Sonic Forces Review

Sonic Forces is a mixed-bag of a game that suffers from major problems in plot, gameplay, dialogue and voice acting, not to mention the pacing of the game itself. Coming in at just over 3 hours of gameplay, the game doesn’t offer a great value proposition for players, nor does it offer enough enjoyable Sonic gameplay to make up for its £34.99 Steam price tag. Amidst news of serious PC port problems, the fact that the game itself is so mediocre will come as little comfort to any Sonic fan such that the inclusion of the Avatar character is merely a band-aid on a gaping wound.

I want, badly, to love Sonic Forces. There is just enough charm in its presentation; its graphics being out of this world, along with many amusing call-backs and references to games gone past, that I wish that the game itself was a more fulfilling experience. But it’s hard to love a game that is just so crushingly mediocre, with so many bad-decisions souring every step forward that the game attempts to make.

The storyline of Sonic Forces was always going to be a point of contention and mixed reviews; Sonic the Hedgehog is never known for his involved plots, but the oft-cringeworthy story on show here is seriously scraping the bottom of the barrel. The plot details a world where Sonic was defeated, allowing Eggman to all but take over the world. This seems interesting at first, but there are so many plot mis-steps that there are just no pay-offs. Any promising threads of storyline are quickly thrown out, almost as if the writer had a tiny attention span. The result is that nothing about the characters or the plot make any emotive effect to the storyline. Sonic’s seeming ‘death’ at the start is dealt with literally a few seconds later and revealed as a fake-out. The dark undertones of story involving war and even torture seem laughably out of place in a game where anthropomorphic characters use terms like ‘fist-bump’, ‘selfie’ and ‘true dat’, and fall terribly flat when such dialogue is delivered.

Sonic fans, however, would probably appreciate some aspects of the story, with just enough nods and winks toward the series’ past to get you by. The avatar character initially comes off as a terrible, cringe-worthy idea that encourages the worst elements of DeviantArt fandom. In the end, it’s only a little more than that, but the customisation is impressive enough that I even had a little fun with my character. Despite itself being an undoubtable mis-step, the avatar’s inclusion winds up being one of the best parts of the game, though its story is as hackneyed as lame fan-fiction.

The implementation of the gameplay itself is where the mixed-bag really starts to get jumbled up. Like the story, there are so few ideas taken through to their logical conclusion and little time to let them sink in. The shortness of the campaign is a problem because the gameplay itself never really gets going; by the time you experience any interesting challenge, the game is over.

The avatar and Classic Sonic stages are unfortunately the poorest elements of the gameplay. Classic Sonic himself winds up being strange to control, at times the controls are too stiff, but at other times they’re far too loose. The avatar on the other hand is rather fun to play, but the main problem is in the Wispon (itself a painfully-forced pun on ‘weapon’ and ‘wisp’). Many stages wind up requiring a different Wispon loadout than the one you pick, and often a player will be wishing they could anticipate the game’s design choices; this turns the avatar from a fun experience into a painful and unfair one. If only there was a ‘recommended Wispon’ graphic popping up on each level to alleviate this problem. Modern Sonic stages, ironically enough given the series history, wind up having the fewest problems; but that does not make them sin-free. Far too often these levels suffer from issues that should have been and have been mitigated against in previous Sonic games, so their presence here is simply inexcusable.

A special mention must go to the voice acting; there is one moment near the end of the game where it even sounds like the actors themselves have lost the will to go on. The line delivery at this point sounds like a shameful parody and it drives home the lacklustre nature of the package.

The best thing about Sonic Forces is in its presentation; the graphics look spectacular and some stages have enough of a wow factor to make you think that you are playing a better game. There is one sequence set in space that represented some astonishing visuals that can take your breath away. Unlike Sonic Boom, this game is relatively well-designed and runs smoothly. It is easy to achieve 60FPS in the gameplay and when in full motion it looks truly beautiful. It’s a shame that the cutscenes suffer from some clumsy porting issues, and the news of crashes on the PC version show that the game is far from perfect in the optimisation department. The production values are clearly high, but once again it’s a case where not enough care has been taken to ensure a consistent and thorough package.

Sonic Forces as a game is, as described, a huge mixed bag that represents a poor value proposition; though there are some great production efforts at work, at £34.99 the game itself is so poor in its implementation that there is little to justify such an asking price. The poor design, and mediocrity throughout the game means that it is difficult to recommend to anyone. If you are a Sonic fan, there may be enough here to sate you if you wait for the price to come down to around a third of what it is now, but if you have no love for the blue bomber, this entry in the franchise is something I wouldn’t pick up unless I was Forced to.

Classic Sonic's Sustainability

With this year marking the release of both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, a worrying trend seems to have stuck itself to new Sonic games; that of leveraging ‘classic’ imagery and sentiment as a crutch to stay relevant. This isn’t entirely new, but it is an unsustainable method that will only yield returns for so long before we get tired.

Sonic Mania looks like a wonderful throwback to a time gone past, and looks well worth playing – the reviews of the game agree with this point. But the problem is in the game’s premise rather than its execution. It is part of a growing number of ‘flashback’ titles that leverage a desire for Sonic to ‘go back to his roots’ (a cliché phrasing of modern Sonic criticism if ever there was one).

How sustainable is this idea, really? Between Sonic 4 episodes 1 and 2, Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania, Classic Sonic’s return in Sonic Forces, not to mention a huge number of re-releases on virtual console systems, how much longer can SEGA milk what’s left of gamer’s nostalgia before gamers get bored of this trend? We can only see remakes and re-releases of Green Hill Zone so many times before it will inevitably lose its charm.

The unfortunate fact is that despite major positive steps forward in the form of Sonic Colours and Generations, the series still evokes an image of Bambi on ice, with shaky foundations that look so horribly precarious it’s almost hard to watch as the series goes on.

In its struggle for an identity in modern times, Sonic’s leveraging of its classics may have been a successful experiment, with the appearance of Classic Sonic in Generations and Forces, but now the trend is quickly becoming a tired trope. It’s time for gamers’ favourite hedgehog to drop these crutches and run – after all, isn’t this what Sonic is best known for?

More than anything, SEGA needs to reinvent Sonic’s identity, perhaps by looking at current Sonic conventions and throwing them out of the window. The transition wouldn’t be painless; many fans cling dearly to their nostalgic love of the ‘classic’ Sonic series that ended in the 90’s. But it won’t be long before this love runs out and instead we groan every time we see SEGA march out Classic Sonic only to expose him to further indignity. Let Classic Sonic rest now, and perhaps nail the final coffin in Modern Sonic’s grave, and give us a true reinvention of the character and his conventions before he winds up stuck in that grave permanently. 

My Favourite Titles by System

Every console has that one killer app that defines it. Everybody can remember the one game that sticks out for every system that they have played on, the one game that they played more than any other. For this post I have decided to list some of my most memorable games for each console, the few that, for me, define the very system that they are played on. Expect a lot of subjectivity, a lot of opinion, and a lot of geeking out.

Mega Drive: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

My first introduction to gaming as a medium was through SEGA’s 16-bit effort, the Mega Drive, or as it was named in the States, the SEGA Genesis. One of the first true ‘console wars’ that people can remember was fought between this console and Nintendo’s powerhouse, the SNES. Naturally, the Mega Drive had a powerful influence on me, as it was my first foray into gaming.

The one most impactful game series on this console for me, and I suspect many others, was Sonic the Hedgehog. A platforming blast of speed and bright colours, with a cool blue mascot to boot, Sonic saw his heyday in the Mega Drive era where he was introduced. For me, however, the big game that I played the most with my first ever console was Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was just that bit more colourful, that bit more endearing, and that bit more well-designed than its predecessor. It was the true kind of sequel that all should aspire for; the one that improved and iterated, and genuinely felt like a true improvement over the first game. Graphically, the colours popped more on Sonic’s second outing, leading to greater stage variety and a better sense of identity and adventure to the game. Every stage felt unique and eye-popping, and each one had its own unique flavour that was backed up by excellent musical work. The addition of a spin-dash mechanically added a lot to the game, meaning that players would have a quick way to gather momentum. The addition of a ‘sidekick’ character in Tails was enjoyable, remembering that this was in a time when a new character in a Sonic game was something fresh and interesting.

Even though Sonic 1 may have started the series, and Sonic 3 may be the better game with a better sense of progression and adventure, Sonic 2 hit just the right balance of accessibility to keep me coming back, even to this day.

PS1:

The next console that I was introduced to featured a massive jump from 16-bit, 2D graphics to polygonal 3D that offered bright new worlds that could be fully explored. The PS1 was a great system, especially for a wide variety of bright and enjoyable new titles that pushed the envelope of gaming. Sony can be credited with beginning the popularisation of gaming consoles, and this is in big part thanks to the huge variety of excellent titles on offer. Honourable mentions to Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid and some excellent Disney titles as well as the legendary Final Fantasy games.

For me, however, the title of most-important game has to go to Spyro 2. As a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, Spyro faced stiff competition from the likes of Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. The original title, however, was an excellent game that blew me away. The beauty and design of the world on offer was astounding for its time and the collection of gems was addicting. One of the most important things, mechanically, that made this game stand out was the character abilities that came to Spyro. The use of charging was a great way to make quick progress searching a level, and the glide mechanic made for some interesting variants of platforming challenges. The character of Spyro was equal parts attitude and endearing.

For me, once again it was the second title in the series that offered the most fun gameplay. Being one of the very first games that I completed 100%, Spyro 2 holds a large place in my gamer heart. It was set in a bright and fantastic world called Avalar, and boasted a cast of colourful and enjoyable characters. Though Moneybags was somewhat of an annoyance, the overall menagerie of interesting people that I got to meet along the adventure made Spyro 2 stand out in my memory. The music was wonderful as was the design, I truly felt like I was on an adventure in some beautiful locales.

Spyro 2 was one of the first games that I truly became immersed, and as a game I have 100% completed, holds a huge amount of my attention when I think about the PS1 era. Thanks to recent Crash Bandicoot remakes, I am very hopeful that we will see a HD remake of the original Spyro Trilogy; this will definitely be on my Christmas wishlist!

N64: Banjo Kazooie

Though Mario 64 was a masterpiece that brought 3D gaming to the fore, and Ocarina of Time was another stroke of genius that to this day has been hard to top, for me the main game I played a lot on the Nintendo 64 was Banjo Kazooie. A bright, colourful 3D collectathon, this game was endearing in all the right ways. Like Spyro, Banjo comes from a place of design genius, where every locale feels unique and beautiful. Though not a title I played 100% at the time, I have since returned to the game with the Xbox 360 re-release and completed the game in its entirety, with no less enjoyment.

Graphically, Banjo one-upped Mario in every respect, as it did musically and with character designs. Perhaps the peak of 3D platformers, the theming of the title is wonderful. Like Spyro you meet a whole cast of quirky characters along your adventure and delving into each and every level felt like a mini-adventure in its own right, each one being its own sizeable sandbox of experimentation and exploration. Freezeezy Peak is a standout for best winter-themed level of all time.

SEGA Dreamcast: Sonic Adventure

The swansong of SEGA’s console efforts comes along with perhaps the most obvious of picks. Sonic Adventure was the biggest game on the console and the most important release for the system as a whole. I was mesmerised by this game, being a lifelong Sonic fan, and to see my hero rendered in 3D graphics, with full voice acting and a whole storyline was enchanting.

The game didn’t disappoint. Although many look back to Sonic Adventure with a critical eye, I am one of those that find enough nostalgia and enjoyment in the title to consider it one of my favourite games ever. The Casino Night level was among my favourites for the sheer level of interactivity and optional exploration (in particular I loved looking around the pirate ship area), not to mention the fun pinball levels. I particularly enjoyed Tails’ whole storyline; an endearing tale of a young side-kick learning to become independent from the hero he has been following all his life.

Each character in the game had their own tale to tell and this was perhaps what I found most interesting. Though I was essentially playing the game 6 times over, I really enjoyed being able to see each different perspective. In spite of some weak links, such as the Big the Cat segments, overall Sonic Adventure was a treat. A beautiful game with plenty of spectacle and plenty of replayability, with one of the best pet-raising simulators to come out in gaming (everybody loves Chao!).

Sonic Unleashed: The 'kind' march of time?

It was a hard time to be a Sonic fan in 2006. The disastrous release of Sonic The Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for a series that had been slowly declining since the blue hedgehog first transitioned to 3D platforming with Sonic Adventure (Sonic 3D Blast notwithstanding). Much maligned by video game press and fans alike, Sonic 2006 - as it colloquially came to be known - was a critical bomb and a glitch-filled mess that soon became fodder for comedy gamers like the Game Grumps. After Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Heroes before it, Sonic 2006 was the low point for the franchise before Sonic Boom was a twinkle in SEGA’s eye.

In 2008, however, there was a ray of hope. With arguments about the Sonic Cycle to dampen the enthusiasm, still there was some hype about the latest title in the series, known as Sonic Unleashed. Early screenshots seemed to show a return to 2D platforming, with Sonic Rush being the most immediately-comparable game in the franchise. I remember my time on the Sonic Stadium Message Board (yes, I was one of those people), where the excitement of the fans was dampened by the Sonic Cycle, which had become a meme of sorts in the community. I remember the main comment on the game being ‘SEGA, please don’t fuck this up’. Even as optimistic as Sonic fans could be about a new game on the horizon, everybody expected the game to mess up in some way.

When the Werehog was announced, the fandom let out a collective groan and it seemed that all of the arguments about the Sonic Cycle were correct. It seemed that Unleashed was going to be yet another poorly-made Sonic game where the focus on a gimmick would destroy the whole game and leave the world waiting for the first good Sonic game in years.

However, now that we are in 2017 and living in the relatively-brighter days of Sonic Mania and (with caution) Sonic Forces, and on the back of Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations to boot, it seems that Unleashed would take its place in history as the forgotten game. If we ignore Sonic Boom and to an extent, Sonic Lost World before it (one of which was seen as a spin-off, I might add), it seems that the franchise has recovered in gameplay terms. However, time will tell if Forces is as good as it should be, given the potential for massive disaster.

For now, however, we should draw some critical eyes toward Sonic Unleashed. As a game, it had a lot to do in order to restore faith in the series. It certainly wouldn’t have benefited from the perceptions of the Sonic franchise, with many critics seeming to doom the game from the start, a problem compounded by the Werehog. However, it is notable that this game was the one that introduced Sonic’s winning formula; the boost-a-thon gameplay and mixture of 2.5D platforming and 3D speed sections that made Colours and Generations critical hits. Despite being an overlooked game, Sonic Unleashed was the one that ultimately started the franchise onto its more solid footing.

The game itself is, in my opinion, under-rated. Critics panned Sonic Unleashed, oftentimes painfully so; Zero Punctuation of The Escapist himself claimed that it was time for the series to end. Some critics even scored Unleashed lower than Sonic 06. Given that Sonic 06 was so riddled with glitches, unfinished gameplay and poor design in every aspect of the game, to give Sonic Unleashed a final review score that was so comparable was a humiliating thumbs-down.

Upon booting the game myself these last few weeks, however, I think the critics were dead wrong in their negative opinions of Unleashed. Certainly, the game has a large share of problems, but it is at its core an above average game that added a foundation and sense of identity that Sonic had lost for a long time.

Firstly, the elephant in the room; is the Werehog that bad? In some ways, yes, the Werehog gameplay is terrible; the most frustrating aspect of these sections is that Sonic doesn’t have a drop shadow underneath him, so precise 3D platforming of the kind that is required is a frustrating exercise in calculation and educated guesswork that doesn’t do the game’s production value any justice whatsoever. Compounding this problem is the fact that much of the Werehog gameplay is the intricate 3D platforming part of the game where mistakes are punished by dropping down bottomless pits. Such a simple thing as a drop shadow could have impacted this part of the game so strongly and this makes it ever more frustrating in its exclusion.

However, the other parts of the Werehog gameplay are not nearly as bad as critics claim. As a beat-em-up, the game is functional, despite not being in any way amazing, and some of the combos can be fun to use. Once mastered, the use of quick-time-event critical finishers makes the combat a lot easier and a lot more conducive to high-score chasing. On top of this, the other gameplay on offer, including the platforming (despite the aforementioned lack of a drop shadow), runs smoothly and makes for a nice change of pace. The music in the Werehog sections makes a fitting backdrop to the action, and the graphics are as gorgeous as other parts of the game thanks to the power of the Hedgehog Engine. Some elements of the Werehog half of the game are frustrating, certainly, and even boring at times, but I find that if you take them at the right pace these sections serve as a good antidote to the rushing, boost-heavy speed gameplay of daytime Sonic stages, and not nearly as terrible as critics like to think.

The daytime Sonic stages, however, are indeed the main attraction of the game. Colours are bright and vibrant and watching the game flow in motion is beautiful and awe-inspiring, even today. Every aspect of the game looks astounding, right down to the character designs themselves. Everything is given a design consistent with the game’s style and the Pixar-cartoonish look suits the game well. This is the first time that the human characters actually seem to fit thematically into Sonic's world. The gameplay itself, with speed-based platforming, is the best that Sonic has been since the Genesis era, with the targeting reticule over enemies pre-Homing Attack being one of the most important gameplay innovations; gone were the days of guesswork and Homing Attacks going haywire and catapulting players off of cliffs, and now the player was squarely to blame for their mistakes.

The speed itself can mix from an excellent platforming flow to a frustratingly-too-fast reaction test. Thankfully, with plenty of variation between the different parts of each level, such as the 2.5D sections, the rail-grinding, and the chase sequences, each level has plenty of moments that shine.

My favourite level is Spagonia, where the beauty of the game shines in the background and in the gameplay itself; it truly stands as a statement of intent for what the game is meant to be, with the accompanying background music being an optimistic song that stands as uniquely memorable. Quick-Time-Events are take-them-or-leave-them; thankfully though, they are set at a level that most gamers can, with a modicum of practice, overcome fairly easily such that they become a fairly inoffensive affair.

What is truly masterful about Sonic Unleashed’s level design is Eggmanland, a monster of a final level that clocks in at over a half-hour of challenging gameplay. It can be horribly frustrating and anger-inducing, but this level is excellent as a summing-up exercise, and challenges players’ mastery of every aspect of the game to their highest level. While it can be an annoying final level, a few replays allows Eggmanland to stand as one of my favourite final levels of all time in any video game, simply because of how it masterfully acts as the perfect ‘ultimate’ challenge.

Some of the worst aspects of Sonic Unleashed, however, can really detract from the overall experiences. Hub-worlds can be frustrating and slow in parts, and the villagers themselves that populate these worlds are sometimes annoying and sometimes too cryptic to be useful. Too many times did their quests seem completely separate and aside to the game that rarely did I feel any sense of memorability from these characters, which is such a crying shame as their designs look so good. However, the hub worlds themselves look beautiful and are pretty cool to explore, and on top of that give a real sense of location to the levels attached to them.

On top of this, at its worst, both daytime and night-time stages of Sonic Unleashed can be frustrating exercises in patience. Before you have unlocked Sonic’s full move-set, some stages can be set at a challenge level that just becomes annoying. Chun-Nan’s night-time level is probably the worst stage in the mix, along with Adabat (despite the daytime level being an enjoyable experience). The Werehog is at best a mildly-effective change of pace with a mildly-weird gimmick, but at worst is an annoying exercise in frustration.

Importantly, however, the daytime levels can just feel too damn fast at times. Gameplay often relies on course memory rather than any real platforming skill, but thankfully the flow of a level when you are proficient is beautiful enough to distract from the course memory aspect and really give you a fun ride.

What is most frustrating and anger-inducing about Sonic Unleashed are the Sun and Moon Medals. Later levels in the games are locked behind a levelling system, where if the player hasn’t collected enough medals, they are unable to progress. This forms a frustrating roadblock at the mid-game stage and can really break the flow of the story and the gameplay, which is where the game’s problems really make themselves obvious to the player.

The story of the game is set at the level of a children’s cartoon, for better or for worse. This often leads to cringe-worthy dialogue and jokes that never quite hit home, and is definitely the weakest part of the game. Chip himself is about the most annoying part of Sonic Unleashed; think of Navi, but with a voice and more annoying. However, something that I would bring to the table is this: isn’t Sonic kind of meant to be a cheesy, children’s cartoon kind of thing?

What is perhaps better than the story itself is the game’s length, which has a good variety of different levels on offer and a good amount of replay value in each level in collecting Sun and Moon Medals and in ranking up, which becomes easier with each play as the game has a modest level-up system that offers boosts to gameplay, including movement speed and combat prowess. The length of the game and the size of the package on offer compares very favourably to Sonic Generations.

Overall, while a critic can be harsh against Unleashed for all of its gameplay shortcomings, I think the game is definitely a strong entry in the Sonic franchise and deserving of a better opinion. What I think that this game’s reception proves, however, is that games don’t exist in a vacuum. What Sonic needed so badly after the debacle of ‘06 was a win, and he needed it badly. Sonic Unleashed, while it was a decent title, was just not good enough such that critics gave it much harsher attention than it deserved. If nothing else, Sonic Unleashed is a game that suffered from its time and instead of ageing badly, the game seems to have gotten better with age and the understanding that we have of the Sonic series today. Ultimately, while it took later titles like Colours and Generations to cement the modern Sonic formula and bring it back to something that we enjoy today, these games were built on the back of Unleashed, a game that got a lot of undeserved flak for being the unfortunate title to which so many expectations were heaped. Unleashed became viewed as a bad game, the focus falling on its design mis-steps rather than the massive forward strides in gameplay that it did take, such that now I feel that it is certainly a good game.

While Unleashed is by no means great, I feel that it forms an above-average platformer that was judged too harshly, and is more than worth a look today for not only the great day-time stages and the beautiful graphics but also for the depth and length of the package on offer. Gamers may find themselves surprised to see a well-polished, enjoyable game out of something so derided as Sonic Unleashed, and though the Werehog was a mis-step even today, it was not nearly bad enough to deserve such critical blowback as it did for the time. Sonic Unleashed may be a nice little title to look at if you’re looking at something to play while we find out if Sonic Forces will be worth our time after all.

 

Embracing The Bad

This post is a celebration of the terrible. Plenty of attention is directed at the best of the best titles, the AAA’s, the flagship system sellers. But what about the bad games? Well, plenty of attention is directed at those too; look at the infamy of SEGA’s greatest miss, Sonic The Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 (or Sonic 2006).

It is well-known by this point that Sonic ‘06 was an unmitigated disaster of a game. Initially promised to help revitalise the blue blur’s success, this game instead catapulted Sonic the Hedgehog further into infamy as the much-mocked meme we see today. The game is filled with glitches, difficult to control, has a terrible camera and long, long loading times that test a gamer’s patience.  

But can we find enjoyment in the badness? Is there fun to be had with gaming’s worst? Sonic 06 may be one of the worst games ever made, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun mocking and riffing at the title. Any Let’s Play will tell you that much.

In film, there is a lot of love for the bad. People deliberately go out of their way to make bad movies. Look at Sharknado; a hilariously insane and goofy B-movie that embraces its craziness as its singular selling point. There is almost an art in making a bad movie in itself that lends itself to appreciation. It is admirable to see when directors know how to handle their material and embrace its identity wholeheartedly. There is a whole segment of entertainment directed at mocking the bad, and that is so beautiful.

Look at the Game Grumps play Sonic 06, and you will see what I mean by ‘so bad its good’ in the context of games. Many hilarious situations happen as a result of just how badly-designed the game is, by how easy it is to break. Glitches happen and screw over the player but in the most funny of ways. With an entertaining host and a willingness to laugh at the bad and even mock it, I would go so far to say that I enjoy Sonic ‘06, having played it myself.

The games industry is coming around to the idea of ‘so bad it’s good’ gaming. With the success of Goat Simulator and Surgeon Simulator (oddly, a lot of focus seems to be in the sim genre), it is clear that there is good entertainment in the bad; these games have even been well-received, because of the inherent comedy value that they found in embracing their terrible controls and using it as a mechanic to drive the gameplay.

Why are bad things so good? It could be any number of factors, but primarily it is about being able to mock, and enjoy laughing at the surrealism that being a bad game leads to. Knuckles humps a wall over boiling lava because he suddenly lost all ability to jump, a goat flops around in mid-air having been catapulted by an exploding car, a left-handed surgeon carves with hilarious incompetence at a poor patient’s innards with a plastic spoon. Embracing the weird and laughing at it is all part and parcel of enjoying games that we would not traditionally call ‘good’.

This is why Sonic 06 is an enjoyable experience. Mocking the surreal aspects of the game as a result of the strange glitches and broken gameplay allows us to laugh and enjoy the game for what it was, even if it wasn’t that good. I wouldn’t buy it at full price but there is entertainment value in enjoying a bad game.

We need bad games in our lives. If not just to mock and laugh at, we need them to show us what not to do in gaming. If a game is unsuccessful, we can look at those mistakes and know what to avoid. Thanks to Sonic 06, we now know not to have a blue hedgehog kiss a human princess.

Be it mocking, or by learning from the mistakes made, bad games are vital to the industry. So maybe, instead of putting down full retail price for the latest ultra-polished, AAA experience with a 90-plus Metacritic score, instead consider spending a little less to pick up a title that you might consider bad. Maybe you will find enjoyment in it that you didn’t expect to find, or maybe you will just have a lot of fun mocking the bad aspects of the game, either way, you will be brought out of your comfort zone.

My Favourite Boss Battles Part 2: Robotnik (Sonic 1)

What makes this boss battle so purely memorable for me is simply that it is my first boss battle. I had reached the end of Green Hill Zone Act 3 only to be met with this monstrosity swinging a ball at me. I felt that panic of not knowing what to do after I hit him only to find he was still alive; up until this point all of my enemies had died in the one attack. The boss battle music served up dramatic tension while I was destroyed by what was probably one of the easiest boss battles in gaming. What can I say, I was a noob.

However, there are interesting aspects to this boss battle beyond just being my first; the way the ball swung in a predictable manner forced the player to learn how to time Sonic’s jumps, and got us especially familiar with the mechanic; the time that Sonic hovered in the air, the height of the jump itself, the speed at which he fell to the ground. In this boss battle we were forced to confirm that we knew how to do the jump attack at a proficient level enough to move on. As far as teaching players go, the overall result is effective.

Not only that, but this battle taught us about the structure of the game; we had been through three acts, and now we had a boss. Now we knew to expect that the next zone will have three acts and a boss. It taught us a lot about the story; if you didn’t read the manual, you’d be forgiven for wondering why there were robots patrolling around, but this game gave you the smoking gun; there’s a bad guy.

It seems elementary to this day, but in the retro gaming era these lessons were big things, and it is clear that Sonic’s developers took the thinking that a game should be teaching you its mechanics as you play. Sonic 1’s first boss might not be the most memorable to many gamers, but for someone playing his first ever videogame, it is probably one of the most important teaching exercises in a game that I’ve experienced. 

My Favourite Gaming Sequels: Sonic 2

The modern age of the gaming sequel has given it a bad rep. It is hard to remember a time when a sequel wasn’t a rehash of an old formula with slightly better graphics. As hard as it is to believe, video game sequels used to be more than a creatively-bankrupt exercise in selling to the lowest common denominator.

Even today, there are still some excellent sequels that come out and show us how well a formula can be iterated upon. The best sequels are the ones that are still familiar in formula, but offer a logical iteration and quality-of-life improvements to the underlying mechanics in a way that expands upon the game, its story and universe in a way that makes it feel fresh and exciting.

With that in mind, I made a list of my favourite gaming sequels, which will form the next few posts, as well as the typical long-winded, overthinking explanations reasoning why I found them so intriguing.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

The first title on this list is also my least favourite of my favourite sequels. Don’t get me wrong, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a great game, and a good sequel; it just doesn’t quite hit the same lofty heights as other sequel titles.

What makes Sonic 2 so great as a sequel is that it improved on the tropes in Sonic 1 to create new, interesting ways to play, while at the same time adding an iconic quality-of-life upgrade in the form of the Spin Dash; a move that allows a player to build up speed before exploding forward in a spin attack. 

Sonic’s pinball physics get their logical iteration in the form of the Casino Night Zone, with interesting gambling mechanics to boot. The underwater levels, seen as one of the worst elements of the preceding title in the series, are also improved upon and are given an improved design that allows skilled players to speed through with the relative ease that wasn’t found in Labyrinth Zone. 

Casino Night Zone is an iconic implementation of pinball physics, and very pretty to look at.
Image credit: http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic2/casinonight/

Colours, graphics and music are all improved upon, and the experience as a whole is streamlined. The addition of Tails as a character is decidedly take-it-or-leave-it, but before Modern Sonic’s menagerie of forgettable amigos, this was a breath of fresh air.

What makes Sonic 2 less of a favourite sequel than other video game sequels is that it has too many of ‘those’ levels. The levels where progress is slow and plodding and based less on the flow of high-speed hold-right platforming in the style of Green Hill Zone. 

There are a lot of times where you have to stop all forward motion to work out which direction to go and where to find that elusive platform upward to the next part of the stage. I found the Mystic Cave Zone, famous for that hole, to be among the worst offenders, with Metropolis Zone and Oil Ocean Zone equally guilty of this. Sonic is about flow and these levels just don’t let the gameplay shine in its best way. 

THAT hole; one of the most infuriating elements of game design I've ever experienced.
Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LD9Yekzajk

The infuriating Special Stages, while never a strong point for any Sonic game, were among my least favourite in the series (requiring course memory or psychic powers to complete).

The Special Stages can be unfair and require fast reflexes, and are even harder to navigate with Tails.
Image credit: http://info.sonicretro.org/Special_Stage_(Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_16-bit)

However, as far as iterating on the previous title, Sonic 2 introduced many of the new mechanics and tropes that stuck with the series for a while; the Death Egg, the spin-dash and 2-acts per level instead of 3 acts. It improves upon the formula of the previous title excellently, with improvements in graphics and sound among the most memorable of alterations. For that reason, Sonic 2 makes a good first contender for one of my favourite gaming sequels.

The Games I Consider Unforgettable: Part Two

(This is part two of a two-part post, I just gushed too much about games! See part one here!)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Out of all of the items on my list, Sonic is my personal pick. That is not to under-rate the impact that the character has had on gamer culture over the decades; I myself have blogged about how he has come to represent 90’s culture to the point he has become a cultural cliché. But Sonic is my pick because he represents my introduction to gaming. The first moment I ever played a game was playing Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive.

(Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL3Mbi1g9IY)

The potential of gaming was apparent to me from the start. Ever since I played Sonic, I felt somewhat undersold by other media. I grew up much preferring to receive a game of a movie than the movie itself. I loved the sense that I could interact with worlds, and that was gaming’s biggest selling point to me. I needed to engage with the world in a practical sense and this was exactly what gaming, as an interactive medium, offered to me.

Sonic was a beautiful game, filled with colour and enjoyable. It offered everything that was classically ‘video-gamey’ within its package; the high score chasing, the nostalgic sounds, the collecting of rings, the secret levels where you could collect Chaos Emeralds, the jumping on enemies, and the boss battles, and last but not least, the central character himself running the show. As an introduction to gaming, I couldn’t think of anything that was better for me than Sonic, and I will always remember the numerous iconic moments of the first game; the opening notes of Green Hill Zone Act 1, the noise of Sonic’s jump, the terror of drowning in Labyrinthe Zone. For me, Sonic the Hedgehog was the video game that had it all.

Prison Architect

As my ‘post-Minecraft’ indie pick, it was a toss-up between this game, Don’t Starve, and Subnautica. However, what made Prison Architect win the day was the near-perfect tribute to Tycoon games of the past. I was someone who loved Theme Park and Theme Hospital, and what Prison Architect offered was a modern update of that familiar idea; management of some industry or service delivered with an almost-comic, yet decidedly ‘gamey’ twist.

(Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=325Ycb6oy5U)

Prison Architect, beyond that, is an excellent game, and one that even helped me to easier understand concepts used in a Forensic Psychology class that I had at university. It struck me, upon reading that class, just how accurately Prison Architect portrayed the current theories on prisoner needs and their reactions. The way that the game’s hidden depth demonstrated a fine attention to detail was astounding, not to mention just how powerful the building was in the game. Just like Minecraft, dedicated players could build anything they dreamed of, even using logic circuits. Prison Architect has an astonishing level of attention to detail in every little part of the game that you can think of, and I highly suggest watching the YouTube series of developer diaries to show just how thought-out every concept was in the game.

I will always remember Prison Architect for being an excellent and fun Tycoon-like game, that had a ton of depth and imagination behind almost every concept, as well as being just an amazing value proposition for the price that I paid compared to the hours of fun that I got back.

Honourable Picks:

I don’t have time to gush about every game that I consider to be unforgettable; this post has already gone on far too long as I have geeked out about so many games that I love. But even so, I feel that I have left out so many important games that have changed the way I look at gaming, or just were so damn good they left that big an impression. That shows just how amazing this medium is, and how much love I have for gaming in general! So, honourable mentions go to:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: For being the game that introduced me to fantasy games, and RPG mechanics. Prior to this, I had avoided RPG as a genre and this game made me realise I was missing out.

Super Mario 64: I would have included this on the list, but I feel everything has been said about this game that could be said, and I can’t add anything to that discussion. I loved the sense of adventure in this game as my first introduction to Mario.

Sonic Adventure: As Sonic the Hedgehog was already a pick, I don’t feel that I could have gushed about this in a way that showed how significant Sonic was to my early gaming days. It was a memorable game that, even though it’s aged badly, was really fun in its time and a massive selling point for the Dreamcast.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2: While I truly do count this game as among the best I’ve ever played, I just don’t have enough enthusiasm for RTS as a genre to really count it as such a massive impact on me as other games have been. It is a wonderful game and I love playing with the Skirmish mode, it’s just omitted because the other games on this list meant that much to me.

What were some of your big memorable games that shaped the kind of gamer you are today? I have gushed for over 2000 words on this and I still feel that I could go on about these amazing experiences. I think that you can tell a lot about a person by what games they consider to be the most significant, so I feel like this has truly opened my heart and let you know about a big part of my life. Sorry for the huge post, but I really hope you find some value in this!

The Cruel March of Time: Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is my first memory of playing a video game. My parents got me a Mega Drive system from the local Cash Converters and set it up with a CRT TV on top of an old, broken down washing machine repurposed for use as a table. I was drawn in by the colours and the fast gameplay, and of course, the ‘cool’ hedgehog running around those bright levels. In just a few months’ time I had become a fan, and had amassed a collection of STCs (Sonic The Comic), and tapes of the Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog show.

A hit of pure colour and nostalgia
(image from http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic1/greenhill/)

At his core, Sonic was the embodiment of 90’s culture and the cheese associated with it. Everything in the 90’s was ‘X-Treme to the max!’, and most products were sold by young teens wearing sunglasses and skateboarding, while also shouting ‘whoa!’ in their best Bill and Ted accents. That is why he has aged so badly.

Cool is a term that is always changing. What is trendy right now won’t be trendy with the passing of time. With the rise of the Internet and the faster-paced social culture we now in, memes can be created and destroyed in a matter of hours. We now live in an era of ‘viral’ culture.

Which is why to base a character purely on ‘coolness’, like Sonic, is ultimately dooming him to a life of cringe.

Look at any memes on Sonic the Hedgehog and you will see what I mean. He is the butt of most internet jokes. Every critic loves to loathe him, and every Internet persona loves to mock him. Sonic is not just uncool, he is the unfortunate victim of a pile-on at the hands of the whole Internet. 

I’m not trying to say that the position is undeserved; after a spate of low-quality titles and cringy attempts to redefine the character, ultimately coming to a head with Sonic 2006 and now the much-reviled Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, that blue hedgehog is just about the most mocked character that one can think of.

As a fan from being a child, and someone who managed to cope with years of bullying thanks to the blue bomber (and yes, someone who even made DeviantArt recolours, I was one of those people), it makes me sad to see the public image that has befallen Sonic. While many do appreciate him as a mascot, most agree that he was a product of his time.

The problem with all of this is that Sonic’s bottom line was ‘coolness’. He was meant to be the next big thing that made the last big thing look lame. He was designed to be inherently ‘faddy’. That I called him the quintessential symbol of the 90s is testament to that fact. He had adopted just about everything that was a trend in those times, including sunglasses, guitars, a Macy’s Day Parade balloon, and an awkward stint as a DJ in a Dreamcast promotional video. 

Roll on the 2000’s; the popularity of the PS2, and the Xbox 360 generation after that. Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and the modern FPS, and a new focus on ‘gritty action titles’ became the flavour of the day. There was no room for a Way-Past-Cool Blue Hedgehog; that was kiddy stuff. Even the big N itself suffered a little at the hands of the Gritty Times; look at the poor reception of the Gamecube, and the trouble it is having even to this day with its image of being ‘childish’. Thanks to the Nintendo Wii targeting a different audience, and 2010’s hipster-retro trend, Nintendo properties have survived, however, relatively unscathed. On the other hand, SEGA treated the world to Shadow the Hedgehog, in a desperate attempt to stay cool in this ‘gritty’ era.

The issue is that Sonic was never made to last. Mario was never meant to be everything ‘trendy’ about a particular era. He was always just himself; a colourful, impactful mascot. He never had to do anything cool to be popular, because Nintendo relied on a different bottom line than SEGA did when they designed Sonic the Hedgehog.

While there has been a recent uptick in the quality of titles released in the Sonic name, such as Colours and Generations, Sonic the Hedgehog has never, and will never, become quite as significant or as ‘cool’ in the public consciousness as he once was. Thankfully, his original Mega Drive games are good enough to stand the test of time; it is only a shame that as a mascot, Sonic hasn’t stood that same test.

But in another way, maybe Sonic the Hedgehog has stood that test. Maybe he is not meant to be cool today, but rather, an ironic look back at the things we did in the 90s that made us cringe. Maybe instead of trying to keep up with the times, what Sonic needs to do is own his cheese. Most of what the Internet now sees in Sonic they are using to mock 90s culture and laugh at it, and maybe that is a way forward for SEGA’s mascot. With Sonic Mania coming out, I feel confident that the developers are ‘getting it’, and understanding that Sonic is a product of his time, and using that ‘time’ to sell, rather than the mascot himself. By aiming for our nostalgia, Sonic has been kept somewhat alive, but lacking of an identity as eponymous as Mario’s, he has not thrived in the same way from that nostalgia. But maybe if his developers look hard enough and achieve the right balance of mocking 90s culture while at the same time embodying it, perhaps there is a way to take such mocking memes as Sanik and ‘Gotta go fast’ into something popular.

I have mentioned before that the march of time is always cruel, and Sonic perhaps more than most has suffered from that. I think that he was doomed from the start, because being a blue talking hedgehog that spoke in cliché slogans was never going to be edgy for long. As gaming has matured and its audience, perhaps in an immature way, called for gritty ‘realistic’ games, the Sonic franchise has stumbled and struggled to find its identity. However, recent iterations like Colours and Generations show some magic and life in the hedgehog yet, and I believe that now the marketing around Sonic may just be able to find that right balance of 90s mockery and nostalgia to inject a new life into the mascot that he may be able to set himself above his current, meme-fuelled disdain.