Surprisingly, as hard as it was coming up with five good games from the past generation, it was even harder to come up with five bad ones!….With one exception of course and you all know what that one is and yes, it’s #1. In fact, some of the games on this list are actually fairly enjoyable. So I took off the “No spinoffs” rule this time and had to go with more “disappointing” or “blah” than outright “bad”. This does help show that Sonic’s been more on an upswing since the horrible 2002-2006 era, but it also shows were Sonic has fallen back.
Remember folks, these are just my personal opinions and yours may vary. Also remember that the previous generation is only Wii, 360, PS3, PSP and DS. Enjoy!
5 – Sonic Free Riders (360 with Kinect)
Now, I was originally debating putting Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity here since I actually had some fun with this one, but while I find Zero Gravity kinda dull, it’s still a solid and well put together game for the most part while Sonic Free Riders has some fatal flaws. Let me get the good stuff out of the way. As a Kinect game, Free Riders is decent. It’s got much more of an arcade feel than the previous two games in the franchise and a great soundtrack. I even managed to unlock every character and beat arcade mode with my 6’3/330 LB frame. That’s not to say that it controls great either. There were many a time where the motion I was using to launch an item would not pick up. However, the biggest control flaw was just the simple act of turning. Ducking down to speed up on a downhill slope? No problem. Jumping? No problem. Turning left? No problem. Turning right? You’re screwed.
See, unless you’re a contortionist, the body cannot bend backwards as good as it can bend forwards and the Kinect is not sensitive enough into seeing your body bend back. I ended up using tricks (like sticking your arms back) that would still only work half of the time. Then there’s the story. Wow! Sonic Heroes wasn’t as insulting to the characters as this game. The story is very simple. They are just in the race for money, glory and a huge trophy that Eggman is putting on under a fake costume for reasons I forget and don’t care about. It has Vector owning debts to loan sharks (has he been gambling?) to Rouge and her now lapdog Shadow trying to cheat in the race to just outright trying to steal the trophy. As bad as this make Rouge look, at least she’s a thief and treasure hunter. This completely demeans Shadows character and makes him look like a villains sidekick. The only real reason to check out the story is to hear the all new voice cast for the first time. Most of them are great but like a lot of Sonic fans, I was massively disappointed in the new voice of Amy Rose (Cindy Robinson). While she made some minor improvements in Lost World, she still sounds way too much like Minnie Mouse. Plus, Lisa Ortiz performance of her gave her more emotional range.
4 – Sonic 4: Episodes 1 and 2 (Wii (except 2), 360, PS3, Ouya, mobile phones and tablets)
I do tend to like this one more than a lot of Sonic fans out there, but there’s a reason I totally understand all the hate that I’ll get to in a moment. As a mobile game or even downloadable title these two Sonic games are pretty decent. Both have one glaring flaw that was better in the other game and both have a major flaw that everyone can’t stand. That’s get them out one at a time.
While I felt Episode 1 had pretty good (albeit too involved with the classics) level design (especially for DIMPS), it was obvious that the physics were off. They just didn’t feel quite right. Sonic moved very robotic-like and unnatural. Gone was his regular running momentum for speed replaced with a double jump for a quick bust of speed. It just felt a bit weird and took some getting used to. Then Episode 2 came along and fixed the physics up quite nicely while adding Tails. This helped a lot, but then the level designs ended up not flowing quite as nicely as the first game.
But the biggest problem that many people have with the game is the title alone. This is NOT Sonic 4!! Not by a long shot. It’s obvious that this was meant to be a series of mobile/arcade games that played up the classic retro Sonic gameplay but they decided to overhype it by calling it Sonic 4. It’s a nice mobile game, but you compare this as a sequel to Sonic 3 and Knuckles or just Sonic 3 alone and it doesn’t even come close. There were even rumors of it originally being called “Sonic: The portable”. A sequel always has to be either better or at least on equal footing to its predecessor or it’s a failure. This doesn’t even come anywhere close.
3- Sonic Rivals (PSP)
Sorry Hogfather, but I find this game dreadfully dull. The 2nd one wasn’t quite as bad and the story mode was full of voice acting (not to mention Espio getting his own story for the first time), but the first game was flat out BORING! Developed by Backbone Entertainment whose only previous work on Sonic games was some fairly weak Genesis ports, Sonic Rivals is supposed to be an on foot race to the finish using classic 2-D level designs. Sadly, it’s those level designs that are the games biggest flaw. They are just flat out bad (worse than DIMPS IMO). The game has way too much trial and error and it’s either very easy to defeat an opponent or frustratingly hard. There is some enjoyment to be had if you’re a real die-hard Sonic fan, but you have to scrounge through a lot of mediocrity to find it.
2 – Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)
UGH! I can’t believe I ever defended this game. This game made me realize I was being way too soft on certain Sonic games and giving them a free pass. It starts out well enough. The CGI intro was pretty awesome with Sonic taking out a ton of bad guys while managing to not drop his chili dog. The story was pretty good too with Sonic taking a “been there, done that” attitude after being in a similar situation in Secret Rings. Also, the damsel in distress being the villain was an awesome twist that I did not expect. Even the first half of the game isn’t….TOO bad. The new mechanics cause a little too much stop and go and backing up to talk to villagers sucks. Also, the early boss fights were a bit too tricky for their own good. But it was okay…..Then I got to the second half of the game.
At first I was elated! There was a false ending complete with credits only to find out the game was nowhere near finished and you can now play as the other knights….yippee. This is where the game completely turns into crap. Y’see, the cruddy controls in the first half of the game weren’t too bad because the levels weren’t that hard. Once you beat the Black Knight however, the difficulty ramps up to about double and those poor controls become very apparent and painful. What’s worse is that this is the first game in a long time to finally let you play as other characters besides Sonic and their controls are much, much worse. At least Sonic will rarely stop unless he needs to charge an attack. Kunckles constantly stops to swing his sword like an idiot and Blaze has a kind of flying move that makes her go by too many enemies only to have them attack her from behind. I forget what Shadow does because frankly, I’m just not a fan of Shadow and play him as little as possible. Their poor handling makes it so I had to redo some levels over and over again. I’ve never seen a game nosedive so bad from the first half as this game. This was the worst selling Sonic game on Wii and it’s easy to see why. Two games in and the storybook series is dead. Frankly, it’s better off staying that way.
1 – Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (360, PS3, My nightmares)
You knew this was coming. Sonic ’06 is so bad, that I dare say even if it had another year of development, fixed its glitch issues and even shortened it’s loading it would still be in this exact same spot for the utter piece of garbage it is. The Final Fantasy knockoff story is absolute crap, the character design is horrible and it’s mechanics are all over the place. This is even before bringing up the fact the game had the worst loading times ever, was broken and glitch-filled in many places, had very poor physics and was an absolute chore to try and control. Outside of the horrible Sonic 1 port on the GBA (same year), this game was the absolute bottom of the barrel for Sonic games and would be a curse to the franchise for years to come.
There was only two good things to come out of Sonic ‘06. One, it didn’t get any worse. Everything only went up from there. From Secret Rings, to Unleashed to Generations, the quality of Sonic’s games managed to (mostly) climb up. Two, it’s the “Manos: The Hands of Fate” of Sonic games. A game so bad, you can come back to it just to point and laugh with your friends at just how bad the game really is. Then cry and yell in frustration when you try to play it serious. Let’s hope we never, EVER get another Sonic game as bad as Sonic ’06 ever again.
Well, that’s my two cents. Here’s the staff with some of their picks (and they apparently forgot that Sonic Lost World is current gen) . Tell us yours in the comments below.
JonoD
5: Sonic 4 Eps 1+2
4: Sonic 06
3: Sonic Lost World 3DS (Haven’t played the WiiU version, so not sure)
2: Sonic and The Black Knight
1: Sonic and The Secret Rings
Hogfather
5: Sonic Genesis (That GBA port) ED NOTE: That’s from two generations ago.
4: Sonic Unleashed (Wii & PS2)
3: Sonic 4 Saga.
2: Sonic & The Secret Rings
1: Sonic & The Black Knight.
(Why no Sonic 06…. because everybody knows how terrible that is, theres other games which should share equal shame).
5. Sonic and the Secret Rings.
4. Sonic Unleashed (Wii)
3. Sonic 4 Episode 1
2. Sonic Free Riders
1. Sonic 06.
Im prettey sure Sonic 06 and Sonic Free Riders are going to be unanimous amongst most of us.
I think I agree with your list most, if we’re limited to the recent generation. lol
I honestly loved 06, sure it had its problems but so does every single game in the world, yes I hated Elise, but I found the game to be fun
I would agree with you there. Sonic 06 wasn’t as bad as Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic Colors, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Lost World. Well, for me at least.
I know at least three people who are going to defend Black Knight and get lynch mobbed for it. I for one, at least loved the game’s look, story and music, if that’s anything. Gameplay certainly wasn’t the worst out there though. I’d leave that to 06, Free Riders and Genesis.
What Sonic and the black Knight is the good game I play it in 2009 rant it and buy it again in 2013 still better than Sonic and The Secret Rings!
Tis.
I think itd be at least an 8/10 if you didnt have to play with the wonky motion controls. The music was really good, the voice acting was tolerable and, when you could actually get into a stride, the gameplay was fast and exhilarating.
Here is my list.
Note: I have not played Sonic Free Riders and the Rivals series. So they are not included.
5. Sonic Rush Adventure: At release, it was a fun game. But as time went on, this sequel has not fared well compared how well the original passed the test of time. The level designs are not as good and the boat gimmicks and story just padded the game to a halt. It’s still ok, but not something I go back too often.
4. Sonic Unleashed (Wii): Now I commend Dimps for attempting to bring Unleashed to the Wii. However, this version is nowhere as fun as the HD version, I don’t like the boost meter split into sections, the levels are bland, and the Werehog dominates the game. It has good moments and I do play this when I’m not in the mood to play the HD Version.
3. Sonic The Hedgehog (2006): I’m not gonna beat a dead horse here. Is Sonic 06′ bad? Oh yeah! But is this the worst thing ever? In my opinion, No! In fact! I find this a guilty pleasure of a sort with Sonic and Silver. Some of the levels like Kingdom Valley are great and the music is amazing. But some good things can’t make up the rest of the game. I may be an odd Sonic fan for liking certain things of 06′ and I have done the impossible of unlocking all the 360 achievements. It’s fun to go back to as a drinking game, but it’s still one of the lowest entries…
2. Sonic & the Secret Rings/Sonic & the Black Knight (tie): Some people said at release that Secret Rings was a small first step in the right direction for the series. For me, Ugh! Secret Rings was a interesting experiment on paper, but failed in execution. I don’t like the auto rail gameplay. It made platforming very fustrating, the levels with the exception of Night Palace we’re meh, the music was okay but forgettable, and I don’t see the point of Sonic being in storybooks. Black Knight added an uninteresting sword gameplay and the platforming was non-existent. The story and music were better in Black Knight, so brownie points on that but the forgettable gameplay killed both titles. These are titles I played once, and never went back.
1. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood: While the other titles in this list are either badly aged or just suck as they were. I can at least say I have completed those titles at least once. But Sonic Chronicles is something that I never want to complete. This RPG by Bioware is just awful in all accounts. I have nothing good to say about it. I’m not gonna beat this horse down, but I’m gonna at least say the music is the worst ever. If the music is horrible “something that even other awful titles had”, you can imagine how badly the rest of the game is. I went through half of the game and I put it down. I would rather play Sonic 06′ than this Nintendo DS disaster.
Hey your not a strange Sonic Fan, Im proud to admit that its my favorite Sonic Game, yes i’m talking about Sonic 06 out of all the games, it had an awesome plot, introduced silver, and Mephiles of course so yea if elise wasnt in the game i guarantee it wouldve been better
Hey man you love Sonic 06′, more power to you… 🙂 I have gotten all the achievements, so I can’t say it was a disaster. I have fun with it, but that’s only because I have played enough to avoid the BS. Besides Crisis City, I love that level enough to tolerate it’s mach speed section.
A dont agree with you in the slightest with chronicles, but its whatev. I had one or two problems with it. Like how easy it was to forget Cream and Omega, or how it actually started off hard and got easier as you progressed. (I.e. The level system was a tad broken.)
I still really enjoyed it though. The attack system was a really neat idea, with the combo attacks and the touch-pad fighting. I guess Im also just a sucker for the silly Sonic Lore. And getting to play a game that was more or less completely centered around it made it that much better.
I have to agree with you on both sonic 06 and sonic chronicles,
sonic 06 had problem areas, but some parts were decent, and some I’d even go as far as to say they were okay. (I can already feel the rage comments from this) and I for one, am okay with elise
Sonic chronicles sucked in my opinion. the story was okay, that’s the only good thing I can say about it
I would of been fine with Sonic 06’s story if Sega put more thought on the time travel concept and if Elise was a Hedgehog and not a human princess. I welcome another serious Sonic Adventure plot, as long its consistent with itself and with the rest in the series and this plot does not…
Out of the games I’ve played, here are the worst IMO. These aren’t just last generation BTW, as that was too difficult:
5: Sonic Heroes
4: Sonic & the Black Knight
3: Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
2: Sonic & the Secret Rings
1: Sonic Adventure 2
Please don’t rage at me for putting SA2 as the worst for me. I just couldn’t stand the treasure hunting and mech stages which made up 2/3 of the whole game. Because these levels were so tedious, I really felt like a break in the game to balance things out, like SA1s hub-world. But it only had the chao stages, which, as good as they were, were only optional and Sonic & Shadow’s levels, while better, weren’t relaxing either.
I completely agree with you on SA2 being consisted of mostly mech and treasure hunting levels but the story was pretty good, maybe even better than SA1’s. It introduced Shadow, a worthy rival to Sonic, but his death could have been a memorable moment if SEGA didn’t revive him from fan feedback. In terms of Secret Rings and Black Knight, I would choose Secret Rings as the better game over Black Knight. I just feel the controls were better explained in Rings because there was not much to do besides let Sonic run, use Homing Attacks, and move back and forth. In Black Knight, a few crucial controls were left out, and I’m talking the clashing swords during Sonic vs. Shadow and the kick attack by shaking the Nunchuck. That really set me back on the game, but I will say, Rings annoyed the quills off me by repeating “7 Rings in Hand” in the menus and ending of the levels. The song didn’t feel special anymore when it was a final boss song.
The Sonic Rivals pick was crap, IMHO.
It was one of my favorites, the boss battles were really solid, and the sequel was far less fun that the first.
5: Shadow the Hedgehog
4: Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)
3: Tails’ Adventure (GameGear)
2: Sonic Blast (GameGear)
1: Sonic Chronicles (DS)
I actually enjoy most of the Sonic games, but if I had to choose, those would be it. I never played Free Riders; gameplay doesn’t look bad, but the controls look nightmare. I actually enjoyed playing Sonic 2006, and Rivals weren’t awful, but yes, they sure were dull/frustrating at times.
Shadow the Hedgehog is just so boring, and the true ending is stupid. Sonic Rush Adventure’s sailing was dreadful, and the music was annoying, as well as the stages just not being fun. Tails’ Adventure was so monotonous, and the game lacked zaz. Sonic Blast had the most awkward sprites, and Blue Marine Zone was dreadful. Then, Sonic Chronicles. The music was crap, the models looked atrocious, the battles were drawn out, and gameplay was slow and dull. Nothing fun about it.
We’re talking about this generation, dude, and only two of those games are from this generation. However, I am intrigued by your comment about Shadow the Hedgehog being “boring”…unless you mean that Homing Attacking off the edge of the stage gets boring?
Take out Black Knight and switch ti with Secret Rings and the list makes sense.
Seriously, Black Knight was fun and it fixed all of the biggest problems with Secret Rings.
I agree!
I agree, black knight is one of my favorites.
oh.. more sonic fans bashing over sonic ’06. SEVEN YEARS LATER.
f**k just put it to rest
Way to miss the point of the whole article.
5. Sonic rivals
4. Sonic 4 (1,2)
3. Sonic and the black knight < less than 1 million
2. Sonic 06 << Bug.. and almost destroy sonic franchise
1. Sonic Generations << operating loss 15,182,000,000 JPY 151,820,000 USD, Restructuring employees, and creativity bankrupt(Hajime Satomi interview)
Sonic and the Black Knight was a good game… It had a nice story, had the best characters involved, had an intriguing theme, and had a bit of rpg elements into it… The only big problem was the gameplay…
I honestly liked ’06 despite the glitches and a certain cutscene. I honestly think if they took a few months to fix the bugs and make some minor cutscene changes, it’d probably be as good as Unleashed. I loved the music and I still listen to it often on my mp3.
I don’t tbink Sonic 4 Ep1&2 is one of the worst sonic games I find them enjoyable sure it’s not as a master piece as Sonic 1 to Sonic 3 & Knuckles but like I care I like Sonic 4 Ep1&2 now Sonic 06 oh yeah it’s that terrible.
I’m kind of amazed that Shadow the Hedgehog hasn’t been mentioned yet. Although I DO like to play it for a good laugh every now and then – it could fall under the category of “So Bad It’s Good”. And I haven’t played Sonic 06 – and I don’t intend to. XD
Shadow the Hedgehog was not in the 7th generation of consoles/handhelds, it was in the 6th. If we were making a list for worst 6th gen Sonic titles, i’m sure most of us “myself included” would put Shadow the Hedgehog in there.
Aaah. I forgot that it wan’t part of that generation because it was a year before Sonic 06. My mistake. XD
Believe me, if you’re really desperate to play Sonic 06, do your best to squeeze out as much fun out of it as you can. I enjoyed the game for the beginning levels as the difficulty let me progress easily and not see the errors of the game, but come the latter half of the game, things go downhill. There are moments of unfair hits from enemies that are seen the first time you enter, some character gameplay was terrible, like Amy moving insanely slow and having to be close up to hit anything with her hammer, and the physics sometimes broke to the point where falling off the stage or an inaccurate jump was unforgivable. I’m really surprised I was even able to stomach down enough tolerance to 100% the game and get all the achievements
The only thing good about sonic 06 is SILVER!
And i have sonic and the black knight and it was really fun,but the multiplayer is not the same quality.
And the music. So good I actually did some remixes with that xD
Btw how do you make an account
I disagree about Sonic 4.
Ditto. While not a revelation I thought part 1 was passable and part 2 was actually one of my top 5 Sonic games in the last generation!
I would agree that Sonic 4: Episode 1/2 do not deserve their name. But I found it very enjoyable, but nowhere near the classics. If it was called Sonic Advance 4: Episode 1/2, I would of been more happy with that title.
I don’t have any bad sonic games except Sonic 06. I’ve never played it before and it doesn’t really look fun. I’ve heard of glitches and even watched some cutscenes.Two things about it though. The WORST thing about Sonic is ELISE!!!!! She is one of the beautiful characters but a human falling in love with a hedgehog? Really? The only good thing about it is SILVER!!!!!! He’s my favourite male character in the entire franchise.
I thought you are going to make a Miley Cyrus joke about that screenshot of Sonic 4 eps 1
Oh yeah xD A real opportunity missed there.
I often give “Secret Rings” a pass namely because it was the first Wii game that looked like a Wii game and, at least for the time it was nice to see a third party dev at least try to do something unique with the motion controls outside a mini game collection. Sonic and the Black Knight really felt like a game that didn’t try at all. After you see the chili dogs it was like Sega said “screw it! Let’s just have a big fan wank!!”
I’m glad I didn’t play Free Riders. The Kinect is still the dumbest peripheral ever.
I’m also glad I never bothered with the Rivals series and it’s easy to see why Sega never made anymore exclusive games for Sony handhelds.
Sonic 2006 is terrible in every sense of the word. Even if you can get past the dumb story, abnoxious friends and tedious fetch quests, there’s the fact it can’t work on the most basic technical levels. It has earned a slot among craptastic greats such as ET on the Atari and Superman 64. Anyone can make a bad game, but it takes something special to make a Sonic 06 level bad game.
“It takes something special to make a game 06 bad”. *cough* Ride to Hell. *coughcough* Mindjack *coughCOUGHcough* Duke Nukem Forever *vomits blood* Sonic Genesis *falls over dead*
though to be fair I’d rather try the most broken game in the universe that tried a whole lot of new things and offered a unique experience over a completely beautiful, functional and well-crafted game that is completely by the numbers, uninspired and in a worst-case-scenario boring (GTA5)
@Derpfish
Which Sonic 06 definitely wasn’t.
“This does help show that Sonic’s been more on an upswing since the horrible 2002-2006 era, but it also shows were Sonic has fallen back.”
2 things I should probably note. 2002-2006 is a 4-to-5-year era, and 2006 (like the end of 2006) was 7 years ago.
…And I think “were” is supposed to be “where”. lol (I’m pretty sure I got it right this time. XP lol)
It’s also not that surprising this was also difficult, since when you actually think about it there aren’t that many actually BAD Sonic games. Maybe some so-so games and a few bad but for the most part Sonic’s only shortcoming is that his games aren’t amazing all the time it seems. Good for him and such.
I’ll start by saying I’ve not played Sonic Rivals. Plus Shadow was two generations ago (PS2, not PS3)
5) Mario & Sonic and the Olympic Games – Lifeless characters attempting poorly released motion controlled mini-games.
4) Sonic and the Secret Rings – Lifeless characters attempting poorly released motion controlled running (and multiplayer mini-games)
3) Sonic and the Black Knight – Lifeless characters attempting poorly released motion controlled running and sword based combat.
2) Sonic Unleashed – Werehog sections ruin the decent daytime levels… though even the daytime levels fall apart towards the last half of the game.
1) Sonic Free Riders – Lifeless characters attempting poorly released motion controlled racing. So poor I could barely get round a single lap.
If you pick up the control and play the game then the characters aren’t so lifeless. The avatar is only as energetic as the person controlling him.
Whoa, slow down there cowboy. Those multiplayer minigames were just fine in Secret Rings.
I am disappointed at the lack of Sonic Chronicles in your picks. Everyone knows how much of a trainwreck that turned out to be both on a design and musical front, and it didn’t get brought in?
Anyway, if you want a list from me:
5 – Sonic Unleashed (Wii/PS2) (Not too bad, but just way too leniant as it is to the HD version being ridiculously hard. Plus removed stages :()
4 – Sonic and the Black Knight (Sounds pleasing enough, but I don’t think Sonic really works in Arthur’s setting so much)
3 – Sonic ’06 (though, the music itself is a redeeming feature)
2 – Sonic Chronicles (this on the other hand, has a goddamn butchered soundtrack to boot…)
1 – Sonic Free Riders (Kinect… eww.)
This list is decent, but I think there are WAY worse Sonic games out there. Unless…maybe they’re just all from 2 generations ago… 😛
The five worst Sonic games of the last gen? TBH, I didn’t play many of them. Mostly due to the fact I didn’t have the console necessary to play the games.
Couldn’t play the storybook series (No Wii)
Couldn’t play the Rivals series (No PSP)
Could have gotten the PS2 ver. of Zero Gravity but that wouldn’t count. (PS2 is sixth gen.). Same thing for Sonic Unleashed. (Played the HD version and liked it)
Couldn’t play Free Riders (Had a Xbox 360 but no Kinect)
As for Dark Brotherhood and Sonic 4, I liked those games. Liked, not loved.
The only “bad” Sonic game I played last gen was Sonic 06 and yeah it sucks. In fact, it’s easily one of the worst games of the last decade.
5. Sonic Heroes
4. Sonic Unleashed (Werehog stages)
3. Sonic Rides: Zero Gravity
2. Sonic Black Knight
1. Sonic 06
1) Sonic 06
2) Sonic & The Secret Ring & The Black Knight (tie)
3) Sonic Genesis
4) Sonic Lost World (3DS only). I’ve played the 3DS version and it is hard as heck, but it isn’t as bad as Sonic 06. I have not played the WiiU version, but I’ve heard that its 10x better than the 3DS version.
5) Sonic Unleashed (360 version and Werehog Stages) The PS2 is better cause your not depending on the medals in order to advance through the game
Broken lists are broken
5. Sonic rush I guess… I never play the spin-offs, so secret rings and black knight I never played. But this game was meh to me
4. Sonic Adventure 2 (xbla/psn) [i don’t understand why this game is so overrated. 2/3rds of the game is bad]. But it did get widescreen treatment at least.
3. Sonic 4 ep 1-2. (For a game that claims to be the sequel to the classics, it plays almost nothing like them. Plus half the game was copy-pasted [minus the gameplay] from sonics 1 & 2)
2. Sonic Unleashed (ps360). (While not bad in the technical aspect, I absolutely hate everything about this game from the werehog, to the boost to win day time stages [i know, I used THAT phrase. Don’t worry, I only use that phrase with unleashed, since it’s actually true on this game for the most part], to even the two Tornado levels)
1. Sonic 06. No surprise here. Not only a terrible game conceptually, but a terrible excuse for a game technically speaking.
I have to disagree with you on Black Knight. Personally, I felt Secret Rings was way worse than Black Knight, and to be honest the Sonic 4 saga was good enough for some quick fun, so putting it up there because of a name is a bit unfair.
Actually while I’m here, might as well make my list.
#5 Sonic Generations (3DS). It wasn’t really bad, but it was certainly inferior to the HD version. The 3DS version seemed very neutered and rushed, and the level design in the later levels got flatter and flatter.
#4 Sonic and the Black Knight. While not completely bad, it was certainly ‘meh’ for me. The story and music were the biggest points, but some of the game components and level design just didn’t work.
#3 Sonic Rush Adventure. I haven’t played it in quite some time, but I do remember the god-awful back-tracking necessary to advance. With Unleashed HD, I didn’t have THAT much of a problem, and replaying the stages to find the stuff was a little fun. But Rush Adventure always made you replay a past level to get a random amount of materials so it always got old quickly.
#2 Sonic and the Secret Rings. Do not get me started on this. From the terrible controls to the bland story to the nonsensical level design and selection, I never enjoyed this one. I was always puzzled when people preferred this game over Black Knight.
#1 Sonic ’06. For obvious reasons. I actually got in touch with this game recently for a letsplay on my channel(shamlessselfpromotion), so I was reminded of why this game was so bad in the first place.
Me too! secret rings is my least favorite game. and yes, Ive played 06.
2. Sonic Unleashed Wii
1. Sonic Colors Wii (Yeah yeah, hate all you want, I didn’t like the game)
…
Honestly that’s all I got. I enjoyed basically every other Sonic game this generation. Of course, for all time, Sonic Heroes would definitely be number 1.
I’m curious as to why you say Sonic Colors for the Wii was bad. In my opinion, the DS actually wasn’t as great. A friend let me try it and I found getting the Wii was a much better choice. You were given 7 different color powers in the Wii version but about 5 in the DS. Colors proved to SEGA was trying to make a Sonic game where just boosting to the end wasn’t all Sonic could do. Some levels purposely slowed you down to make you use platforming more frequently and the Wisps were implemented well to the point where they were essential to obtain all hidden collectibles, unlike Lost World (don’t get me wrong, Lost World is still kind of fun).
This is my list:
5. Sonic Unleashed Wii.
4. Sonic Rivals.
3. Sonic Riders Zero Gravity.
2. Sonic Chronicles.
1. Sonic ’06.
P.S: To that guy who put on 3rd LW 3DS and in 4th ’06… Ehh… It’s his opinion but…seriously? oh well, opinions.
My worst games are:
Sonic Colors (worst)
Sonic and the Secret Rings (Very bad)
Sonic Unleashed (Not so great.)
Sonic Lost World is another one but it’s part of the 8th generation and not the 7th.
I liked Black Knight…
I disagree with the posted lists with Unleashed Wii and Rush Adventure on them. Those games were good.
Good list all around but I gotta say, Sonic 4 and Secret Rings are some of the best Sonic games I’ve played this gen. Sonic 4, episode 1 in particular, is replayable as fuck and the controls feel smooth. Secret Rings (I think) gave birth to the concept of skill customization and had a moody fantasy feel to it. That said, I don’t like Sonic and the Black Knight (Which is to bad because the graphics are incredible, the music is catchy and the idea of a sword could’ve been fleshed out better but instead had me put up with the most boring repetitive gameplay. Not to mention this being the first Sonic game where Eggman is absent completely. That’s like having a DKC game where there’s no King K. Rool…..wait…….oh (walks away depressed).
5. sonic rush adventure
4. Sonic Colors
3. Sonic Free Riders
2. Sonic Unleashed (Wii Version)
1. Sonic Chronicles
I like RPGs, I have like everything Bioware has done, except this game. I literally spent hours confused on what to do, and it just didn’t feel right for a sonic game at all. Sonic Unleashed is good on XBOX/PS3 but on Wii is so freaking slow! I literally hated the game and sold it, thank god I decided to try the xbox version and felt that life made sense again. Sonic Free Riders is cool, but yeah has a lot problems in responding at times. Sonic Colors is ok, I just think it would have been much better in an HD console. Not hating on Nintendo because I love them and they are my first console, but seeing how Unleashed turned out compared to the wii version, Colors could have been so much more. Sonic Rush Adventure was good, but weaker than previous Rush.
And Yes I enjoyed Sonic 06 because all i wanted was to play Crisis City and I love that stage, I ignore that there ever was a story in that game.
Hey, I thought Sonic 4 was a great game.
Of course Sonic 4 has good level design; of course Sonic Rivals has worse level design than Dimps. Dimps is dramatically better at level design than Sonic Team, which is why none of these fansites are ever able to articulate why they dislike them. It’s just a mindless Internet meme repeated by unthinking drones, and it never holds up when you actually examine the games.
Okay some of these lists shock me. These are my top 5 worst games of the Generation.
5:Sonic Lost World(3DS) Gave me a headache due to its diffuculty and long ass levels. Its not as bad as Sonic 06 but its not that great either.
4:Sonic and the Black Knight – When I saw the trailer for this I knew it would suck from the begining. Sluggish controls and rushed story.
3:Sonic Unleashed (Werehog Only) If the other half of the game wasn’t Werehog stages, it probrably would’ve been the best Sonic out there. Sadly not D:
2:Sonic Chronicles – I hate RPGS in general. But this one…Why with sonic. Sonic is a run around up and down guy! Not a stop and fight for 1 minute.
1:Shadow the Hedgehog(Confusing story, too logn of levels and its just…UHHG!
Wheres Sonic 06? “I consider it a tech demo rather than a game.”
How could no one mention Sonic Chronicles? I mean, yeah a lot of these games range from bad to not great, but that game was a goddamn mess from art to music to level design to combat to story. There is basically nothing that game got right.
I don’t get the Sonic 4 hate. Althought blatently not as good as S3&K or any of the 16-bit classics, I had a lot of fun with S4. In particular part 2.
But yeah… Sonic 2006 was f**king appalling. I really hope whoever made the call to release that unfinished mess lost their job.
Sonic 4:E1 had a lot of work but I thought E2 was actually a pretty alright game. They took the criticisms with E1 and applied them, what’s to dislike?
Hmm. I disagree with Black Knight being on that list – I would have replaced it with Secret Rings, actually. That game controlled horribly for me, and I found myself frustrated and confused on where to go more than half the time. Black Knight I had way too much fun playing, and it’s up there with Unleashed, SA2, and Shadow’s games as my favorites XD
It’s hard to say which I hate more. I haven’t played Sonic 2006, so I can’t judge it on game play. Perhaps when I finally play it, then I can figure out which I dislike more. At least I can laugh at 2006 and enjoy the awesome boot to the head scene.
Black Knight is not a bad game. It’s not a Sonic game, but it’s not a bad game.
The thing that annoys about the Sonic 4 hate is that people would have liked it if they named it something else. If they named it “Sonic: The Portable” or whatever, every one would have said, “OMG! this game is so much like the classics! They should’ve called it Sonic 4”
The first three Sonic titles have had over ten years for fans to build up nostalgic praise and plate them in gold. Then a new addition to the classic series comes along, of course everyone is gonna be up and arms because it’s threatens with their childhood’s legacy.
I love sa1, and this isnt out of nostalgia for me, because I just played it about a year ago, and I loved it. And, sonic 06 was at least better than scret rings.