Hey guys, Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Late last year Sega announced their latest Sonic game, Sonic Frontier. It was said to be a reset to the Sonic games and would be a fully open world game. Something that fans have been crying out for for years. With the game set to come out this year it got me thinking about the Sonic games that came before it and one thing I discovered is that when it comes to Sonic games or Sonic in general, people are very critical. Growing up, I was one of the lucky few who got both an NES and a Genesis so I didn’t care about the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo, but I knew about it and understood what it was all about. Growing up I do have to admit I favored the Sonic games more than the Mario games and while fans have been critical of Mario games in the past, when it comes to Sonic games fans are more critical than normal. Why is that? Don’t get me wrong, the Sonic games haven’t been all that great, some have been awful, and as fans it’s our right and duty to voice our complaints to make the games better for the future, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen gamers more critical of a game franchise than Sonic. Why are we much harder on the Sonic franchise than the Mario franchise? Well that’s what we’re going to explore today and see what we can find.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Before diving into the meat of the discussion I think it’s important to look at the quick history of the games. Mainly the console games as those seem to be the ones fans have played the most and are the most critical of. Things started off well on the Sega Genesis with a slew of excellent games. Aside from Sonic Spinball the Genesis era is fondly loved by fans. Sonic CD was also a big hit and regarded by many as the best Sonic game of all time. The Dreamcast saw Sonic make his 3D debut with two successful games and an experimental Mario Party-esque game called Sonic Shuffle which kinda sucked. Sonic would bounce back on the Gamecube with Sonic Heroes which was good. A little wonky but passable. We then got Shadow the Hedgehog which was mediocre at best and Sonic Riders which was once again an experimental Mario Kart-esque game. We then enter the Wii, PS3 and X-Box era where shit hits the fan. Sonic 06 was a disaster thanks to the game being rushed out, Sony and Microsoft showing their selfishness and being more concerned about making a profit than putting out a good game, and Sega not having the gall to tell them to back off and give them the necessary time needed to complete the game fully. It was here that I noticed just how critical fans were of Sonic games and it would continue to be a thing in the games moving forward. Sonic Unleashed was good, but not the hit fans were hoping for. The Sonic fairytale games on the Wii had interesting settings but the gameplay sucked. Sonic Riders quietly died after the third game (thank you Microsoft Kinect). Sonic Generations came and went. Sonic Colors was liked by fans, but critics didn’t like it. Sonic Forces was a complete bust and Sonic Mania was the first Sonic game in a long time to get praised by everyone and that was made by longtime fans of the games with Sega just giving them the seal of approval and backing them up. Yeah, the Sonic games have had a pretty rough ride over the years.
To be fair, the criticism that the newer games have received is justified and I think comes down to two things. First off, the newer games lacked the fun and challenging gameplay that was presented to us in the Genesis era and Sonic CD. Second, the newer games didn’t have the interesting stories and themes presented to us in the Dreamcast era. While the stories were simple and straightforward in the Genesis era and Sonic CD game, nobody really seemed to mind because the gameplay was fun and challenging. If you lost you couldn’t get mad at the games, but at yourself for making mistakes and not learning from them. In the Dreamcast era we started to see stories that we could follow in the Sonic games and got invested in them. Plus, it was cool playing as different characters from the Sonic series. Who could forget the emotional story of Gamma? I cried the first time I finished his story because of how beautiful it was. Or how cool was it to play as Robotnik and see an anti-hero hedgehog who may have been way too edgy at times, but kind of fit the mindset of kids who were going through their emo phase at the time the game came out. The Dreamcast era brought a more mature feel to the games and weren’t afraid to show some dark stuff. After the Dreamcast era it seemed like Sega was trying way too hard to combine these two elements and as a result we either got games that had a decent gameplay but lacked a story or games that had a decent story but lacked good gameplay to make it fun or memorable. That’s not to say these two elements couldn’t work together, it just always seemed like wherever one element was good, the other was lacking. Sega could never find that perfect balance and after Sonic 06 I can’t help but feel they lost a lot of their confidence.
A Nostalgic Run
So getting back to the topic of why we’re so critical of the Sonic games, I personally think it all comes down to two reasons. First up, nostalgia. If you were like me and grew up in the 90s (God, I feel old), Sonic was a character you grew up with and may have been the first videogame you ever played. Hell, even if you didn’t play the game you at least knew about him from your friends or his TV shows. While it’s true we got Mario he came out in the 80s so he wasn’t from our generation. Sonic on the other hand was from our generation. He embodied what a 90s kid thought was cool and we loved him for it. People are always going to have fond memories of what they loved as a kid and want to share those memories and interests with the next generation so that it never dies. I have to admit that while I played both the Mario and Sonic games I did like the Sonic games a little more. Better graphics, exciting gameplay, cool stages and great music that I still love today. So to see this videogame icon unfortunately get dragged down because of mishandling is it any wonder why we’re so critical of the games? We want to see Sonic succeed, we want to look fondly back on these games and smile, we want to praise his games the same way we praise the Mario games.
The Games That Could Have Been
The second reason and I think is the big reason is what could have been. There was a lot of potential for some very good Sonic games and they could have came directly from a good source. Around the 2000s a lot of people started taking notice of the Sonic Archie Comics and liked it. The series had been running since 1992 and had its own continuity that was incredibly good. It introduced new sorts of characters, even implementing new characters into the comics that were introduced in the games as well as the games themselves being adapted into the series. On top of all this the series did show Sonic and his friends in a more mature light. There were love interests and break ups, new villainous characters being introduced, new allies being made, friends having arguments with each other, characters who we thought were dead making a return and just all around interesting stories and ideas involving Sonic and his friends that could have easily been great stories for the videogames. I’m not saying the games should have been a retelling of the comics, but instead looked at the comics and used them as a basis to make the games. For example, one of my favorite moments from the comics is when Tails fights Sonic. Long story short, Tails’s parents are rebelling against the royal family and Tails has sided with his family leading to him fighting against Sonic. It’s something that you thought you would never see, but at the same time there’s more to this fight than just them having different opinions, it’s a personal matter that’s been boiling for some time now. Tails had a crush on another fox character named Fiona and Sonic who just went through a break-up with Sally was comforted by Fiona. Sonic knew Tails liked her but knew that she wouldn’t like him back because of their age difference. So Sonic thought he was doing Tails a favor and started dating Fiona in the hopes of Tails moving on. This of course didn’t work and pissed off Tails. Later on, Fiona would betray Sonic and start dating Scourge an evil Sonic from an alternate dimension. Even giving Tails a good slap before she left. In the end Tails could handle Fiona not having feelings for him, but what he couldn’t handle was Sonic going behind his back like that. Sonic was his best friend who he loved like an older brother, he was the last person Tails expected to betray him and for Sonic to do what he did crushed his heart. While Sonic may have had the best of intentions dating Fiona he was still in the wrong and he knows it. In the end the two make up and the rebellion gets settled in a peaceful manner. Now how cool would it have been to see something like this play out in the games? This scenario makes Sonic a relatable character as we see he doesn’t always make the right decisions and his actions will sometimes hurt others despite him having good intentions to help. It also shines a spotlight on Tails as we see he won’t just mindlessly go along with whatever Sonic does and can hold his own in a fight with him if he has to. We also can relate to Tails here. He was betrayed by the one person he trusted the most, he has every right to be angry here. Or how cool would it be if we played an open world game where Robotnik has taken over the world and you play as Sonic who has to go on missions to disrupt Robotnik’s operations, recruit others to join the Freedom Fighters, take on side missions, and have love interests that you can choose throughout the story? This idea alone sounds awesome and way more interesting than the other Sonic games that have come out in recent years. For me, this was the reason why so many people are critical about the Sonic games. If a comic can deliver excellent stories with the characters growing up and tackling mature themes in a proper way then why can’t the games do the same thing? It would make the characters so much more relatable and interesting.
Sonic will always be a beloved videogame character that people will look fondly on no matter what. And I will always look forward to seeing whatever property he’s in. Whether it be the videogames, comics, movies, cartoons, or whatever weirdness the internet puts out. I’m looking forward to Sonic Frontier and I’m hoping for its success. I’ll do my best to support it and if I feel it doesn’t do a job representing the character then I’ll be sure to voice my opinion because that’s the only way things will get better. If we can change how he looks in the movies we can change the games for the better. Well guys that’s going to do it for me. What are your opinions of the Sonic games? Why do you think people are so critical of them? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.