Sonic’s 29th birthday was a few days ago on June 23rd. I didn’t see any threads here so I thought I’d start one for any Sonic fans here to discuss the Blue Blur.
Obviously the biggest and most recent event was the Sonic movie for this year, which did better than expected. It wasn’t a brilliant film, but people were grateful to get a fun movie that didn’t suck. Who would’ve thought the first decent video game movie would be Sonic the Hedgehog, a character that doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation outside of his own fanbase?
Obviously it’s kind of unfortunate that SEGA didn’t really capitalize on the success of the film – It could’ve been the perfect opportunity to release something to tie-in, to rake in the new younger audience, but nope, nothing. I don’t think they counted on the movie doing as well as it did.
I’ve been seeing a bit of disillusionment within the Sonic fandom, though (at least on YouTube) in regards to the current state of the franchise. Mainly the fact that the series seems to, well, just play it safe, what with more focus on humor instead of adventure, and characters becoming flanderizations of themselves. I’ve been with this franchise since nearly the beginning: Sonic 2 on the MegaDrive was the first game I ever played at only three years old (never got past Chemical Plant Zone, back then, lol). My parents got me a Saturn, a Dreamcast and I’ve been playing every single major title since then. I’ve experienced this franchise evolve each year and stuck with Sonic through thick and thin (yes, even 06. Though I admit even that game gave me a crisis of faith). But I can’t help but think some of the more recent detractors (people who are truly passionate fans, btw) have a point.
Both the 90’s and 2000’s were rife with a variety of Sonic games, both good and bad. But in the 2010’s there was hardly, well… anything. Initially it seemed like Sonic Team had learned where they went wrong with 06 and where they went right with Unleashed, and Colours and Generations seemed to be the mark of a new era. But then we got things absolutely no-one asked for. Lost World was alright, even though it was strange to basically revive Sonic X-Treme and slap a Super Mario Galaxy paint on it, when the Boost formula was working well for them. Then… Sonic Boom. …I had to give that a hard pass.
After waiting for roughly half a decade the main series finally came back with Mania and Forces. Mania was an absolute blast: A delight in 2D platforming and finally recaptured the magic of what made the original classics so great. But Forces… was underwhelming. It came off as Colours pretending to be Adventure 2, which clearly didn’t mesh very well. Both the story and level design felt very underdeveloped. It was lackluster. I’d even argue that, while it wasn’t as bad as 06, at least that game had ambition. Forces just didn’t feel it had any real passion put into it at all.
I love Sonic. It’s pretty ingrained into me, so I’m unlikely to ever leave it behind. But I wouldn’t blame people if they left the fandom. The last decade, while definitely having its ups, made it kinda rough to be a fan, what with only a small handful of mainline releases compared to before. One might say Sonic Team just want to focus on quality over quantity. I hope that’s the case because it seems to me Sonic Team just aren’t quite sure what to do with this franchise anymore. Sonic Forces just came off as a product of well, burnout, I guess.
Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be a negative rant, just my concerns for the future. Next time I might post some more positive musings, such as my appreciation for Dreamcast-era Sonic. Hopefully Sonic Team have something amazing planned for the 30th anniversary (crossing my fingers for an SA1 remake plus a completely new game. They might even contract a third party to develop a tie-in to the movieverse).
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