Give me a guide to the recent Sonic games...

[ninjainspandex]

How does Sega fuck up so consistently? I thought after Sonic Generations they finally got sonic right, all they had to do was keep that formula. And then they made Sonic Boom and were right back where Sonic 06 went wrong, it's like Sega in incapable of learning from their mistakes.

Aside from Generations and Colors all the good modern Sonics have been on handhelds, check out Sonic Rush and Sonic Colors on the DS. Highly underrated classic style Sonic style. Unfortunately Sonic Generations on the 3DS is not good, such a shame.

[samsonlonghair]

How does Sega fuck up so consistently? I thought after Sonic Generations they finally got sonic right, all they had to do was keep that formula. And then they made Sonic Boom and were right back where Sonic 06 went wrong, it's like Sega in incapable of learning from their mistakes.

One of the points I was trying to illustrate with that list is that different sonic games are developed by different studios. Generations and Colors were developed by Sonic Team, but not Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for WiiU was developed by a heretofore unknown studio called "Big Red Button Entertainment" whoever they are. Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for 3DS version was developed by Sanzaru Games who ported the Sly Cooper and God of War games to PS Vita.

Look at who's developing the game to get an estimate of the quality.

[AppleQueso]

I've got a friend who's a HUGE Sonic fan and has thoroughly played through all of them (much to his own suffering in the case of stuff like Sonic 06 lol). He's got a pretty good perspective (he's definitely not a 'fanboy') so I'll give him a shout out for you.

In a nutshell though, Colors and Generations are good, 06 is kinda super broken and is basically everything wrong with modern Sonic, apparently Boom is also really super broken.

from my friend:

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - Full of horrible glitches and shitastic game design. Avoid it, one of the worst Sonic games of all time.
Sonic and the Secret Rings - May feel polished but the controls are even worse than Sonic 06. The fact you have to upgrade Sonic to make the game even playable is laughable and the whole mission structure of the game is annoying anyways. In short: Really awful.
Sonic Unleashed - Day stages are fun, not very refined, but they're fun. Night stages...um... if you don't mind slow 3D beat em ups, sure?
Sonic and the Black Knight - Never played, heard it's mediocre.
Sonic Colors - This takes the Day stages concept of Sonic Unleashed and makes a whole game about them with a new Wisp powerup system. It's my favorite and quite fun.
Sonic Generations - This game has 2 type of gameplay styles, one is the 16bit classics and another is the the newer modern gameplay (Day Unleashed and Colors). A very fun but short game. It has a lot of side content and a lot of cool equipable power ups to enhance your experience.
Sonic: Lost World - Fun at first, but flawed all the way. It gets mediocre and unfun halfway. Not a horrible game, but not a good one either.
Sonic Boom - Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, never played but... See: Sonic 06

[Xeogred]

Lost World looks cool to me, I did enjoy the demo.

I still want to give Colors a shot someday to see what I think compared to Generations.

Personally, I'm of the few that can't say much about Generations. I beat it but it just feels like one of those games I'll never bother to play again. The 2D Sonic stages were the highlight, but I didn't like the graphics or art style, things just still looked way too damn busy to be memorable. I don't think it compares visually that well at all to say, Donkey Kong Country Returns. And the 3D levels were just whatever like usual.

Also to be honest, outside of SatAM, Sonic characters and plots bore me to tears. The voices, the humor, just everything is so terrible and boring. Tails is probably one of the most annoying characters out there to me, lol. They just really need to stop trying in this area. Situational / no dialog plots like Nintendo does it would be so much better.

[Blu]

The Recent Sonic Games I have played:

Sonic Colors & Generations - Played Colors after I played through Sonic Generations, which was released (a year I believe) later. I have to say after playing Generations this felt like I was playing the same game, which was actually quite a good thing. Both games trade off between 3D platforming and 2D platforming. Colors will go through certain parts of the stages and trade off; Generations has a 2D and 3D counterpart for each stage, hence the namesake Generations. Lots of fanfare and remixes to the soundtracks, which are actually quite good and help with the immersion in the games.

Sonic Racing Series: They're quite honestly some of the best kart racing games I've ever played. I like the first one better than the Transformed sequel, mainly because I love kart racing moreso than the concept of a Diddy-Kong racing game. They're both great fun though and the stages are exciting and offer a lot of fanfare for the Sega gamer.

Those four games I would recommend, I'd steer clear of the rest. Shame too, I had high hopes for Sonic Boom since the rebranding of the characters and the cartoon show that I heard was launching. Seems like that might be a bit detrimental to the franchise as well.

Lastly, I have Lost World for 3DS and I haven't played through it all the way. What I've played has been enjoyable though. Seems like they were a little late to the Super Mario Galaxy Party though.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Sonic and the Black Knight - Never played, heard it's mediocre.

I have played it. It is mediocre (at best).

[dunpeal2064]

I'm not sure on the release date of it, or if you are looking for this sort of stuff, but the fan-made Sonic Megamix is surprisingly good. Gave it a whirl on the Sega CD and ended up playing through most of the game.

Its a hack of Sonic 1, though a very thorough one. Sonic has the spindash, the up+jump speed dash from Sonic CD, and the homing attack from 3D Blast (Though no powerup is needed, its a standard move now). So, its basically old Sonic, with some chain-bouncing to gain speed or cover gaps, and a lot more speed boost panel auto-pilot sections. The levels are HUGE compared to Sonic 1, and they make interesting use of the existing assets in the game.

Seriously worth a try, and not in the "Its good for a hack" sense, its legitimately enjoyable as a Sonic game on the Genesis/CD. You just may need some patience with the CD port, since its still in the works and may crash now and then. The level select code from the first game still works though, and a save feature was added, so even when it does crash, its no more than a pause in the action.

[ninjainspandex]

I got these two fan hacks made into repro carts, they are some of the best and very well made. Highly recommended.

[Snatch1414]

Nice thread. Until now I've been afraid to wade through the newer Sonic games. I will definitely get Colors for the DS and maybe Generations.

[ninjainspandex]

Nice thread. Until now I've been afraid to wade through the newer Sonic games. I will definitely get Colors for the DS and maybe Generations.

Get sonic Rush on the DS as well, it is fantastic.