How Sega All But Ruined Sonic the Hedgehog
Sega’s Blue Blur was a whirlwind of excitement in the early 1990’s. Nintendo had a magical formula in the Super Mario Bros series and every other developer had their run and jump Mario clones. Sega on the other hand, took the platforming genre to the next level by taking advantage of their new Genesis console (and it’s infamous “Blast Processing“) to introduce a new blazing-fast rodent by the name of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Speed, however was not Sonic’s lone gimmick. The landmark series on the Genesis also introduced unique elements such as the then jaw-dropping loops, super spin dash, psychedelic bonus rounds, and impressive boss battles with Dr. Robotnik’s mechanical creations.
While the Super Mario Bros. franchise was definitely colored with personality and great gameplay, the Sonic the Hedgehog titles on the Genesis and Sega CD offered an very exciting alternative to those that weren’t Nintendo fanboys.
Powered by the success of Sonic and their other cutting edge games, Sega had a great marketshare during the 16-bit era. However, they started to fall apart as they aimed to jump ahead of its competitors in the 32-bit market and beyond. The commercial failure of its newer hardware was unfortunately timed with the decline of the Sonic franchise.
While I love the Sega Saturn and its cult classic favorites, it never brought Sega fans the real Sonic game that it desired. Sega started with a Genesis and Saturn release of Sonic 3D Blast which turned out to be slow-paced and boring at times — quite the opposite of the Sonic games fans had been used to.
Sega had a great deal of inner conflict trying to develop a true 3D Sonic game (which was known as Sonic X-treme) and the closest substitute Saturn owners experienced was Sonic R, which was essentially a cart-racer without the carts.
Sega eventfully gave up on the Sonic X-treme project (and the Saturn for that matter) and set its sights on the possibilities that the Dreamcast held.
With Sonic Adventure, Sega fans finally had their fully 3D Sonic action game. Sonic Adventure had a tremendous amount of promise as the first level (which was playable on the pre-launch demo) was incredibly fast and was filled with breathtaking graphics that seemed to exceed how every Sonic fan had envisioned the Green Hill Zone would be in a 128-bit wonderland. (Nobody can forget the killer whale-bridge scene)
But all was not perfect with Sonic Team’s newest creation. In reality, very few of the subsequent levels even came close to living up to the high standards that the demo created. Instead, the game was filled with slow and annoying “exploration” areas that turned off many gamers that were expecting fast-paced action.
Sonic Adventure 2 ditched the exploration areas, but instead added more levels that required you to play as other less-interesting characters that had you perform more tedious tasks such as “find the lost emeraldsâ€. Not the idea of fun for a typical Sonic fan. To make matters worse, once words started coming out of Sonic’s mouth, the game was to the point of being an embarrassment to watch. Characters we all used to enjoy such as Tails and Knuckles all became an annoyance and a joke.
It was clear at this point that Sega had lost sight of what worked in the minds of Sonic’s most dedicated fans and had also failed to bring the sense of speed and tight control to the 3D world.
Once the novelty of Sonic Adventure’s slick graphics wore off, the more experienced gamers realized this wasn’t nearly the same game they had grown up with.
Gone were the intense sense of speed and the awe-inspiring loops. Instead, you were treated to a temperamental 3D camera that was more of an annoyance than a benefit.
The Dr. Robotnik we grew up with and his sweet robotic monsters had also experienced a peculiar makeover for the worse. Sonic Adventure ushered in re-branded “Dr. Eggman†and replaced his cool mechanical boss battles with strange creatures and dim-witted schemes to collect Chaos Emeralds.
Once Sega made its full transition away from the hardware business and developed multi-platform games, they unloaded a series of quickly-developed titles that pulled even further away from the core focus and did more to damage Sonic’s reputation.
Sega’s first original multi-platform Sonic game was Sonic Heroes. Heroes took some of the best aspects of the Sonic Adventure series and put a new spin on them. However, that spin consisted of forcing players to use teams of three characters at a time, when the entire time, fans wanted to play ONLY as Sonic. It also seemed to focus less on speed and reaction time and brought it more into the league of typical platform games as opposed to the high standards that Sonic was once known for.
To give Sonic Heroes some credit, it did go back to the 16-bit roots in terms of level design and the overall look and feel. Sonic Heroes got a little bit closer on fixing some of these crucial things but still managed to screw up other aspects. It’s such a shame that things went downhill after that.
As much as everyone tries to forget about it, Sega somehow thought that the best way to solve the fact that the Sonic franchise was getting tired was to have a game centered around Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow was supposed to be the Sonic for the hardcore gamers that needed a ro
ugh edge. (And I thought all this time, Sonic was the cool hedgehog with the attitude.)
As soon as everybody laid their eyes on the promotional artwork and screenshots filled with the pistol-packing hedgehog, the gaming community knew Sega was losing it.
Instead of renewing interest in the Sonic universe, Shadow the Hedgehog fell on its face and was mocked by reviewers around the globe. Again, some players enjoyed the game, but it really strayed from the Sonic formula.
Sega followed up Shadow with Sonic Riders, a racing title that was essentially “Sonic R 2.0â€. While I appreciate Sega trying to emphasize Sonic’s speed capabilities (even though the game was not as fast as it should have been), it wasn’t a true Sonic games and was way too rushed to be taken seriously. Instead, it turned out to be a shallow F-Zero clone thrown out on the marketplace to make some quick change.
As the new generation of platforms emerged, Sega used Sonic as a way to show off their newest graphical technologies. There is no doubt that the new Sonic the Hedgehog for the XBox 360 looks nice, but as the abysmal reviews indicate, graphics are not everything.
In order to push its cutting-edge graphics to the limit, Sega, in their infinite wisdom, felt the need to bring Sonic and his friends into a more realistic world, filled with life-like humans. As you can see from this video, there is something creepy about some giant hedgehogs interacting with humans.
My point is that Sega doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do with Sonic. It seems like Sega assigns various quick-and-dirty development projects in order to see what ideas sticks with consumers. Unfortunately, Sega fans have had to suffer through this process.
Sega’s one redeeming endeavor has been the portable titles. The Sonic Advance series has at least replicated the original Sonic experience about as much as the GBA could, and Sonic Rush on the DS was probably the best Sonic game in over a decade. (Although, the really botched the new Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the GBA)
Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush are essentially the only Sonic games since the Genesis (sans the initial buzz of Sonic Adventure) that the majority of hardcore fans have actually spoke positively about. One would think that maybe Sega would try to go back bringing the series back to its roots more in order to succeed. (Read How Sega Can Bring Sonic Back To His Glory)
As we turn back to look at Nintendo and what they did with the Mario franchise, you will notice that The Big N took their time developing the N64 (remember THAT wait?) and polished Mario 64 in order to maintain its magical feel and bringing a consistent experience to the third dimension. Even though Mario fans would gladly welcome more traditional Mario games, Nintendo kept the pace slow in order to keep the standards high.
Sega needs to take a long look at Sonic and decide where the games of the past really shine and focus on those aspects and those alone instead of doing even more damage.
Personally, I believe the Sonic thrives in 2D and the third dimension should be used on Sonic Team’s other fan favorite NiGHTS into Dreams. Once Sega stays focused on creating killer gameplay in
stead of the quick dollar, Sonic may be brought back to his former glory.
Part 2 – How To Fix Sonic
I followed this post up with my expanded thoughts on what Sega can do to make Sonic successful with both hardcore and casual gamers.
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Sega’s Best Genesis Moving To PSP and PS2
Getting The Most Out of Your Dreamcast
New Nights Into Dreams Coming To Revolution?
Classic Franchises That Actually NEED a Resurrection
Classic Game Franchises We May See Again Soon
The Best Graphics on the Dreamcast
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If it’s all the same I’d rather just leave this topic. I think enough has been said ,both for and against the 3d sonic games ( both helpful and unhelpful)and another voice in the crowd seems a little unnecessary at this point.
Just in closing I will say that I do enjoy the later games, just not as much as the originals but that’s me, just in future think before you post. You seem like a smart kid and when you think about what you say before saying it you seem to raise valid points, and that’s exactly what people want to read.
Ok that’s me done bye.
racketboy, I just want to ask you one more question. You mentioned a lot of Sonic games except for one, did you like Sonic Rivals for the PSP?
And I know I said this too much but, I’m sorry for the bad comments.:)
I don’t have a PSP, so no.
It does look interesting though…
i think sega just rushes things way too much in all these new sonic games the graphics are amazing but it feels like they put in the gameplay at the last second if they spent as much time on gameplay as they do on graphics the 3d sonics wouldnt suck ass actually i dont think the 3d games dont suck ass ( except for sonic riders)just the handling sucks, the acceleration and speed could be better, and the occasional camera screw up pisses me off. and maybe if sega still made consoles, they would have been able to learn from the ps2 gamecube and xbox, what was needed because it looks like it belongs back with the n64 and the ps1
Alright, I’m sick of this! I have been going from site to site hearing “Sonic 3-D games aren’t cool” or “Shadow the Hedgehog stinks”. OK, sure they have a few bugs, but it isn’t really that horrific!Sonic Adventure was one of Sonic’s best games! Maybe I hated the screen controls, but what they did with it also helped me! If you hold L and R, it stays in one place! And Chao are adorable! And Chaos is awesome! And there are big robots!Shadow the Hedgehog was awesome! Okay, killing the Big Egg was kind of harsh, but otherwise, it was great!
Now SEGA isn’t doing anything wrong… YOU ARE! You are shooting your mouth about the games when there is nothing that makes than horrific! Now will stop fussing about my FAVORITE video game character character and SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE!!!!!?????
when it comes to this topic, I can say that Sonic X is, without a doubt the WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO THIS FRANCHISE!!!!!!!!!! It doesn’t matter how big of an anime fan you are (and I am a die hard anime loather), or how bad shadow the hedgehog was, Sonic X brought the god-awful voice acting to the games and threatened to take away the franchise away from all its good factors, therefore killing it. That being said, Sonic and the Secret Rings is the game that saved the franchise. Seriously, guys, this game brings the series to its roots while staying in 3-D. Sonic fans, this is the game you have been praying for, but if you don’t have a Wii, you are out of luck.
Right on, man! These newest Sonic games really stink. Sega’s turned me into quite the Sonic basher with their newest installments. Not only is the voice acting so corny and the music so uninspired, the gameplay is a load of crap! But I read this in Game Informer magazine dude, Yuji Naka (creator of the Sonic series), HATES HIS OWN CREATION. He said it himself that he’s hated Sonic ever since Sonic Adventure 2 rolled around. That’s why the newest games have been horrible. NO motivation whatsoever. So Yuji Naka turned Sonic the Hedgehog into a fast, playful series with addicting special stages and environments to an uninspired piece of story work with the worst soundtrack in the world and glitches and annoyances written on every corner of the wall. With blood. Hedgehog blood. All because our depressed little Yuji Naka killed Sonic with the newest installments. He’s not the same anymore!
I totally agreed with 100 percent of this article, man. Nice job!
I hate sonic the bitchhead i think kingdom hearts 2 is better then everthing and sonic is a thing of the past. I mean thay should have left that there. Guitar heros are the new thing now i mean everone on this website are crazy because ya’ll are all stuck in the past i mean all of you mack me sick. Im very sorry but if you don’t get off of it all of you are gowing to be made funny of, take it from me. I got beat up gest because i liked it but now since i moved to kingdom hearts 2,all the guitar heros,and Family guy i have never bene made fun of. now most of my friends are in the 8th grade and im in the 7th grade. So please take my addvice. Remember this is to help you not hert you. I LOVE KINGDOM HEARTS 2 AND ALL THE 8TH GRADE KNOWS WHAT THAT IS SO MABE TRY THAT. IT LOOKS SO REALLY AND IT FELLS LIKE YOUR ACSALY THERE,OR EVEN TRY GUITAR HERO 1,2,OR 3. THANK YOU FOR LETING ME ON THIS REDICULESS SITE. TAKE MY ADDVICE PLEASE THIS IS FOR YOUR SACK. THIS IS TO HELP YA’LL.
I disagree with this entire article…it’s a bunch of rubbish created by whiny fanboys that really don’t seem to know what a real game is.
Oh, and just to clarify, I don’t protect all Sonic games etc…I recognize bad games like Sonic Shuffle and Tail’s Adventures (although the former is far worse than the latter), but you continually attack the 3D installments which is what I disagree with.
I can help but disagree with many points:
“But all was not perfect with Sonic Team’s newest creation. In reality, very few of the subsequent levels even came close to living up to the high standards that the demo created. Instead, the game was filled with slow and annoying “exploration†areas that turned off many gamers that were expecting fast-paced action”
The original Sonic games were great because they combined lots of speed AND exploration. The stages were huge and had many alternative paths and hidden passageways. The 3D games were disappointing because the stages had just one linear path, and you just had to run to the end.
Also, the speed parts of SA1 were very disappointing because you hadn’t complete control over Sonic. And the oh-so-awesome-whale-scene is one of the worst examples.
“Sonic Adventure ushered in re-branded “Dr. Eggman†and replaced his cool mechanical boss battles with strange creatures and dim-witted schemes to collect Chaos Emeralds.”
Come on! The old-school bosses weren’t that great. Most of the modern ones are better because they require more “strategy”, especially the SA2 ones (the best example probably being the Biolizard).
“To make matters worse, once words started coming out of Sonic’s mouth, the game was to the point of being an embarrassment to watch. Characters we all used to enjoy such as Tails and Knuckles all became an annoyance and a joke.”
First of all, if you problem is with the bad voices, that is a null point, considering that you can turn them off. Second, I’m glad that unlike Mario, Sonic characters got voices. That way we can have a more detailed story-telling.
“As much as everyone tries to forget about it, Sega somehow thought that the best way to solve the fact that the Sonic franchise was getting tired was to have a game centered around Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow was supposed to be the Sonic for the hardcore gamers that needed a rough edge. (And I thought all this time, Sonic was the cool hedgehog with the attitude.)”
The Shadow game might have sucked, but I don’t see what is wrong them trying new things by making a game of a different tone when that game is just a spin-off, and the protagonist ISN’T Sonic. At least SEGA takes the risk of trying new things, unlike other companies such as Nintendo or Capcom (who every time that invents a “new style” of Mega Man game, releases about six clones which are almost exactly the same game).
I thought that the Sonic Adventure Games were awesome (and it was the first one i got, but I have been with the series since the begining), Sonic Heroes was great, and Shadow the Hedgehog is AWESOME!!! I have almost every Sonic game for Gamecube, and it is my favorite, and that includes Sonic and the Secret Rings as well! NO ONE CAN EVER STOP ME FROM LIKING THE SERIES!! AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE THE GAMES FOR THERE UPS AND DOWNS!!! And I do not like sites that bash them! I may not like Sonic as much anymore (now I’m a Shadow girl) but still, I cannot stand ppl who bash them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sega didn’t ruin Sonic, the Sonic Team did! Yes, they still know how to make a good 2D sonic game like Sonic Rush adventure. But when it comes to making 3D sonic games, their awful programming and attempts at giving sonic a deep story line just flip and flop. SA2 was great and the Sonic Team’s best 3D sonic game, but all the other 3D games later on were ‘okay, could have been better’ or just down right stupid. (Sonic 360 for example)
I have played almost every sonic game there is (except 360 & ps3). I have found that the best out of all of them was sonic 3 & knuckles. You could spend hours exploiting glitches through debug mode, or still get hours of fun through the normal gameplay mode. I’m not saying that the new games are bad, it’s just that there was a lot of room for improvement.
No. Sorry, but I really don’t agree with you at all. How can you write an article about Sonic in which almost everything you say about the games is complete garbage?Every Sonic game I have ever played was absolutely brilliant, apart from Soinc 3-D blast which, I will admit, took a slight turn for the worst. Oh, and you forgot to write about Sonic Rivals and Sonic and the Secret Rings, which are two decent games that focus almost exclusively on speed. Sega have never gone as downhill as you describe, and if they ever did make a bad Sonic game because of the lack in speed, they’ve made up for it with Rivals and Secret Rings.
Plus, about the statement that you made: ‘the entire time, fans wanted to play ONLY as Sonic’. The only thing that upsets me about Secret Rings is that there’s no choice of characters.
I also like Shadow the Hedgehog a lot more than both Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance, so screw you.
If you’d notice the original article date, you’d realize why some of those newer games were not mentioned — they weren’t released yet.
And once again, if you’d actually read the article, or my other stuff, you’d see that I actually do enjoy certain parts about the new games, but they aren’t as good as they could be.
I just read through all the comments here. Damn, there are so many immature people on the net.
Anyways, I read through this article, and I have to say, that IMO you’re quite right about the sonic 3D games.
I am a Sonic fan from iran and know almost everything about him
i will ask a question from this site sonic fans :
What is the Sonics fastest speed record?
Hint : its about 600 mph
Attention : give your answers with ”mph”
Thank you
From Didoo Sonsilsha©
It seems that there are more people here that are new-school than those who are old-school. If that’s the case, then a lot of our points are probably going to get disagreed on, because frankly, old-school and new-school are two different generations.
That being said I am a fan of old-school Sonic, and it depresses me to see what he has been turned into. I was one of those fans that liked everything about him. His videogames, his comics, his cartoons, his merchandise, you name it. Up until the late 1990s, I was a regular teenager who was a big fan of the blue rodent.
Since SA2, my love has all but dwindled greatly for him. Sega did not only take Sonic to a new direction for the worse, but they have also done a crappy job replying back to us when we complain that many of their games have flaws and glitches. Their games from the early 90s destroy anything that they have done in the past 5 years, and that is only because back then, Sega cared about the content they were making as well as keeping the standards up high. While Sonic and the Secret Rings was a huge reliever, it’s going to take a lot to bring him back to his former glory, which will probably never happen in this day and age. Sorry if that offends any of you but, he is just too different now.
It’s a shame that since Sega moved away from the hardware business, they have been doing a terrible job keeping the majority of us fans happy.
Although one thing that has made me happy is that Sonic has made it onto Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and I’m planning to buy the game and hook it online as soon as it’s released in stores. It’s far from over yet, but I just want his former glory back for once.
Racketboy and The Kraken, there are people who like the new Sonic, despite your pathetic attempts to sway us. People like you make me sick. You think you know everything and that your word is law. Meanwhile there are people that enjoy what you don’t. There’s no use whining at it. You can stay at your land of delusion where your word is law. Meanwhile, we’ll continue are lives and enjoy. I’ll admit, Sonic 2006 came out at a premature release. Glitches or not, it is my favorite Sonic game ever. This upcoming RPG, which, by the way, is being developed by master developer Bioware, so far it might be superb as well. Yet you’ll still find something to complain about, because it isn’t a carbon copy of Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
It’s not like Sonic is the ONLY series there is. If you don’t like it, go find something else instead of complaining about your last experience. Seriously, your wasting your time arguing, because this is an opinion battle. In case you didn’t know, those can’t be won or lost. Seriously, in the time you’ve spent arguing, you could have looked up several games that might appeal to you, and considered buying some of them. Instead you’ve spent your time here crying because you don’t like something. You kids disgust me to the level at which I wish I could jump in a pool of magma. Seriously, grow up and stop complaining, because in the end your only wasting your life away doing it, and the only one miserable here is you.
Why even try anyway? What are you trying to accomplish? If it’s to convince someone, anyone, that your opinion is right, then you have horribly failed at that. So what is your problem? Why keep trying? We won’t listen. We’re disproving your “facts” left and right, solely because they are opinions and don’t matter in an argument like this. So unless it’s one of those above reasons, I suggest shutting up here permanently about the matter.
Well, I have been a huge sonic fan since the beginning, even though im just about 16 myself, i have liked him since I was able to understand, I have a picture of my playing sonic games on the megadrive when i was 1 yr 6 months XD
Anyway, to the point, in my honest opinion as a fan, I dont dislike any sonic games except for shadow the hedgehog because that was just so awful to control and the story was terrible, also, I love the next gen game, but I dont like the fact that humans are involved in the story now, like the whole elise thing was just annoying.
Why cant it just be a story line like it used to be? get the emeralds, get through the levels, defeat robotnik, save the world.
Apart from that, I think all the games are awesome, and sonic adventure 1 + 2 were great games right to the finish. I’ve got to admit sonic rush + sonic rish adventure are the most amazing sonic games since.. well.. the adventure series I guess, Sonic heroes was good though I thought.
My favourite sonic game will probably always be sonic CD though, thats just the most amazing game ever and even the soundtrack is immense! lol
Anyway, im not telling anyone theyre wrong, but I personally think Sonic is doing really well.
Sega America just need to let the Japanese studios make the games for once, have you realised ever since the American studios started making the games people have been complaining?
anyway, I didnt mean to turn this into an essay, but oh well too late now XD
Keep up the good work Sonic, You’ll always be the best!!
I don’t know why dissing Sega has become so cool.
You don’t use consistent logic when you praise Mario 64 but ridicule the 3D Sonic games. Mario 64 was nothing like the original Mario, and contrary to popular opinion, not everyone liked it. I know that I didn’t. Then again, I didn’t like any game on the N64 because of its 3-handed controller. I’ll admit I only played Mario 64 for 10 minutes before giving up on it, because I hated the controls.
By comparison, the feel of Sonic Adventure was much closer to the look and feel of the original Sonic series. I think that they did spend a lot of time perfecting it, and if they wanted to rush it, they could have released it with the original DC in Japan. That would have given them the killer title to sell more consoles in Japan, possibly building up a stronger base for the coming battle with PS2.
Instead, DC was released in Japan with a bunch of weak titles, and that may be the reason it never succeeded.
The levels of SA provided a lot variety and were of high quality. SA was less repetitive than some of the older Sonic titles (Sonic 2 comes to mind) but not everyone thinks that is a bad thing. I don’t think we should hate on Sonic Team because they were trying to expand the realm of Sonic gameplay by adding new elements, like RPG play.
Afterall, Nintendo has been doing that with Mario since the very beginning (who was originally a character in Donkey Kong, then he got his own series, then they changed the gameplay with Mario 2, then he appeared in sports games, RPGs, racing games, fighting games, etc.) Nintendo slaps that stupid plumber everywhere, and no one complains. People were used to Nintendo doing crazy stuff with Mario by the time Mario 64 came out, and so no one was shocked.
On the other hand, Sonic fans are a lot harder to please, probably some of the hardest people to please. Many of us need to be a little bit more open-minded and less willing to condemn, just because a game doesn’t match our so-called “formula”. In my opinion, both SA and SA2 were both great.
I didn’t like Sonic Heroes as much because it required too much of those “special moves”. None of the original Sonics required you to perform special moves to complete the level. You could play Sonic 2/3/&K without even using the Spin Dash. In SA1, the new special moves were optional most of the time. SA2 gave more reliance on performing tricks, and by the time Heroes came out, it was all about grinding, gliding, triangle jumps, and such.
So it’s ironic that Heroes is your favorite, because that’s the least authentic one of all of them. Plus, the levels were pretty but designed so uninspiringly in Heroes (maybe that’s what you liked).
I only played the demo of NextGen Sonic, and it seemed really glitchy. And seems like they thought realistic physics are more important than good game mechanics. Other than that, it might have had potential.