Games NOT Beaten 2017

[Exhuminator]

After beating SMS, I came away only having loved the parts where you didn't have the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device.

[Juan Aguacate]

I'm not gonna say yet that I won't finish it, but I'm strangely finding Sonic Generations very not fun. I say strangely because I remember playing some of it back when it first came out and being very impressed by it. I thought it was a return to form for the series.

I'm playing it again on PSNow and I'm just not feeling it for some reason. I'm finding the level design very poor, cheaply placed enemies and obstacles everywhere, and bottomless pits galore. I know this stuff has always existed in some form in previous Sonic games, so maybe I'm just getting less patient about that stuff now and days than I used to be. It just feels like not a lot of care went into this game's level design. Also, that first boss fight with Robotnick is pretty poorly designed. The rivals fight with Metal Sonic was pretty cool though, I actually enjoyed that.

Also, the way classic Sonic moves just feels wrong, particularly his jumps. I don't feel like I'm controlling the same Sonic I used to use in Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Sonic and Knuckles on the Genesis. And I swear sometimes I hit jump and there's like a one second delay before he actually does it. And man, he feels more slippery than I remember Sonic being, keeps running off ledges every time I land from a jump.

Some of those challenge levels are really annoying too like the one where you have to use Knuckles to dig up coins, or the level where you need Amy to boost your jumps, just feels like anything involving Sonic's friends tends to be irritating, a problem I remember having with Sonic Adventure 2 as well.

Also, a lot of the modern elements are turning me off. I don't like that 3d snow board section at the beginning of the city stage with modern Sonic. I also don't like having to do drift turns in the city level. I want to play a platformer, not SSX Tricky or some racing game, and the auto targeting for Sonic's homing attack seems hit and miss sometimes. Generally speaking though, it seems like the modern levels are easier than the classic ones, and they don't drag on for quite as long, but they have some annoying spots with obnoxious level design too.

The only thing I'm enjoying, and maybe this is what impressed me back in 2011 when this game came out, is those parts of the modern Sonic stages where you can just hold down the boost button and blast forward with no worries about running into obnoxiously placed obstacles or enemies and simply enjoy the incredible sensation of speed and enjoy the craziness happening around you like when Sonic is racing down the side of a building with cop cars chasing after him. If the level design and controls surrounding these parts of the game were better I think I would love this game.

Maybe it's just been too long since I've played a Sonic game, it's been years since I've played the Genesis games or the Adventure games on the Dreamcast. So maybe I just need to re-acclimate to what Sonic games play like....or maybe I just need to try that Freedom Planet game I keep hearing about.

[TSTR]

SANIC RAMBLING BELOW

To me, Sonic is at its best design when you can mostly blaze through the levels at high speed, with multiple simultaneous paths that also allow for a different style of play and the ability to switch between them. I can say Freedom Planet is fairly close to this style, which is a good thing.

From what I can recall of my 3D Sonic experiences, they had a tendency to become more setpiece-like, thus ruining any flow that could be gathered. I am limited in scope to the Adventures and Secret Rings, however. Well, and 3D Blast, but the less said about that isometric mess, the better. Perhaps Colors may be a good one to look into (note to self).

The fairly tight control/physics are also crucial to a good Sonic game. Sonic 4 has a problem with this, in that it doesn't feel, control-wise, like the 16-bitters to which it claims to hearken. This seems similar to what you are running into with Generations (another title I have but have yet to try).

TL;DR
Sonic 2 is the best Sonic
You'll cowards don't even go fast

[PartridgeSenpai]

Golly, there's an awful lot of hate for the best 3D Mario game on this thread so far

[marurun]

Look at the very first Sonic game. The first zone had a lot of high-speed stretches, but as you get into the game they want you to slow down and smell the flowers. The idea that Sonic has always been about just blazing through levels has always been a misnomer, and largely because of folks who either never bothered playing the game past the first few levels or who have subsequently forgotten what the later levels are like.

[TSTR]

They perfected that with Sonic 2 by giving you the option to play it in a speed-focused manner, however. Look at the multiple "lanes" in a level, so to speak, as opposed to the more singular path design of the levels in 1. You can do the same thing you're talking about doing in 2, it's just that you're not forced to do it most of the time. The speed is what makes Sonic stick out as a platformer.

3/K went Metroid, so it has its own problems. Music is sick, though.

[marurun]

Good point. I think the lesson here is, however, that Sonic isn't one thing. It's been lots of things, even since the beginning. And 1-3 were all decent games, even with their difference approaches. So Sega hasn't been too off-base in exploring new play styles. They've just been bad about finding ones that work : )

[prfsnl_gmr]

For the record, Sonic Colors is a very solid game - easily one of the best 3D platformers of its generation - and I am ashamed that I have not beaten it yet.

[Sarge]

Look at the very first Sonic game. The first zone had a lot of high-speed stretches, but as you get into the game they want you to slow down and smell the flowers. The idea that Sonic has always been about just blazing through levels has always been a misnomer, and largely because of folks who either never bothered playing the game past the first few levels or who have subsequently forgotten what the later levels are like.

Nailed it. I actually love Marble Zone because it slows things down. It's also why I loved Freedom Planet, it's like my ideal version of what the Sonic games did best.

[marurun]

It's also why I loved Freedom Planet, it's like my ideal version of what the Sonic games did best.

Freedom Planet does have a disturbing lack of face-painted angry Scotsmen yelling "Freedom!"