Sonic 3 & Knuckles intentionally into the two games even if I played it combined.

  1. Sonic Generations
  2. Sonic CD
  3. Sonic Colours
  4. Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing Transformed
  5. Sonic & Knuckles
  6. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  7. Sonic Adventure 2
  8. Sonic The Hedgehog 3
  9. Sonic Advance 4
  10. Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2

If fangames could count I'd put Before and After The Sequel inbetween Sonic 2 and Sonic Adventure 2.
 
My list:

#10: Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)
#9: Sonic Advance 2 (GBA)
#8: Sonic Colours (Wii)
#7: Sonic (Game Gear)
#6: Sonic CD (Mega CD)
#5: Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
#4: Sonic Generations (PC)
#3: Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (PC)
#2: Sonic 2 (Mega Drive)
#1: Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Mega Drive)

Honorable Mention: Freedom Planet (It feels like Sonic x a genesis era Treasure game, excellent game from what I've played)
 

Haunted

Member
Top... ten?

You're asking me to list ten Sonic games that I like? Ten Sonic games... that are good?
Nailed-It.gif



  1. Sonic Generations
  2. Sonic Adventure
  3. one of the old ones for good measure, Sonic 3 will do I suppose
  4. Sonic Shuffle
  5. Sonic Racing
  6. Sonic Tennis
 
1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
The final form of Mega Drive Sonic created by literally jamming two carts together in what probably sounded like some kid on the playground's silly lie back in the day now I think about it.
Stages so dense I'm still finding new stuff each replay.

2. Sonic Colours
Boost style Sonic slows down a spell and embraces the Mario world of gimmicky powerups to surprising success. Also has the Aquarium Park music which is enough to elevate this so high on its own.
Really it's just nice to have a Sonic game that manages to hit both the speed factor and moments of slightly finicky but functional platforming.

3. Sonic Generations
Surprisingly a game of two halves where both halves are just as good as each other which is a nice change from split gameplay in other Sonic titles, see that's the bonus of having Sonic and also Sonic for your divide. Whisper it, the modern Sonic stages might just edge out classic this time around, a sign of the end of times to be sure.
Speaking of the end and time, Time Eater does its best to crap over the finale but you can't win them all.

4. Sonic 2
The realisation of Sonic 1's concept delivering fun times all the way up until either Wing Fortress or Metropolis depending on your own opinion, well I suppose you could enjoy both of those, I'm content to just throw in the towel after Metropolis myself.
All glory to the spindash.

5. Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed
Apparently Spinoffs count and well Sonic stuff still vastly outnumbers a bunch of the other Sega franchises combined so yeah, it's Sonic.
Sega Arcade style racing meets Diddy Kong Racing turned up to eleven, alas it does not meet Valkyria Chronicles representation at any point so it loses some points.
Adder's Lair is a standout race track.

6. Sonic Master System
Imagine a Sonic 1 where you retain that more focused platforming emphasis without the drudgery of marble zone and also get yuzo koshiro musical goodness, yeah the green hill ain't as strong as the Mega Drives but hey I'll gladly take the rest over it.
See also: non shitty bonus stages you want to visit for continues.

7. Sonic CD
Sonic Clusterfuck Disaster? Sonic Chaotic "Dinging"? Sonic Collectathon Dilemma?
Well anyway it's a bit of a mess but it's a fun mess to just blaze through without a care in the world, judging by some of the level design the same statement probably applied to the designers. Rad soundtrack on both sides but JPN/EU wins out even if US Wacky Workbench brings the furious funk.

...I don't feel strongly about any of the rest to list them, I feel like I could just say "well a third of Unleashed/Adventure/Adventure 2/Heroes/Lost World is okay" if that means anything.
I'd need to play the handheld ones again to actually remember anything notable about them, they tend to be like the greasy popcorn food of Sonic titles.
 

RyType

Member
1.Sonic CD
2.Sonic The Hedgehog 1
3.Sonic 3 & Knuckles
4.Sonic The Hedgehog 2
5.Sonic Generations
6.Sonic Colours
7.Sonic Adventure
8.Sonic the Hedgehog (master system/game gear)
9.Sonic Pocket Adventure
10.Sonic Adventure 2

Not really the biggest Sonic fan despite being quite obsessed with the UK fleetway Sonic comics growing up- I just never really felt the series ever captured that same 'uniqueness' of the very first sonic game- except Sonic CD, Its the only Sonic game I still come back to and revisit every few years.

The Adventure games are pretty bad but you really had to be there at the dreamcast launch with Sonic adventure, Powerstone & Soul calibur- was pure magical. And being from PAL land, I grew up with a master system and have a soft spot for the first 8-bit Sonic. Sonic Generations and Colours are probably the best 3D modern sonic games but to me, they never feel quite as spectacular as the Sonic/Shadow levels from the adventure games.
 
Had to think a while since there's a lot of games in the series and I've played most of them but it would be probably like this:
  1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  2. Sonic CD
  3. Sonic 2
  4. Sonic 1
  5. Sonic Advance 3
  6. Sonic Colors
  7. Sonic Advance
  8. Sonic Generations
  9. Sonic Rush
  10. Sonic Triple Trouble

Honorary mentions to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes (1st 3D Sonic I played so it holds a special place in my heart), Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic 1 SMS, Tails Adventure and both Racing games from SUMO Digital.
 

kunonabi

Member
best I can do is top 5

1)Sonic and the Secret Rings
2)Sonic Adventure
3)Sonic Colors
4)Sonic & Knuckles
5)Sonic Lost World

Not really fan of the other games.
 

Cleve

Member
I feel like listing more than this is scraping the barrel.

6) Sonic on NGPC
5) Sonic 1
4) Sonic CD
3) Sonic 3
2) Sonic 2
1) Sonic & Knuckles
 

Paltheos

Member
Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are the only ones I really like, I think. Too many of the other 3Ds games mesh in 2D section nonsense when the game was always more fun from an overhead perspective where you could see where you're going and make minute adjustments To Go As Fast As Possible.

Some of the 2D games are ok, but once you get to the later stages that feel compelled to throw in timed platforming and maze elements (and water, god) they're just a chore. Fitting that when you're waiting for those floating platforms to come down that Sonic starts tapping his foot.
 

Gilly

Member
1. Sonic CD
2. Sonic 2
3. Sonic Generations
4. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
5. Sonic the Hedgehog
6. Sonic Adventure 2
7. the rest (all the others are trash)

edit: forgot about the handheld games never played them
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
This is actually most of the games I've played. SA2 remains the apex of the series, fuck the haters.

#10: Sonic and Sega All-star Racing
#9: Sonic Advance 2
#8: Sonic Unleashed
#7: Sonic Advance 3
#6: Sonic Heroes
#5: Sonic Generations
#4: Sonic Adventure
#3: Sonic 3D Blast
#2: Sonic 3 and Knuckles
#1: Sonic Adventure 2
 
I think all of the original 3.5 Sonic games stand out on their own in one or two ways. I think Sonic 1 was the most diverse in terms of design and had some memorable music married to great level design.

Sonic 2 was in most regards an improvement over Sonic 1, though I feel like the music wasn't one of the aspects that improved. In terms of gameplay and level design, I think it perhaps is the best game of them all.

Sonic 3 (and Knuckles) was great looking and had an epic story, as epic as 2D platformer stories can go at least... but it was also the one filled with the most gimmicks and overall felt slower than Sonic 2. The level design also seemed a bit simpler and more linear whereas previous Sonic games I believe gave you more choices to traverse a level depending on your preferred play style and skill.

I like them all a lot, but if I had to choose just one, I'd go with Sonic 2.

My guilty pleasure for Sonic games I think is the same as many others in this thread....

Can you feel the sunshine, does it brighten up your day?
 
  1. Sonic CD. This is kind of hit-or-miss due to its... eccentric level design, but as a person who tends to thoroughly explore every nook and cranny in a stage, it was awesome. Sort of became a puzzle to locate where a stage's robot-generator was, locate a place in the Present where I could reliably keep up speed for an extended period of time to go to the Past, take out the robot-generator, and then go to the Future two times and see the Good Future I'd just created. I still get a kick out of going through the motions there.

    Wacky Workbench is terrible, though. Stupid bouncy floors covering the majority of the stage...
  2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, because they're one game and not two (just for the price of two). And when combined, the game is one of the best in the entire genre, easily up there with Nintendo's contemporary greats like Yoshi's Island or Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Three playable characters, all sharing a basic moveset yet having enough noticeable differences to open up paths unique to each one. 25 Acts, each with their own boss, several of which got rather inventive, spread across 14 Zones, each with their own unique gimmicks and memorable segments. A save feature that made sure you could complete that lengthy campaign, as well as New Game+ letting you go back to any Zone you wanted and try to 100% it after beating the final boss. A really great soundtrack that was evidently partially worked on by the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson (or, at the very least, his staff). Really, it's hard to find something the game did wrong.

    Well, not that hard, I suppose: Carnival Night Zone's barrel. That was the worst. Beyond that, though!

    For simplicity's sake, I'm counting Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Blue Sphere here, as well, because they don't really warrant entries of their own. Still, they were cool additions in their own right; what should've been a wacky expansion pack in cartridge form to Sonic 3 wound up breathing some new life into Sonic 2, as well as giving you a new special stage for every single game in the Genesis library, or a whole slew thereof for the first Sonic. That's still pretty crazy, that they went through that much effort.
  3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Not as long as Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but still a much-expanded campaign over the first Sonic the Hedgehog's. Added the Spin Dash, which let you get your speed quickly at the expense of standing around relatively vulnerable for a few seconds as you rev (and also forcing you into your rolling mode where you get less control over the character, but still). Longer, more intricate levels, catchier music, more numerous bosses, a far-less-painful water stage... there's very little that it didn't improve upon from the first Sonic the Hedgehog. There's a good reason this one is still remembered as fondly as it is.
  4. Sonic Advance. I suppose you were expecting to see the first Sonic the Hedgehog here, but nope, here's one of the first non-Sega-console Sonic titles instead. It basically nailed the mechanics of the Genesis games, and even included S3&K's multiple characters while adding one more to the mix with Sonic CD's Amy Rose, although it did a much poorer job of offering unique content for each character, as unlike S3&K, practically no paths could be opened up by one character that no other character could reach. I personally feel the Advance subseries took a nosedive from here, focusing too hard on making you run at absurdly fast speeds into traps you'd have to memorize the location of to play worth a damn in Advance 2, although I understand that's far from a unanimous opinion. But this one? For as regrettably short as it was, I had a blast replaying it over and over in the early days of the Game Boy Advance, and still highly recommend it.
  5. The first Sonic the Hedgehog. Alright, alright, here it is. The original, sans Spin Dash, and where slow stages like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone make it all-too-apparent that they were still getting a feel for what the gameplay style did and didn't accommodate. It's probably the worst of the mainline Genesis series in my mind for that, although Sonic CD might be lower for some people (like I said, that one is very hit-or-miss - it just happens that for me, it was "hit"), but it's still a fine game worth anyone's time. Still, if you only had to play one game in the series, I'd sooner recommend 2 or 3&K.
  6. Tails Adventures. Yes, the spin-off game where Tails lumbers his way through the game at a relatively slow pace, throwing bombs at an army of birds. Thing is, this is actually a pretty competent Metroidvania-of-sorts, despite its slow pace. You start out pretty weak and armed only with a bomb, but soon start finding tons of little gadgets and alternate weapons (still mostly demolitions-related) that let you poke at areas you couldn't touch before or blow open walls that your stock bombs couldn't dent, as well as finding the Chaos Emeralds lying around to raise your max HP and flight time. It's very worth giving a look, as long as you go in expecting a Metroidvania and not a fully-fledged, high-speed Sonic game. (Although there are a few of those on the Game Gear...)
  7. Sonic Generations. I fully expected to hate this, since I wasn't too big a fan of the boost gameplay introduced with Rush and expanded upon with Unleashed, but in actuality, I really had a blast with this one. Modern's more racing game than platformer (I suppose this is to be expected of Sega; if there's one thing they know how to do well, it's racing games), but it's not particularly punishing to get through (in fact it's arguably a bit too easy) and is really fun to revisit for speed-running. Classic isn't too bad a facsimile of the originals, either, albeit his acceleration is pretty low, his Spin Dash is way too strong, and a lot of ramps and such are far more scripted than they ever were in the old days. Definitely recommended, especially the PC version (yay 60FPS).
  8. Sonic Triple Trouble. Probably the best of the aforementioned fully-fledged Sonic games on the Game Gear. It's a biiit slower than some of the titles that came before it, but it's generally more polished than those, with some interesting ideas like the Rocket Shoes (a carryover from Chaos, I believe), snowboarding (outside of a single scripted location, unlike Ice Cap Zone 1's snowboarding), and the ability to turn into a ball for a very brief moment if you were thrust into the air by a spring (which historically cancels out your ball-state and makes you vulnerable). It's not a half-bad little game.
  9. Sonic Chaos. Also a fun little handheld diversion; although not quite as good as Triple Trouble was, it still provides some fun areas to run around. I particularly fondly remember Sleeping Egg Zone, where you get spring up into all these bricks that shatter as you zoom upward through them; that and its interesting green/purple color scheme.
  10. Sonic the Hedgehog... for the Game Gear/Master System. Not really as good as its 16-bit counterpart, but it's a competent platformer in its own right, including three stages from the 16-bit game (Green Hill, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain) and including three of its own (the not-so-imaginatively-named Bridge and Jungle, and the actually-pretty-cool Sky Base). Even has a soundtrack by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It's well worth a look for the curious.
Some runners-up:
  • Sonic 3D Blast. While most people really hate this one, I'm actually kind of a fan. It's a terrible Sonic game, let's not mince words there, but as a game in general, it's actually kinda fun. Sort of like a 3D Flicky. Although, I'd seriously recommend the Saturn or PC versions over the Genesis one Sega trots out everywhere, if only because of Richard Jacques's soundtrack. Some really good stuff hiding there; not that the Genesis version was particularly a slouch (particularly the tracks future Skies of Arcadia composer Tatsuyuki Maeda did, which generally are far better than Jun Senoue's contributions), I just have more affinity for Jacques's take.
  • Sonic R. It's not a terribly good racer, but I still find it a guilty pleasure; I enjoy going through its meager supply of five tracks and seeing how quickly I can unlock everything. It helps that those five tracks have a lot of nooks and crannies, more than most racing games, in which they hid all the tokens and emeralds and shortcuts and whatnot that you need to unlock all the characters. Shame those characters are unbalanced as heck, and you still only get five tracks total to run through.
  • Sonic Adventure 2. This hasn't aged too well, but mechanically holds up semi-decently. I mean, the speed characters are generally the most unambiguously liked, but I still rather like playing as Tails and Eggman. Knuckles and Rouge, though... well, the emerald hunting felt like it was handled better in the first Sonic Adventure. Also, wasn't really a fan of how dark the plot got (Eggman blowing up half the moon and threatening to do the same to any country on the planet if they don't surrender within 24 hours); it felt a little too out-of-character for the series... even if you factor in that the Death Egg presumably would do something similar (I mean, it's an obvious jab at the Death Star, what else would it do?).
  • The first Sonic Adventure. This really hasn't aged too well, but I prefer the setting to SA2's (it feels a lot less dark, even ignoring that Eggman tries to nuke a city, and that said city later gets flooded by a water demon anyway). Plus, it was pretty cool to take six different stories and have them intertwine into one larger narrative; I don't doubt that's done a fair bit, but at the time it was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
  • Sonic Colors. Didn't finish this one, but it seems like a very good game in spite of that.
  • Sonic Spinball. It's ludicrously difficult, particularly The Showdown, but it's a decent little pinball game that I can comfortably revisit from time to time.
  • Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. It's Puyo-Puyo. You like Puyo-Puyo, right? Course ya do. You just might not know it yet.
 

nbnt

is responsible for the well-being of this island.
1. Sonic Lost World
2. Sonic Adventure
3. Sonic Generations
 

ffdgh

Member
Sonic 3 and knuckles
Sonic 2
Sonic adventure 2 battle
Sonic Adventure DX
Sonic advance 3
Sonic advance 2
Sonic Rush
Sonic Advance 1
Sonic Heroes
Sonic battle :p
 
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