Top 10 Worst Sonic Games Sega has a rollercoaster ride of a track record
when it comes to delivering quality Sonic the Hedgehog games.
Not to say there hasn't been some solid additions in recent years - like the retro inspired
Sonic Mania - but the number of questionable games they've pumped out is a little disheartening,
especially in the 3D realm.
A while back we counted down our top 10 best sonic games, so now we're taking a look at
the flip side of that with the top 10 worst sonic games.
So, whether youre a sonic fan or just curious about what Sonic games are worth your time
and money, take our advice on this - you'll likely want to avoid the ones on this list.
10 Sonic Forces Let's start off this list with the most recent
Sonic game to be released as of this recording - Sonic Forces.
The game received a lot of mixed reviews from critics, with the cons being repetitive boss
fights, lack of consistency in performance across consoles, poor psychics and under developed
tag team sections.
But it does score points for overall visuals and letting you create your own avatar, despite
the fact that this opened up the door for you to become the mastermind behind your own
disturbing latex fetish clown, or hedgehog nightmare fuel.
Sonic Forces may not be as bad as some previous instalments in the franchise, and offers up
new ideas, but it also manages to fail in many areas where it should've improved upon,
based on making those mistakes in previous games.
Regardless, the game was generally a disappointment to many fans, especially coming off of the
high that was Sonic Mania.
9 Sonic Unleashed When Sonic Unleashed was first teased, it
hinted to the series returning to it's platforming roots.
Which to many was exciting, since prior to it, the franchise had been privy to a slew
of poorly received titles.
Released in 2008, it got mixed reviews, and generally performed well on the Wii, with
critics noting the Xbox and PS3 versions were awful and under developed.
Once again, the visuals in the game were praised, but it wasn't enough to save the game from
the Werehog concept , which featured Sonic transforming into the hedgehog equivalent
of a werewolf, with many reviewers and fans feeling as if it's sloppy gameplay and boring
story arc were slapped on to the game last minute.
8 Sonic Blast Sonic Blast is still considered to be an entertaining
game.
Even by critics.
Released in 1996, a platformer that was for the Genesis and Saturn consoles, the game
contained different gameplay than previous Sonic games, which didn't sit well with some
fans.
The level design, music and graphics were all praised, but it contained slower gameplay
than previous Sonic titles - significantly.
Despite lazy controls, it still appealing to fans, but didn't manage to captivate those
who didn't already have an affinity for the franchise, or those who craved the speeds
Sonic is known for.
7 Sonic Shuffle While the Japanese version is considered by
some to be a superior version to the English release, Sonic Shuffle was suppose to be the
equivalent to Mario Party, with Sonic Knuckles Tails and Amy, allowing for up to 4 player
coop.
Sounds neat, right?
Well, had the execution been decent, perhaps it would've been.
The loading times between each characters turn on the game board made it lose momentum,
with some calling the mini games pointlessly complex and somewhat boring.
6 Sonic R There's always been something a bit absurd
about the Sonic racing games.
While some of them have proven to be impressive and enjoyable - like Sonic All Stars Racing
Transformed - others have felt pretty redundant.
Sonic R may not feel redundant compared to other Sonic racing games, but it definitely
feels pointless.
It's canon that Sonic is the fastest character in the series, with Shadow running a very
tight close second.
So why create a game in which the characters race each other, for the most part, on foot?
Using vehicles at least made some sort of sense.
In addition to that, critics complained about the controls and gameplay, and how they made
the game incredibly easy, without adding any real challenge or real depth to provide replay-ability.
And to top it all off, it has one of the worst Sonic soundtracks to appear in the franchise.
5 Sonic Labyrinth Played from an isometric perspective, Labyrinth
is a puzzle platformer that was released in 1995.
So, why is it bad?
Well, it was an attempt to break the mould and branch out the Sonic franchise by expanding
on the genre, except it was slow, repetitive and the game featured poor sound effects.
4 Sonic Free Riders Zero Gravity Sonic Riders Zero Gravity is one of those
games redundant Sonic racing games we mentioned earlier.
It's Sonic on hoverboards.
But aside from the absurdity of that, critics trashed it for sloppy, loose controls and
a lazy plot.
If played on the Nintendo Wii without a game cube controller, players could only use the
motion controls, which critics said made the game confusing and practically unplayable.
It was as if the game was rushed in development, resulting in controls that still needed to
be further improved.
3 Shadow the Hedgehog Yeah because Shadow whipping around a gun
totally seems necessary and fitting of the franchise.
Yep.
From some questionable narrative and thematic choices and unfavourable plot, this 2005 game
was panned for it's attempts at being edgy, and instead coming off as laughable.
Its weapons were stupid.
The levels were poorly designed, with some critics expressing outrage over what felt
like copied and pasted features from previous successful games.
But, silver lining - maybe - the soundtrack was great.
So hey, at least there's that.
2 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric A 2014 game for the Wii, Sonic Boom Rise of
Lyric is another spinoff game that's part of the Sonic Boom franchise.
You know, the one where Knuckles is ion steroids and is just a flat out idiot.
Yay, continuously ruining iconic characters.
Aside from taking the things that you love and slowly suffocating them, Rise of Lyric
was plagued by many gameplay mechanic issues.
Like its problematic camera system, its under developed controls, the poorly written story
and dialogue, and of course, plethora of glitches.
It's initially showing at E3 gained a slew of mixed reviews and set up low expectations
for the game, which it met, with critics calling it bland, unpolished and lacking of quality.
1 Sonic 06 Produced to commemorate the franchises' 15th
anniversary, Sonic the Hedgehog, aka Sonic 06 (due to it being released in 2006) was
a major let down.
Why?
Well first off, it's initial pre release showings received a ton of praise.
Secondly, it's plot was riddled with weird shit, like Sonics death, the introduction
to Silver (which got mixed reviews, really, as some people dig him), the narratives overall
cohesiveness, and the fact that Sonic macks on a human lady friend, or rather, she kisses
him to bring him back to life.
While the game did feature some terrifying new characters and offered up a solid intimidating
boss fight or two, it's gameplay mechanics put the rest of it to shame.
Critics noted that it had a sloppy camera system, ridiculously long load times, bad
voice acting, was riddled with glitches, and the controls were imprecise.
And that in general, it seemed under developed, lacking any refining or polishing, as if Sega
pushed out the game despite it being fully finished.
It's considered to be the worst game in the Sonic franchise, with many people believing
it's one of the worst 3D games in history.
So what have we learned today?
That generally, the consensus with all poorly developed Sonic games is looks great, stunning
graphics, but the gameplay is the equivalent of dragging nails on a chalkboard.
For those of you feeling the disappointment, you should head on over to our top 10 sonic
games list and learn about all of the Sonic games that are excellent and definitely worth
your time, especially if you're a sonic fan.
If you want more Sonic, why not hop over to our channel and check out our top 10 sonic
playlist?
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I've been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 gaming.
Ill catch you all in the next one.