Sonic The Hedgehog’s Resurface from the Road Bumps. Part 2 !
By: Anthony DePace
Sonic’s fall from grace started when the controversial game Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 was released. Instead of it being a celebration for 15 years, it was the beginning of his franchise of games becoming a joke. This was due to how the game felt unfinished from the amount of bugs were in the game. From the long loading screens to the uncanny movement in cutscenes that felt almost devoid of the atmosphere that gave so much fast paced action you would expect from Sonic. While it did introduce new characters such as Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog (a hedgehog from the future) with a new antagonist Mephilis, that wouldn’t be enough to save the reputation of this game. It made fans question how the future of Sonic games would look, as Sonic always experimented, but some games were more ambitious than others.
In 2008 Sonic fans would see a spark of hope, as Sonic Unleashed would come out. The game would show Sonic thwarting Eggman’s plans as usual until Sonic becomes corrupted with Dark Gaia’s energy. Dark Gaia is planet Earth’s ancient evil energy, and Sonic needs to work with the Light Gaia, Chip, to seal it away and save the Earth. Along the way he finds the Chaos Emeralds and goes to the Gaia Temples to quell the Earth and learn to use his new form, the Werehog. The Werehog is Sonic’s form he takes when it becomes night and uses his stretchy arms in combat. The game is mixed by fans, they love the atmosphere, but despite the werehog feeling slow, the fans love how his combat looks and feels.
Sonic would do spin-off games like Sonic Riders, which was a hoverboard racing game, and while it brought new life, it still wasn’t a return to form. Other games would be Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic and the Sacred Rings, which were classified as ‘Story Book’ games. Sonic would also participate in the Olympic games with his franchise against Mario and his group. This was the first time the big names were butting heads in a competition of the same game. The game would be released in 2007 on Wii, and the last installment would be in 2020 as of now with the Tokyo Games on Wii. U. Sonic would get his own racing game with the first being Sonic and Sega All-Stars racing in 2010. It would contain the main Sonic cast and some of SEGA’s other properties.
Sonic Generations would be released in 2010 on Xbox, PlayStation, and later PC. It follows Sonic celebrating his birthday, but then his party is interrupted by Time Eater, a being that wants to destroy all of time. Sonic travels through many old zones, such as Green Hills, Chemical plant, etc. Along the way he encounters his younger self, and they team up to help restore their friends and fix the timeline. They fight enemies from the past such as the Death Egg Robot, Chaos, and Eggman himself. To achieve the Chaos Emeralds in this game, you have to complete challenges to get keys and challenge rivals such as Shadow, Metal Sonic, and Silver. Once Sonic had gotten all the Emeralds, the end of the game sees both Sonics going Super to beat both the Eggmen and save the day. The game got a re-release in 2024 with Sonic X Shadow Generations, adding Shadow’s story as he goes through his past, present, and future stages. He fights his own battles against Black Doom, and fans loved it, as Shadow had finally gotten the spotlight that he missed out on for years as of this point.
Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric would come out in 2014 releasing on the Nintendo WII U, and not only was it disconnected from previous entries, but the characters would feel like a parody of themselves. In this game you play Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles fighting against a lizard named Lyric from a past civilization to take over the world and destroy anyone who got in his way. This game took a puzzles-like approach to the blue hedgehog, and it was not received well. It was once again, another buggy empty open world beat-em up game, and fans were not happy with how the story of the game contributed nothing to the overall main story, as this game was drastically different from past entries. It would also spawn two 3ds games, and a hilarious TV show that audiences grew to love, but that unfortunately got cancelled after about 2 seasons.
We would unfortunately get another game that would further drag Sonics’ fame through the mud. In 2017 Sonic Forces was shown, and while it promised a dark atmosphere and many new ideas, it was released to be unfortunately underwhelming to longtime fans. It was a side scroller that felt like the story barely impacted the heroes and was only another hurdle. Levels felt automated and rushed; the only main selling point was making your own character, and the game left much to be desired. Fans saw it as a slap in the face, as they had waited in anticipation only for it to be a game that the most hardcore Sonic fan could beat in about an hour.
During 2018 Sonic’s comic had been republished under the name of IDW under the head writer Ian Flynn. He had been known for working with Sonics comics in the past under the company of Archie Comics but had since moved due to the publishing rights of Archie being discontinued. The comics are part of the main continuity, but it isn’t pushed through commercials like video games are, but they are accessible through websites or your local comic bookstore. It is still being published to this day under IDW with its 82nd issue on the way.
It was rumored around 2019 Sonic the Hedgehog would be entering the big screen, and while it was a breath of fresh air, it would soon become polluted. Sonic did not look like anyone expected; his proportions were strange and almost humanlike; his hands didn’t have gloves or his iconic shoes but instead paws. He looked more like a copycat than the real Sonic. After this outrage against the design, fans made their voices heard that the design was not their Sonic. The movie writers heard this and changed his design, and in the following year, his design looked just the same as the one from the video games. The movie would be released in 2020 the following year, and would gross 319 million dollars, proving how successful it was, the Sonic movie 2 would release in 2022 with 405 million, and the Sonic movie 3 released in 2024 with an astonishing 419 million. Sonic 4 was announced and as of now is set to be released in April of 2027.
In the year 2021 we would get a teaser at what would be Sonic Frontiers, a return to grace for the blue blurs Modern counterpart. It was an open world game with Sonic using new moves other than his trademark spin dash and was released in the following year, 2022.
The latest Sonic game that is soon to come out, is Sonic Racing CrossWorlds. Sonic’s own racing game with new and familiar cast members returning to drive in this new action-packed racing title.
Sources: Who made Sonic the Hedgehog? – Games Learning Society