A bunch of the reviews for Sonic 2 are now in, and the results are clear: it’s fresh! With 85 reviews out, it seems pretty certain that Sonic 2’s going to be accomplishing its predecessor’s feat of landing in fresh territory on the review aggregate. Though the score is likely still going to jump around (it was 67% when I first began drafting this article this morning), Sonic 2 is now unlikely to fall into either “rotten” (below 60%) or “certified fresh” (above 75%) territory, but still has a good chance of reviewing better than its predecessor (63%).
Along with the rating, we also have a consensus of the overall critical response, “It isn’t as much fun as the little blue guy’s greatest games, but if you enjoyed the first film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 serves as a generally acceptable sequel.” Since the number keeps moving around, and movie’s page seems to go back to older versions at random, we’ve gone ahead and included a screen cap of the page below:
This means that Sonic 2 will join the ranks of a handful of other “fresh” rated video game movies, including Angry Birds 2 (73%) and Detective Pikachu (68%). This also makes Sonic the first video game movie franchise to achieve this more than once!
While video adaptations have, overall, been improving over the years, that improvement has mostly been seen in the realm of TV and streaming, where video game shows like The Cuphead Show, Castlevania, Shenmue the Animation, and Arcane have been met with acclaim from fans and critics. Halo, Paramount’s other big video game adaptation, has also managed to achieve a 68% fresh rating, albeit the reception from fans has been significantly more…mixed.
We will be keeping an eye on Sonic 2’s rating, and we may post an update in the coming weeks. We may also post an article summarizing opinions from both critics and the Sonic community. In the mean time, you an check out our own review! You can find the current Rotten Tomatoes rating here.