Ranking Every Sonic Special Stage

are any of the sonic's special stages enjoyable because i don't have good memories for most of them i tried all 30 and i wish i were joking and we're not counting mobile games so no sonic runners adventure but yeah it's time to get her ranked 30. sonic the hedgehog master system and we're starting off with a special stage that looks nothing like a special stage in fact it barely counts as one considering each version is just the level where you bounce around and collect rings some springs launch you higher than others and there's also bouncy rings to throw you off course i'll just say this these special stages aren't very special it's just miserable trying to navigate your way around there's very little incentive to visit these levels in the first place 29 sonic chaos again these are just normal levels but at least they make an attempt at introducing some sort of fun factor sonic may fly around jump up a bunch of platforms or get through a maze if the controls weren't so slippery i wouldn't mind playing these i guess i mean just look at it it's the most special stage i've ever endured let's just move on 28 sonic blast and we finally have our first real looking special stage and it's not very good you'll go from running slow as molasses to fastest each level looks exactly the same with only two different color palettes there are springs and stuff to spice up the running but i don't know it just reminds me of 3d world runner but way less interesting the clouds moving in the background is a cool animation but it doesn't really translate well with what sonic's actual movement looks like 27. sonic advance what the hell happened here sonic goes to space and rides a surfboard that sounds like a grand old time right well i hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is by far one of the most infuriating experiences in a sonic game the issue is grabbing the rings themselves it's extremely hard to tell where the hitboxes are you may put your board right over the rings only for them to fly past you completely it's awful and all you can really do is memorize specific spots where you know you'll get the rings and even worse is the music is freaking amazing and i want to enjoy it but i can't when i can barely get past the second or third stage there's also this dive maneuver that you're forced to do in the later levels that's very laggy and hard to aim with even the god damn springs that are supposed to guarantee rings will miss all of them sometimes and to put the cherry on the sundae they had the audacity to severely limit the rain count in the last couple stages making it even easier to choke and mess up 26. sonic triple trouble wow would you look at that another game where you just run around a normal looking level at least triple trouble looks a lot nicer than chaos and 8-bit sonic and there are attempts at 3d stages which are ambitious for the time at the end of the 2d stages knack the weasel tries to prevent you from getting the chaos emerald and you'll have to fight him a few times the 3d ones are neat since you fly the tornado around collecting rings although the depth perception window is pretty tiny also i'm not sure why sonic looks behind him when you turn that just seems like the worst possible thing you could do when flying but that's just my two cents you gotta appreciate the amount of effort that went into the special stages they seem to have tried to go all out it's too bad sonic triple trouble is on such a gimped handheld 25 sonic heroes probably the most infamously bad special stage for its obnoxious difficulty and controls before getting into it has anyone else brought up that the tube looks exactly the same as koopa keeps tubes from mario kart wii i'm sure someone has noticed this before i've just never noticed the comparison until now but anyway you collect a bunch of balloons to build up a boost when your gauge is empty no more boost so you want to grab balloons as consistently as possible what i find really interesting is you can still switch characters on the fly and sometimes you have to depending on how the balloons are laid out this special stage is a ton of fun the first few times but man does it get hard fast the controls are way too sensitive it's very easy to end up on the ceiling or wall and slow down to a crawl wasting precious time but later on it takes like five seconds to get to the emerald there's no difficulty progression what is this 24. sonic the hedgehog genesis gba oh boy the first of many times that we'll see the sonic 1's acid trip of the 90s the gba version is complete rubbish it's way too zoomed in making it hard to tell where you're supposed to go and the frame rate is very chunky if you touch the r circle the stages rotation reverses so have fun trying to line up your jump only to get thrown off completely with some practice i don't mind these stages but there's way better versions out there 23. sonic the hedgehog wow i can actually see what i'm doing i get to look at more of those polygonal green birds as well oh what a treat that sure is it's the exact same thing put sonic on some gems to make them disappear and grab the emerald 22. sonic pocket adventure a great game meddled down with a lame remake of the sonic 2 special stage sega has been obsessed with remaking the halfpipe and i couldn't tell you why they've always just been okay and nothing beyond that this version in particular has the added future of virtually no draw distance so uh good luck having the reaction time of a star-nosed mole at least the controls are smooth but there's just not enough time to react without memorizing the entire course ahead of time 21. sonic the hedgehog origins it's really funny looking at these back to back it's almost like i'm just zooming out the exact same footage but the origins version runs at a smooth 60fps which is always great to see and since it's from origins you can retry the level with coins which is a significant upgrade but it's not quite the definitive version 20. sonic the hedgehog 4 episode 1. i can't believe i'm giving this game any sort of praise but they do have the superior sonic 1 special stage the main reason is because you can rotate the stage yourself making it way easier to maneuver around some people may think that takes out all the challenge but the challenge originally felt completely out of your grasp maybe it would have made more sense to be able to change the spinning direction instead of having full control but either way it's the most enjoyable version and it also looks the nicest i actually really like the backgrounds they have a very soft calming feel to them interestingly the stages are also completely linear with the dead ends being death zones and even better you're able to pause and retry as many times as you want 19. sonic cd let's just consider what's going on here sonic is running in 3d space on some bizarro planet and he's going around blowing up ufos i don't think he's ever done that besides this one time such a weird thing to do but i digress hitting these ufos is really satisfying but there's moments where it feels like your jump wasn't supposed to miss but it does the hitboxes are a little wonky but it's not game breaking honestly my only real issue is just how laggy everything is and look i can't even imagine how challenging it must have been to run this on a sega cd it was really pushing itself to its limits and i really appreciate how the backgrounds change pretty drastically per time stone it's a nice way to add some attention to detail 18. sonic lost world 3ds so apparently this is claimed to be one of the worst special stages of all time i'm so intrigued by this because it looks awesome and is kind of a rare gem because almost nobody even knows this exists but the controls use the gyroscope meaning you will have to literally stand up and move your entire body to move sonic around and honestly i actually kind of liked it assuming that you have the space to move around the controls are pretty fluid and it actually feels good but let's be real this would have been way better with normal controls or at least a way to reset your calibration on the fly but there's no way it's the worst special stage of all time i'd much rather play this over anything from sonic 1. 17. sonic cd origins ah that's so much nicer to look at it does seem like the hitbox issue for the most part has been fixed and the improved frame rate makes it much more manageable to get around the running animation itself has also been upgraded and it looks so much nicer and since it's sonic origins you can retry these stages with as many coins as you have which is awesome because they can get tough 16. sonic the hedgehog 2. when you think of collecting a chaos emerald this is the image that likely pops into your head running down a half pipe to get some rings and avoiding spikes and it's definitely better than the pocket adventure version because we get more time to see the rings coming and it isn't that bad but if you're playing with sonic and tails then it's a billion times harder tails movement and jump is delayed so you have to prepare ahead of time which is easier said than done and i've never been a big fan of the two making turns and going up and down like i get it it's to make the stage more interesting but it's just less time to respond coming towards your face 15. sonic the hedgehog 2 origins my god what a massive improvement the frame rate a much bigger draw distance more responsive controls even so i still don't care much for the stage all that much but at least it's tolerable and like the other origin special stages you can retry this one with a coin which you'll need to do because they get tough as nails by the end 14. sonic 3d blast pc this is another one you've likely never seen before because it's another half pipe clone it goes a lot faster than the genesis versions and the camera perspective is perch more downward which is actually a really great update since it makes it easier to see what's coming up i can't believe i'm saying this but i have more fun with this one than even sonic 2's origin version and that's because there's just less to worry about and i couldn't ask for more considering most special stages are filled to the brim with that and hitting spikes is way more forgiving you only lose 5 rings when you typically lose way more plus each half pipe is just loaded with rings 13. sonic the hedgehog 4 episode 2 because of course sonic 4 we made the half pipe but hey it's not half bad it's a lot like the pc version since it really feels like you're flying down the road the controls are also pretty good and they even change up a few things sometimes the half pipe turns into a fold pipe and you'll even get springs that launch you into another pipe entirely there's also a couple new items like the combination dash which lets you grab rings between sonic and tails so hey there's at least some cool stuff to rave about 12. knuckles chaotix this just might be the single most creative special stage we've seen you need to collect a certain amount of orbs to get the chaos rings normal rings are your time limit which is super cool and incentivizes you to stock up before jumping into these you run across a bunch of walls that are connected together it's kind of like the slide in mari galaxy 2 since i don't know how else to describe it and despite the odds of how ambitious this is it controls fairly well and is pretty fun it does get ridiculously hard when you go for the last couple chaos rings but what's nice is that the level actually loops if you miss any orbs and you can keep trying as long as you have enough rings sometimes the turns are a bit unpredictable but usually you can tell where you need to go i would absolutely love to see this concept remade in present time for a sonic mania 2 or something it just needs some polishing up 11. sonic advance 2. i realize how obnoxious it is to actually unlock these special stages but those don't factor into the ranking at all you'll run around a grid in 3d collecting rings and time bonuses compared to advance one there's actual hitboxes which makes it possible to collect the rings a novel concept i know the turning is very tight which is nice since you'll need the precision for the later levels and they can get pretty tough as well there's even springs and a couple of enemies that get in the way for variety if you always wanted to play these stages but never cut around to unlocking them i'd say it's worth trying them out if you use a code you know like cheating for the stages do it 10. sonic 3d blast saturn the stage starts with tails or knuckles flying you into position i don't know what it is but i just adore this little extra tidbit since this comes from a 3d blast it makes the static characters feel more alive they aren't just there to take your rings you also get a ride there as an added bonus it's yet again a half pipe and out of all of them that exist this is one of the few where i really had fun with it the controls are near perfect and how can you not love sonic's little zoom in shot when you're halfway there early 3d sonic is my favorite looking version of him it's such a wonderful time capsule and god damn the music is so catchy it has this way of pumping you up while keeping you focused at the same time it's just awesome the biggest factor is the speed itself it feels just right that's because you've got just enough time to see the spikes in the rings coming and then there's parts where you'll jump down to the pipe while grabbing rings or bounce up to entirely different areas it's such a fun vibe seriously play these 9. sonic advance 3 by far the best advanced special stage you stand on top of a plane grabbing rings and the hitboxes just work everything just flows so well you can pass through a big blue ring which makes sonic push the plane himself and somehow makes aiming way more accurate i don't know how that's supposed to work but it's a joy so i don't really care about the logic it's been really cool to see the advanced trilogy up the ante with each new game it may not be the most visually pleasing stage but the fun makes up for that 8. sonic 3d blast genesis i have this sinking thought that people hate this special stage for some reason i personally think it's amazing because it's short to the point controls well and a neat idea it's almost like an early version of temple run it kind of reminds me of that but with better controls once you do get the hang of it it is really easy which takes down a couple points but it's one of the few special stages where i actively want to take the time to play them 7. sonic colors ds i'll have a lot more to say about the sonic rush version of this stage but for colors ds you basically just collect the orbs each section has you grabbing a different colored orb and the controls are flawless it's probably the best controlling special stage although these are way too easy which frankly is a drawback considering the later stages are also ridiculously easy but just for the fact that it's so fun to control makes it one of the best special stages out there 6. sonic generations 3ds anyone else have vietnam flashbacks when discovering the sonic hero special stage was recreated i sure did but thank god they fixed it the controls are no longer janky garbage instead it's very pleasant running around and grabbing the balloons this is another one where it's a bit on the easy side but i'll take that over something that's unfair and frustrating maybe the boost is too generous but at least i actually feel like i'm in control of what i'm doing and it looks just as amazing maybe even more so than the original 5. sonic rush adventure i remember playing this as a kid for a few hours then getting stuck in quitting never realizing that you're supposed to grind for materials this is somewhat tied into racing johnny who has the precious chaos emeralds it's really strange to see a callback to the game gear days when the special stages were just specialized levels and it actually works pretty damn well in this situation you need to outspeed him by collecting rings using your boost at the right time drive through his yellow circle marks and boost to deflect obstacles it sounds like a lot for mostly touch controls and it can be at times these levels get pretty gnarly but it never feels unfair if you take the time to learn the controls i didn't think i'd enjoy these special stages as much as i did to be honest and in case you're wondering blaze does get soul emeralds too but only through completing missions so i wouldn't really count those as special stages four sonic the hedgehog three and knuckles blue spears the only retro special stage that anyone gives a damn about it's still a lot of fun you gotta collect all the orbs to get the emerald if you run around on a square on the outside they all burst into rings when the lines connect this one mechanic makes these stages infinitely more enjoyable if you want a perfect 100 score you got to get all the orbs in the rings but you'll also need to carefully route out the squares to secure the hidden rings and while this is all happening the pace slowly picks up making it harder and harder to move accurately it's such a well-balanced and enjoyable stage you can even play the blue sphere as its own game that's how iconic it is plus you've got orbs that launch you into the air and you can also turn around on the dime to make a quick correction it's not possible to forget about this special stage 3. sonic the hedgehog 3 and knuckles origins i mean what am i supposed to add honestly widescreen 60fps and the same wonderful levels sonic origins even has its own blue spear game to keep up with the tradition believe it or not though this has been topped by a couple other stages 2. sonic rush despite how much i played this game as a kid i never realized how easy it was to get to a special stage and now that i've tried them all i was hella missing out now yes it is another half pipe but i don't think this one will ever be topped you control sonic with a touchscreen which gives you the most pristine precision you could ask for because the controls are so accurate the layout is allowed to be fairly complex and build a strong difficulty progression just look at this stage there's like a million spikes and only six rings but because i'm using a stylus i can learn to time when to swing sonic through the spikes you can also flick him into the air to hit springs and you'll hit these buttons for extra rings i like to call this section elitebeat agent's light but that's just me i don't think i can emphasize just how enthralling it is to control sonic's movement on such a tight dime 1. sonic mania 2017 was an incredible year for games i remember booting up sonic mania and the hairs on my arms were raised so high just because of how much fun the game was but then i ran into a big ring in holy sh i just about creamed myself i was running through grabbing the orbs and getting rings and all i could repeat to myself over and over again was they made special stages fun again and my god i freaking love these so much the difficulty curve is just right the controls are perfect you can attempt to take risky shortcuts if you want the music slaps it's just like the best thing ever and they base the models off the 3d 90s look oh that's just icing on the cake for me best special stage ever they're never gonna top it case closed goodbye oh yeah i finally got that last emerald while i'm turning into super nathaniel bandy you guys have a great day and i'll talk with you soon [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Nathaniel Bandy

Views: 353,127

Keywords: Sonic special stages, sonic the hedgehog, sonic frontiers, sonic origins, sonic mania, sonic 3, sonic 2, sonic cd, sonic 3d blast, sonic heroes, sonic rush, sonic rush adventure, nathaniel bandy, ranking sonic special stages

Id: cIw7_goqcB8

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 13 2022