Sonic the Hedgehog 23rd Anniversary: My Top 5 Best Sonic Games

For any of you Sonic the Hedgehog fans out there, I'm sure you know that June 23 is the anniversary of your one and only Blue Blur. I actually didn't notice it myself since I'm currently on holiday (at the time it's posted) so I keep losing track of time, so thanks for all the reminders from my Twitter feeds. Since his debut in 1991, Sonic has come a really long way, I was first introduced to video games by Super Mario, kinda ironic since the first Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Sega Genesis was created to beat Mario's fame at the time, but I just find Sonic a lot cooler than Mario and I'll admit, if Mario weren't there to dominate the video game market back then, we wouldn't have the Sonic the Hedgehog we know and love today.

5. Sonic Adventure 2
As the game released to celebrate Sonic's 10th anniversary, the game is really well-done, many considered as the best all time 3D Sonic game, I simply call it great because of the fluid controls of the characters, deep story but nothing too serious, and how all the characters give a pretty good sense of speed. The game's is divided into 2 stories, Hero (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles) and Dark (Eggman, Shadow, Rouge) side. Overall it only has 3 different playstyle and I'm not saying I want more. They all do their jobs very well.

 Dr Eggman after finding his grandfather's diary about his creation 50 years ago that was taken into custody by the military, breaks into GUN's Prison Island (military base) and releases the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow after feeling grateful to Eggman for releasing him from his slumber shows Eggman the space colony ARK, it has an Eclipse Cannon that can destroy the Earth once it's powered by the 7 Chaos Emeralds, then Rouge as an undercover agent sent by GUN and as the treasure hunter that she is, pretends to join Eggman telling him that she can help collect the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow starts his mission to collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds and being a black hedgehog that he is, people mistake him for Sonic thus the military arrests Sonic instead of Shadow (they're colorblind or something?), Sonic being the smart-mouthed, rebellious hedgehog that hungers for adventure, dives off the chopper he's held in to find the one behind all this misunderstanding. That's pretty much the main plot.

Sonic and Shadow have the same playstyle, fast-paced platforming, reach the goal as fast as you can and it's pretty much the main highlight of the game, the control feels great, they move at high speed but you always have control, Sonic being the main character has the most stages, but Shadow only has 4 somehow, maybe because he's not the leader, since it's all Eggman who triggers the whole plot.













Tails and Eggman have the same playstyle, using a walker mech to shoot enemies in your path and plenty of platforming, I'll say this playstyle suits Eggman very well, but for Tails it just doesn't feel right, in Sonic Adventure, you control Tails on foot throughout the entire story, did he somehow break his legs off-screen, you can clearly see Tails walking off his mech in some cutscenes, turns out, Tails was originally not planned as a playable character, but to keep the balance of 3 vs 3, they just decided to put him in a mech, I don't like how the mechs control, it's quite slow, sluggish and the camera doesn't work right in some places.

Knuckles and Rouge playstyle is treasure hunting, you're placed in an open area and you need to collect 3 stuff, for Knuckles it's usually Master Emerald shards since it was shattered by himself to prevent it from being stolen by Eggman, while Rouge sometimes collects keys, Chaos Emeralds and also Master Emerald shards. They control well, they feel fast, both of them can glide that slows their descent and move around in the air to almost fly and traverse the area, they also can dig underground and climb walls, the stuff are hidden in different places, inside objects and enemies that you can just destroy, underground or inside walls that you can dig out and sometimes in the open, they have a radar that indicates you when the item is nearby, but the radars are set in an order, so there are times when you miss the second item because you need to collect the first item to activate the radar for the second item, this leads to frustration especially for first time players since their levels could be labyrinth-like confusing and the final levels are so wide I still get lost sometimes.


Soundtrack is brilliant, I'll say this game has one of the best soundtrack in all Sonic games alongside Sonic 06 soundtrack which is my worst Sonic game, Crush 40 does a great job making the soundtrack, but after a while you just get tired of the excessive use of electric guitars, it's still great though.

As a sequel to Sonic Adventure, I can't say it's more inferior, it does some of the things better than the last game but some of them just falls apart. I should also mention the Chao Garden that was introduced in Sonic Adventure makes a return where you can breed tiny baby-like creatures and play some minigames, it's not so interesting to me now in my opinion. Basically if you enter the Chao Garden as Eggman or Tails, you can control them on their feet, Tails controls quite well and Dr. Eggman is just seriously... odd... but in a funny way, it's funny how a man that fat can run so fast. I never own a Dreamcast or a Gamecube so I only started playing it when the HD remaster for PC was released, if only it were released for PC before or for a console that I owned, I'd enjoy the Chao Garden, I really enjoyed the Chao Garden in Sonic Adv DX when I was younger because the Chao Garden in this game offers more stuff to do than DX.

4. Sonic Adventure DX

Being the second Sonic game I've ever played, it's really a lovely game, the control feels right, a bit slippery to give you the sense of speed but never out of control, every character has their own interesting story although Big the Cat is pretty much pointless, seriously, if you erase Big from the game, the story still makes perfect sense. While graphically it's not the most impressive game even in the early days, it's still alright. This game gives you 6 playable main characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big, and E-102 Gamma. They all have their own unique play styles, while I don't like some of them, they're still fun to some extent.

The story is quite simple, Dr. Eggman, unleashes an ancient being that's basically a water monster named Chaos, this creature grows bigger and stronger every time it consumes a Chaos Emerald and if it's consumed all 7 of them, its name pretty much defines what's gonna happen to the world, although it seems quite simple, but with the variety of characters you can work with, their own purposes and objectives really gives the game plenty of depth.

Sonic's gameplay by far is the best, simple high speed platforming, reach the goal as fast as you can, there are plenty of pathways you can work with including some shortcuts that let you skip a whole chunk of a level if you can take advantage of the spindash. Gimmicky bits here and there like pinball game, snowboarding game and puzzles but nothing too annoying. Tails' gameplay is basically like Sonic but the speed is a bit toned down and he has the ability to fly, his gameplay is racing, you reach the goal before someone reaches it although since Tails is Sonic's sidekick and they're together in most of the game, he mostly races against Sonic.

Knuckles' playstyle is a bit unique and that's what makes this guy lovable, he's somewhat more combat oriented but he still has a good sense of speed, he has a glide that slows down his descent, he also doesn't feel heavy and that lets him almost fly, he can also climb walls and dig underground and these are really useful seeing that his gameplay isn't about reaching the end of a level but instead as the guardian of the Master Emerald he collects 3 Master Emerald shards in each level that're shattered all over the place when Chaos was unleashed, he has a radar which makes the treasure hunting game fun and never drags out and all 3 radars are active at the same time, allowing you to collect the pieces in any order (looking at you Sonic Adventure 2), his levels are open areas like a playground, but they're also isolated just right that it's never a pain exploring around, emerald shards can be found inside objects, enemies, underground or even in the open which really takes advantage of Knuckles' abilities. And, unlike Sonic, he doesn't chuckle
 
Amy's playstyle is moderately slower than the main trio since her gameplay is really platforming-heavy and you're constantly being chased by Zero, a robot made by Eggman that's ordered to retrieve a flicky (bird creature), now Amy has to keep the bird safe, every level is all about platforming, I was expecting a bit more stealth, but mostly it's all about running away to the balloon in the end of a level that flies you up out of reach of Zero.




Big's playstyle is fishing, his story is simple, his frog friend named Froggy accidentally swallowed Chaos in its wakest form Chaos 0 since he thought Chaos was just a puddle of water, for those who like fishing, I gotta say it's ok, but it's not something you put in a Sonic game, an obese purple cat who runs really slow trying to catch a frog with a fishing rod doesn't fit as a playable character in a Sonic game, it's really a pace breaker. Like I said, if Big weren't even in the game, the story would've still made perfect sense.

Last one is E-102 Gamma and I kinda like this one, Gamma is a battle robot created by Eggman alongside the other E-100 series, but somehow this one develops an emotion that makes him betray Eggman and because Eggman creates his robots from little animal, now Gamma's objective is to save those animals especially the E-100 series whom Gamma considers friends. This is where the story feels really deep and I'll admit I almost cried the first time I saw it. As a robot with an arm gun, the gameplay is pretty much a shooter, you hold the attack button to use your laser to lock on to as many enemies as you can and then release to shoot them, the longer shot chains you can rack up, the bigger time bonus you gain since each level has a time limit when playing as Gamma, although the pace is also a bit slower, it still does a good job giving you a perfect sense of speed and shooter.

This game also introduces hub world, a place where you can roam around outside the main levels and just talk to the people in town, it's great, the hub worlds are isolated and they have plenty of interesting stuff that makes them really stand out, the casino area in Station Square, the Master Emerald shrine and Tails' Workshop in Mystic Ruins, the Egg Carrier with Eggman's private swimming pool, slot machines, his maid robots mopping and sweeping the main deck, the world although doesn't feel like a living world, it does a good job intriguing me.

This game introduces Chao Garden where you can Breed baby-like creatures and play a bunch of minigames to kill time, these are entirely optional, got a kick out of it when I was younger, now I just don't find it interesting anymore.

The soundtrack is great, variety of music for each levels are beautifully done, every character has their own theme song and they're all really well performed, I have the complete soundtrack and listen to them sometimes.

It's far from a perfect Sonic game, but I can call it my ideal concept for a Sonic game, I want another Sonic Adventure game with a fun hub world, varied playstyle and controls right like this one, although the sequel Sonic Adventure 2 many people believe to have the best control in all 3D Sonic games, it somehow feels a bit too tight for my taste and the ring dash (actually named light-speed dash) button is also so finicky. This game was originally released as Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast, but I never own a Dreamcast, so I play the DX version on PC, a more graphically upscaled version with plenty of extra stuff to increase the replay value.

3. Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed introduces us to the Hedgehog Engine, the game engine developed by Sonic Team used to make this and the other 2 Sonic games after this. Using the Hedgehog Engine also giving a whole new gameplay that has never been seen before in a Sonic game. The graphics for this game is by far the best Sonic ever, the CGI cutscenes are like what you see in a Pixar movie, the lighting, and the game that sets Sonic on a journey around the world really takes a credit from this, the environment is so beautifully done.

Sonic goes to outer space to stop another one of Eggman's plans since he's built an entire armada and seems like going to start a war, Sonic jumps in and starts wrecking everything in sight, Eggman who doesn't wanna sit around sucking on his egg sandwiches and watch, jumps into his giant robot and confronts Sonic, right when he's got Sonic in his clutches, Sonic unleashes the power of the 7 Chaos Emeralds in his possession, turns into Super Sonic and blows Eggman's robot and his armada to bits in seconds and right when Sonic thought he's torn Eggman's plan apart, Eggman activates his device that absorbs the Chaos Emeralds' power, stripping Sonic off his super form and uses that power to charge up a cannon that shatters the Earth apart unleashing the slumbering Dark Gaia from the deep spreading its "seeds" all over the Earth. Somehow a bit of Dark Gaia transforms Sonic into the Werehog that gives massive puberty hormones giving him more combat power, elastic arms, thicker fur, sharp fangs and claws, and a deeper harder voice and... spiky shoes... somehow... in exchange for his speed. After being dumped back into Earth with the powerless Chaos Emeralds, Sonic meets a new friend who's got amnesia somehow, Sonic feeling guilty thinking he could've been the one who fell on the little guy's head decides to help out and since the little guy has an amnesia, Sonic decides to call him Chip. They're now on a quest to restoring Earth and returning Chip's memories. Nobody died when the Earth shattered, I guess... Ah Sonic is a children friendly game anyway, I'll assume so.

Gameplay is all about speed during the day, it does make the game more linear but there are still plenty of platforming and multiple pathways, and now you have the Sonic Boost you can charge from collecting rings and hold down (in PS3 & 360 version) to keep boosting and maintain the boost meter from emptying by collecting rings and destroying enemies. In the Wii and PS2 version, the boost bar is divided into chunks and pressing the boost button makes Sonic go boosting for like 2 seconds and lose a chunk of boost gauge. During a Sonic Boost, Sonic can toss everything in sight from objects and enemies, but you still have to look out for electric charged and spiky enemies and traps. The Sonic Boost can also be used to make shortcuts that lets you skip out bits of the level and reach the end faster, in fact, this game prompts you to get the best time possible and careless, excessive use of boost leads to death or hitting a wall that stops Sonic's pace instantly (in HD version), in the standard version, boosting into walls has this animation of Sonic hitting the wall in the face, falling down and regaining his footing which slows your progress.

At night, everything changes, Sonic's fur grows thicker, his voice grows deeper and harder, his arms grow big and can stretch like rubber, he has sharp fangs and claws and his shoes turn spiky, he's now Sonic the Werehog, his gameplay is more combat-oriented and with a lot of platforming, he can grab poles, ledges and stuff and hang on to them with his arms, he's lost his speed, now you don't have the boost. it's God of War for kids... what's lovely about it is the variety of combos you can unlock by upgrading your stats with the EXP you gain from enemies and eating food you can buy in the hub worlds throughout the continents. Normal Sonic also has this upgradable stats element for the speed and the boost gauge, the Werehog just has more variety, upgrade you combat to unlock combos, upgrade your health bar, strength and some other stuff. Gameplay for the nighttime levels is ok, I like the combat, it's somewhat simple and it's got depth, platforming sections are ok mostly, it gets annoying when the camera locks at an angle and the Werehog doesn't have a drop shadow which leads to some frustrating deaths. The levels are also very long, a level could take over 30 minutes to beat, and it's just frustrating when you die in the last quarter part of a level since you restart from the checkpoint losing all the points you've racked up. Enemy also has plenty of variety, that keeps the combat enjoyable. Overall the Werehog isn't so great but it's not some unplayable mess, you'll replay them a few times and then never touch them again because the day stages are a lot more fun and they only last for 5 minutes tops.

As I said, there are hub worlds in the game and since you go around the world, you're gonna see tons of different people, the hub worlds are also isolated, each hub has like 5-8 people you can talk to, some has side quests you can play and gain reward from it and a store that sells souvenirs and food from their country. This game also has sun and moon medals which are important for your progression, they actually unlock the stages in the game, so if you never pay attention to them, you may find yourself stuck in the middle of the story that makes you have to backtrack for medals, you don't need to collect all the medals for the main story, though, only like half of each medals needed for the main story while the rest unlock extra stages and bragging rights. Medals are found anywhere, in hub worlds, in stages, some are placed in plain sights, some are placed in the end of a set of obstacles some are hidden in places you almost never think about checking which are annoying

The soundtrack for this game is brilliant, every continent has its own theme and they're all beautifully done, the theme song is beautiful. It's certainly one of the best Sonic soundtrack. It's been a thing now that every Sonic game always has an amazing soundtrack, I sure hope it's gonna stay that way.

Gameplay-wise, this game is a lot of fun, I remember playing the PS2 version a lot, I never finished the game, got stuck in the final level, but when I got the 360 version, I played tons of it and finished it, the HD version does have a lot more contents, better graphics, and better controls, but the standard version also has its own specialty. It's kinda funny how the newcomer Chip in this game becomes the main sidekick while Tails is just there as the pilot, I imagine when Sonic and Chip are busy destroying robots and saving people from Dark Gaia creatures, Tails is just sitting in his plane crying or something. The story is very well-done, I can really feel Sonic and Chip's relationship as buddies portrayed in the story, gameplay-wise, the friendship is entirely based on food, by giving him sweets Chip always gets happy and as your unseen friendship meter grows, you gain some extra stuff as well, giving him spicy food or the canned horror from Holoska really ruins his mood. This game is also pretty much what restores hope to many Sonic fans after the abomination Sonic 06 was, it's a really great comeback of the Blue Blur of course.

2. Sonic Colors

The follow-up to Sonic Unleashed, Sega has finally started listening to the fans, Sonic Colors also runs on Hedgehog Engine and this time it's all about speed platforming, no Werehog, no team formations, no weapons, it's all Sonic going fast, jumping from platform to platform, running through loops, jumping on robots, collecting rings and all the stuff you'd expect from the core gameplay Sonic's always been known for.
So what's so great about it? This game has an interesting gimmick, introducing Wisps, a race of aliens that run on hyper-go-on powers, kinda like their life force and when absorbed by Sonic grants him special abilities like turning into a laser that blazes through super fast, turning into a drill to dig underground, rocket that blasts him upwards so high and lots more according to their respective color. Sonic Boost also makes a return, it's just toned down and now you charge the gauge with the white wisps you find in capsules and enemies instead of ring energy. This wisp powers gimmick is also mostly optional, this game usually gives multiple ways you reach the end, mostly you can just depend on Sonic's basic skills or there's a wisp capsule available that lets you go through a pathway that regular Sonic can't use that leads to collectibles, bonuses and shortcuts. You don't unlock all the wisps from the beginning, you need to rescue them first in a certain stage before they can appear in other stages which offers you plenty of replay value for this game. Gameplay is more about platforming than Sonic Uneashed, it's slower but still allows you to go fast and the none of the stages drag on too long, you only play as Sonic which is a bit of a letdown since I wanna see if different characters can actually utilize the wisps' powers in many different ways

The story is simple and cheesy, this is a Sonic game that's seriously come back to its roots, the plot is basically Sonic and Tails going on an adventure once again to stop Eggman's evil plan. Dr. Eggman has created an interstellar amusement park and says that he's turned over a new leaf, he clearly says from the PA announcement that this park has nothing to do with taking over the world or any evil stuff, Sonic and Tails being only curious or just knows that Eggman is being sarcastic like he's actually

begging them to come in and trash the whole park... that's actually a pretty good point, I mean there would be no game otherwise, right? It seriously doesn't take long at all to show that Eggman is clearly enslaving and capturing these wisps to extract their life force to power a doomsday cannon for some more world domination plan. The interactions between Sonic, Tails and Yacker, a white wisp with a hair are hilarious, Dr. Eggman has also built 2 robot assistants and the interactions are also funny and cheesy, it's clearly not a game to be taken seriously.

This game also introduces us to the new voice casts, I think Jason Griffith does a better job in voicing Sonic than the new one, Roger Craig Smith, it just sounds like Sonic's having a sore throat the first time, after a while, the voice rubs in on you and Tails' new voice actor's better than his last one in my opinion, he sounds more masculine now than in Unleashed, I don't like his voice before this, it just feels like it's really forced somehow and now the voice just feels more natural.

Gameplay is pretty much Unleashed but it's a bit slower, it's got more focus on platforming and more 2D sections, I think it's simply because the Wii isn't as powerful as 360 and PS3 since the game is only on Wii, there is an NDS version, but it's only a 2D Sonic game like the Sonic Rush series. With the wisps power-up in the game, it really keeps the game fresh and enjoyable, Sonic also has a double jump and you activate it by pressing the jump button 2x when Sonic's not targeting anything or else he'll perform the homing attack, his jump feels somewhat floaty which could make the platforming somewhat tricky. Sonic Colors is a game that hands out extra lives like winter coats sales on summer, and being a perfectionist, I restart a stage a lot just to get the high score and restarting doesn't cost a live, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but they might as well give Sonic infinite lives instead of giving him extra lives in every corner. Sonic Colors has plenty of diverse environment, they're all unique and creative, you have a resort area, Planet Wisp that looks very beautiful, Starlight Carnival that dropped my jaw the first time I saw it and asked myself "am I seriously playing this on the Wii??", an aquarium park that looks very beautiful and got lots of robot fish, really gets me in the mood for metal sushi... yum... yum...

Like any other Sonic games released recently, the soundtrack never disappoints, every music has its own unique style and they're all beautifully done, I have the entire soundtrack in my phone and I love every single track they put in the game. It may sound somewhat childish for some people, so that seriously depends on your taste.

Sonic Colors is the result of Sonic Team trying to simplify things and come back to the roots of Sonic the Hedgehog, simple story, fast platforming gameplay, and wisps power-ups really makes the game colorful. I think I finally know why Sonic Colors isn't released for 360, because the game has tons of Red Rings. The joke doesn't work on PS3 and PC though...

1. Sonic Generations

Being the game released for the celebration of Sonic's 20th anniversary, this game is simply great, although I'll say the console version feels quite meh because it's clearly way shorter than Unleashed and Colors, graphically not as impressive as Unleashed either, but this game has only regular Sonic's gameplay and it's a lot of fun, and seeing it running on PC in solid sexy silky-smooth 60FPS is simply magnificent. This game also returns the classic young cuter Sonic from the Genesis era reimagined in 3D.

Just like Sonic Colors the story is simple, the story starts off with Sonic's friends surprising Sonic with a birthday party, when they're busy celebrating, suddenly a giant purple monster named the Time Eater blows the picnic table away, and sucks Sonic's friends into different locations from modern Sonic's past, Sonic tries to stop it but got slapped in the face and passed out, when he wakes up, he finds himself in an empty white world, Time Eater has erased the world from existence it seems, and now with the help of his younger self, classic Sonic, they need to help his friends... I mean their friends... (the same person from different timeline, do we use singular form?) and restore everything back to existence. Prepare yourself for a roller coaster ride through memory lane if you're a long-time Sonic fan.

Seeing all the past Sonic stages reimagined in classic style and modern style is pure fan service, everything's so well-designed just like the original while still keeping plenty of fresh ideas that keeps the game from looking like a carbon copy of previous games, modern Sonic plays like how he is in Unleashed and Colors but now the controls've been massively enhanced, now it feels so smooth and direct, the movement isn't as slippery as Unleashed, Unleashed's day stages are mostly a roller coaster ride while Generations offers plenty of platforming, of course if you want to get the best time possible, you need to keep the pace moving, if you just wanna keep a decent speed while enjoying the scenery, by all means, this game isn't holding you.

Classic Sonic's gameplay is 2D platforming like back in the old Genesis days, reimagined with a 3D sensibility is great, you can see the background like it has depth, some areas have an automated camera that enhances your experience even more, Sonic moves very well, although the physics is a bit different from the Genesis games and the Spindash has been enhanced now it's so powerful that it almost feels like a chargeable Sonic Boost and utilizing the spindash leads you to shortcuts while careless usage leads to frustrating deaths.

 This game's soundtrack is mostly filled with remixes from previous game soundtracks and just like any other Sonic soundtracks, they're all magnificent, some remixes are actually better than the beautifully done original versions, they really know how to make a soundtrack.

Playing this on console feels meh after a while because you can't really try something new other than the extra challenges and collecting the Red Rings in all the stages which unlocks extra stuff in the gallery and skills. On PC, you have the Sonic modding community, you can try mods made by fans from all around the world, it could be alternate characters since you can originally play only as the 2 Sonics, different stages from other previous Sonic games and even the entirely different adventure packs based on Sonic Unleashed in 60FPS! It's a worthy game to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary and by far, the best Sonic game I know.

If you've gone all the way here and have read everything, I suggest you reward yourself with a little bit of eye relaxer. There you go, my top 5 best Sonic games of all time, I'm still looking forward to the future of Sonic games and I'm pissed because Sonic Boom is only coming to Wii U and 3DS which I don't own, I hope they consider of making a PC port or at least let the next Sonic game released for PC. To all Sonic fans out there, cheer! And happy birthday, Sonic. Stay awesome, never slow down!