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Sonic has ALWAYS been terrible

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Majestad

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It perplexes me how big every fucking Sonic thread on GAF gets tons of responses. Every time a new Sonic game gets announced, there's a shitload of replies with some people genuinely getting excited and thinking it will be a good game for once. The game releases and their expectations are crushed, which is the Sonic cycle we all know. Here's the baffling part: why does it surprise people that a Sonic game sucks when that has always been the case?

Sonic is the best example of a product of its era, meaning that the only appeal it had couldn't survive past the 90's. Yeah, the character still is popular (I recognize he has an iconic design), but the concepts and mechanics of this franchise are obsolete nowadays. Every Sonic game I've played before the recent garbage ones is just bad. Sonic has always been trial and error game design, which is the worst. Going fast and falling into pits, hitting spikes, bouncing around like a pinball ball, losing your rings, that is not any fun.

A lot of people say that Sonic CD and the recent Generations are great games, so I played them, and they are still the same shit it has always been. It doesn't surprise me why the developers of this poor franchise keep adding new elements to the games to see if they can inject some life into it, but is just a lost cause.

People say that in order to have a good Sonic game, the developers have to go back to the basics of the "good" games. Ask yourself this, even if they do that, nowadays, would they be able to produce anything above an average game?

What you think GAF? As a character, I think Sonic is pretty nice (except the Boom atrocity), but the mainline Sonic games have always been bad in my opinion.

Do you think that, nostalgia aside, Sonic was ever good?

PS: I'd say that the best thing Sonic has appeared on are the Smash games, and the excellent Sonic Racing All-Stars Transformed, so the character has potential as something completely different than what it was in the past.
 
Original genesis games were among the best of their time. The adventure games are extremely dated and are nearly unplayable due to how glitchy they are. Only good recent games are Unleashed and Generations.
 
Indeed. The only reason people liked it in the '90s was because of its fabricated "COOL" factor, and now it's simply nostalgia goggles.
 
I still love the Genesis games. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in particular is brilliant. Great pacing and enemy design, clever bosses. Tons of replay / speedrun potential.

I even love Sonic Adventure. It's a shame they never got the 3D sonic right after that (SA 2 wasn't bad but some of the levels were too complicated for their own good. This is the same problem I have with the Sonic Advance games)
 
Sonic 2 is the height of Sonicing. Sonic 3 and Knuckles is still very good. I am not a huge fan of Sonic CD. My interest in the series started plummeting with Sonic Adventure and I haven't even played a new Sonic game since Unleashed--and I only put up with the franchise that long because I'm a nostalgic idiot who kept getting suckered into the "This time Sega did it right," verbiage that fans repeat every time there's a new Sonic game. I don't trust them anymore.
 
I played the first three Genesis games recently and I still think those are pretty good.

But y'know, opinions.

I played Sonic CD which is considered the best by a lot, and I thought it was bad too.

Opinions are generally divided about Sonic CD.
 
I'm not a Sonic fan and I was first exposed to the Genesis games as an adult some years ago, but the very first Sonic game is fun. It's the most platformer-like Sonic game and unsurprisingly the one I liked the most.
 
Sonic is the best example of a product of its era, meaning that the only appeal it had couldn't survive past the 90's. Yeah, the character still is popular (I recognize he has an iconic design), but the concepts and mechanics of this franchise are obsolete nowadays. Every Sonic game I've played before the recent garbage ones is just bad. Sonic has always been trial and error game design, which is the worst. Going fast and falling into pits, hitting spikes, bouncing around like a pinball ball, losing your rings, that is not any fun.

A lot of people say that Sonic CD and the recent Generations are great games, so I played them, and they are still the same shit it has always been. It doesn't surprise me why the developers of this poor franchise keep adding new elements to the games to see if they can inject some life into it, but is just a lost cause.

I totally disagree. I picked up Sonic 1 when it was re-released on 3DS and it's still an absolutely great game. It's just just about "going fast" either, there are plenty of platforming segments in the classic formula, and you can play through the levels slowly the first time to learn the areas before trying to blaze through them at top speed.

I liked Sonic 4 Episode 1 too, so maybe my opinion is just worthless :-)
 
Opinions are wonderful things.

I loved Generations. I think most of the recent games haven't been terrible. I get genuine enjoyment from replaying the Mega Drive era games, and speeding through the newer, Unleashed/Generations styles games. Does this make me wrong?
 
hmm, for me I think it was more of a
Holy heck! So fast! So much shit on screen! HAHAHAHA my friends little brother is getting sick and puking while playing!!

The game was fun imo. Really fun and so different to what Mario ever did.
 
Nah, Genesis games and sonic adventure were great. Unleashed had its moments. Generations was 90% great.

So Sonic has the potential, which is why the crappy games hurt that much more.
 
I think that the Sonic 1-3 had great art design, main characters, and music but were less than fun to play. It seems to encourage mistakes rather than reward the player for skill.
 
I find the original ones overrated and aged terribly but that is my opinion. Gimme more Colors and Generations.
And Chao Garden.
 
Nah. The original games were and IMO still are some of the period's best platformers. Once you toyed with the physics, and understood how best to minimize risks (curling into a ball more often, not going out of your way to collect rings, &c.), said trial-and-error problems go away.

Count me as one of the weirdos who really enjoys Sonic Adventure, also.
 
You say it was always terrible but you bring up recent games. Don't understand the logic here.

Edit: Nvm I read it wrong. The old Sonic games are still good.
 
The genny games are awesome. Trial and error was king back then, it applies to almost every game from the era. Equating absolutely that trail and error = bad game design is laughable. These games weren't even very hard once you fully understood how the character moved. At the very least, no one can deny that the soundtracks of the genesis games are GOAT tier.
 
I never got the appeal of sonic but then again I was a Nintendo kid. It was like a video game cold war back then so I stayed on the Nintendo side of the line.
 
Totally agree that the original mega drive games are overrated and a product of their time. And I used to love them lol

They are good platformers but what made them special was the style and attitude
 
Old Sonic punishes you for going fast. New Sonic punishes you for picking up the controller.

The only Sonic game I've ever truly enjoyed was Generations and I think that's a one-off.
 
I played Sonic CD which is considered the best by a lot, and I thought it was bad too.
"I've diagnosed the problem, Jack!"
"What is it?"
"This man is demonspawn!"
"Really?"
"No, he is just stating his own personal opinion. However, that doesn't mean he shouldn't still be burnt at the stake."
Do you like platformers?
Edit: Thread seems a bit clickbait IMO, but you seem like a decent enough fellow
 
Do people that think the good Sonic games are actually good acknowledge the franchise has a lot of trial and error gameplay?

That might explain my dislike for the series, as I despise trial and error.
 
I was always of the opinion that Sonic's primary attribute (speed) was actually the most detrimental part of his game design. There are a TON of secrets hidden through out all of the levels, and what do you have to do to be able to discover them all? You have to slow down. You have to be willing to drop the pace to explore the levels and that is literally the antithesis of his 'gotta go fast' design.


Oh yeah, many years later this isn't important. Anyone that has ever truly loved sonic has all of those old games memorized 1:1 and can get everything in one rapid go, but that's not how it was at the time... but that just plays into the whole nostalgia aspect.

Just IMO, but I agree with OP... Sonic was never all that great... Sonic was an attitude. He was 90's pepsi to the 80's coke-a-cola. He's a fad that's way out of his time period, and looking back was never that great to begin with.
 
I played Sonic CD which is considered the best by a lot, and I thought it was bad too.

Sonic CD is considered the best by a vocal minority. It has by far the worst level design of the classic games. Most people would say Sonic 3 & Knuckles or Sonic 2.
 
Sonic 2 is a great game, 1 and 3 are just okay to me. Generations and Colours are quite good too and Sonic CD is overrated but still okay.

Everything else kinda goes from mediocre to shit.
 
I think Sonic has aged way worse then Mario. The games today, even the good ones, don't hold up. I agree with the "product of it's time" sentiment, though I wouldn't call them bad.
 
You are 100% correct. Literally the worst franchise still going today despite its publisher doing everything to kill it off at every possible opportunity. I deluded myself into liking some of them for a while but when I actually took a step back (and out of the playground) it became plainly evident. They are the Pain of their age. Games led by marketing. They are mechanically awful, poorly designed pieces of garbage.
 
I haven't played the modern games out of lack of interest, but I do genuinely like Sonic 3 and/or Knuckles.

You must have had to be there for Sonic CD, though, because I can't get over how garbage those level designs are.
 
Do people that think the good Sonic games are actually good acknowledge the franchise has a lot of trial and error gameplay?

That just explain my dislike for the series, as I despise trial and error.
Is there a way you can play the very first one for real cheap? If you don't like that one, then I doubt you'll like the rest (at least if you're like me). I think it's a genuinely fun 2D platformer, I really don't care about speed or other Sonic elements.
 
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Sonic thread is the main reason why I think god exists.

So anyway, I really enjoyed Sonic 3 & knuckles PC port, it has a sense of attitude, speed and fun few games at the time had and it was really really cool looking.

I don't think I'm a fan of him, since I have bought the grand total of 0 games featuring him since then, but I think he has had good games and it deserves his status as an icon.
 
I played Sonic CD last year for the first time.

It's one of the best platformers I've ever played.

It's ok if you don't like Sonic games, but don't generalize or try to make your opinion a fact.
 
Do people that think the good Sonic games are actually good acknowledge the franchise has a lot of trial and error gameplay?

That just explain my dislike for the series, as I despise trial and error.

Where the hell are people getting this idea that Sonic is trial and error? This is very rarely the case.
 
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