I find the fact that this franchise has persisted in spite of so many colossal fuckups, both from games and management at SEGA, morbidly inspiring.

You’d think that putting the devs of Sonic X-Treme through hell and back (fuck Yuji Naka btw, hope he rots in prison) only to cancel the game and miss the Saturn launch window would’ve been the nail in the coffin, but nope, the series still kept going.

You’d think Sega declaring bankruptcy and bowing out of the console race to become third-party would’ve capped off the Sonic series, but no, it still kept going.

Then you look at the dark age: Sonic Heroes being a launch third-party title with Iizuka nearly putting himself in the hospital a la Sakurai with Melee. And then Shadow the Hedgehog AKA “Sonic with guns”. Then Sonic the Hedgehog GBA being a shit-tier port that was so bad it catapulted Taxman into relevancy.

All culminating in what is still considered the worst Sonic game to date: Sonic 06, the game that was so fucking atrociously put together with half the team (the other half working on Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii just because they couldn’t get 06 running on the Wii) that it caused Yuki Naka to leave Sega, spawned various memes and was the start of many people getting into Youtuber game reviews, and solidified in the general conscious that, to quote IGN: “Sonic was never good”. I personally think this is the lowest point of the series, being rivaled only by the WiiU era, which I’ll get to.

But miraculously, that damn blue hedgehog just. kept. GOING!

And I think here is where the series started to see a turnaround, objectively, despite some additional issues:

Sonic Unleashed released, and though many reviewers dogged on the Werehog gameplay, many of those same reviewers praised the high-octane gameplay of the daytime stages, and I think to this day, Sonic Unleashed is the best a Sonic game has ever looked in terms of presentation. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more excited seeing Sonic gameplay than waking up that one morning to see the Abadat trailer for Unleashed: The music was upbeat, the gameplay shown was energetic, the visuals were gorgeous and bright. Unleashed was the first game I watched a Let’s Play of from beginning to end (thanks, Antdude!).

And that hedgehog kept going, and for once I felt somewhat positive about it.

Side note: Sonic Chronicles released, and while I did enjoy my first playthrough of it appreciating all the fan-service, I think this was the culmination of Sega not giving a shit about writing in external Sonic media that led to them enforcing the infamous mandates after being sued by fucKen Penders. I was really sad to learn that his lawsuit, and additional lawsuits by other Archie writers, Sega and Archie’s corporate Incompetence notwithstanding, effectively killed any further potential in telling Sonic stories with deep and personal themes. I genuinely don’t think we’ll see a Sonic RPG (on the level of Chronicles) ever again, nor will we see any Sonic comic that matches the depth and emotion of the post issue 160 era of the Archie comics (yes, that includes IDW and its lost potential, more on that later).

Sonic Colors was the return to form I think the series was in dire need of for the past decade, despite what time and the updated crapjob port might argue: A simpler story, a more varied environment through Eggman’a Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park, and gameplay that, while was mostly 2D, incorporated the Color Powers in ways that we haven’t seen since that made levels explorable.

Sonic Generations perfected the boost formula and mixture of 2D/3D gameplay both in modern Sonic’s levels and Classic Sonic’s levels, despite Classic not having 1:1 physics with the Genesis games (can you imagine how much cooler Gens could’ve been with Taxman working the 2D levels?!). I wish it was Ian Flynn working on the story originally, but hey, we eventually got our monkey’s paw wish with Sonic x Shadow Gens, with its awkward redubbing and writing on the Sonic side.

And then the hedgehog fucking stumbled yet again.

First off, fuck Nintendo and Sega for that stupid-ass WiiU exclusivity deal. Just Nintendo hooking a ball on Sega and chaining them to their failed console, and Sega just being their usual Sega self:

Mario and Sonic Olympic games fell off after London on the Wii. Sonic Lost World was fucking stupid (and the technical basis for the boost games moving forward as Forces, Frontiers, and Shadow Gens are essentially retooled Lost World physics masquerading as boost gameplay). I hate the gameplay, I hate the story, I hate that this game effectively spawned the Koopali-I mean the Deadly Six and their one-note personalities that wouldn’t show any semblance of potential until IDW and Crossworlds, and even then that’s not saying much. Literally the only good thing in this game is the Zelda DLC.

And then came Sonic Boom…the second biggest failure right behind Sonic 06. Fuck Sega and their meddling with Big Red Button and forcing them to put CryEngine on the WiiU and forcing BRB to change the story because Sega was too jingoist to allow the SPINOFF SERIES to invent a new backstory for Sonic and co. Thank god BRB made it out okay in the end, and the TV show had a decent second season before being unceremoniously cancelled.

And then sigh came Sonic Forces. A wet fart of a Sonic Generations clone with a wet fart of a story and paid Super Sonic DLC (no I don’t care if Sega made it free later, this was them getting greedy). At least Iam Flynn got to write the prequel comics that never fucking mattered in the first place.

Obviously this is where I would sing the high praises of Mania. But I’ll just say I will forever be scratching my head that Sega and Evening Star had a sequel planned and in development only the partnership to fall through. Fuck, man, that screenshot they released still hurts to look at because of all the lost potential. I still think to this day, Sega was jealous that someone outside of Japan made a better classic Sonic game than they did (fuck Sonic 4 btw).