Its History, and What to Expect for This Year
Sonic the Hedgehog. A video game mascot destined to rival the most iconic video game mascot in gaming history, Mario. A franchise that is loved by many, but also hated by many. First created on June 23 rd , 1991, this blue and fast hedgehog is going to celebrate its 30 th anniversary this year, and now, it’s time to look back to the past and see how far the blue blur has come.
In 1991, a video game company named SEGA released Sonic the Hedgehog for their console, the Sega Genesis, in order to rival Mario. In the 90’s, seeing a mascot that is willing to rival the red plumber was extraordinary. What made Sonic different from Mario were his blue and spiky appearance, and his attitude, making him a cool character. His fast paced gameplay was what made his games a massive success, so much so that it surpassed Mario but for a short period of time.
A year later in 1992, Sonic 2 was released and it was even better than the previous one, with much faster gameplay, new mechanics, Super Sonic, and the introduction of the two-tailed fox, Miles “Tails” Prower. A year later, Sonic CD was released to the Sega CD, a plugin to the Genesis that supported CD disks and high quality audio. Although the game was a bit less successful than the previous two, it’s still well known, thanks to the introduction of Amy Rose and Metal Sonic. But in 1994, Sonic 3 was released. It was a massive hit, with the introduction of Knuckles the Echidna, brand new zones, new mechanics, etc. However, SEGA tried to make he game longer, with more zones and features, but due to the cartridge space, they had to split the game in two: Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. And they came up with an idea never before seen: The Lock On Technology, that allowed two cartridges to join as one, making Sonic 3 & Knuckles. This game is arguably the greatest Sonic game released on the Genesis, and in the opinion of some people, one of the greatest in the entire franchise, it’s a game so good even the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, composed some of the tracks present in the game, after failing to compose for the Godzilla vs Mothra movie that was coming out in that time. However, he isn’t mentioned in the credits because he wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the tracks. The Sega Genesis had limitations, and ever since the tragic passing of Michael Jackson, the rights of the game’s music have been disputed for years now, and until the day comes where the dispute is solved, the game can’t be rereleased in modern devices, leaving Sonic 3 as a semi-lost game.
Since then, there were little to no games that reached the same success as the previous games, but in 1999, Sonic Adventure was released. It gave the franchise the inevitable jump to 3d and it was… A success! The game presented multiple campaigns where you could play as different characters such as: Sonic, Tails,Knuckles, Amy Rose, E-102 Gamma, and Big the Cat. The game featured open world gameplay, humans to talk to and a story that changed the franchise forever.
A few years later, the franchise would see one of, if not, the highest point in the franchise, with the arrival of Sonic Adventure 2. The game introduced fan favorite character Shadow the Hedgehog, and continued the story with great complexity as introduced in Adventure 1, the game brought back the multiple campaign systemfrom the last game too, this time introducing another fan favorite character Rouge the Bat, and for the first time in the whole franchise, you were allowed to play as the franchise’s iconic villain, Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik. The game also featured a 2 player versus mode, and the fan favorite mode, the Chao Garden, where you could take care of cute little creatures called Chao.
In 2003, Sonic Heroes was released. It wasn’t the Sonic Adventure 3 sequel people clammered for, instead this game featured a team based gameplay, it consisted of choosing a team, and for their whole campaign, you could switch between characters on the fly, this game was received with pretty good reviews; however, it wasn’t the game fans had been asking for, however…. what happened after changed the entire franchise forever…. It all began in the year of 2005, that year saw the release of Shadow the Hedgehog. This game came to a reality when SEGA made a survey to see which character would get to have its own game, and of course, the fans voted for Shadow. This was a spinoff game for Shadow, this game featured a “darker” story than your average Sonic game, the gameplay was limited only to Shadow, however, he could pick up weapons from enemies found within the level with other characters coming to his aid every chapter, the game also featured up to 12 diferent endings with a 13th one being unlocked after completing the rest of the endings, when this game came out, it was bashed by fans and critics alike, they thought the gameplay was sluggish and very repetitive, and the story was heavily criticized for trying too hard to be “cool and edgy” and all it ended up doing was ruining a beloved character in the franchise. Fans started to wonder if the franchise could go back to its glory days, and started to look forward to the next big milestone: Sonic’s 15th anniversary. This game was bad, but it was nothing compared to what was about to come… In the year 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released and… That game made the franchise hit rock bottom. The game was a mess: Full of bugs and glitches, hard to control in fast sections of levels, a messy story, you name it. 2006 was a terrible year for the blue hedgehog, and with this game, people started to take Sonic as a joke. After the critical failure that was Sonic 06, SEGA started trying to come up with something completely new for the franchise, they wanted to get on the fans good side again,so they went back to the drawing board and started engineering a new playstyle entirely, this all new playstyle would be known as the boost formula, this formula would debut in the new mainline Sonic game called Sonic Unleashed, the game was an attempt to bring sonic back to the positive light by trying something new, the game featured only one playable character: Sonic, which meant the multiple stories system was gone, instead the game followed only Sonic after he failed to stop Eggman from breaking the planet and awakening an evil force inside of it, now with the help of an amnesiac fairy named Chip, and some new powers inadvertently given by Eggman, Sonic has to travel around the world to re-power the Chaos Emeralds and put the planet back together, the game had 2 playstyles, the boost playstyle which consisted on collecting as many rings as possible in order to fill a meter that will let you boost really fast, this style was very positively received when it came out, however... We can’t really say the same for the second playstyle, this playstyle dubbed the “werehog levels” turned Sonic into a werehog (werewolf but with a hedgehog), and instead of having speed based gameplay, it had a more combat centered one, something similar to the God of War series. This style received mixed reviews when it came out, but in the end, the game was very well received and it was a step in the right direction for Sonic.
And so, the franchise was saved. Fans were happy that after all those years, they finally got a good Sonic game, and when SEGA announced Sonic 4 in 2010, fans were looking forward to it. When it got released, the game was… Okay, to say the least. The game featured a mix between 2d gameplay and 3d mechanics like the homing attack, and an air dash. In terms of bugs, the physics were weird, and the biggest example of this is a clip where Sonic is walking up a really steep mountain.
In brief, the game had mixed reviews, some people liked it, others didn’t.
Thankfully, later that year, Sonic Colors was released and the game was great! It introduced wisps: Entities that give Sonic power ups. Even though the game had a more child friendly story, it’s loved by many fans. This is it. The franchise reached its glory days again. Even though Unleashed made the franchise good again, it was Colors that got the job done. In 2011, Sonic’s 20th anniversary was coming, and fans were really excited for it. And Sonic Generations was released. It featured two kinds of gameplay: Modern Gameplay, where you could boost through the levels like the previous 3d Sonic games, and Classic Gameplay, where you could play 2d levels just like how the first Sonic games were in the 90s. The game was loved by fans and critics alike, making 2011 a great year for Sonic. In terms of Sonic 4, the game received a sequel in 2012, with better physics, new zones, etc.
It was an improvement over the first one. With the release of the Wii U, Sonic Lost World was released in 2013, and it was an average game. The boost gameplay got replaced with a parkour-like gameplay.
Everything was fine until 2014 arrived, and with it came the second lowest point of the franchise. Sonic Boom was released, and it suffered the same consequences as Sonic 06: Lots of bugs, a messy story, and what made the fans angry about this game was the fact that they redesigned the characters: Sonic now had blue arms and more spikes, Tails had a more technician like-design, Amy now had a new outfit, and Knuckles… spent a lot of time at the gym.
The franchise fell again, but in 2017, Sonic Mania, an official game made by a team of fans, was released and everyone loved it. The game brought back old zones, and gave them a twist. It also included different modes. The game was so good, it even got nominated for awards in 2017. SEGA planned to release 2 games: One being Mania, and the other being Sonic Forces. They wanted to link those 2 games, which is why their story is pretty similar. Later in 2017, Sonic Forces got released. Fans were really excited and when they played the game…
They got really disappointed. The game wasn’t good. The Classic physics got altered and were hard to control, the story was a bit confusing, the levels were linear to the point where you can beat the levels by pressing the boost button, but hey, at least you could create your own character, right?
Years passed, nothing really special happened (safe for a few racing games and bundles), and here we are. Sonic’s 30th anniversary is coming in June, and fans are already having high expectations. Recently, there have been leaks surfacing on the internet of a game called “Sonic Rift”. To this point, fans aren’t sure if this game is real or not. Fans are also speculating that there may be a remake of the Adventure games in the works, but only time will tell… so… what 's next? Outside of the games, Sonic saw the release of his live action movie, a movie which took the spot as the best video game movie of all time AND the highest grossing video game film of all time, and it will soon get a sequel, also, there is an upcoming sonic animated show being produced for netflix, also, Sonic has got a new ongoing comic series, which have proven to be great.
So… even if the new game doesn’t end up meeting the expectations set by old and new fans alike, there’s a lot of stuff to look forward to for this blue hedgehog, only time will tell where it takes him.
-By Angelo Martínez and Gabriel Guerra, Step 10.
