my personal rating list of the main “modern” sonic games in order
sonic adventure 1 and 2
team sonic racing
sonic colours wii
shadow the hedgehog
sonic forces
sonic heroes
sonic and the black knight/sonic 06
need to play to determine: sonic unleashed, sonic colours ds, sonic and the secret rings
sonic adventure 1 and 2 are at the top bc. well i don’t think i have to explain. team racing is very high up there bc it’s an extremely enjoyable game and very well made, with great controls. only time i experience glitches is online or very rarely in regular play but it doesn’t bother me. the only thing i don’t like about it is rouge’s va but otherwise it’s good. before tsr, i didn’t like racing games at all. sonic colours surprised me, i didn’t expect to enjoy quite as much as i did. but the music is GREAT, the story is nice and light but makes sense, the wisp idea is interesting and fun, and the difficulty is TOUGH. like, i’m no master player and i find difficulty frustrating, but it’s refreshing to have a modern sonic game actually be... difficult. the levels are tricky and it’s much more difficult to get a good grade, the challenge is something nice. the characterisations are also good. it’s ADORABLE too, and the level design is nice. i’m not a fan of the 2d/3d hybrid style that are the recent games, but i think it’s done the absolute best here.
shadow the hedgehog i’ll defend til my death, pry it from my cold dead hands as a GOOD sonic game. why? because the controls are great, it’s fun, the story paths are an interesting idea, the graphics are nice and the ost is SO good. while i agree on some criticisms, that the writing of shadow was not up to scratch and they didn’t quite handle the branching story paths too well, i still think it’s a good game. sonic forces is good and that’s that. rushed? yes. too short? definitely. oc maker unnecessary? probably. but is it fun, is the music good, are the graphics nice, and are the characterisations good? yes. save for shadow, but his characterisation has been kinda off for a while now (the only correct part is when he worries for omega/rouge and it’s very clear that when infinite warps his reality into that where rouge does not care for him, he becomes very upset, as well as the part where he rescues sonic.)
sonic heroes is a bad game lmaooo and i’ll admit that. it’s VERY glitchy, the difficulty is all over the place and some levels are way too long/irritating. but i have a soft spot for it, for some reason. it would probably be much lower if i didn’t have that soft spot. characterisations are good.
GOD OK SO sonic and the black knight. i REALLY wanted to enjoy this game but i... just didn’t? :( i’m sad about that but it’s the truth. i like the characters, i like the storybook kind of art, i like the main theme, and i like sonic’s characterisation. but it’s just... not a fun game. i hate the gameplay honestly and i didn’t even finish the final boss it was SO boring to me. it reminded me of heroes’ final boss, which i also hate. i do like the characters though, so i like to see what people do with them and they look cute in their lil armours.
sonic 06 is just bad. bad gameplay, glitchy as hell, boring levels, terrible controls, story sub par. the only good part about it was shadow’s writing, which called back to the sa1 and 2 period and heroes where his characterisation was gold. unfortunately i don’t really like silver or blaze either tbh :( blaze is okay. she cute. but eh.
and the other ones i still have to play! i have colours ds and unleashed that i’ll play at some point. i’m still on colours wii, but i’ve played enough to determine my feelings on it :3
