The Sonic '06 "Revisionism" Debate
Note: I wrote this for my social medias on 19/11/2025, but I figured I'd share it here as the some of the issues discussed were among the many reasons I decided to leave Tumblr. Don't expect any real comeback for me here.
There has been a lot of discourse surrounding Sonic '06 "revisionism" recently. As a contributor to the fanmade remake which has changed a lot of the conversation on the game in the last few years, I feel it's only natural that I share my two cents on the matter.
I think on a general level, fans praising '06, for whatever reason, can only be viewed as harmless. I've always believed there's more to gain from acknowledging the things the game did right than to parrot the same criticisms reviewers have spouted for almost 2 decades.
If a dead horse has been kicked for so long it's nothing more than a pile of atoms, it's only natural for someone to stand up and say "you know what? I liked X for Y reasons".
The re-evaluation of entertainment is nothing new and will continue for any piece of media that received nothing but scorn and ridicule when it was first released; the Star Wars prequels, John Carpenter's The Thing, and yes, Sonic '06.
I suppose problems arise when, in the act of giving praise to a game of such infamy, the fan in question fires back against any and all legitimate criticism, or more worryingly, uses their praise as backhanded mudslinging against newer Sonic games.
I confess, I engaged in this sort of behaviour all the time in the 2010s. Colours, Lost World and Forces were games I treated as cartoonish boogeymen I couldn't help but take stabs at whenever I made a positive observation for older, more critically-derided Sonic games.
Edit: It's an attitude I'm certainly not proud of ever having and I regret ever attacking individuals like Pontaff who were just doing what SEGA told them to do (if anything, SEGA allowing those two to become scapegoats for fan backlash against the godawful writing direction they dictated during the 2010s was quite scummy on their part).
If the fanbase were to agree on some kind of compromise, I think it should be this: If another fan praises a game we hate or inversely criticises a game we love, all the while not attacking or rage-baiting anyone who may disagree, we should just accept it and move on.
By all means, don't stop debating the merits and flaws of individual titles, but I think it's unconstructive to just dismiss fans praising a game that was critically-panned 19 years ago as "revisionism" that's somehow going to cause harm to the entire franchise.
Is it annoying that some fans use P-06 to defend or overlook retail '06's problems? Sure. But it shouldn't invalidate the praise they have for ideas '06 always had. Why else would so many be invested in a remake that takes said ideas and fully realises them for the better?
One last note towards the more... aggressive '06 critics; the game's 20th anniversary is next year. The blinding hatred I once had for the series during the 2010s is something I no longer feel the need to hold onto. Maybe it's time we all let go of the same for '06 too?
Thank you for joining my TED Talk.
