What is the all-time worst Sonic game?

[Tornado]

What always got me about Sonic's Schoolhouse was that it reminded me of Doom in how it was presented. Except it was scarier for some reason.

[Autosaver]

No Sonic! YOU DON'T USE WEAPONS!!!

Sonic and the Black Knight was supposed to be the game where Sonic came back. It was made by the Secret Rings team, which was overall a decent game so they could easily improve upon that and fix the problems. Added in Nunchuk support and fast speed? My god SEGA, this might actually be good! I was really excited to see a game announced that began with fixing the series problems. Also, the trailer looked quite nice. In fact, Sonic and the Black Knight is one of the best looking Wii games. The game had varied levels with a nice art direction. The storybook cutscenes also came back and this time, they were animated completely.

I actually thought the song was pretty catchy! But seriously SEGA, stop making your trailers look so good!

Ok, so what happens when I open the game? I'm thrown into a cutscene (fantastic) that is well animated and sets the stage. Sonic even eats a CHILLI DOG in the first 5 minutes. So I guess this game is going to be amazing, right? I mean, the sword gimmick couldn't be that bad? The game looks incredible and that music is pretty good, so what is there to complain about? It even has Blaze!\

Insert eating wiener joke here

EVERYTHING.

First off, the sword gameplay is not what you expect. You know those fantastic sword movements in Wii Sports Resort? Lets go back to Twilight Princess! Now, you have to waggle your remote over and over again. OVER AND OVER. OVER AND OVER. OVER AND OVER. Tired yet? Well, too bad. This is the entire game. You can pretty much just waggle your way through. It even becomes ridiculous once you beat the game and use optional characters, because those characters now utilize new moves. If waggling wasn't enough, how about Chaos Blasts every time you did waggle?

While the areas were quite gorgeous, you really never explored them. The game was set on a path (On Rails) and I wish they did something more with it. What if this was a Skyward Sword? What if Sonic could freely run along a gigantic landscape while mixing in all the best elements from previous games? How can you do swordplay wrong? I have no idea, ask SEGA. One thing to note is that you often had to stop and do these "quick qtes" with civilians. It was beyond stupid and just slowed down the game.

The boss battles weren't that great either. A lot of them boiled down to "REMEMBER THE SPLIT SECOND TWITCH QTE HIT" which got annoying during the later bosses. It becomes frustrating when you constantly die because the Wii Remote decided to not kick in at the right time or it was too sensitive and kicked in for no reason at all.

SEGA. WHY DID YOU MAKE SUCH A BAD GAME!

The plot of the game was ehh.. I thought the female lead wasn't as touching as Sharia from SATSR, and there wasn't as much suspense and "attraction" toward her like I had toward Sharia. The plot twist was slightly unexpected but I guess you could connect the dots by connecting the cutscenes. It was kind of stupid though. In fact, I think the game had credits right after King Arthur's clone died so I thought the game was over. I was about to cry in anger and throw the game outside my window. Thankfully, 4 more levels popped up with brand new characters. I guess I became happy again and decided to play it. That is, until I go to the final boss. All Sonic games have amazing final bosses, correct? Well, at least the music?

I beat the final boss in 57 seconds. Really?

Why was the final boss so short? Everything leading up to it including Sonic almost dying felt like it was going to end epicly. Even SATSR had a better final boss. Where was the challenge? Where was the "This is so awesome!" moment? All you did is... waggle! Also, why was this game so short? I think Sonic Colors was much much longer compared to this and same with SATSR.

Overall, it was quite disappointing. VERY disappointing. I had a lot of faith in the Secret Rings team and they delivered a game that was worse than their first project. When you try to fix your mistakes, you're not supposed to make MORE in the process! The controls were awful, the story was bland, the content was lacking, and the multiplayer was a joke. I mean, even Secret Rings had fantastic multiplayer party style. What happened here? It seemed like they lazily slapped in a bunch of character on a top down battlefield. I played it like 3 times... NOT fun.

[Crash]

Sonic 4. Both episodes were HUGE disappointments, the first one more then the second though. We were all hoping for a great game that had a classic Sonic feel to it but that's not what we got. We got a really poorly made 2D platformer that should be changed into, Spongebob runs around town and then little kids will buy it.

[SonikkuXM]

No Sonic! YOU DON'T USE WEAPONS!!!

Sonic and the Black Knight was supposed to be the game where Sonic came back. It was made by the Secret Rings team, which was overall a decent game so they could easily improve upon that and fix the problems. Added in Nunchuk support and fast speed? My god SEGA, this might actually be good! I was really excited to see a game announced that began with fixing the series problems. Also, the trailer looked quite nice. In fact, Sonic and the Black Knight is one of the best looking Wii games. The game had varied levels with a nice art direction. The storybook cutscenes also came back and this time, they were animated completely.

I actually thought the song was pretty catchy! But seriously SEGA, stop making your trailers look so good!

Ok, so what happens when I open the game? I'm thrown into a cutscene (fantastic) that is well animated and sets the stage. Sonic even eats a CHILLI DOG in the first 5 minutes. So I guess this game is going to be amazing, right? I mean, the sword gimmick couldn't be that bad? The game looks incredible and that music is pretty good, so what is there to complain about? It even has Blaze!\

Insert eating wiener joke here

EVERYTHING.

First off, the sword gameplay is not what you expect. You know those fantastic sword movements in Wii Sports Resort? Lets go back to Twilight Princess! Now, you have to waggle your remote over and over again. OVER AND OVER. OVER AND OVER. OVER AND OVER. Tired yet? Well, too bad. This is the entire game. You can pretty much just waggle your way through. It even becomes ridiculous once you beat the game and use optional characters, because those characters now utilize new moves. If waggling wasn't enough, how about Chaos Blasts every time you did waggle?

While the areas were quite gorgeous, you really never explored them. The game was set on a path (On Rails) and I wish they did something more with it. What if this was a Skyward Sword? What if Sonic could freely run along a gigantic landscape while mixing in all the best elements from previous games? How can you do swordplay wrong? I have no idea, ask SEGA. One thing to note is that you often had to stop and do these "quick qtes" with civilians. It was beyond stupid and just slowed down the game.

The boss battles weren't that great either. A lot of them boiled down to "REMEMBER THE SPLIT SECOND TWITCH QTE HIT" which got annoying during the later bosses. It becomes frustrating when you constantly die because the Wii Remote decided to not kick in at the right time or it was too sensitive and kicked in for no reason at all.

SEGA. WHY DID YOU MAKE SUCH A BAD GAME!

The plot of the game was ehh.. I thought the female lead wasn't as touching as Sharia from SATSR, and there wasn't as much suspense and "attraction" toward her like I had toward Sharia. The plot twist was slightly unexpected but I guess you could connect the dots by connecting the cutscenes. It was kind of stupid though. In fact, I think the game had credits right after King Arthur's clone died so I thought the game was over. I was about to cry in anger and throw the game outside my window. Thankfully, 4 more levels popped up with brand new characters. I guess I became happy again and decided to play it. That is, until I go to the final boss. All Sonic games have amazing final bosses, correct? Well, at least the music?

I beat the final boss in 57 seconds. Really?

Why was the final boss so short? Everything leading up to it including Sonic almost dying felt like it was going to end epicly. Even SATSR had a better final boss. Where was the challenge? Where was the "This is so awesome!" moment? All you did is... waggle! Also, why was this game so short? I think Sonic Colors was much much longer compared to this and same with SATSR.

Overall, it was quite disappointing. VERY disappointing. I had a lot of faith in the Secret Rings team and they delivered a game that was worse than their first project. When you try to fix your mistakes, you're not supposed to make MORE in the process! The controls were awful, the story was bland, the content was lacking, and the multiplayer was a joke. I mean, even Secret Rings had fantastic multiplayer party style. What happened here? It seemed like they lazily slapped in a bunch of character on a top down battlefield. I played it like 3 times... NOT fun.

[SilJeff]

It is hard to say for me. There are quite a few spinoff and minor games that are very bad, but I like to let those games off easy, since they are not the main games.

So Sonic 06 for me.

[RK64]

The thing with the Sonic games is that none are really bad, just miss potental. I mean look at 06, solid graphics, sequel to the adventure games, character system like S3&K, and some intresting level themes. But it was rushed and we all know the what happened..... If any game was out right terible it would have to the game gear games Sonic Blast and Sonic Labrinth. Those were just horrid.

[Dr. Crusher]

The thing with the Sonic games is that none are really bad, just miss potental. I mean look at 06, solid graphics, sequel to the adventure games, character system like S3&K, and some intresting level themes. But it was rushed and we all know the what happened..... If any game was out right terible it would have to the game gear games Sonic Blast and Sonic Labrinth. Those were just horrid.

Missed potential, leading to the rushed mess with tons of glitches and a nonsensical plot in addition to many other problems we got in the end.

So, a bad game, then.

[-Big The Cat-]

Sonic Unleashed.

Because it tries to be what it's not.

It's not a Sonic game, it's just a game featuring Sonic.

Same goes for 06, and a bunch of other games in the series.

[Multikaris]

Hey, kids! Do you want to learn how to read, write, and do math with Sonic the Hedgehog?

Then come on over to Sonic's Schoolhouse!

First off, instead of playing as boring characters like Tails, Knuckles, or Amy, you get to pick one of our brand new students to play as.

Man, I can't wait to have what they're smoking learn with these guys.

Edited September 25, 2012 by miru

[Nepenthe]

To someone, somewhere, the all-time worst Sonic game is your favorite one.

But no seriously, for me it's probably either Spinball, Chronicles, or Sonic 2 GG. Technically and aesthetically flawed games I couldn't bother to finish. CD is close for just how terrible the physics are in lieu of its ridiculous popularity.

[Phos]

But the only difference is that you retain control when jumping from a roll...

[Nepenthe]

Whenever I jumped or was otherwise in the air, it felt like I was fighting to keep control of Sonic's position, and that kind of frustration with the controls just shouldn't come about when playing a Classic Sonic game. I dunno, I just honest to God hate the way that game feels. It's stiff and awkward and just plain off.

[-Big The Cat-]

I don't think spin-offs like Labyrinth and Spinball count.

Since technically, they aren't Sonic games - nor do they try to be.

Edited September 25, 2012 by -Big the Cat-

[Laser Heartstrike]

Discounting the absolute glut of rubbish handheld titles and spin-offs that the series has been unfortunate enough to have lived through, (other than Sonic Jam on the game.com, I've got basically no way of distinguishing between most of them, quality-wise) I'd say that the worst main-series Sonic game is either one of Heroes, Shadow, '06 or Unleashed.

Which... really doesn't narrow it down.

At all.

[-Big The Cat-]

Sonic Rush is also pretty bad.

[BarleyFields]

I don't know why everyone backlashes against CD here.

It has some genuine problems like being too hard, wacky workbench and not being fast enough but otherwise it's fine. It's the best Sonic game after Sonic 2.

Edited September 25, 2012 by BarleyFields

[Emmett L. Brown]

More tedious than Sonic Labyrinth.

Worse physics than Sonic 06.

Worse port than Sonic Genesis.

THIS!

IS!

G SONIC!

[Diogenes]

Whenever I jumped or was otherwise in the air, it felt like I was fighting to keep control of Sonic's position, and that kind of frustration with the controls just shouldn't come about when playing a Classic Sonic game. I dunno, I just honest to God hate the way that game feels. It's stiff and awkward and just plain off.

And yet people make me out to be the bad guy when I bash Generations Classic...

[Nepenthe]

Generations Classic Sonic is not nearly as simultaneously terrible and popular as CD Sonic, so I'm more likely to not take stock in Generations gameplay bashing.

[MamboCat]

More tedious than Sonic Labyrinth.

Worse physics than Sonic 06.

Worse port than Sonic Genesis.

THIS!

IS!

G SONIC!

What... on earth is that?! I swear I've seen some "bootleg"' footage similar to this, but this is official? Yikes. Looks like they tried to copy and paste the Mega Drive/Genesis sprites into an 8 bit game and as such they look like towering monsters. Blech.

[AlphaRuby]

What can I say that hasn't been said before? This is such a piece of crap that should have been awesome. But Sonic Team were just lazy.

[Ebby]

I'm going to be killed for this. Absolutely maimed...

Yeah Sonic 06 was a broken mess. Shadow was a complete joke with it's silly dialog, convoluted plot, and and ridiculous gunplay. Tails Sky Patrol was abysmal. But the worst Sonic game I ever played, the one that make me angry with the series, the only that pissed me off the most...

SONIC COLORS.

I know! I know! Crazy right! How can someone say Colors? It's not filled with glitches or nonsensical plot holes or anything! But guys, I hate this game. I fucking DETEST this game! I'm still pissed I shelled out my hard earned money on this game!!!

I'll explain. When the previews of this game were all over the net and people were calling the best Sonic game in years, I was stoked. I loved Unleashed, but thought it (like many other fans) thought it could do without the Werehog. It had the crazy speed that drew me into Sonic games in the first place. When I saw Colors, it looked like all that I wanted in a Sonic game. Speed, no silly gimmicks, some platforming (that didn't break up the speed element), and good level design. I recall when people said it looked like a knock off of Galaxy. I was so offened! This was Sonic Colors, not "Super Sonic Galaxy"!

I played it at Comic-con! I even attended the pre-release event in Bryant Park. I watched Cash Cash sing live! I threw on the ice skates, got my Sonic hat, and EVERYTHING! I was so excited for this game! It was going to be so worth my money!

And then I bought it.

And I beat it in four days.

AND I HATED IT.

I tried to like it! I really did! It didn't even feel like a Sonic game. The levels felt clunky with way too much platforming and not really enough speed. Which is a shame because Sonic himself had speed and acceleration! Both are important! Practically 80% of the game was slow, 2-D, tedious, Mario-esque platforming (Remember those shitty yellow spring levels?). Yes, I just said that. It hurts to say, but that's how it felt.

When Sonic was actually running it was very empty. No obstables, just running. I would have LIKED some bottomless pits and spikes. Also, why did the game have so many levels? What was it 42 or so? The seemed great in theory, but in excecution it was poor. If it wasn't necessary to do them all, I think it would have been better. Also it's especially crappy, when some levels were nothing but jumping or hover/light-dashing an entire level. That's not how Sonic works.

Even if there are multiple paths, I couldn't be bother to do the levels. They were just so boring. I thought it was just me, but when my Sonic-liking, ex-friend tried Colors she didn't get to Act 2 of Tropical Resort. That's saying something. The level didn't even pull her in from the beginning!

The plot I was okay with. I don't expect much when it comes to plot in Sonic. However, the "humorous" dialog that everyone raved about was so cheesy and lame that I could have strangled the writers! I didn't find anything remotely funny minus Sonic's copyright speech, which was worth a few giggles.

The music, aside from Planet Wisp and Aquarium Park (which we decent at best) was awful. ESPECIALLY "Reach for the Stars", all of the variations for Starlight Carnival, and worst of all "Speak with your Heart". Terrible music. Ugh. The vocal work in that game was horrific. I can't think of cornier vocal tracks, aside from Sonic R music... but that stuff has a charm. XD

Lastly, the mutiplayer was a joke. I don't know if Sonic games can do co-op ever after playing that mess!

I guess the thing that really hurt with this game was that I expected SO MUCH. That's what this has over all of the other terrible Sonic games. I poured a lot of emotion in this and got a shitty product in return. With all that said, I do like what this game did for the series. It shed some light on Sonic which is always good! And the DS version was pretty fun!

But I would never play this game again. I sold my copy and used the money to buy Generations.

So yeah... worst Sonic game I ever played. Give me 06 for a better time and some laughs please.

[Soniman]

Reading that post physically hurt me, not gonna lie.

I mean, you didn't even like the music? Wowzers XD

Edited September 25, 2012 by Soniman

[Vertekins]

Reading that post physically hurt me, not gonna lie.

Really?

Then I suggest that, you know, you should focus on your own love for the game and stop letting other people's negative views on it perturb you? Seriously man, you're way too oversensitive about criticism towards Colours.

[PSI Wind]

>Complains about too much platforming in a Platformer series and it's still fast paced and faster than Mario

I mean, it's fine that you hate Colours, but......really?