Retro|Spective 061R: Sonic the Hedgehog

[Neon Ignition]

Game 18 - Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
Originally intended to be a mobile phone spin-off, the project was retooled into becoming a belated true sequel to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles project with Sonic Team and Dimps working on it as a three episode long title. The third episode would go the way of a Valve franchise and never come to be after this initial released episode received a very lukewarm reaction. Solid reviews and strong sales meant Sega would go on to make a second episode but initial complaints about the physics engine have raged on in subsequent years leading to a poor reputation today.






Does Episode I deserve its reputation?

[Asura]

Game 17 - Sonic Rush Adventure
Alternate dimensions, robot pirates and sea travel. The sequel to Rush moved the side action platforming further from its roots but the core gameplay remained 2D levels mixed with 3D bosses. Despite the change in elements it was seen as a solid but very familiar entry.
Was the second DS entry a worthy one?

I really wanted to like this after Rush, but it just had too much padding.

If I remember rightly, there was this jetski minigame with which you had to engage, which wasn't great and formed a large segment of the game. You had to navigate the world like in Wind Waker.

To relate an example, Sonic Adventure had the levels with Big the Cat, but those were few, and you only had to do them at the very end of the game, and back-to-back took under half an hour. This jetski thing was throughout the game, unskippable, and incredibly dull.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 17 - Sonic Rush Adventure
Alternate dimensions, robot pirates and sea travel. The sequel to Rush moved the side action platforming further from its roots but the core gameplay remained 2D levels mixed with 3D bosses. Despite the change in elements it was seen as a solid but very familiar entry.








Was the second DS entry a worthy one?

[Asura]

I think probably my biggest issue with these games is that the Mega Drive versions had evolved from the first to the third to remove what felt like unfair bottomless pits. They still existed in some stages (the air stages I think) but generally they were gone in most levels and very controlled and made clear in others.

The Sonic Rush games just turned everything into a leap of faith and you could have no idea if there was going to be something on the other side of your jump or if this would be yet again another miss and a bottomless pit. And that annoyed me.

I found I didn't have that problem as long as I had the "rush energy", or whatever the resource was called. But that's a really bad design.

It makes me think, why has there never been a Sonic game that's a rhythm-action platformer? That just seems a bit of a slam-dunk.

[Dogg Thang]

I think probably my biggest issue with these games is that the Mega Drive versions had evolved from the first to the third to remove what felt like unfair bottomless pits. They still existed in some stages (the air stages I think) but generally they were gone in most levels and very controlled and made clear in others.

The Sonic Rush games just turned everything into a leap of faith and you could have no idea if there was going to be something on the other side of your jump or if this would be yet again another miss and a bottomless pit. And that annoyed me.

[Asura]

Game 16 - Sonic Rush
The last entry to have Naka's involvement was the the one that saw the franchise migrate to Nintendo DS. Rush spread the action over the dual screen display and introduced Blaze the Cat to the series. It also made use of 3D for the boss battles as well as stylus operated special zones
Did this entry give you a Rush?

I enjoyed this one. It didn't feel much like the Megadrive originals but as its own beast, I thought it was really fun (though actually, remembering it, I wasn't a huge fan of the bosses).

Hated the sequel.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm going to lay it out here, I never liked the dual screen set up of the DS much. There were some inventive titles on the device but in general many opted for touch screen elements from the lower screen that added little. Others opted to expand the screen image across both displays and that not only added little but actively annoyed with the plastic divide between the two.

It's another discussion for another time toward how out of Nintendo's handhelds I broadly regard the NDS as the weakest but this Sonic felt like it rested on that aspect whilst presenting an overall weaker entry

[Dogg Thang]

It did not.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 16 - Sonic Rush
The last entry to have Naka's involvement was the the one that saw the franchise migrate to Nintendo DS. Rush spread the action over the dual screen display and introduced Blaze the Cat to the series. It also made use of 3D for the boss battles as well as stylus operated special zones.







Did this entry give you a Rush?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 15 - Sonic Advance 3
Adding in a team mechanic that received a mixed response, the final Advance title was otherwise well received and was more of the same otherwise for this arm of the franchise.






Did Advance 3 prove its worth?

[Asura]

Christ, I thought I was the only one who still remembered the weirdest era of UK:R.

BLUE SKIES FOREVER

[Hirst]

If it's possible, Sonic Advance 2 has slipped from my memory even more than the first. The Cream meme's on UK Resistance are probably its greatest legacy

Christ, I thought I was the only one who still remembered the weirdest era of UK:R.

[Neon Ignition]

If it's possible, Sonic Advance 2 has slipped from my memory even more than the first. The Cream meme's on UK Resistance are probably its greatest legacy

[Neon Ignition]

Game 14 - Sonic Advance 2
A Sonic game with a 2 in the title must be great, right? Turned out in just eight months, the sequel is very much more of the same from the prior entry but tweaked some of the more criticised elements to iron out the experience. Some reviews however stated the game was overly difficult. Also, the point where the awkwardly title Cream the Rabbit appeared.







2 Good or 2 Bad?

[Neon Ignition]

That's kind of the issue with Advance, it doesn't look as good as the latter MD games (though I get why the GBA meant it took this look) and it's all kind of forgettable