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Best Sonic game?

Inspired by another thread. :)

Main consoles prioritized.

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1. Sonic 1 (Genesis): This is hard. I know many people consider Sonic 2 better, but always felt Sonic was tighter, with greater level diversity, better character designs (especially enemies) and the best soundtrack in all Sonics. Furthermore, the special stage in this one is really the best one. A classic.

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2. Sonic 2 (Genesis): Slightly faster and longer than Sonic 1. It has Tails which is probably the best designed 'Sonic friend' in any Sonic title. It also features a better and more complete two-player, split-screen game compared to what's available in Sonic 3. The special stage was novel and a great thing it could be played with two-players, but not really a match to the skills required in the one in Sonic 1 and 3.

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3. Sonic Adventure 1 (Dreamcast): It's buggy, looks a bit rough around the edges, could have done without the overworld/adventure part and some of the extra characters too, but it remains the damned best Sonic in 3D for everything else it does. Some of the levels and soundtrack is top-notch. Lots of gameplay variety too.

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4. Sonic CD (Sega CD): This one always felt like a sloppy remix of Sonic 1 to me. It has many similarities, especially with all the levels and animation cells, but the design is not quite there. The special stage is also a choppy, flat, Mario Kart clone. It still plays well enough and some of the soundtrack, even the notorious North American remix, is surprisingly good.

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5. Sonic 1 (Game Gear/Master System): Approximation of Sonic 1 on Genesis for the most part. Doesn't look or play as fast, but a decent platformer nonetheless.

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6. Sonic 3: This one was a huge disappointment to me. It was half of a game (the better half, but still...). Two-player game butchered to a ridiculously dumbed-down version, missing levels, Knuckles not playable in the main game. Despite it all, it did play like previous Sonic games on Genesis and the shield system was interesting. Though the art was questionable in some areas, the game could look stunning and un-Genesis like in some others. Perhaps best of all was the special stage, a technically impressive sphere world requiring quick reflexes and strategy.

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7. Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast): This game is really a shame. The demo was amazing and most of the Sonic/Shadow portion was definitely top-notch as was the graphics at the time. The Chao raising wasn't too bad either. But everything else is just awful and the game forced you to play parts you wouldn't have to play through in SA1. This game definitely marked the beginning of the end for Sonic Team as we know them.

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8. Sonic Advance 1 (Gameboy Advance): Though looking like a SNES Sonic, it really plays like the Game Gear versions, with dumbed-down physics. The levels are big, it's fairly fast, it looks pretty enough. I'd say this one ain't too bad.

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9. Sonic Advance 2 (Gameboy Advance): Same as above. This one seems a bit faster though. I still prefer the levels in the first game though.

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10. Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis): The lesser half of Sonic 3. I personally think it doesn't look too good and only some of the later levels are worth playing. The lock-on feature is gimmicky, but I will concede Sonic 3 becomes a better game with it.
 
I sat down and finally played SADX:DC after having beaten SA2B long ago.

Christ! SA sucks. It sucks sucks sucks. Ass and poo. SA2 puts it to shame.
Final Rush = best Sonic level ever!
 
Sonic Adventure 2 Sonic/Shadow levels fucking rock.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is my fave as far as Sonic games go... Sonic the Hedgehog 2 not far behind.
 
Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles = Sweet platforming love.

edit for complete list

1) S3 + S&K
2) Sonic 3
3) Sonic 1
4) Sonic 2
5) Sonic & Knuckles
...
99) Sonic Adventure
...
1000) Sonic Adventure 2
 
1) Sonic 2
2) Sonic and Knuckles
3) Sonic 3
4) Sonic CD
4) Sonic
5) Sonic Adventure 2

I'd have to think about any others, but I think that covers it. I have great memories of SA1 as well, but the game is virtually broken, so I can't bring myself to include it.
 
STI (Sega Technical Institute) made StH 2 and, while they are based in the US, as far as I know they have little (nothing?) to do with Sonic Team USA.
 
Mama Smurf said:
STI (Sega Technical Institute) made StH 2 and, while they are based in the US, as far as I know they have little (nothing?) to do with Sonic Team USA.

Your previous comment seemed like more of a bash towards any Western-made game. :)
 
The original Sonic The Hedgehog is the overall best in my opinion.
I really liked the back to basics platforming and design going back into it.

Anyone esle like the Sonic theme tune used in the first two games?
 
Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD - 4-way tie.

Though, Sonic CD gets the most play-time from me. Followed by Sonic 1, then Sonic 2, and Sonic 3&K last.

I never play Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles separately.
 
Did anybody ever notice Sonic was slightly faster than Tails in Sonic 2? Grab two controllers and try to make both characters superrace through a long stretch at the same time(Chemical Plant and Emerald Hill were my favorite testing areas) and the hedgehog has a slight edge over the fox. :lol

I think they were equal in speed in the split screen game though. :)
 
Instigator said:
Did anybody ever notice Sonic was slightly faster than Tails in Sonic 2? Grab two controllers and try to make both characters superrace through a long stretch at the same time(Chemical Plant and Emerald Hill were my favorite testing areas) and the hedgehog has a slight edge over the fox. :lol

I think they were equal in speed in the split screen game though. :)

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Best Sonic game - Sonic Jam. :D (Note: no interest in playing Sonic Mega Collection.)

Favorite Sonic game? Sonic Adventure 2, by a wide margin. I didn't go in expecting much after Sonic Adventure 1. SA1 was somewhere between "fair" and "good" for me when all was said and done. SA2, however... Wow. I clocked over 120h in the DC version alone. All of the ideas introduced in SA1 were refined wonderfully. The mix of genres was something only a gamer of variety could appreciate. The overall package of gameplay ended up spoiling me something fierce, too, as Sonic Heroes just couldn't do it for me. SA2 also rendered SA1 nearly unplayable to me. It breaks my heart that they'll probably never make another Sonic game like SA2. It's NiGHTS withdrawal all over again.
 
Attack You said:
The mix of genres was something only a gamer of variety could appreciate.

The Tails/Robotnik levels had NO CHALLENGE WHATSOEVER. NONE. complete monotonous garbage. And the Knuckles/whoever levels...UGH

I tried to blank those parts from my memory, but they came back after reading this thread. >_<
 
SailorDaravon said:
Sonic for Neogeo Pocket Color.

Seriously? :P It's a fun game, but it basically emulates Sonic 2 on Genesis, yet features reductions throughout. It lacks the "Sonic physics" as well...
 
Desperado said:
The Tails/Robotnik levels had NO CHALLENGE WHATSOEVER. NONE. complete monotonous garbage. And the Knuckles/whoever levels...UGH

I tried to blank those parts from my memory, but they came back after reading this thread. >_<

Well, I didn't say all gamers of variety would appreciate it. :P
 
Instigator said:
Man, kids these days. :)

Sorry, but the first two Sonic Adventures are nearly unplayable to me. True, I really enjoyed Sonic Adventure the first time I played it. But everything besides the actual Sonic and Tails levels seems needlessly tacked-on. And when you finally do get to one of the few 'action' stages in the game, you can beat them within a couple of minutes.

Sonic Adventure 2 was better in this regard. There are far fewer 'RPG' elements in the sequel, but the Knuckles levels are even worse than they were in the first game, and now Tails' levels have been reduced to a slow-paced Panzer Dragoon clone. On the plus side, though, the Sonic/Shadow levels are very fun. If they had made the whole game like this, it would have been almost perfect.

Sonic Heroes tried to make up for Sonic Adventure 2's flaws. It's a pure action game. No searching, shooting, or RPGing here. However, the action levels aren't as fast-paced or as polished as they were in SA2. And the boss fights are aboslutely chaotic and random. And the 'switching characters' seems like a needless gameplay element that was added simply as an excuse to give Sonic's little friends equal screen-time(I guess Sega is trying to sell more Tails UFO catchers or something). But, I give Sonic Heroes the edge over SA and SA2 simply because it is all platforming/action. And what's there, is good. Not Sonic/Shadow SA2 good...but at least I don't have to wait to play as Sonic, all the while ripping my hair out as I'm helplessly searching for emerald shards in the Pumpkin Hill Zone while listening to horrible 3rd-rate rap music.
 
There are things I will never understand, like anyone preferring the buggy, unpolished and annoying Sonic Adventure (which was impressive for its time) to the dramatically improved and polished Sonic Adventure 2.

Then, I will never understand either why any serious 16-bit Sonic gamer can't notice the obvious downgrade in gameplay quality of Sonic CD, compared to the cart games. The visuals and the music, and the overall mood was amazing, but that doesn't hide the fact the level design was much clunkier, sloppier, and the overall experience was much less smooth than on the super-polished Genesis games.

Aside from that, my Sonic ranking (with only the games I've completed) would be:

1- Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The longest and deepest and more epic Sonic game ever.
2- Sonic 2. Probably the best of the Sonic games at its time.
3- Sonic Adventure 2. The best 3D incarnation of the series. Great graphics, great polish and great replay value. They supressed the bad play mechanics of the first game (Amy and the cat) and improved greatly the ones that worked.
4- Sonic. A revolution at its time. It was greatly improved and expanded by its sequels but the classic factor helps it today.
5- Sonic CD. An unpolished pseudo remake of the first Sonic, released after Sonic 2 but going back in a lot of areas, it has the dubious honour of being the only classic Sonic game with slowdown. The superb artistic design and soundtrack saves it, though.
6- Sonic Heroes. Very disappointing sequel after Sonic Adventure 2, and the first Sonic game which feels low-budget. Introduces interesting new mechanics, but they feel as unpolished as the rest of the game.
7- Sonic Adventure. Gets credit for establishing the 3D roots of the series and for some decent production values (aesthetics and music). It shares some of the same 'classic' charm as Sonic 1, but I don't think it has enough to hide its general choppiness, boring level design and horrible sidequests (I know the 'you are not forced to play them' argument, but when I buy a game I like to play it).
 
jcjimher said:
3- Sonic Adventure 2. The best 3D incarnation of the series. Great graphics, great polish and great replay value. They supressed the bad play mechanics of the first game (Amy and the cat) and improved greatly the ones that worked.

WHAT?

SonicMegaDrive said:
ut at least I don't have to wait to play as Sonic, all the while ripping my hair out as I'm helplessly searching for emerald shards in the Pumpkin Hill Zone while listening to horrible 3rd-rate rap music.

pretty much sums up my feelings.
 
SA2 is too uneven, a game where 2/3 of it is to be avoided like the plague, that's just wrong. I hope someone lost his job because of this.

SA1 is rough around the edges but I can not say I hate any particular thing about the game. Yeah, even Big, it's not like his small part in the game is mandatory or hard to complete...
 
Then, I will never understand either why any serious 16-bit Sonic gamer can't notice the obvious downgrade in gameplay quality of Sonic CD, compared to the cart games. The visuals and the music, and the overall mood was amazing, but that doesn't hide the fact the level design was much clunkier, sloppier, and the overall experience was much less smooth than on the super-polished Genesis games.

I ranted on this a few months ago as well. Glad to find someone else who agrees with me. Sonic CD has awesome atmosphere, great music (both soundtracks), and some neat ideas...but it's unpolished as hell. The slowdown, chunky levels (with a complete lack of flow), lower quality sprites (in comparison to Sonic 2), and short stages overall really hurt it. The whole time travel thing and the requirements for fully completing levels was kinda cool, but those levels just weren't very good.

Tidal Tempest, Wacky Workbench, and the final stage (can't recall the name) just weren't very well designed. TT was VERY slow paced, but was not interesting to explore (saved by the incredible music and atmosphere, somewhat). Wacky Workbench was a neat idea, but was simply frustrating (at first, anyways) and lacks the fun factor associated with classic Sonic levels. Finishing WW was a chore for me and was simply a low point that I was forced to deal with when playing the game. The final stage has those odd shrinking segments going on, but they weren't terribly exciting and the level once again had no sense of flow.

The rest of the levels were much more fun, but still not up to classic Sonic level design. This game needed work. I really wish there had been a sequel on Sega CD that took a design approach more in line with Sonic 2 (while adding in more unique ideas and broader tile sets).

Instigator said:
SA2 is too uneven, a game where 2/3 of it is to be avoided like the plague, that's just wrong. I hope someone lost his job because of this.

SA1 is rough around the edges but I can not say I hate any particular thing about the game. Yeah, even Big, it's not like his small part in the game is mandatory or hard to complete...


It is a shame that SA2 had that poor design issue. I loved the story mode, but the game didn't really kick in until I started working for A grades (I did manage to get all 180 emblems after a year of playing off and on). Some of those levels were really challenging and really made you work hard to rank in. That was the best part of SA2...
 
jcjimher said:
5- Sonic CD. An unpolished pseudo remake of the first Sonic, released after Sonic 2 but going back in a lot of areas, it has the dubious honour of being the only classic Sonic game with slowdown. The superb artistic design and soundtrack saves it, though.

A lot of people knock Sonic CD down a few grades because of the level design. I like the design of the game. I don't think the level design is 'bad'. It's random. A lot of the platforms don't make much sense, and the zone's can't be described as easily as they can like in the cart-based Sonics. There's no 'ice level', no 'underground zone', or 'Egyptian level'(Though, there is a water level, and unlike most of the other Sonic games' water levels, Sonic CD's is actually pretty fun).

And because of Sonic CD's random level design, you can play the game a different way each time you play it. Even to this day I'm still discovering hidden secrets within the game.

I think, for me, there are 3 knocks against Sonic CD:

1) It's too short. For such a great Sonic game, it would have been nice if there was another zone or two. The game can be beaten in less than an hour if you're not time-traveling or collecting Time Stones.

2) It's pretty easy. Not as easy as Sonic 2, but rings and extra lives are plentiful. However, beating the game 'the real way' can provide a bit of a challenge.

3) The last boss is pretty anti-climactic. You're treated to an awesome last stage only to go up against the easiest last boss in Sonic history. A rotating sphere contraption with 4 wings that Robotnik can slowly hurl at you. 4 hits and he's dead, game beaten. They should have made the final boss a 32-hit monster with multiple mecha layers. Kinda like S3&K's final boss(s). Now THERE was an awesome final boss battle.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
Sonic Adventure 2 was better in this regard. There are far fewer 'RPG' elements in the sequel, but the Knuckles levels are even worse than they were in the first game, and now Tails' levels have been reduced to a slow-paced Panzer Dragoon clone. On the plus side, though, the Sonic/Shadow levels are very fun. If they had made the whole game like this, it would have been almost perfect.

I can understand some of the hunting levels criticism (the levels got more intrincate and the change from visual to textual clues was a big change, although I liked it), but the shooting levels were great, and full of challenge (not challenge for survival, but for high score and the highest combo). It makes no sense saying the Tails levels were downgraded from the first game, because the shooting levels were clearly the evolution of the E-102 levels in the first game.

I personally thought it was boring replaying shortened versions of the Sonic
stages with Tails on the first Sonic Adventure, when you could play them again as they were intended with Sonic itself, and was glad they removed that part of the game.

SonicMegaDrive said:
Sonic Heroes tried to make up for Sonic Adventure 2's flaws. It's a pure action game. No searching, shooting, or RPGing here. However, the action levels aren't as fast-paced or as polished as they were in SA2. And the boss fights are aboslutely chaotic and random. And the 'switching characters' seems like a needless gameplay element that was added simply as an excuse to give Sonic's little friends equal screen-time(I guess Sega is trying to sell more Tails UFO catchers or something). But, I give Sonic Heroes the edge over SA and SA2 simply because it is all platforming/action. And what's there, is good. Not Sonic/Shadow SA2 good...but at least I don't have to wait to play as Sonic, all the while ripping my hair out as I'm helplessly searching for emerald shards in the Pumpkin Hill Zone while listening to horrible 3rd-rate rap music.

I think Sonic Heroes gameplay was broken by many factors. One of the main ones was the inclusion of energy bars to regular enemies, instead of the tradiional one-hit of Sonic games. Then, the switching mechanic was interesting but not implemented well, since the change was forced on the player rather than being a free choice (which kills the fun, IMO). So, while SA2 action levels were a matter of chaining the actions fastly and smoothly, Sonic Heroes levels were a continuous interruption to the player, either to switch characters or to come back to finally destroy that enemy that I already hit but still has 2 points on its health bar.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
Sonic Heroes tried to make up for Sonic Adventure 2's flaws. It's a pure action game. No searching, shooting, or RPGing here. However, the action levels aren't as fast-paced or as polished as they were in SA2. And the boss fights are aboslutely chaotic and random. And the 'switching characters' seems like a needless gameplay element that was added simply as an excuse to give Sonic's little friends equal screen-time(I guess Sega is trying to sell more Tails UFO catchers or something). But, I give Sonic Heroes the edge over SA and SA2 simply because it is all platforming/action. And what's there, is good. Not Sonic/Shadow SA2 good...but at least I don't have to wait to play as Sonic, all the while ripping my hair out as I'm helplessly searching for emerald shards in the Pumpkin Hill Zone while listening to horrible 3rd-rate rap music.

I think Sonic Heroes would've been better served if all three characters were given their own buttons instead of having to switch between them. That would've required some tweaks in gameplay, but would've been more intuitive IMO.

Edit: Wanted to echo jcjimher's comment on the enemies with hit points in Sonic Heroes. A huge turn-off for me.
 
Sonic CD is the only answer in my case. And no one will convince me otherwise ^_^

EDIT - To elaborate, as I now have SonicMegaDrive's post to use...

SonicMegaDrive said:
A lot of people knock Sonic CD down a few grades because of the level design. I like the design of the game. I don't think the level design is 'bad'. It's random. A lot of the platforms don't make much sense, and the zone's can't be described as easily as they can like in the cart-based Sonics. There's no 'ice level', no 'underground zone', or 'Egyptian level'(Though, there is a water level, and unlike most of the other Sonic games' water levels, Sonic CD's is actually pretty fun).

Same here. The biggest problem I had with Sonic 3 and Knuckles was that while it had some awesome stages (Ice Cap), it was plagued by boring, linear mediocrities of levels (Sandapolis Acts 2, Flying Battery, Launch Base Act 1, Carnival Night Act 2, etc.) In short, it's an extreme chore playing through all of S3&K. I usually only choose the select levels I like and go from there. I will say though, Doomsday Zone, for as easy as it was, is still the pwningnest sonic boss fight in history.

On the other hand, I can replay Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD from beginning to end at will, mostly because the level design allowed for it. Not to say each game is perfect, as I still hate Labyrinth Zone (Tidal Tempest is Labyrinth done right IMO), Hill Top is undeniably boring, and Wacky Workbench is a tad too frustrating.

Oh yeah, and Stardust Speedway is the best sonic zone in history, no questions asked :)

And because of Sonic CD's random level design, you can play the game a different way each time you play it. Even to this day I'm still discovering hidden secrets within the game.

Still, as SMD said, the randomness and nonlinearity of the game makes SCD very replayable, not to mention the fact that you have the option of time travelling :)

I think, for me, there are 3 knocks against Sonic CD:

1) It's too short. For such a great Sonic game, it would have been nice if there was another zone or two. The game can be beaten in less than an hour if you're not time-traveling or collecting Time Stones.

Most definitely truth, and this is probably the biggest problem I have with the game. One of the best parts of S3&K was its epicness, and as awesome as the atmosphere of CD was, it can't match that.

2) It's pretty easy. Not as easy as Sonic 2, but rings and extra lives are plentiful. However, beating the game 'the real way' can provide a bit of a challenge.

Also true, but then again, all 2D iterations of the Sonic franchise have been easy as crap (and yes, I'm including S3&K in there).

3) The last boss is pretty anti-climactic. You're treated to an awesome last stage only to go up against the easiest last boss in Sonic history. A rotating sphere contraption with 4 wings that Robotnik can slowly hurl at you. 4 hits and he's dead, game beaten. They should have made the final boss a 32-hit monster with multiple mecha layers. Kinda like S3&K's final boss(s). Now THERE was an awesome final boss battle.

There's very little that can top the sheer awesomeness of S3&K's final bosses. The biggest problem with the way they handled the final boss battle was that they gave you 1000 rings to work with. In a sense, Sonic 2's final boss battles, while climatic, would be less than challenging had you been given rings. On a similar note, if you had to complete Metalliz Madness Act 3 withour rings, then the boss battle might've prove to be more intense, though he's still a pansy.

Besides, we already had one super duper awesome 'boss' battle in the game. Metal Sonic anyone? :)
 
jcjimher said:
I can understand some of the hunting levels criticism (the levels got more intrincate and the change from visual to textual clues was a big change, although I liked it), but the shooting levels were great, and full of challenge (not challenge for survival, but for high score and the highest combo). It makes no sense saying the Tails levels were downgraded from the first game, because the shooting levels were clearly the evolution of the E-102 levels in the first game.

I personally thought it was boring replaying shortened versions of the Sonic
stages with Tails on the first Sonic Adventure, when you could play them again as they were intended with Sonic itself, and was glad they removed that part of the game.

I agree with your point about Tails' levels. They really should have given Tails his own stages. Or at the very least give him alterations of Sonic's stages so that they are played differently.


jcjimher said:
I think Sonic Heroes gameplay was broken by many factors. One of the main ones was the inclusion of energy bars to regular enemies, instead of the tradiional one-hit of Sonic games. Then, the switching mechanic was interesting but not implemented well, since the change was forced on the player rather than being a free choice (which kills the fun, IMO). So, while SA2 action levels were a matter of chaining the actions fastly and smoothly, Sonic Heroes levels were a continuous interruption to the player, either to switch characters or to come back to finally destroy that enemy that I already hit but still has 2 points on its health bar.

Oh, yes. I HATE the inclusion of energy bars. It's especially frustrating because of the homing attack. Defeating an enemy is simply a matter of jumping and tapping A a couple of times. No skill whatsoever(though you will hate it when you occaisionally miss the enemy and go right over a cliff). Also, the 3 players at once idea was a poor choice. The idea behind Sonic games is to keep the action going without slowing down. But the strategy-based gameplay in Sonic Heroes is only going to slow the player down. True, if you play the game enough times, you'll become good enough to predict when and where to switch to what character you need or whatevrer. But you shouldn't have to.
 
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