Ranking the Sonic Games

[Hawki]

This isn't the first ranking thread I've done, but it's going to be the most challenging. Because there's a hell of a lot of Sonic games, and I've played a hell of a lot of them. So, with Sonic Mania coming out in a few days, I thought "okay, I need a reason to procrastinate, let's do the ranking thing" again.

So, I'll list those I feel comfortable in ranking. Those with an asterisk are ones I haven't completed, but have still played enough of (IMO) to assess. And I know this is going to generate a lot of snark (and I have some of my own), but still, discussion is welcome.

So, on that note:

35) Sonic R (no, I can't feel the sunshine, shut up!)*

34) Sonic Drift (Mario Kart this ain't)*

33) Sonic Blast (garbage)*

32) Sonic Labyrinth (why? WHY?!)*

31) SegaSonic the Hedgehog (seriously, what was up with that trackball?)*

30) SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter (voice acting is terrible, but shooting stuff in space is always fun)

29) Tails' Sky Patrol (gimme chilli dogs over candy any day)*

28) Sonic Championship (like Virtua Fighter, but not as good)*

27) Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (bad, but not completely without redeeming value)*

26) Shadow the Hedgehog ("guns are bad, m'kay?")

25) Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (um...yay?)*

24) Sonic Chronicles (the game that killed BioWare before Mass Effect 3)*

23) Sonic Pinball Party (can't screw up pinball I guess)*

22) Sonic Triple Trouble (zones are too long)*

21) Sonic Chaos (it's...fine, I guess?)

20) Sonic CD (or, a story of what happens when developers do drugs)

19) Sonic Shuffle (flawed, but a net positive)

18) Sonic 3D Blast (dull, but acceptable)*

17) Sonic Advance 3 (the most frustrating Sonic Advance game)

16) Sonic the Hedgehog (8 bit) (fun little game)

15) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8 bit) (who starts off a game with lava?!)

14) Sonic Spinball (pretty enjoyable, but hard as hell)

13) Sonic Advance (reasonable, but nothing special)

12) Sonic Pocket Adventure (pretty fun, at the end of the day)

11) Sonic Advance 2 (what happens when you look at Sonic Advance 1 and say "gotta go fast"...er)

10) Sonic Heroes (where the "super power of teamwork" gives us a very flawed, but still enjoyable game)

9) Sonic Battle (pretty fun 2D fighter)

8) Sonic Riders (finally, a Sonic racing game done right)

7) Sonic Rush (and who said 2D Sonic was dead?)

6) Sonic Adventure 2 (not as good as its predecessor, but when it's good, it's really good)

5) Sonic Rush Adventure (avast, me hearties!)

4) Sonic the Hedgehog (16 bit) (SEGA!)

3) Sonic Adventure (best 3D Sonic game)

2) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16 bit) (yes, I cried at the ending, thanks for asking)

1) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (best in the series, favorite platformer...as long as we're counting these as a single entry)

There's three other Sonic games that I've played (Secret Rings, Tails Adventure, Unleashed), but don't feel comfortable ranking here due to not having played enough of them to really give them a fair shot.

So, anyway, agree, disagree, comment "damn, how'd you play so many of these games?", take your pick.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No Colors or Generations, supposedly the only two good 3D Sanic games?

 

[Hawki]

No Colors or Generations, supposedly the only two good 3D Sanic games?

Haven't played them.

 

[American Tanker]

Anyone who says the Genesis Sonic games aren't the best is full of crap.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I concur with these guys on sonic...


But the only one that probably earned any form of appreciation that wasn't fleeting in the mind of a younger, less critical woodland mammal would be Adventure 2. The first was pretty bad but it felt ok at the time.

 

[shrekfan246]

No Colors or Generations, supposedly the only two good 3D Sanic games?

Haven't played them.

You ought to, unless the reason you didn't play much of Unleashed was that you hated the non-Werehog sections of the game.

OT: I can't really put them into a numbered system, but I can separate most of them into a few different categories. Note that my experience with some of these games is second-hand, either through only playing a little myself and then watching other people play them or through just watching multiple playthroughs of them online. In the spirit of the OP I'll mark those with an asterisk.

EDIT: Actually, Deserves Its Own Separate Category -

Sonic '06

Bottom of the Barrel -

Sonic Labyrinth
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric*
Sonic and the Secret Rings*
Sonic and the Black Knight*
Sonic Free Riders*

Pretty Bad, But With A Soft Spot In My Heart -

Sonic Blast
Sonic R
Sonic The Fighters
Sonic Drift 1&2
Sonic 4 Episode 1

Mostly Okay -

Sonic Triple Trouble
Sonic Chaos
Sonic 1&2 8-Bit
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic Battle
Sonic Rivals 1&2
Sonic Advance 3

A Few Really Good Bits Brought Down By Some Really Bad Decisions -

Sonic Adventure 1&2
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Lost World
Sonic Heroes
Sonic 4 Episode II
Sonic Spinball

Does This Even Count? -

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - (What Sonic Drift wanted to be, for the record)
Shadow the Hedgehog
Knuckles Chaotix
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Preeeetty Good -

Sonic Advance 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 16-bit
Sonic CD
Sonic Riders
Sonic Rush
Sonic Rush Adventure*
Sonic 2 16-bit
Sonic Colors

Pump It Right Into My Veins -

Sonic Advance
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic Generations

 

[Hawki]

You ought to, unless the reason you didn't play much of Unleashed was that you hated the non-Werehog sections of the game.

"Hated" is too strong a word, but Sonic Unleashed got cast to the side for me because I...I guess "burned out" is the right word to use here. It's really a combination of factors:

-Sonic, at the end of the day, is a franchise that's primarily targeted at a younger audience. Not saying that adults can't enjoy it (heck, I like MLP as an adult), but I would have been 17 when Unleashed came out. So, basically at the cusp of adulthood, before reaching the point in adulthood where I can enjoy some stuff aimed at kids, but in a manner very different from kids (again, see MLP), if at all.

-The 3D games were losing me at this point. SA1/2 I loved. Heroes was reasonably enjoyable, but hampered by wretched story, wretched dialogue, and the Chaotix. Shadow was a mess, and '06...well, wider thoughts aside, I just lost interest in the game - it's not a good sign when I end up enjoying Silver's stages the most in a franchise that's been about speed mostly. So, here comes Sonic Unleashed, which is another 3D game in a series that, for me, has had 3D games each be worse than the one preceeding them.

-Coming to Unleashed itself, I find the werehog stages...okay, I guess, basically unremarkable brawling/platforming. But what I really dislike about the gameplay of Unleashed is the boost formula. I think it worked great in Rush, but loathed it here. The Sonic games have always had some level of automation, the 3D ones especially (the killer whale, the truck, etc.), but the boost formula, for me, felt like I'd lost control. Just keep moving, plough through everything, etc.

I will say that having watched Unleashed, its story is certainly a step up from Heroes/Shadow/06, but come Colors, which is exclusive to a console that I had little desire to get, coupled with changing tastes (desire for narrative, and let's face it, Sonic as a series isn't really the best place to get that), coupled with how 'kiddy' it looked (which was probably a good move in hindsight, but at the time, I loathed it), I never made the jump.

Still, I don't feel comfortable ranking Unleashed, because I don't think I played enough of it to really give it a fair placing. Granted, I've played some games for far shorter a period of time (e.g. Sonic R), but any evaluation then would be clouded by where I was in my life at the time, and where the series was as well.

 

[shrekfan246]

But what I really dislike about the gameplay of Unleashed is the boost formula. I think it worked great in Rush, but loathed it here. The Sonic games have always had some level of automation, the 3D ones especially (the killer whale, the truck, etc.), but the boost formula, for me, felt like I'd lost control. Just keep moving, plough through everything, etc.

Well, that's what I was talking about. Personally, I absolutely love that style of gameplay, especially because it's not something I can really get anywhere else, at least not with the same level of satisfaction that Colors and Generations can provide. I actually think the boost gameplay works better in 3D than 2D; though I've never had any issues with the Rush gameplay like some other people who criticize the games have, I still think that the basic formula from the Genesis games or Advance just work better because the level design in Rush ends up suffering from the same problems of automation, just in 2D. (Side-note: It also meant that the difficulty level was artificially raised by just putting speed boosters and bottomless pits everywhere, which I'm not that down with.) Kind of a personal preference thing, but the 3D boosting has always just felt far more exciting to me.