British multi-format videogame magazine GamesTM have become the latest publication to take another punt at the Sonic franchise. Each month the magazine has a top 10 list with a different subject every issue. For example previous lists have been about the top 10 ‘Best First person Shooters’, ‘Most Emotional Moments In Gaming’ and ‘Worst Things About Great Games’. Issue 90 of GamesTM counts the top 10 videogame franchises that lost their way placing Sonic in the number one spot.
“Some developers have talet. It’s as simple as that” write GamesTM. “Series like Half-Life, Zelda and Grand Theft Auto have consistently maintained a level of quality with only the most minor of tremors causing concern along the way. It’s a very rare thing, though.” The magazine go on to say more commonly some franchises get things disastrously wrong and ‘jump the shark’ though many manage to learn from their mistakes quickly. Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is an example of that. According to them Sonic has failed to improve since the next-gen era began, branding Sonic’s 2006 game his most appalling appearance to date.
“As if a ridiculously overwrought plot, irritating support cast and technically deficient gameplay weren’t enough, Sonic’s relationship and kiss with Princess Elise truly marked the point the series had veered off into absolute nonsense.”
Though the magazine has been hyper critical of Sonic’s next-gen efforts they’ve been much more receptive to the Rush series on DS and even bestowed an 8 out of 10 on Sonic & The Black Knight stating that it “stands out as one of the better Sonic games because of its consistency. What you experience from the start can be expected right up until the end. There are no nasty surprises, no ill-considered gameplay changes and no sense that Sonic Team is ever confused about what the game is supposed to be.” Generally the GamesTM staff seem to genuinely like Sonic but are frustrated with recent entries to the series. Time will tell if the secretive Project Needlemouse can win them and the wider gaming media over.
Issue 90 of GamesTM is out now.
I admit the plot and gameplay sucked for Sonic the Hedgehog (next gen), but games such as SA and SA2 are amazing games. Why did they turn a blind eye to that? Fools!
Zelda: Majora’s Mask was marked down a lot so they can shut up about that too.
Sonic and the Black Knight was the best so far. Heading in the right direction for plot and game music, much like SA2. Sonic has never been a let down on the soundtrack though, you gotta say! 😉
Let’s see what “Needlemouse” brings…
I’m so sick of hearing this just because of Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06.
Get over it guys. Sonic 06 sucked.
Sonic Unleashed, depend on what you like. Just cause they’re not great doesn’t mean they suck.
This just in: Sonic 06 sucked.
Same old argument. Whatever. Imma go play some Black Knight.
@Wick: “I admit the plot and gameplay sucked for Sonic the Hedgehog (next gen), but games such as SA and SA2 are amazing games. Why did they turn a blind eye to that? Fools!”
Um, maybe because they’re both more than 8 years old?
What’s past is past. Stop thinking about yesterday and think about tomorrow. What will the future bring us?
@needsemail1: What’s age got to do with it? Both were great games no matter what your age.
No no, Hudson. He was saying that -the games themselves- were more than 8 years old.
Oh, and no surprise on this list. *lolwaitsforprojectneedlemouseinfoslol*
Sad but true.
In the beginning – A blue hedgehog in a visually stunning environment with the perfect sound to go with it in an easy and addictive 2d setting.
Now – 12+ characters, horrible controls that dont work in a 3d environment, voice acting, crappy story lines, weapons.
We want to play Sonic again, not a Uwe Boll disaster.
No pressure on Needlemouse, I mean the game just has to satisfy a divided community and critics, how hard can that be? Way to go guys
Meh…
that’s their problem.
I enjoyed…YES ENJOYED Sonic ’06…
and I get to play it again this Christmas.
I dunno…I don’t listen to these reviewers. We all have different opinions…
I’m disagreeing with these people…the new games. I love them.
The old ones, they bore me.
The thing is I don’t go and bash at others who don’t think the same as me. I go bash who bashes on those who think like me… know what I mean?
Don’t agree with these critics? Ignore them. That’s all I’m going to say.
I’m pretty sure like 90% of the people here in this site prefer 2D Sonic games over 3D…that’s fine. I don’t mind as long as no one tries to change my opinion.
I’m a little disheartened that they didn’t mention Unleashed as an improvement though. I mean, in terms of Sonic’s gameplay he was vastly improved. He felt fast, did his moves much better, and looked better too. Not too mention the Sonic levels were actually quite enjoyable. Admittedly his control scheme was a little messy on all consoles, but at least it felt like I was playing a quick Sonic game.
And though I dislike Werehog, I’d take his levels over Silver’s levels anyday… (Though, yeah on the wii werehog was horrendously controlled.)
But in terms of the Sonic levels from Sonic ’06 to Unleashed, personally I feel a vast improvement in that area.
Oh well, here’s to seeing if Needlemouse can work miracles on stubborn people.
I’ll admit that my jaw dropped and eyes boggled during the ‘kiss scene’, and I’d been trying in vain and with flickering hope that the ‘romance moments’ during Sonic 06 weren’t going to amount to anything. At all. Ever. But, I liked Rush, Chronicles, SU, even Bk a little, so that’s nearly every game since. I just think that SU WAS a step in the right direction… but then we turn our eyes to our hairy, fanged, stretchy-armed buddy… I’ll just shush now.
@ Brad
why does everyone start to copy my line?! man
* waits for project needlemouse infos
wasn’t neddlemouse a fake?
I don’t really get the whole supporting cast complaints.
Tails and Knuckles introduced a fun new twist on the regular Sonic formula in Sonic 2 – Sonic and Knuckles.
SA1 and (to a lesser extent) SA2 had different gameplays but was still engaging and still they’re considered the best of the 3D Sonic era
Every team in Heroes practically played the same so I don’t get the argument there (my complaint is that they didn’t offer up anything different).
Shadow’s was practically the most on roots you’ll get to the old Sonic games with one playable character that similar in every way to Sonic, alternate pathways, and great flow and consistency in stages (of course, regarding the quality of the game itself, your mileage may vary)
06 was reportedly not fun to play as even with the best characters (Sonic, Blaze, Shadow) so I really see that as null and void.
It was really Unleashed that really proves their point and the whole story was still based around that one character (and I didn’t think the Werehog was that bad). Tho I do agree that Black Knight was definitely consistent, and while it did have other playable characters they were optional, and through the game itself you already knew that this was going to be a game about this guy doing a particular thing, so I guess no fault there. Although I will say that I thought Unleashed is way better, but I won’t make a big deal out of that.
Oh, except for Big, fishing annoyed the crap out of me.
Sonic has been downhill since sega went downhill in 2001. All those who think the gaming community’s complaints are just from the past shadow the hedgehog and sonic 06 are a little confused if you ask me. Critics have been complaining since Sonic heroes and you cant blame them. Unleashed was step1: Put a bigger budget and effort into a sonic game. Project Neddlemouse is step 2: Give the fans the concept they want AKA a 2d perspective sonic game without missing step1 in the process. Now after needlemouse they will have to take step3: Get yuji naka back!!
It’s so sad when n00bi reviewers talk a game/franchise down! Especially when its about your favorite franchise!
First of all: Sonic 06 is 3 years old! Since then, there have been many other Sonic games! Why do these n00bs have to always talk about Sonic 06 when its actually no more relevant at all?!
Second: Shadow the Hedgehog was a great game! The only reason why it got criminally low scores is because of people’s lack of ability to accept a game from the Sonic universe (not even when Sonic is not the hero) that has a “dark” tone and involves gun-play. Shadow the Hedgehog was very consistent, played great and hat a lot of variety. One of my favorite 3D games from the Sonic universe!
Third: great games after Sonic 06: Sonic and the Secret Rings; Sonic Rush Adventure; and Sonic Unleashed HD, especially with the awesome downloadable content! Get over Sonic 06, God dammit!!!
Reviewers have just been extremely idiotic towards the Sonic series in the last few years. They have no idea about Sonic games and they are not even willing to see all the awesome things that the new Sonic games offer. All they can think of is kissing Nintendo’s ass and saying that Sonic is only good in 2D and 3D Sonic games suck, no matter what. Hell, they even totally overrated the Sonic Advance games, just because they where 2D! But when it comes to Quality 3D Sonic games like Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and especially Sonic Unleashed HD, they just had to totally bash them down.
I am not a big fan of the werehog either and I really wished that Sonic Unleashed was all about Sonic. But it’s so hard not to realize what a beautiful, impressive and polished game Sonic Unleashed HD is! The daytime stages offer a lot of variety, especially with the extra-levels and DLC-levels, and after you finish story-mode, you don’t even need to play as the werehog ever again and still get a hell of a lot of play-time and fun out of the daytime stages. The daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed HD with the DLC got almost (almost!) everything I wish from a Sonic game and I often have a lot more fun playing Sonic Unleashed than many 2D Sonic games.
By the way, this comment comes from a 25-years-old guy who has been playing Sonic games since 1991, so, don’t accuse me of being a kid who has no idea about the “glory-days of Sonic (bla-bla-bla)”! And I love the old Sonic games too, so, don’t accuse me of being a hater of the classic Sonic games! And there are also many Sonic games that I don’t like, so, don’t accuse me of being Someone who goes crazy about every Sonic game, no matter how poor they may be!
Sonic Unleashed was even worst then sonic 06, I’m surprised to see how many people have manage to be convinced that moving really fast and barely controlling your character equals good game play. At least in sonic 06, you could see what was going on, that doesn’t go without saying that sonic 06 was a bad game, but it’s game play concept had potential if the thing was actually play tested and completed properly, fucking sonic team..
@Brad
*lolwaitsforprojectneedlemouseinfoslol*
Glad to see someone has noticed this abomination is getting ridiculous. However, it should be the new TSS slogan.
Also, what the f**k is HOLAS tm?
Stop it. It hurts.
@Vinny LOL You really think sonic unleashed is even worse than Sonic Next Gen HAHA dude you better stay of the fucking drugs if your gunna be saying that shit but i bet your some 10/11 old kid sayin that shit xDD lmfao
“I’m surprised to see how many people have manage to be convinced that moving really fast and barely controlling your character equals good game play”
No, I guess it wouldn’t, don’t know how Unleashed was uncontrollable tho. And Sonic moving fast in a Sonic game? Stop the presses.
HOLAS: ™
I didn’t want to talk about this, I don’t think I should be bashing someone for his/her/it(?) opinion, but I can’t believe how a professional magazine could bash a game for “Sonic’s relationship and kiss with Princess Elise.”
Also, nonsense in a series with blue hedgehogs?
They must be real sonic fans. XD
p.d: I would like to have the scans or the complete list to see the rest of the franchises and his opinions about them.
BIG GIANT ANNOYING OFF-TOPIC:
@sonicyoda: why hurts? it’s just 2 silly words at the begining of the post? D:
*copy paste of a PM I did to another user, shame we can’t use PM’s outside the forum…*
———————————————–
Sorry if this bothers you, it’s just some silly signature (that’s why I don’t have any bellow the posts) I am using since the vey first time I posted in a forum, HOLAS is spanish for “hi everyone” (not literally, the word “holas”, wich would be like a plural for “hola” doesn’t really exist as far as I am concerned), the ™ comes from the first forum I posted (called ConexionKOF, Mexican forum BTW).
During that days I used to had the (as you said) annoying habit of greeting everyone before posting, I thought it was a formal and nice way to present myself (I wasn’t the internet addict I am nowadays, I used to go that forum once a week and just post in 1 topic).
During that year, one day, an user (obviously as a joke) suggested that I should trademark my greetings (or something like that) since I was the only one who was doing that, so I did it, and the rest is just history…
I hope you can understand I am still doing that just for nostalgia of that old days, also, I’m still beign the only one who does this (annoying) greeting in the beginning of every post, so that way, if someone I met before in the internecs reads “HOLAS”, they will know it’s me who’s posting 🙂 (and this actually happened to me twice 🙂 )
thanks for your time and sorry for the troubles I caused (and for my lame english), but for now I would like to keep doing this… I hope you can deal with this.
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my apologies for wasting the time of the rest of the users with this big, annoying off-topic…
Jesus!! Perhaps this is because it’s my fav magazine but GAMES tm makes it clear that they are talking about his next gen meaning this generation of consoles such as the 360, PS3 and Wii. And who can blame them? Sonic 06 which is the game cited is truely appalling and from there the franchise (in most cases has not recovered); Sonic Riders 1 & 2, Sonic Unleashed and so on. Besides anyone who has replayed his 3D games on Dreamcast will notice how badly they’ve aged, though not to an extend that they are awful, hardly it’s just that he’s never really adopted 3D well.
Sonic may be a popular character (heck I still like him) but that doesn’t mean his games or automaticaly great nor does it means he’ll get an easy ride.
Skip Sonic Riders off, the list as i believe it came before Sonic 06 but hopefully you get my point. And remember kids that and average game is playable but hardly a great game.
Going multi platform was Sega’s biggest mistake. They should have just stuck with nintendo. SA2 Battle and SADX were great. Sonic Heroes was great on Gamecube, but was frustratingly bad on PS2 and Xbox. I say Sonic ’06 was bad because it was developed for PS3 and Xbox 360. Bad consoles equals bad games.
Wait a second. Did they just contridict themselves?
They can’t stand there and say “Sonic has failed to improve since the next-gen era began” and next state that Sonic ’06 was the worst game to date. If it’s the worst game to date, then that means Sonic Unleashed is infact better than ’06, hence ‘improvement’!
Do these mags even read what they write half the time?
@sonictoast: Plus, we might get a proper Mario & Sonic game. Think of it: Galaxy gameplay alongside Unleashed daytime gameplay… *drools*
I remeber reading that when I picked up the magazine and it bugged the hell out of me. It’s not Sega’s fault the game is the way it is, if they weren’t rushed *cough*Sony*cough* and had more time to work on it it would have been better. It had so much potential and I thought the plot was great (though Sonic’s story was a little weird..) Its basically an unfinished game.
I don’t really know why they are going on about an old game like its unheard news or something. It’s just one game, and it doesn’t mean ‘sega have lost their way’.
seriously you guys need to start saying “in my opinion”
06 is not bad. its not good either. it just is…
its my favorite sonic game thats not unleashed.(fav is disgaea 3)
I hate the black knight both olympics and zero gravity though
but its my opinion
Someone just had to drop the Sonic 06 bombshell , didn’t they?
*Flicks up a pile of papers into the air and walks off*
@Stardust Speedman: Just…DAMN.
You really made your point here.
O BTW, about Sonic NG: If only you Sonicfags knew that SEGA had no time at all to ACTUALLY FINISH THE FUCKING GAME, then you’d be able to judge it.
THANK YOU SSV! Finally someone actually read my comment! 😛
I hate to say it, but Elise should have been a hedgehog…
http://chibi-metal.deviantart.com/art/Elise-the-Hedgehog-47629993
In fact, all the rulers of Soleanna should have been. Then it would have felt more Sonic Adventure-y–you know, like Tikal and the Echidna civilization? But, I have to say, the Elise kissing Sonic has been way overplayed. People seriously need to chill–the ’06 story really didn’t happen anyway in the Sega’s Sonic universe.
That also makes the game seem pointless, though… “I’m playing a game that’s story never really happened…” Nice one Sega. It’s inferred that Elise and Sonic’s memories were shielded, but still, it all never happened. That’s the games’ one redeeming quality–that basically kept the franchise from being heavily pounded in. Heaven forbid a sequel where Sonic proposes to Elise… the story would have worked if she was a hedgehog, though.
@DarkNoise
No, they aren’t controdicting themselves. They’re saying that next gen Sonic has failed to get the blue blur back on form and that Sonic 06 was the worse of the lot.
@imarafan
Wow, all that over a bloody greeting. Me thinks your priorities are somewhat mixed.