How many Sonic games do you like?

[Plasme]

When it comes down to it, what Sonic games would you have fun sitting down and playing? What I don't mean here is which Sonic games you think are good and stand up well to criticism, but which ones you think you would enjoy booting up and playing from time to time. I think it'll be interesting to see which games the users here like when arguing over its good and bad points are taken away. 

So, I'd enjoy Sonic 1, 2, 3AK, CD, R, Mania, Adventure, Adventure 2, All Stars Racing, Transformed, Generations.

I'd have some level of enjoyment with Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Heroes, Riders, and Lost World too, but I wouldn't play them for very long and would only dip in and out of them.

[Blacklightning]

If I may interject for a moment, topics like these tend to devolve into little more than lists without any substance to them. And despite the extra words, that seems to be all that the OP really amounts to.

I don't want to be a kiljoy and lock the topic entirely - but at the very least I don't think it's asking too much that people explain why they like the things they do so we actually have something to discuss.

[Failinhearts]

There are not many games I outright dislike. I have quite a bit of unpopular opinions but there are just a handful that I find myself playing from time and time again repeatedly when I need a quick Sonic fix!

Sonic 1. I dunno why, especially when there's better Classic games to play... but I find myself playing the original most on multiple systems. It's just a delight to breeze by Green Hill Zone.

Sonic CD. Okay, there is one more Classic game I play a lot. This is the one game I a tually don't mind doing full playthroughs of in about an hour. It's short, sweet and satisfying.

Sonic 06. Okay. Hear me out. I find playing Sonic's levels legitmately fun, and 06 has sentinmental value to me. Takes me back to my childhood and the hype I had with this game, and when I was young, 06 was like the greatest thing ever. So playing through Wave Ocean again takes me back to those simpler times.

Unleashed. It's gorgeous, rush and gives you a great Sonic fix. And Werehog combat gives me a good rush of joy just beating shit up. Cathartic even.

Forces. Having it on Switch is real convienent and it's fun enough with the seperate playstyles to give me a variety of fun on-the-go speedruns.

[Multikaris]

Most of them up to Lost World. After that, I’ve stayed away from buying Sonic games (my apathy to later consoles doesn’t help in the slightest), but am thinking of purchasing Mania. 

[sucram_h]

i always find myself going back to Generations, easily the best Sonic game imo. Obviously all the classics + mania are great and I am also a fan of Unleashed's day stages and some levels of Colours. The first few levels Adventure 1 are also very fun to replay

[Iko]

I enjoyed pretty much all the Sonic games, with maybe some exceptions I can't remember of, but minor stuff, mostly spin-offs (that I won't list here).

I tend to give more importance to replay value than actual quality, because the more traditional Sonic games are about 1 and half or 2 hours long, and no matter if the game is technically perfect, if I feel no interest in playing it again after I finish it, for me it's a fail, because it defeats the purpose of it being short.

• The games that I enjoyed the most are:

Sonic 1 (8 bit), Sonic Advance 2 - Yes, it may look strange, but I periodically come back to those game and play them again, because I think they are fun. Advance 2 is more repetitive so it can get a bit old after a while, so I overall prefer Sonic 1 (8 bit), but I still have a lot of fun with Advance 2 as well, especially from the beginning to Sky Canyon (after that it becomes a bit more boring, but the bosses are still cool excluding the standing robot thing). As for Sonic 1, I prefer the Master System version (over the Game Gear one) for its little level design differences, and because I think those fruits in Jungle look unfitting and ruin the atmosphere.

• Games that I enjoyed but I rarely play again, but it's mostly because I have no easy access to them (but I would play them a lot if they were more handy)

Tails Sky Patrol - it's a little nice game with a lot of replay value. Its level design gets a bit cheap near the end, but it's very short and easy to memorize after a while, and becomes easy if you know what to do.

• Games that I enjoyed but I rarely play them again because I don't feel the desire to play them again

Sonic 3 & Knuckles - I love the game, but for some reason I can't play it very often, it bores me fastly after I finish it... Blue Sphere may have played a role in this.

Sonic Adventure 2 - I occasionally play Sonic and Shadow's levels again (especially the final ones because they are more challenging and there are more routes), but I rarely begin the story mode from the start.

Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure and Sonic Colors DS - I think the gameplay is what keeps me away from these games... the Sonic 4/Rush physics make the games way less enjoyable than how they could be... but they are still nice games all things considered.

• Games that I enjoyed only a bit, and I have no problems at replaying whenever I have the chance to

Sonic Advance (1), Sonic 1 (Genesis) - I like playing them, but they don't attract me that much, I definitely prefer to play the games listed above.

Sonic 4 Episode 1 - despite its crappy quality, I find it surprisingly enjoyable to play randomly with not much effort, just to kill some time... though in fact I rarely do it.

Sonic 2 (8 bit) - The challenge is what keeps me interested in this game: this is probably the hardest Sonic games of all, and I occasionally replay it to test myself.

• Games that I want to enjoy, but for some reasons I have an hard time trying to

Sonic Mania - I occasionally replay it, but I can't go after the end of Studiopolis Act 1, and even to reach that point, I have to go through the Puyo Puyo boss that I find really annoying. I just find it... annoying, frustrating, boring... I don't know. It's probaby due to the level design, but I can't really say why I can't fully enjoy it, I didn't realize it yet. Special stages could have been a lot of fun but their controls/physics are so awkward, those keep me away from enjoying them. Ray's gameplay makes the game more enjoyable for me though.

Sonic Advance 3 - I get bored at Act 3 of the first zone. It's nice to experiment with the tag team moves and all, but the level design feels more repetitive and uninspired compared to the previous entries, and the Hub worlds IMO were unnecessary because they just make the flow a lot slower and the zones way more frustrating to navigate.

Sonic 2 (Genesis) - Some think that it's the best entry in the series... I tried to enjoy it several times, but to me it's one of the worst classics. I don't know... I like Aquatic Ruins and the concept behind Casino Night, but aside of that, I find it boring and frustrating, and the frustrating part is mainly dedicated to the special stages and the way you access them.

Sonic 4 episode 2 - People say that the physics have been improved, but they look (different but) equally broken to me. Level design didn't get better at all... there are a couple more gimmicks and all, but the pace is a lot slower, you are forced to use the team move with Tails in several places in the game, and there is way less freedom.

• Games that I never fully enjoyed and I just don't care of trying them again

Sonic CD - I like the concept of traveling in time and see the changes in the level, but aside of that, I don't like the different art style/music, I don't like the messy level design, and I'm not fond of the characters. I dislike how they introduced *main character but girl* and *main character but nemesis clone*, and especially how those characters in the years became part of the regular main cast. I miss the times when Eggman tried a different robot to emulate Sonic each time, instead of relying on Metal Sonic all the times.

Basically any modern game, plus Adventure 1 and Heroes (becuse not everyone considers them modern games) - I can enjoy them a bit if I try hard to, but at the end of the day, they are IMO all bad games; too many flaws, too many bad design choices. Sonic Adventure and Sonic Colors are probably the ones with the most potential though.

Knuckles Chaotix - I have never got the appeal of this game... it looks very generic and the level design looks very uninspired; the gameplay gimmick and the characters' movesets don't look solid at all, and it seems like they put many characters in the game just for the sake of it, without thinking of the overall design of the game/levels.

• Special category only for Sonic Lost World DS

The game is super bad, but for some reason I enjoy a lot to replay some levels of it. I think it got some stuff right gameplay-wise, but the final product is heavily flawed so it can't be enjoyed. Overall, I think that compared to the HD version, the controls are simpler and better and it feels more like a Sonic game, less Mario-ish.

• Games I'm not attached to, but they are not necessarily bad

Everything else not in this list... some Game Gear titles, and stuff... except Sonic Blast because that sucks very hard and I actively hate it.

 

Basically, it ranges from "I enjoyed them" to "I'm kinda indifferent to them", the only game that I fully disliked so far is Sonic Blast.

[Cayenne]

Many, but my most replayed ones are:

 

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis): My most replayed title in the series and one of my choices when I don't know what to play. This game never gets old.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System): This was my first Sonic game, played on a friend's Master System. It's plagued with slowdowns (sadly, a common thing in many Master System games), but is still a fun, short game with the better version of Scrap Brain Zone. : p

 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sega Genesis): My current favorite classic Sonic game.The older one was CD, but I'm not very fond of that wonky level design nowadays.

 

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed: My long-awaited spiritual sequel to Diddy Kong Racing (...well, sort of lol).

 

Sonic 06: ...I miss SA's gameplay a lot, already replayed SA1 enough and don't like SA2 that much so, yeah. This is what I have until Fark - The Electric Jester gets an official release.

 

Sonic Advance 1 and Sonic Triple Trouble: The best portable Sonic games IMO. Had a lot of fun with them.

[Tarnish]

Sonic 1: The game that started it all, and while a bit barebones compared to the sequels, it's still fun.

Sonic 2: My favorite classic game, can't really put my finger on it why. Maybe the awesome music and the animation of the characters looking so much more fluid compared to Sonic 1.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Didn't really care for the music all that much in these games (shocker, I know), but the super/hyper transformations and elemental shields were an awesome addition. And yay for the only Tails transformation and the flickies of death.

Sonic Adventure: awesome music and the only time they really tried the "2D Sonic, just in 3D" gameplay approach.

Sonic Adventure 2: awesome music, best grind mechanic in any Sonic game and pretty epic story.

Sonic Heroes: I actually like the 'switching between multiple characters' approach, tho the execution could have been better.

Sonic Battle: Always fun beating the crap out of other characters who are supposedly your friends...FOR SCIENCE!

Sonic Riders: Sonic meets Tony Hawk basically..on hoverboards. Before they butchered it by removing the things that made it fun.

[Semi-colon e]

Pretty much all the main games and some of the handheld ones. However I can't say I enjoy all parts of all the games - like I can replay Shadow and enjoy some levels, but not things like Lost Impact or Central City. I've actually been revisiting a bunch of the early 3D games lately and enjoying them more than I expected to. Even bothered to unlock the Super Hard mode in Heroes again and play that twice. I don't own anything past Generations - I did play a bit of Lost World and found it mediocre, while I haven't got the consoles and need a new PC anyway for anything past that. I do really want to play Mania. Forces looks pretty bland too.

However, I haven't revisited the 2D games or Generations for a while since I played the ever living hell out of them so don't feel the need to, whereas I've spent a bit less time with some of the others. I'd consider a lot of these games mediocre but not as bad as people say. Maybe I've just gotten used to their weird quirks.

[Rowl]

Only a few: Mania, Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, Colors, the two All-Stars Racing games, and Sega Tennis. I also liked Sonic Chronicles before, but now that I wanted to play it again, I see how bad of a game it actually really is and how annoying some of Sonic's friends are in this game.

[Foxthefox1000]

Literally any of the big ones are games I liked growing up.

Dunno how I'd fe going back to some of them, but I know Forces is meh and I was an impatient baby that ragequit Unleashed because I couldn't perform the air fight well.

[Diogenes]

I'm down on the series an awful lot so yeah, sure, may as well do something different and talk about what I do like. Split up into rough tiers because why not:

The All-Time Greats:
S3&K: Is there really anything that needs to be said about this one? For ages it was the unambiguous, unchallenged king of 2D Sonic, and even with Mania making a damn good showing I'm still inclined to say it's not only the best 2D Sonic but the best Sonic game ever. They took everything they learned from the earlier games and made it bigger and better than ever before.
Mania: It took a long time, but we finally got a game that learned from 3&K as 3&K learned from its predecessors. There's so much love and passion packed into the game in every area; the faithful gameplay, the new twists like the drop dash and Mighty and Ray's gameplay, the gorgeous spritework and incredible music...it just gets so much right that was missing for so long.

The Flawed-but-Fun:
Sonic Colors: Before Forces it was the black sheep of the boost games but I still say it's the best out of them. It's not a formula I'd want the series to follow for a number of reasons, but taken on its own I think it's a fun little platformer with some neat gimmicks that I've kept coming back to. It looks surprisingly good for a Wii game, the soundtrack is top notch, and while the writing is a mixed bag I'd say it's got more good than bad. It had a more natural feel than any game before, especially when it came to Sonic and Tails interacting, and there's a lot of goofy fun in how Eggman is written (especially all the unfortunately easy to miss PA announcements).
Sonic Rush Adventure: SRA took the first Rush's core gameplay and smoothed out most of the kinks, making the levels more fluid and less punishing, though it's still more shallow than what I'd like to see from a 2D Sonic. The vehicles had a mixed reception but I think they generally did a decent job of breaking up the super-focused high-speed core gameplay and giving the game a bit more meat to it. I really enjoyed a lot of the characters; Blaze was already one of my favorites so I was glad to see her back in a major role, Marine managed to walk the line between endearingly energetic and annoying and I enjoyed watching her grow up a bit, and Captain Whisker was such a goofy concept that I loved having him as an antagonist, especially after Nega was kind of a huge dud. It's also, somehow, one of the only Sonic games where I really enjoy most of the bosses.
Sonic Adventure: Sure it's buggy as hell, Big's gameplay is a complete drag, and some of the characters feel so unrefined it feels like you're playing some early prototype of an actual game, but it's still fun to pop in from time to time. When you're not getting caught on walls or thrown around by dash pads Sonic actually controls surprisingly well considering the game's age; there was clearly an honest attempt to bring his gameplay into 3D even if it ultimately got buried. The other characters didn't fare quite as well, but you can still generally blaze through them fast enough to enjoy it.

The Occasional Replays:
Sonic Adventure 2: SA2 clearly set out to refine (some of) SA's gameplay but...not always for the better. Sonic and Shadow are generally solid even if they scaled back the original mechanics even more by replacing the quick spindash with the awkward sommersault. The other 2/3 of the game...not so much. SA2's treasure hunting and mech shooting are clearly much more polished than SA's Knuckles and Gamma and in that respect you can argue they're better games, but you also have to invest a lot more effort into learning and completing them, which can make them a bit of a drag if you really just want to get back to the hedgehogs. Still, you could do a lot worse than most of the running levels.
Sonic 2: This was my first Sonic game, and considering I've ended up here it should be no surprise that I enjoyed it. I'm putting it this low mostly due to burnout; I played the absolute hell out of this game for so long that I'm sure most of it is still burned into my brain even though I haven't played in years. Level design and enemy placement can be a bit sloppy at times, and that end-of-level Super Sonic glitch is a serious buzzkill if you run into it, but it still did a lot to refine the gameplay and get a solid grasp of what the series' potential was.
Sonic 1: The game that started it all still has its appeal, even if it feels a bit dated compared to its successors. Zones like Marble and Labyrinth show how they were still figuring out the right way to use the mechanics they came up with, but there's still some solid design in other levels. It's been a while since I've sat down with it but I'm sure I'd still have fun with most of it.
Sonic CD: The classic mechanics are still intact and that's enough to make it decent fun to mess around in, but I just have never managed to get the hang of the game's level design philosophy or the time travel mechanic. A straight run through is always kind of underwhelming because you're meant to be hopping through time and looking for generators, but the mechanics of that are not great and it can be frustrating to figure out the right route to take as you waste attempts to time hop, and the rewards aren't even that great anyway. It's absolutely my last choice of the main classic games I'd go to for my Sonic fix, but it'll do in a pinch.
Lost World: Definitely an awkward game that needed way more time in the workshopping stages, but I appreciate it turning away from the boost and trying to get more platforming elements back in the series. It experiments in a lot of ways and they're probably failures more often than not but I still find myself having fun with it. And I still like the story, and consider it one of the gutsiest takes on the main characters within the games, even if it fumbles a bit at points.
Sonic R: What can I say, it's short, it's shallow, but there's something about it that keeps catching my interest. It's certainly not a game I could play often, but when I do get the urge, the short length works in its favor since I don't feel the need to commit to something huge. The music's cheesy and fun, and it's an interesting take on how Sonic could be controlled in 3D.

The "I'm Done Playing It But I Respect It"s:
Unleashed: Unleashed...is a game of contrasts. The Day gameplay knows exactly what it wants to be, and while I'm not really a fan of what it wants to be, I can at least respect the clarity of focus more than Generations' halfassed attempt at inserting more platforming. On the other hand you have the werehog, which is such a radical divergence that it's...well, like night and day. I don't actually hate the werehog, though; it's shallow and repetitive but once you unlock a decent amount of moves you can kind of turn your brain off in combat and it's...ok. For a while. And unlike the day stages or Gens Modern the platforming actually fits the pacing here, for the most part. Unfortunately the game also puts you through a lot of tedious bullshit and I just don't feel there's enough high points for it to be worth going back to.
Sonic Rush: It's got similar appeal to Rush Adventure, obviously, but its level design is a lot nastier, which makes it harder to go back to. Still when it works it's a pretty fun game, the music is rad from start to finish, and of course Blaze is still the best.
Spinball: I don't even really like pinball much but it's such a natural fit for Sonic that I have to appreciate them going for it, especially since they tried to make it a little bit of a platformer and not just straight pinball with Sonic's face pasted on. It's a weird, awkward little game that I rarely got very far in but I enjoyed booting it up and fooling around for a while. Plus the Toxic Caves theme still kicks ass.
3D Blast: Another weird old spinoff but I've got a lot of fond memories of it. It can't match the high speed thrills of its main series contemporaries but I think it still managed to get the feel of Sonic down surprisingly well otherwise. Also: Rusty Ruins theme. Every version of it. Enough said.
Sonic Battle: The game ultimately ends up being kind of a grind, only really having a couple of different fights to mildly remix, but it's got some interestingly intense takes on the characters, and being able to customize Emerl with everybody's moves is enough to keep you interested through a full playthrough.

[Plasme]

I've probably replayed Mania now more than some of the classic games such as Sonic 1 and 2. Really crazy how good Mania actually is.

[Myst]

My favorites:

-Sonic 2
-Sonic & Knuckles
-Sonic Adventure
-Sonic Adventure 2
-Sonic Heroes
-Sonic Generations
-Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed

[Stephen Rodriguez]

Based on the ones I've actually played: Sonic 1, 2, CD, 3&K, Adventure, Adventure 2, Advance, Rush Adventure, Generations, Dash, and Mania.

 

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

I've "liked" a fair majority of the ones I've played, despite recognizing that many of them were not too good.

For example, I really enjoy Sonic 3D blast for its music, aesthetic, and simplicity. Inoffensive but pretty boring gameplay overall, would not rate highly compared to the rest of the series.

I finally got my hands on Sonic lost world recently. I think it had some really interesting ideas and I think with more careful though could have been a good game but man those controls were terrible. I "liked" ideas from the game and dont hate it but I dont think it was a good game.

I've always had a love/hate (or like/dislike, in the spirit of this thread) relationship with SA2. The good parts i really "like" but the bad parts I find seriously annoying and to outnumber the good parts. Also not a big fan of the artistic difference between that and SA1, which stayed a lot closer to the vibrant, surreal classic games, and instead traded that in for a drab blandness throughout. Even though I dislike a greater portion of the game than I like, I still consider myself to like it overall....although I wouldnt rate it as a good game, objectively since the majority of it is either boring or just bad.

I can go on. I think most of the games I dont like throughout the series history were spin off, non sonic team titles. Of the main series games, 06 is the only one I actively hate everything about (boom I dont count). Every other game I like for some reason, even if it's a small, silly reason, because I'm a diehard sonic fan.

Wouldn't recommend every game to non-diehards though. The list of games I'd recommend for anyone to try in this series is significantly smaller.

 

[Skull Leader]

*The Genesis trilogy. Though I mostly stick to playing hacks (particularly the Amy ones) as I just don't see myself going back to the original versions which lack all the extra content.

*Sonic CD. Level design is a mess at places, but god that JP soundrack and art direction can put the Genesis trilogy to shame in the audiovisual department.

*Sonic the Fighters. It's awesome music and wacky, cartoony slapstick animations always make me smile and forgive it's clunky and dated game mechanics or the cheap fight against Metal.

*S&SASR and SASRT, though I still think the first one handled much better the car sections and their controls... plus it had mah boy Big.

*Sonic Advance 1 Amy is the best playable character there! And just for speedrunning and playing around with team combinations, Sonic Advance 3.

*Sonic Colors and Generations. These two games made me believe that ST had finally learned from past mistakes... then SL(o)W came to shaken this belief with gameplay changes that I don't think worked for the best (tough it wasn't bad either), which finally crumbled with just how they found a way to mess up their one successful gameplay style with Farces.

*Unleashed. Like with Fighters, theres something that makes me kind of forgive things like collecting medals, the sluggish werehog or having to grind to level up and improve the performance of the blue manimal... maybe it's the atmosphere from some of the places you visit like Apotos.

[knuckles20]

 

Adventure 2 Battle

Heroes

Shadow

Rush

Rush Adventure 

Chronicles

Riders

Riders:Zero Gravity

Unleashed

*if we including mobile games,

Forces: Speed Battle

I would include the Advance games but I’d never played them but from what I’ve seen looks to be enjoyable.

The reasons I like these games is due to the various characters, how they interact with each other and the rising tension that comes for the storylines.

[Marco9966]

Sonic Adventure 1&2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Riders, Sonic Colors.

These are the only games I enjoy.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

20 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

*The Genesis trilogy. Though I mostly stick to playing hacks (particularly the Amy ones) as I just don't see myself going back to the original versions which lack all the extra content.

*Sonic CD. Level design is a mess at places, but god that JP soundrack and art direction can put the Genesis trilogy to shame in the audiovisual department.

*Sonic the Fighters. It's awesome music and wacky, cartoony slapstick animations always make me smile and forgive it's clunky and dated game mechanics or the cheap fight against Metal.

*S&SASR and SASRT, though I still think the first one handled much better the car sections and their controls... plus it had mah boy Big.

*Sonic Advance 1 Amy is the best playable character there! And just for speedrunning and playing around with team combinations, Sonic Advance 3.

*Sonic Colors and Generations. These two games made me believe that ST had finally learned from past mistakes... then SL(o)W came to shaken this belief with gameplay changes that I don't think worked for the best (tough it wasn't bad either), which finally crumbled with just how they found a way to mess up their one successful gameplay style with Farces.

*Unleashed. Like with Fighters, theres something that makes me kind of forgive things like collecting medals, the sluggish werehog or having to grind to level up and improve the performance of the blue manimal... maybe it's the atmosphere from some of the places you visit like Apotos.

Have to agree mostly, the JP CD soundtrack is in my opinion tied for #1 in the entire sonic series with SA1. S3K close behind those two. Sonic has had pretty excellent music throughout his history in general though.

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

The games I still go back to play are the Genesis games (mainly S3&K) and the Adventures (normally Dreamcast but sometimes GameCube). More recent games would be Generations and Mania Plus.

Though there are other games I like but haven't been back to in years like the Advance/Rush games and Sonic Colors.

I actually went back and played Heroes not to long ago and did not have a good time with it. I had forgotten how slippery the controls were in that game.

 

[DabigRG]

I saw this topic among others for a while now and I honestly didn't know if I could give a solid answer.

But, for the sake of doing so, I'd say I've generally liked playing:

• Sonic 2
• Sonic the Fighters
• Sonic Adventure
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Sonic Heroes
• Shadow the Hedgehog
• Sonic Colors

There might be others that I can't recall or adequately vouch for at the moment, but those are the ones I have liked popping in for it's own sake.

On 3/20/2019 at 9:40 AM, Diogenes said:

Sonic R: What can I say, it's short, it's shallow, but there's something about it that keeps catching my interest. It's certainly not a game I could play often, but when I do get the urge, the short length works in its favor since I don't feel the need to commit to something huge. The music's cheesy and fun, and it's an interesting take on how Sonic could be controlled in 3D.

 

I knew there was something from that collection I was forgetting entirely!

[hyperturbofox17]

I Liked

Sonic Mania

Knuckles Chaotix

Sonic 3d Blast

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Sonic Generations

Sonic R

Sonic Chaos

Sonic Triple Trouble

[batson]

All of the Classic Mega Drive games, CD, the two Adventure games and Heroes are the ones I keep returning to again and again, year after year.

Oh and also Mean Bean Machine. The multiplayer is addictive and I'm sure I'm going to keep playing it with my brothers for the rest of my life.

[Plasme]

I think Sonic R is an absolutely awful game, but for some reason I really like playing it and don't know why.