This past November, Sonic the Hedgehog turned 20 years old. If there's anything to make you feel old, it's a statement like that. Not a lot of game characters have withstood the test of time like he has, and to come back from what might be the worst franchise drought in history, is incredible just by itself let alone still being around afterward. I'm speaking of course about Sonic Generations, which ironically features not only the modern day Sonic, but the classic Sonic that most people are fond of. Funny how Generations is being called "the game that saved Sonic", huh?
Other than that, to speak kindly of Sonic would be to mainly refer to his games on the Sega Genesis, which I personally played the hell out of all of them, but mostly Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and especially both at the same time when you could combine the two cartridges into one mega game that intersected after you beat one half. Imagine if that could be done today. Mega Mario Galaxy anybody?
There were other nostalgic games for the Genesis like Sonic CD and a few spinoffs like Sonic Spinball, a pinball game that used Sonic as the pinball, but they certainly didn't sell as well as the main adventure games.
(In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm LARGELY paraphrasing the history of this personally beloved hedgehog here, so just roll with me if you could).
After gaming left the early 90's and leaped into the third dimension (the REAL third dimension, not the Sega Saturn one), Sonic had to find a way to mix his speed-style gameplay with 3D platforming. It worked a little bit at first with Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 on the late Sega Dreamcast. Some found it interesting to finally see their blue blur come to life, complete with full voice acting and explorable environments, while others didn't know what to make of it. By the time handheld games arrived at large in the late 90's and early 00's, Sonic swept the scene with some good two-dimensional titles that reminded us of years past, showing that the hedgehog still was alive and kicking.
But then, something happened.
Firstly, Sega made Gamecube ports of both Adventure games, both of which I didn't really mind, but then a little game came out called Sonic Heroes at the beginning of 2004. I played it, and it felt very different. Not just different gameplay-wise, but different in a way where you get a feeling of uneasiness and unfamiliarity, like you're afraid of the dark even though you know nothing is out there. The game wasn't perfect, but it at least had a creative new take on its levels where you had a team of 3 Sonic characters performing different functions on levels, aside how much sense it didn't make for a Sonic game. Pictured below is probably why I had the feeling I had.
Now, what happens next is pretty obvious, and I'm going to save it for another post. I need to find the exact wording I'm going to use for the inevitable tidal wave of shit that I'm going to talk about, as it is the elephant in the room whenever you talk about Sonic that always needs to be addressed (no matter how much you don't want to). In the meantime, go copy the above picture of "Team Rose", print it out, then tape it to your favorite dartboard and proceed with a rousing game of darts.
Bonus points if you hit Big the Cat below his fat belt buckle.
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