I’ve made it known that Sonic Colors AND Generations are NOT my preferred games, and that I consider Sonic Unleashed to be the BEST out of any Sonic game ever made. Yes I know that’s a big risk to say, but honestly, that’s just how I feel. However the reasons aren’t what many might think.

I in NO way think that Generations or Colors are bad games. They are AMAZING, and some of the best (Sonic) games ever, but my issue is that they OUTSHINE Unleashed much more than they should have.

When Unleashed trailers and such started up, this wasn’t too long after games such as Sonic 2006, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic and The Secret Rings. Now while the Secret Rings was not as bad as 06 or Shadow, all three were VERY disappointing, and well… bad. But they also introduced new gimmicks to the Sonic games that were not there before.

~Shadow the Hedgehog introduced guns, multiple endings, and an all-around terrible plot.
~Sonic 2006 introduced Silver, many annoying stage elements, and all-around, an incomplete system.
~Sonic and the Secret Rings introduced a stress-building speed element, a time-break which was NOT very useful, and while it’s story was much better than the other two, it was not greatly received.

So about that time, fans were starting to go “UGH! I’M TIRED OF ALL THESE NEW GIMMICKS! JUST GIVE US NORMAL SONIC ALREADY!” as ONE of their many complaints; another being control, and stage designs. So when they saw Sonic turn into a Werehog… a lot of people got upset.

Because of how upset fans were already, the new form was NOT a good move in the eyes of the fans. And so a lot of them became more stubborn about how much they were convinced about how bad it was, making up, or exaggerating, many of the “flaws” it had from this. They would say the stages were repetitive, or that it made no sense in the story, or the controls were terrible. But a lot of them had these at random and unbalanced. One would say the look was terrible but the controls were amazing, but another player would say the opposite.

In short, the Werehog was despised, so much so that the hate leaked out from its part of the game only, and spread out to the rest of the game a bit. The problem with this is that I’ve actually seen reviewers and fans who have admitted they were a little quick to judge the werehog, and that it wasn’t as bad as they used to think, with others saying it was actually they’re favorite part.

The only actual problem that the werehog brought up, at least as an important one, was that it was not Sonic-like. But even then the werehog was not slow, it just wasn’t as fast as normal Sonic. Not to mention that it was a new gimmick that SEGA wanted to try out, and while I think it should have succeeded, it did not, and thus after Unleashed passed, fans were only mildly less enraged, and not satisfied.

And then came in Colors. So quick list here, some of the main things fans were wanting were
~2D Sonic only (or mostly)/or Classic Sonic (yeah they just wanted chubby back for some odd reason)
~Normal Sonic high-speed action
~Less story/or story not trying to be so serious
~More Eggman
Sonic Colors did ALL of this. Now some of these were (in my opinion) childish. I do not think for a second that the Classic Sonic looks even close to better than Modern Sonic, and the majority of games did well when they tried to be more serious, with the exception of 06 and Shadow. The most loved (AND EXTREMELY OVER-RATED) Sonic game, Sonic Adventure 2, relied HEAVILY on its dark and “complex” story, and it was loved by fans everywhere.

But back on topic, Sonic Colors (as most know) had Sonic fighting Eggman as the main villain (which he sort of was in Unleashed), had the 2D, the little story, and the High-speed action (which Unleashed already had). And it also brought new gimmicks. There were various amounts of power ups Sonic could use (whisps), which could let him get higher, faster, drill through walls, transform platforms, ect. And people loved it… why? This is my theory why.

The Sonic Unleashed Werehog stages were entire STAGES where Sonic was a werehog, but the whisps were VERY quickly used up, there many varieties, and a lot of them did not slow the game down too much, while the werehog stages were slow for normal Sonic standards.

And so fans applauded; they loved it, and I’ll admit, it’s a great game, it really is. But I still don’t think it’s better than Unleashed. Mainly because the 2D stages actually upset quite a few fans, the new Voices they use led to EXTREMELY corny one-liners, the plot, when there, got corny as well, and while the graphics were alright, Sonic Unleashed STILL looks superior in my opinion graphically and environmentally.

So Colors passed on, and SEGA thought “Let’s have something special for the Anniversary!” and we got Sonic Generations. This game played it extremely safe, and had NO ORIGINALITY AT ALL (Unless the plot is included… but even then not very much).

Let’s start with the plot. Generations started off with an interesting idea, NO intro, a short cutscene, and then here and there the characters would have VERY few little conversations about the various stages they’d just finish, and this happens… two times I believe maybe three. At the end they use an ending everyone and their grandparents saw coming, and finish it up with Eggman thinking about NOT BEING A VILLAIN ANYMORE!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? (Obviously they wouldn’t actually have him stop being a villain but the idea is scary as itself…. I want Eggman to stay a bad guy.)

One SORT-OF plot thing was that every time you defeated an area completely, one of Sonic’s friends would get unfrozen, and say or do something to or with Sonic. These were painful, as they were extremely stereotyped versions of the characters. This was the most noticeable in Amy, who literally says “I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to flirt with you anymore” (Really want fans to hate her, don’t ya, SEGA?), Blaze who talks about how she is embarrassed about needing help, or something close to that (It’s because she’s a self-dependent woman… because they didn’t make it painfully obviously… subtle, real subtle.), and Espio, who seems to be making me think of Solid Snake more and more every time I see him, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I did not enjoy how butchered their characteristics were, and then we have Shadow and Silver, who are just fighting Sonic because they can… well… Shadow is. Silver is fighting Sonic because he THINKS SONIC COULD BE A FAKE!!!! WHY MUST YOU RUIN SILVER MORE!? I WANT TO LIKE HIM! HE IS AWESOME! PLEASE STOP MAKING HIM SEEM LIKE A MORON!

Now when it came to graphics, some said it looked pixelated, but still very good for the current age (though I think the graphics look worse in what I’ve seen in Lost World, so I’m hoping that this isn’t going to be a trend.). The gameplay was apparently phenomenal. I sadly have NOT played Sonic Generations, I’ll say it now, I don’t own it, so I’m believing it. The gameplay’s amazing, and sent from Heaven or whatever. You can go nuts having fun with it. There’s tons of alternate paths, challenges, fun platforming, ect. The gameplay was done perfectly… but the rest of the game just doesn’t seem that good.

People have noted that Sonic Colors is better than Generations, mainly because while enjoyable, Generations was a bit boring with the lack of originality. But I still don’t think either games were better than Unleashed for a number of reasons.

~Unleashed had BETTER STORIES. Don’t deny it, even people who hate Unleashed can tell the story was much larger, and detailed than both games.
~The characters were enjoyable. There wasn’t a lot, but the main protagonists, Sonic and Chip, were enjoyable, and went through Character development.
~The Werehog was an interesting concept. And it showed Sonic’s good traits very well. Many times it showed how monstrous he looked, but Chip even notes that he knows Sonic isn’t like that as a person, and Sonic proves that he is the selfless hero he’s always been.
~The graphics (like I said before) were AMAZING, and better than both Generations and Colors. Granted it is a close call, but I can’t give Generations all the credit for its graphics because one, they used one of the Unleashed stages for it, and two, Unleashed had more variety in environment, while Generations had a lot of cities.
~Amy was in it, and she wasn’t annoying. Sure she did do the whole mistaken-Sonic-person bit, but that’s not Amy’s fault, that’s an annoying staple like “Long time no see.”. This might’ve been partly because of how little she did in the game, but when she was there she didn’t get in the way too much, and she didn’t get too clingy.
~When the gameplay was normal Sonic it was AMAZING! And it’s actually faster than in Colors and Generations. The feeling of speed in that game is quite enjoyable.
~The voices. Now the Tails they’re using now sounds… I actually can’t tell if I like him more, but everyone else they’ve changed (with the exception of Rouge) sound WORSE than before. Including Sonic. YES I loved Chris from Resident Evil. YES I love Ezio from Assassin’s Creed. But NO I don’t like how Sonic sounds now, and like before, his jokes, and personality, just make me hurt. I’ll admit, Griffith did NOT start out as a great voice actor, but he improved a LOT as time went on, and did very well in Unleashed, and more so (in my opinion) in Black knight, which is probably one of the most story-driven Sonic games out there. Smith sounds like he’s trying to make someone go “Bu dum psshhhhhhh” every time he speaks, which got old REALLY quick.

When I think of Sonic, I think of three games. I think of Sonic Heroes, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Unleashed. Each one pretty much shows what kind of character each voice actor is. Drummond (Heroes)was a smack-talk, risk-taking, adventure-seeking Sonic, and while I do prefer Griffith, I think that he sounds the most like Sonic would. Griffith (Unleashed) plays a heroic, caring, and chivalrous Sonic. Roger Smith (Colors) plays a fun-loving, care-free, headstrong Sonic. Now ALL of them were headstrong, and didn’t look ahead before jumping, but I found this the most apparent with Smith, and his roles.

However when I think of the game that simply DEFINES Sonic, I think Unleashed. Sonic Heroes showed Adventure, and thrill. Colors showed, honestly, the beginning of new starts and… friendship (no… I’m not making that reference.) Sonic Unleashed was all about Sonic’s heroism; how much he kept going and going no matter what, never getting discouraged, even when everyone else was. And when I hear “Endless Possibilities” I can’t help but smile. Even if none of these games existed, THAT song is the definition of Sonic The Hedgehog in my opinion.

So if you prefer Generations or Colors, that’s absolutely fine. Sonic Unleashed isn’t even my favorite Sonic game, Sonic Heroes is, and I like the story in Black Knight more than in Unleashed, but the game itself is still what I would consider the best of Sonic games because of how well everything it has merges together in their places.


If there is one thing I can say about Generations and Colors that is unfair to them, it’s that I fear that because of the direction they went, Sonic is going to get a less mature and less all-ages feel. I’m completely fine with how they were on the maturity scale, though I don’t prefer them, but from what I’ve seen of Sonic: Lost World, it looks like we might end up reverting to the old style, silent Sonic, with little story, silly villains, and lack of seriousness… and I’m sorry but that honestly makes me sad. I don’t want Sonic to back to the days of old, I think the feel that Heroes, Unleashed, and Black Knight had were perfect, and that I don’t think Sonic SHOULD revert after getting so high up the bar in maturity.

While it was a terrible game, Shadow the Hedgehog was extremely mature, stupidly of course, but when I think that a Sonic game had guns and cussing in it, and now I chibi critters, and cartoony villains, I go “What happened here?!” And I would still be saying that if it were Sonic 06, which while having a broken story, still had an interesting story, and Unleashed, or many of the other games. Games like the Rush series were interesting story-wise, and when the time comes that Sonic becomes so much like Mario that he’s the same, only faster… well… I simply don’t know if I’d be able to stay in the current fandom, but I will always remain true to the previous.


Sorry for getting off-topic at the end there. If you have an issue with this rant, I get it. Someone disagrees with you, you’re going through this glaring about all the bad-talk I’m giving these games, or maybe thinking I’m a Sonic-game hater maybe. All I can say to that is that I am giving my honest opinion and I do not mean to offend anyone.

Eat Pie and Prosper.