Honest question for Sonic fans:
Don't you feel like a battered spouse?
I used to.
Sonic 2006 was a very,
very dark time. That game made everything look bad, even the Sonic games I legitimately loved. I almost didn't want anything to do with Sonic ever again.
Sega had an FTP security breach and some pre-release assets for Sonic Unleashed leaked, including
an internal video promo. The game looked like Sonic Rush in 3D. Sonic Rush was, and still kind of is in a lot of ways, one of the best Sonic games.
I was trepidatious. Sonic 06 was so bad, by rights Sega should've never been given the benefit of the doubt ever again (I still don't give them that, actually). News of the Werehog finally came, and it seemed to almost kind of confirm that yep, this was probably going to be crap.
Around this time, a guy I know named Tristan relaunched his old Sonic/Sega news website,
tssznews.com. He asked me if I wanted to be a part of the writing staff, and offered to pay me out of whatever adsense brought in. It was hardly anything at the time, but I bit the bullet and said yes - I'd never done anything like this before, and I figured it would be a good learning experience. I think we were barely operational for a week when the news of the Sonic Unleashed leak hit, it was our first big story.
My job was reviews. Suddenly Sonic Unleashed on the Xbox 360 went from "Eh, I'll skip it" to "I don't have any choice, I'm going play it."
I wasn't quite sure what to make of the game at first. I was kind of frustrated by it; Sonic's daytime levels were incredibly difficult, nerve-wracking experiences. After a daytime Sonic level I'd put down the controller, hands literally shaking.
Werehog stuff was a drag, obviously. Boring, kind of mindless, but not entirely unplayable. Just long and uninteresting. Boss encounters largely weren't great, the story was average Sonic stuff, and the game gated your progress in annoying, occasionally tedious ways. But the more I played Sonic's daytime levels, the more I began to feel inexplicably drawn to them. They were nerve-wracking, but in a good way. They were rollercoaster rides in almost a literal sense; insanely fast and dizzying. But the game was far from being on autopilot; pulling off a "good run" in these levels took patience, focus, and most importantly, skill - I've always likened it to something like a racing game, where you have to worry about your driving line and cornering technique, and basically have to straight up memorize the track a little bit if only so you can set up and plan your moves ahead of time.
Against my initial assessment, I fell in love with Sonic Unleashed. The daytime levels are
a white-knuckle thrill ride that no other game franchise has been able to match. Games to follow Sonic Unleashed (Colors and Generations) were of the same mold, though neither games were quite as focused on ridiculous speed - Sonic Generations comes the closest, but still doesn't feel quite as insane as Unleashed did.
Regardless, by the public at large, Colors and Generations were considered to be "alright" games. Good, even. No need to excuse Werehogs or hub worlds or whatever. They are Fun Sonic Games.
So no, I don't especially feel like a battered wife. I guess I kind of used to, but I haven't for many years now.
Though with the direction things could go... we'll see what happens in the future, eh?
(If for whatever reason you need me to expound more on my dumb opinions, I
did produce video reviews for
Unleashed,
Generations and
Lost World.)
" and move on.
