Sonic the Hedgehog: Complete Series Retrospective | Billiam

hey what's up Billiam here the following video is a three-hour retrospective recorded over the course of a year-and-a-half covering the entire main series sonic series up until this point enjoy [ __ ] that's high well it's Sonic's twenty-fifth anniversary year and to celebrate we're gonna look at every main series Sonic game starting with Sonic the Hedgehog and ending with whatever game comes out this year we're gonna witness the evolution the evolution and critique it as objectively as possible I meant to say we're gonna praise it mindlessly [Music] after Sega launched a company-wide contest to create a mascot that could compete with Mario Sonic the Hedgehog was born an attempt to create a more edgy character to compete with Mario's blue-collar status Sonic was designed in a much more extreme way with shoes based on Michael Jackson a personality based off Bill Clinton and a bad guy based off of a Teddy Roosevelt caricature certainly the combination for success the ideas for Sonic's gameplay came about through the repetition of playing World one one of Super Mario Bros the original Mario Bros game had no saving ability so in order to keep playing after a game over players had to play World 1 1 over and over again Yuji naka the creator of Sonic stated in a Nintendo Power interview that having to repeat this level became so tedious that he would try to get through it as fast as possible which bird the idea of Sonic's gameplay style Sonic the Hedgehog came out in 1991 for the Sega Genesis and was an immediate hit it helped bring an end to Nintendo's essentially monopoly over the game market and nearly instantly became iconic through marketing their character as cool and taking advantage of literally the one technical superiority the Genesis had over the Super Nintendo Sonic became a huge success they say he's incredibly fast well what's the hurry mister yeah and about his attitude Sonic edge Sega Genesis fast too however through the years we've seen how Sonic has become somewhat of a joke in the gaming community with insanely serious plot lines and overly defensive fanbase and too many unnecessary characters reboots and spin-off titles with Sonic's extra buddy being sort of an out-of-date concept in his lack of consistent quality titles tarnishing the name it's hard to remember the series roots Sega has tried to recapture that feeling many times but has yet to have a long enough period of time with only quality games to reclaim this feeling but in this video we're going to ignore all the [ __ ] that Sonic has put out we're going to ignore all that and look at the game that started a series that began to roll downhill faster than well Sonic rolling down a hill now I'm not the biggest fan of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game don't get me wrong I understand its importance and what it introduced and that it's a quality game but I have no nostalgic connection to it I had Sonic 3 in Sega's smash pack 2 for the PC so I grew up with Sonic 3 and 2 however I didn't really get to play Sonic the Hedgehog until I got Sonic Mega Collection in fact the first time I ever beat the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was on the iPhone with the Christian white head port but I've started to notice after playing for a while is that the game has a very unique way of challenging the player the first level Green Hill Zone affords you the ability to play with sonic speed there's a lot of open space to run and a lot of opportunity to explore his abilities such as the spin attack if you gain enough momentum and press down Sonic will roll into a ball and allow you to pummel through enemies building up speed feels good and the sound effects of rings and enemies blowing up is satisfying however the game has an interesting way of using this against you there will be times where there's a spring that will send you flying in the other direction unless you know it's there there's no avoiding it immediately as you get into the second level things change Green Hill the first level was all about running fast and learning to avoid obstacles where marble zone is about wading in patience running backfires so the challenge comes from wanting to go fast the urge to reclaim the feeling of going fast from the previous stage works against you the first game actually challenges your patience by making you want to go fast as opposed to testing your knowledge of the level in reaction time by actually going fast now here's the interesting thing about Sonic even when you're supposed to speed through a level you're supposed to have prior knowledge of how the levels laid out beforehand there's a lot of trial and error involved the biggest moment that sticks out to me is in spring yard zone in spring yard zone there's a lot of moments where you can fall down a pit roll down and back up a ramp you get used to this as all three acts to the level have multiple instances where you can do this however and the third act there's a moment where you think you can do this as it's actually the very last pit you can fall down but then you find out it's a bottomless pit the only way you could have seen this coming is if you have prior knowledge of its existence and there's a lot of moments like this throughout the whole game and especially in labyrinth zone I jump on an enemy and my forward momentum lands me on a pit of spikes that I had no prior knowledge of being there I stand on a platform going up I get put into spikes and again this would be fine in many circumstances of the game but labyrinth zone is underwater and doesn't afford you as much reaction time as normal well here it is the defense of the negative opinions towards the Sonic series now in order to do this I'm gonna compare the Sonic series to the Mario series not because of its similarities but due to its fundamental differences the Mario series is all about giving you challenge by laying out the map ahead of you and giving you all the tools you need in order to conquer the challenge comes with the precision of controls predictable patterns and being able to remember what to do under stress Mario levels can be longer because it's about being able to learn how to use the tools given to you in order to win sonic on the other hand doesn't present the same challenge Sonic is about memorization many of Sonic's levels have unfair enemy placement and unseen challenges your first run of a sonic level shouldn't be fast it should be calculated as much as possible however each level is about memorization if you know where an enemy will show up you can take action before it has the opportunity to backfire Sonic levels are short because of this memorization principle Sonic is a series about trial and error and Mario's a series about developing your skills many who have started with Mario and then discovered Sonic sees right through Sonic's gimmicks in a Mario game you feel good for accomplishing a challenge and Sonic you feel good about going through a loop-de-loop because you know you had to maintain top speed to get there the criticism of the series mainly comes from this it's easy to see how someone may feel the Sonic series is gimmicky it has a nice presentation combined with false reward and you can see that it's hard to unsee it as somebody who grew up with the Sonic series however I enjoy this I know what I'm getting and I enjoy it but I have an understanding of the level lamps and I'm used to the style of gameplay but we also have to admit that someone might not see this as we do all right let's stop criticizing this game I do love it and I'm a huge Sonic fan even though I criticize it all the time to be a fan of something it's not to blindly love it but it's to understand its flaws so you can see how the series can improve going forward I criticize Sonic not because I don't like the series but because I want to see it improve the game visually is stunning I'm a big advocate that color palettes and design is far more important than polygons layout one thing I think Sonic has always had over the Mario series is visuals Sonic is just so poppy and vibrant so is Mario but for whatever reason Sonic is only stuck out to me boy there's one thing that I think the first Sonic game has that the rest don't however the lack of a Spin Dash and speed boots the Spin Dash was an ability given to Sonic which allows him to reach his top speed immediately anywhere at any time speed boosts our objects laid out within a stage that also allow sonic to reach his top speed immediately although they feel great in other sonic games the original presents a sense of reward that can't be captured because you earn fast and speed and quick there is no way to instantly gain speed I said earlier that the Sonic series provides a lot of false reward but the first Sonic game is the game that comes closest to making this reward genuine [Music] after the success of Sonic the Hedgehog Sega was looking for a way to capitalize on the character Sonic 1 became the bundled in game for the Sega Genesis and Sega of America and Sega of Japan worked hand-in-hand to create the sequel a new sidekick was added miles per hour however over time miles became Don his tales sonic 2 was one of the first Sonic games to have a worldwide release date since this was relatively unknown to happen at the time Sega reps had a hard time coordinating with stores and shipping companies to assure the game was released on time on November 21st 1992 a databse on Tuesday the skin Mickey day is part of the reason why so many games albums and DVDs are released on Tuesdays now Sonic 2 launched to critical acclaim new features include the Spin Dash a spin - the complete styling the move which allows Sonic charge up to his full speed at any time anywhere two-player a second player can control tails during play ordering a new two-player versus mode with awesome new graphics the new split-screen lets to play boosters an interstage object which will launch Sonic into full speed a new special stage which will allow Sonic to collect one of seven Chaos Emerald han levels in a fresh new halfpipe and last but not least the super sonic transformation a new transformation for Sonic unlocked if a player collects all 7 Chaos Emeralds Super Sonic first appeared in the 1992 game Sonic 2 with a similar transformation for Goku first appeared in April 1st 1991 a full two months before the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is considered by many to be the best game the series has to offer but is it all really downhill after the second entry or has a nostalgia blindside of the fanbase I mean even the most beautiful valleys are downhill from something immediately after putting in the game the jump and quality is overwhelming usually I wait to talk about visual style of a game until the end but the visual upgrade is amazing hello Sonic 1 had an appealing color palette the saturation in Sonic 2 is boosted up to 11 I guess you can say the reason behind this new vibrancy is that the upgraded green hill zone to Emerald hill zone so essentially vibrant green hill zone one of the concepts played around with in Sonic 1 was level branching essentially you could play the same level without taking the same path however Sonic 2 improves upon this immensely not only there are alternate paths to be taken right from the start the game also makes it easier to go back and forth between different paths so several playthroughs of the same level might be all different sonic one really wanted to make the players feel as if they were going fast with parallax scrolling in several stage props it accomplishes this very well however Sega really wanted to up the sense of speed for the century right from the beginning there's new stage sets including corkscrews and a bunch of those loops from the first game heading right on into the second level chemical plant so the levels that really benefit from the branching pathways are the water levels instead of being forced like the first game the water levels in Sonic 2 were kind of unnecessary and I don't mean that they don't add anything to the game I mean that if the player knows which pathways to choose and is skillful enough they can actually avoid the water entirely unlike marble zone the second level on Sonic 1 which significantly slows down the gameplay to allow for platforming chemical plant keeps the momentum going while providing some a notorious platforming moments it's impossible to mention chemical plant zone without mentioning speed boosts the Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase has always been divisive and it really started with the speed boosts introduced in Sonic to my opinion I don't really have an opinion Sonic's spindash ability does the exact same thing these boosts do and that can be used at any time they're just aesthetically pleasing moving on to aquatic ruin zone it's a water level and just like chemical plant zone if you're skilled enough you can actually avoid going underwater now I am NOT one to get nauseous over watching movies or playing games but the parallax scrolling in this level is just too much see sonic is one of the first games to implement a depth technique called parallax parallax is when objects at different distances appear to be moving at different speeds it's actually how astronomers measure the distance between stars so Sonic utilizes this in order to create a sense of depth between the background and the foreground in Sonic 2 the game began to get really ambitious with how many different depth planes objects will be placed in aquatic ruin zone at some points has foreground objects Sonic's plane a field and multiple layers of background objects all at once and when Sonic moves and all the other objects move in accordance with his movements it really gets disorienting especially after you're playing for a while next we get to fan favorite level casino night zone it's fun it's creative and it feels good especially when you get a jackpot would collect a bunch of rings the casino style zones became a staple of the series after this so it's always cool to go back and see the series at its roots hilltop Zone definitely one of the more platformer heavy levels in the whole game after hilltop zone comes Alexandria zone then negan zone then point of view shot wall potentially your favorite character is murdered zone there's the weighted jumps you have to time and make platforms that will fall if you stay on them too long and lava that rises at certain points with falling platforms sprinkled throughout mystic k-zone is frustrating yet a fair level there's a series of breakable platforms and pulleys so you have the pull lever first lowering the platform jump on a breakable platform and back on to the lowered one all before it crumbles all to avoid falling into a pit of spikes spikes are everywhere but that's okay because this level is also littered with the invincibility power-ups and those power-ups are really needed in this stage not only are the spikes scattered in every which way but a lot of the enemies here are difficult to kill you have a snake-like enemy which ambushes you and can only be killed by jumping directly on top of his head and fireflies which can only be killed when they aren't fire flying but don't worry the fireflies last a tragically short amount of time your Fox companion usually make sure that they don't have any time to develop mystic cave zone also provides a ton of alternative route options and the iPhone port of the game a whole new level can be accessed through mystic cave zone however in the original version there's just a pit that is impossible to jump out of and I mean impossible not just really difficult this is one of those notorious parts of the game and it's a pretty big blemish sliding on into oil ocean zone we see that sonic slides around there are some green caps that blow off of a flame and you're never quite sure when it's going to happen and it happens quick so you'll try to jump on top of it before it blows but it will happen mid jump so you end up hitting the fire every time also this level is filled with too many cinematic moments sonic sliding around and going through Donkey Kong cannons etc now we get to metropolis zone the last proper tone this is probably by far the hardest levels in the whole series the enemies in the level consist of a mantis which will throw its arms at you they're nearly impossible to avoid a crab with a hammer claw which is also nearly impossible to avoid and little star guys which explode and send pins in a million directions which are incredibly impossible to avoid the levels also filled with difficult platforming and some of the most obnoxious pattern-recognition in any game ever sky chase zone the beginning of the end of the sketchy Zone C Sonic and Tails flying up to dr. Robotnik's winged fortress this is one of the most uneasy levels I've ever played because even though tails will always be right under Sonic I'm constantly on edge thinking that tails will miss me and I'll fall to my death this takes my focus off of concentrating on avoiding enemies and causes me to die the level leads directly into winged fortress zone a relatively straightforward level except for some perspective platforming that is a little confusing and finally we see Death Egg Zone one of the most artificially hard levels in the history of forever and death egg zone you have to figure out how to beat two incredibly hard bosses with no rings each of these bosses has specific patterns that they attack in and at times it's hard to tell when and where it is appropriate to attack them throughout the game most of the bosses are incredibly easy and at times you can beat them before you even have an understanding on their attack patterns and other times you can quickly pick up on the patterns and just wait for an appropriate time to attack but here not only are the patterns highly unpredictable especially with the first boss but you have zero rings throughout the level and therefore no opportunity for trial and error or to learn their patterns the Sonic series has one of the most diverse level selections in any series ever and Sonic 2 really laid down the groundwork for that you have the Green Hill Zone clone the city zone Robotnik's base the sky level etc Sonic 2 has been the standard for the series ever since it came out in its deserving of that title even The Annoying special stage has been copied over a million times however once again like its predecessor Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is not a perfect game many of the flaws from the first one still persists into the second one including the problems with memorization especially with the death egg zone in which you don't have opportunities to memorize it because you don't get any rings within the beginning of a very difficult stage Sonic 2 is what every Sonic game is based off of after this not even just the level variety either Sonic is given a new ability a new character is added and the feeling of grandiose is built up Sonic 2 is to the Sonic series as Mario 3 is to the Mario series Sonic 1 laid the basic groundwork characters gameplay and setting while Sonic 2 took that and expanded upon it however the series really piqued after the second entry I think it's safe to say yes Sonic 2 isn't only possibly the best Sonic game but all cemented Sonic as a video game icon Sonic became master after Sonic 2 in 1993 two different TV shows were based on the character and we're airing at the same exact time Sonic became the first video game character to have a flow in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and they even caught the attention of the world's biggest celebrity one of the most interesting things that come out of his intense popularity was a poll that Sega conducted the poll asked children to identify cartoon characters and more kids were able to identify Sonic / Mickey Mouse it's hard to think about it now but Sonic was a huge icon at one point and if it wasn't for this game that wouldn't have ever been even though Sonic the Hedgehog 2 laid the groundwork for the series and set such a high precedent for what was to follow the next entry might be just as good and debatably even better the Sega Genesis was released in 1989 its biggest competition was the Nintendo Entertainment System which was at least four years prior the Sega Genesis had far superior technical aspects to the NES however in 1991 when intend to released the follow-up to the NES the Super Nintendo the Genesis had the technical disadvantage despite releasing games like Sonic the Hedgehog to compat Super Nintendo sales Sega was lagging behind and still had a technical disadvantage at this point in time ROM based cartridges had been the standard storage for games and had been around since the mid 70s to put a perspective how much data these cartridges could hold the audio file for the Sega chant at the beginning of Sonic the Hedgehog took up over 1/8 of the total space on the cartridge where the total space of a Genesis ROM cartridge can hold around 4 megabytes the total capacity of a CD was around 700 megabytes to regain a competitive edge in the market sega developed the Sega CD an accessory for the Sega Genesis that could play exclusive games which were capable of displaying full motion video and CD quality audio hey you still don't have a Sega CD what are you waiting for Nintendo to make one - you have seen the games right wrong answer man show however the Sega CD ultimately did not help boost the sales of the Genesis significantly the accessory only sold 2.2 million units and at the end of the console wars the Super Nintendo had outsold the Genesis by over 15 million units even though the Japanese branch of Sega helped with the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 it was largely an American project see at the time Sega of Japan was focusing on creating an enhanced support of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega CD over time and with a lot of experimentation with the hardware Sega of Japan ultimately created a different game in the fall of 1993 Sonic CD was released for the Sega CD new features include full motion video cutscenes animated by the same team behind Dragonball Z a time-traveling mechanic inspired by Back to the Future Sonic after hitting a signpost can run at full speed to travel backwards and forwards in time to upload the game's ending Sonic's super peel-out move another way for Sonic to reach his top speed eight new special stages which allow the player to collect one of seven time stones and the introduction of fan favorite characters Amy Rose in metal sign Amy's introduction was actually a little messy and the American version of the game the manual refers to her as princess Sally implying that she's the same character from the Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday morning cartoon and Sonic the fighter she was called Rosie the rascal it wasn't until Sonic R that she was finally called Amy Metal Sonic is the first adversary ever created for Sonic and early on in the game Metal Sonic captures Amy who in this iteration is a very young child even though he was barely in the game Metal Sonic gained a huge fanbase after this and returned in future games I mentioned how Sonic 2 was a vibrant game but oh my god Sonic CD the prior mentioned time-traveling mechanic allows Sonic to travel backwards and forwards in time to destroy a generator or a projection of Metal Sonic in order to achieve a good or a bad ending so in order to draw a distinctly distinct correlation between good futures and bad futures these intense vibrant colors are used even the music in the game matches the unique color palette perfectly [Music] [Applause] the original US version of the game had an odd soundtrack it was sort of an orchestral slow techno style it certainly helped at the odd setting but it distance itself too much from Sonic however the Japanese soundtrack which is a present in the moderate iteration of the game is stunning it's upbeat yet somehow different than the other soundtracks of the series and it completely benefits from the CD quality sound however one thing that the Japanese version is missing is the sonic boom song at the beginning [Music] actually maybe not even though sonic CD sets itself apart from other sonic games immediately with its vibrant color palette it's true unique qualities come from experimenting with the gameplay itself one of the places I think it pays off the most is during boss battles usually Robotnik boss battles are methodical and simple but here each boss battle is completely unique and as a creative challenge one takes place underwater where bondic uses air bubbles which sonic needs to breathe as a shield one of my favorites has sonic running on a treadmill in order to create friction to heat up and destroy the bottom of dr. Robotnik's safe place even in the faceoff with Metal Sonic is unique instead of being a direct fight with him sonic has to race them to the end of Stardust Speedway while avoiding metal Sonic's and dr. Robotnik's attacks it's cool to see that even the most built-up boss battle in the game is experimental especially when compared to the other two robots sonic fights in the classic series other sonic games will often allow you to build up speed and then experience almost cinematic like moments where you can pretty much sit back and watch the sonic go however Sonic CD relies much less on sonic speed which is weird because it's the only classic game which has mechanics that require you to go fast in order to time travel sonic has to travel at his top speed probably why he was given the super P la mu but a lot of the stages don't provide enough space to easily move to his top speed which is fine I'm of the mindset that the only true factor speed plays in a Sonic game is a reward for your knowledge of a level but here it's a necessary mechanic on the subject of the time travel mechanic is it neat yes it certainly adds a sense of depth to the game but the problem is that I don't care about it and to be honest this is a problem that translates for me to a lot of Sonic games why should I collect all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 1 so I get a different end card even in Sonic 2 I especially hate the special stages in that game and to be honest I think the novelty of playing if Super Sonic wears off quite quickly so many Sonic games want me to be invested in getting that slightly different ending but I just don't think it's worth it sonic seeding requires that you time travel and Traverse the level to find and destroy a generator as well as to complete the special stage to earn time stones to get a good ending to the game the special stages are annoying as hell like most early Sonic special stages they're in a pseudo 3d environment which creates an indistinct depth of field that causes confusion I get that you need to do this in order to complete the game correctly but I experienced the same levels for the most part if I don't like specific avoidable mechanics of the game and my reward is minimal why would I bother despite the time travel mechanics not adding anything to my personal experience with the game I can appreciate the effort and quality of the game strives for sonic games often experiment with new gameplay mechanics and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but when the effort is seen an enjoyable experience can be found even with games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic lost world entries that I have a very lukewarm feeling towards I still have moments of enjoyment because I understand that Sega allowed the development team to put in their full effort and therefore I'm gonna put in my full effort to attempt to enjoy it but it's when you see games like Sonic oh 6 where Sega didn't allow the development team to put in their full effort that I don't want to put my full effort into enjoying it if you're not gonna give me 100% I'm not gonna give 100% into your product Sonic CD is definitely an odd entry into the series however it's clearly one of the most visually striking and uniquely designed Sonic games ever in fact I mentioned how Sonic 2 has become the standard for all Sonic games since its release with levels being derived from the games level selection I'd really like to see a modern Sonic game with color palettes and level ideas derived from Sonic CD because I think it will lend itself to quite a unique experience [Music] after sonic two's massive success in the failure of the Sega CD Sega of Japan began work on Sonic 3 with one goal to make a game that was bigger and better than the American produced sonic 2 sonic 3 saw the return of the original Sonic team who planned to create a huge game with one massive storyline Sonic 2 had the focus of two-player gameplay but sonic 3 would focus on 3d gameplay mechanics in order to expand upon the franchise further a new character was added knuckles knuckles was the second rival to Sonic originally designed as a mole with a Nike logo on his chest his character eventually turned into an echidna his ability to dig in the crescent moon on his chest are reminiscent of this Sonic 3 was set to be a massive game with a very long development cycle however Sega of America was actually able to secure a toy promotional line at McDonald's in order to promote the game there at McDonald's in the dollar ninety nine Sonic 3 hamburger Happy Meal Sonic launches with a push of a button tails flies who knows how high and robotic barely dodges disaster there's even this Sweepstakes thing because of the cost of memory storage on cartridges and the promotion it was decided that Sonic 3 would be released in two separate parts on February 2nd 1994 three months before the Japanese version Sonic 3 was released in North America new features include the ability to save your game progress a boss battle for every act of the game being able to control tails flying ability along with a second player being able to lift sonic sonic now has an instant shield while jumping elemental shields allow the players to breathe underwater magnetically collect rings and protect the player from fire while playing as Sonic the elemental shields give him different abilities he can bounce dash forward while jumping and perform a double jump in a new special stage to recollect the Chaos Emeralds and hey it doesn't suck this time finally a soundtrack composed by Leon Kapowski for years fans speculated that Michael Jackson actually had his hand in the production for music sonic 2 hedgehog 3 Michael Jackson was on record as being a big Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog fan and even had his own game on the Sega Genesis and whenever he would take guest appearances on TV shows he would often not be credited with his real name now as for why fans speculated why he didn't take credit in the game it either had to do with Sega not being comfortable about his sexual abuse allegations at the time and not wanting to credit him or Michael Jackson not being confident with the music that was able to come out of the Sega Genesis sound chip now after years and years of speculating fans comparing rhythms in Sonic the Hedgehog threes music to Michael Jackson songs it was finally confirmed in January of this year that Michael Jackson indeed had his hand in the production of music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the story of Sonic 3 begins right after the ending of Sonic 2 Sonic and Tails investigate an island after collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds then knuckles happens he steals the Chaos Emeralds he chuckles and sonic just watches in the game begins I'm gonna be honest out of all the classic Sonic games Sonic 3 is the worst visually since 3d was supposed to be the theme for Sonic 3 Sega tried to cram in as much detail into all the set pieces and character models as possible now as nice that this endeavor was it took the flat and sleek design from Sonic 2 and made everything look more bubbly cutesy Angel Island zone being the first level sets the stage for the rest of the game instead of being about building up speed Sonic 3 attempts to heighten the sense of adventure their swinging vine secret passages in a special stage on top of that the game's cinematic moments aren't there to make you feel like you're going fast but they're there to add to the adventure in the story you falsely encounter the first boss halfway through Act 1 and it sets fire to the stage the rest of the act is the island burning after you beat the boss instead of the screen going black and starting act 2 the screen transitions to the right and it continues right on ahead act 2 continues with the stage on fire but it also plays around at the tropical island theme there's a large waterfall in the middle of the act so there's tons of little ponds everywhere slowing you down if you fall into them afterwards you run past a jet that's letting out bombs tails you okay little buddy alright just say something if you need me after that you see Robotnik in the background before finally reaching the first proper boss and Sonic 3 the first act boss will always be a large unmanned robot and the second is always Robotnik himself you beat him and Knuckles flip the switch which stick Sonic and Tails into the depths of hydro city zone win playing as Sonic a majority of Hydra city zones water portions are mandatory there is no learning how to get past them you just do it act one is filled with conveyor belts moving platforms and enemies that blast balls at you the color palette is yellowish brown green and blue act 2 starts off with the stage collapsing to the right as sonic attempts to escape before getting crushed the level is full of slides and moving cubes as opposed to straight water portions the color palette transitions to purple and blue knuckles screws at the Oh yet again and he pasted dr. robotnik leading you into marble garden zone marble garden zone picks up the speed a little bit with downhill momentum but also contributes to the feeling of an adventure with Indiana Jones esque booby traps and puzzles even the amount of spikes here is ramped up one cool thing about a series continuing for a while is it can start playing with the tropes of the series to surprise the player the boss in marble garden zone has sonic entails flying through the air as sonic jumps from Tails grasps the level darkens and transitions in the carnival night zone which is one of the most frustrating levels in the whole series halfway through you boy knuckles turns up the lights and floods the stage adding more water portions to the game there's also this barrel thing that anyone who has ever played this game has had trouble with my opinion ice cap zone starts off with Sonic snowboarding down a hill and crashing into the bottom of the stage and getting covered with snow as regular sonic this level is a nice cold breeze but as supersonic a lot of the platforming elements become difficult there's a moment when you have to jump off of a never-ending slide at a particular moment and as you do there's a spring waiting to push you back onto the slide a supersonic you have less precision so any light push in one direction will send you flying the second act takes place outside more but also has more water portions and a bottomless paint the highlight of this level is undoubtedly the music [Music] [Applause] [Music] launch base zone is the final level of sonic 3 and that difficulty has just toned way down because as a trick you can do to get infinite lives in the beginning of the stage anyways you beat Robotnik and the game ends on a very low note Sonic 3 when compared on its own is nowhere near as being as good as sonic 2 the game slows itself down for cinematic moments in the visual style is too cartoony for its own good it excels and making the game feel like an adventure but ultimately fails to capture a similar feeling to Sonic 2 however it did improve on a lot the game feels really connected with all the levels leading into one another tails is now a different character than Sonic in a special stages aren't only way better in Sonic 3 when compared to Sonic CD or Sonic 2 but they're also much more accessible with multiple portals in each stage you don't have to search the whole stage to find them because you're likely to run into them by the time you reach launch base zone Sonic the Hedgehog 3 when compared on its own is nowhere near as good as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 it slows down the game for an adventure type feeling and is way too cartoony for its own good however it does excel at making this big feeling of adventure but ultimately loses the appeal that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had Sonic 3 was developed in congruence with Sonic and Knuckles so in order to find out which Classic Sonic game is the best we must look at the complete combined version Sonic 3 & Knuckles [Music] represents one champion of good one pawn of evil it's Sonic and Sonic 3 was split up into two parts to meet deadlines and technical capabilities Sonic and Knuckles was released as a second part of Sonic 3 instead of just being a separate cartridge entirely Sonic and Knuckles utilized what Sega branded as lock-on technology think of it as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in part 2 being aired back-to-back on ABC Family as a part of Harry Potter weekend it feels like one whole movie but alas ABC family not every weekend can be a Harry Potter weekend new features include being able to play as knuckles with alternative story scenes in level designs in Sonic 3 and as an alternate character in Sonic 2 he can glide and break through stuff because he's tough by connecting sonic 1 players can play an arcade style version of the special stage seven new emeralds called the super emeralds by collecting all 14 emeralds across Sonic 3 & Knuckles players can turn into hypersonic alternative music and slight level design alteration for Sonic 3 portions of the game and six new zones with one bonus stage mushroom hill zone introduces the first Sonic and Knuckles portion of the game you see knuckles sneaking out of a room and enter the hidden Palace zone here the Chaos Emeralds turn into super emeralds and you lose your super sonic ability and tell you recollect them mushroom hill zone is definitely not a first level even though it's the first level in Sonic and Knuckles it feels more at home inside of Sonic 3 & Knuckles as the 7th stage all the enemies have some sort of challenge to them the dragonfly can only be killed by hitting its head anywhere else will hurt you the mole will push you back the chicken will blow you back and the screw has to be hit twice the level transitions by the forest dying it goes from green to brown to white and then you see the boss the main boss of the stage is really cool because instead of being in the stationary arena you have to run after Robotnik while dodging lines of spiky bombs the parallax scrolling between the spikes and the pillars really makes for a nice 3d effect this style of boss battle would be used heavily later on in the sonic franchise flying batteries own you know their fire switches enemies switches cylindrical cheese graters metal crushing electrical things and jungle gym bars sand Apple is owned at first has a pretty generic desert level feel with quicksand but act to the level starts out dark and you have to hit a light switch to prevent these ghosts from getting bigger they can't harm you while they're small but as they get larger they can do damage so it's a constant race through the level to get to the switch it consistently makes me stressed whenever I play it lava reef stone plays a lot like other underground levels with pulleys and moving platforms all to avoid lava throughout the stage the lava will cool down and heat back up to give lots of hot and cool colors after lava reef zone comes hidden Palace owned you fight knuckles and Robotnik steals the Master Emerald knuckles take sonic up the sky sanctuary zone sky sanctuary zone has sonic running up towards the death egg all while teleporting and bouncing on clouds the highlight of this level is the fight with yet another Metal Sonic finally we get to death egg zone and it's not the same death egg zone from Sonic 2 but a brand new one that lets sonic see the rest of the battle station which is armed with transitioning gravity that is incredibly frustrating the final boss of this level is incredibly awesome it's Robotnik in a giant machine and you have to destroy the little fingers if you have all the emeralds you can play as hyper sonic or super sonic in the final battle against Robotnik and it's surprisingly difficult since you're super or hyper sonic you can't take any damage but you lose one ring every second so it's a race to be Trabant and it can collect the Rings the game ends you collect the Master Emerald and everyone becomes friends the end Sonic 3 Knuckles set out to be a game that was bigger and better than Sonic 2 and many feel as if it achieved that however even though Sonic 3 & Knuckles added support for multiple characters and had a much larger story and overall greater feel than Sonic 2 the core gameplay and visual style of Sonic 2 is much better Sonic 3 & Knuckles slows itself down for a sense of adventure and although that's great it's not a game you can just pick up and play like you can with Sonic 2 as part of the reason why I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is left out of a lot of compilations or why there hasn't been a mobile port of it Sonic 3 & Knuckles kind of loses the casual audience by sacrifice a tightly leveled a level experience for a wide adventure and story experience as for the gameplay in Sonic 2 you can skip water portions of a level if you know how to in Sonic 3 & Knuckles four of the first five stages have mandatory insignificant water portions Sonic 2 tried to up the speed from Sonic 1 and succeeded immensely but Sonic 3 only up to the speed through set pieces sonic snowboarding sonic running through a cylinder a pasta jet it's not real and it's out of your control there's a whole lot more classic platforming in Sonic 3 even even though it's solidly built the game feels slow and the bubbly visual style might even make it feel clunky at times but building up a sense of speed was not what sonic 3 was trying to do Sonic 3 wanted to take a series of standalone levels and create a journey based off of them and other Sonic games different acts feel like an excuse to reuse visual assets but sonic 3 levels transitioned visually while you're playing there's never a black screen between acts and even though there's a black screen between levels there's always a cutscene that helps bridge the gap on how sonic can go from one level to the next Sonic games that try to have a good story always over complicate things and I think that's the writers overcompensating for the fact that I don't have confidence in the characters the sonic characters are fun and worked in the right setting the plot of Sonic 3 is incredibly simple Robotnik comes to Angel Island to steal the Master Emerald a large source of power Knuckles lives on Angel Island for the sole purpose of protecting the Master Emerald Robotnik tells knuckles that Sonic is going to steal that emerald stone knuckles tries to prevent him from doing so later on Robotnik steals it knuckles finds out Robotnik tricked him and everyone teams up to beat Robotnik there's nothing too complex about it yet if this game had dialogue it would be one of the best sonic plots out there because of its simplicity yet his ability to have a source of drama knuckles finding out that he was tricked triggers the climax of the game's story he's upset because he's wrong this isn't dark drama but it adds a sense of plot development and character development recent Sonic games have completely scrapped the importance of having a plot at all and before that Sonic games were over complicating their plot there's never been a good mix of fun tone with dramatic story elements Sonic 3 & Knuckles also had multiple character support the game allows you to pick between four character variations each version of the game is slightly different Tails knuckles in Sonic can all access different parts of the stage that the other can't knuckles gameplay is even suit a story Robotnik is almost never the boss because knuckles doesn't know he's bad some bosses are altered to make it harder for knuckles to but you only have to play as Sonic to complete the full story thus not forcing players to play slightly altered versions of the same game in order to get the complete version like so many other Sonic games do Sonic 3 sets itself to a high standard and not only that but it does everything it wants to do and exceeds expectation but a lot of what Sonic 3 tries to do makes the game lose some of the qualities that made Sonic 2 so good Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a game with a much larger scale than Sonic 2 however the charm speed in graphical design of Sonic 2 makes it a much easier game to want to pick up and play because of that I think sonic 2 was the better game but that being said Sonic 3 & Knuckles is actually my favorite all the classic sonic games have their own unique qualities and feelings this is one sonic peaked and that's not a bad thing there's a reason why Sonic's still around and it's not because of a long line of great and successful games it's because these original 5 games created such a strong foundation for the series that it was able to last for 25 years [Music] sonic was Sega's poster boy for the Sega Genesis however after a long feud between the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Nintendo came out on top outselling the Genesis by over 17 million units and 1994 Sonic and Knuckles became the last Sonic game released for the Genesis and actually the last Sonic game to be released until 1999 Sega's next console the Saturn you are approaching said was not as big as of a commercial success as the Sega Genesis part of the reason Sega fell so behind was because a new player was in the market Sony with the PlayStation the PlayStation was a monster selling over 100 million units in comparison the Saturn only sold nine million units even though there was a new Sonic game being developed for the Saturn it never came to light and Sega instead developed a half-assed racing game and enhanced port for Sonic 3d blast and a compilation called Sonic jam the interesting thing about Sonic Jam is that it featured a 3d overworld for the menu and this was actually a prototype for what was to come instead of focusing on the Saturn Sega wanted to develop a new more powerful console but Sega was outgunned out man outnumbered and out planned they had to take an all-out stand they were gonna need their right-hand man infamously on September 9 1999 Sega released ooh the Dreamcast and alongside it Sonic Adventure that it's released the Dreamcast was the strongest system technically on the market and Sega really wanted to use Sonic Adventure not only to showcase the Dreamcast capabilities but also to reclaim Sonic's throne at its release Sonic Adventure received critical acclaim however over the years the general consensus has been that it hasn't aged well before I continue I just want to comment on something that really bothers me a lot of the time I get comments on my youtube videos saying I jumped on a bandwagon because I criticized Sonic I have to disagree with this I have sated many times that I'm a big fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and on top of that I don't think there is a bandwagon many people have been criticizing Sonic games the past few years not because it suddenly become cool but because games like Sonic Adventure in Sonic Adventure 2 have recede re-releases putting these games back into the public eye very briefly and I hate to break it to you but these youtubers who are criticizing sonic didn't have YouTube channels when these games originally came out so they're now given the opportunity to voice their opinion I love Sonic Adventure I have a lot of great memories playing it I'm nostalgic towards it but it's really flawed and it's my duty to treat it fairly so with that being said new features include redesigns for classic characters to new characters a new antagonist six different interconnecting storylines a full story with in-game cutscenes and voice acted dialogue a new feature called the Chow garden and an interactive overworld which features passages to different levels and a majority of the cutscenes within the game instead of discussing Sonic Adventure level 2 level I'm going to look at each character's story as a whole starting off with Sonic we get the most comprehensive view of the story this is the main event sonic arrives in Station Square to find in an aquatic monster named chaos attacking the police Sonic defeats him Eggman announces his plan to use chaos to take over the world and sonic thinks nothing of it and hangs out by the pool where he spots tails planes crashing he rescues tails and the two meet up with Robotnik now called by his proper name Eggman Eggman announces that he will use the Chaos Emeralds to power up chaos and tails and sonic go on a mission to find the emeralds while keeping them away from Eggman that they failed they encounter Knuckles who has been tricked by Eggman again and they go after the egg carrier egg man's Flying Fortress Tonica tails try to fly up to the egg carrier but gets shot down separating tails and sonic sonic meets up with Amy she gets kidnapped and he meets up with tails again who has rebuilt the tornado this time being powered by a Chaos Emerald on the egg carrier Sonic and Tails must reach the other side of the ship to find Eggman there they faced off against II 1 o to gamma 1 of the Eggman's robots amy intervenes before sonic can kill him tails and Amy flee the ship and Eggman then powers chaos up with six of the seven emeralds Sonic helps big the cap by defeating Chaos 6 who has bigs pet frog froggy and then sonic chases Eggman off the ship and tracks him down to the mystic ruins where he comes across a mural of chaos as full-powered self he has a vision of the past in which chaos has seemingly destroyed the Society of Knuckles ancestors sonic dun faces off against egman one more time ending his story Sonic's story is definitely the most straightforward there's no character arc just action-adventure he meets up with other characters but we're not given context yet as to why they're there the story basically boils down to Sonic versus Eggman and there's nothing particularly wrong with that as for his gameplay it's a solid transition from 2d to 3d instead of majorly changing the structure of the game like mario 64 did for the mario series Sonic Adventure tries to have a 1:1 translation from 2d to 3d Sonic has all of his old moves and adds a few to make the game feel more like a Sonic game the homing attack is used to give Sonic the feeling of bouncing off of enemies in a 2d space and it works really well there's platforming running in cinematic moments to all intertwine just they did in the Genesis titles the 3d space even helps with the problem of not seeing your enemy before they attack but this one problem was replaced with another one the camera I know it's been beaten to death but this camera is inexcusable at certain points which sucks because Sonic does control really well there are some points where it feels awkward like when Sonic is running upside down or up against the wall which just doesn't feel clean but overall he controls just as he did in the classic titles just with a new plane of perspective which is being viewed by a five-year-old with an iPad camera even though loveless selection provides new locations while simultaneously calling back two older ones but you're also given new level themes with to provide variety but even the older ones add flair because when you were playing casino night zone didn't you want to see Sonic taking a shower I mean no that's disgusting I mean just think about how wet his socks are now gross the game also recreates moments from the classic games snowboarding down a hill boarding Eggman's base from the tornado etc Sonic's Story captures the essence of the series while providing an overview of the story but in order to fill in the details you have to play the rest next we get to tales his story picks up right where Sonic finds him tails is testing out a new prototype first plane to be powered by Chaos Emerald his story follows Sonic's up to the point until after they get separated then he's determined to fend for himself and he finishes his prototype he picks up sonic follows him and brings Amy back to station Square there Eggman after being defeated by sonic vows to blow up Station Square his missile is a dud and he races tails to the missile tails beats him to it and then decide that he will take on Eggman without the help of Sonic he succeeds proving that he is independent of his friend tails story gives him a nice arc he gets rescued by Sonic in the beginning only to prove that he could fend for himself even tails gameplay contributes to his story all of his levels except for the final one against Eggman require him to beat Sonic in a race all of Tails levels are present in Sonic's story but are easier and shorter in order to make the player not feel like they're repeating the same level over and over again even though his gameplay is slightly different due to the fact that he can fly the camera is the same but having shorter levels prevents the camera from screwing up as much as it does in Sonic's story knuckles story starts at the earliest point he's guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island as he does contemplating how he has to guard it forever chaos appears seemingly being in the cause of a now broken Master Emerald knuckles tries to beat him up but he escapes knuckles goes looking for other pieces of the emeralds gets a flashback of his ancestors and sees Eggman Walking with what appears to be a piece of the Master Emerald knuckles confronts Eggman who show some chaos and despite knuckles knowing that this is the creature he saw when the Master Emerald broke he allows Eggman to trick him by telling him Sonic is the one who broke the Emerald knuckles confronts Sonic to find out he was tricked again knuckles fights chaos and finds more pieces of the Master Emerald he has one more flashback and sneaks on to the egg carrier to find the final pieces after Sonic fights chaos six Knuckles finishes the job and goes back to Angel Island with the final pieces and the rest of the Chaos Emeralds despite having flashbacks to his ancestors past knuckles admits that he may never know why he asked the guards The Master Emerald despite basically having an opportunity to find out Knuckles gameplay is all about finding the missing pieces of the Emerald it's basically a treasure hunt some levels require a little bit of problem-solving to find the emeralds but generally the radar of the bottom of the screen is all you need some of the requirements to find the emeralds are extremely easy but some aren't immediately obvious for example one emerald and casino appleís is located inside a great the Raider keeps beeping right below the great but the entrance is at a completely different spot and the radar won't be going off while in front of this spot so I ended up wasting my time looking for the Emerald in the wrong place the love of lengths can vary from less than 2 minutes to over 15 because of just like tales story knuckles story is shortened to the point I just have one question about the contents of the story itself wouldn't it make more sense for knuckles to be the main character the whole story is centered around his dead culture but he never has a realization about it or does anything about it in fact at the end of the story he's still wondering why he has the job he has which this should have been answer within his story this game had a perfect opportunity to do so but decided to skip over it for whatever reason next we get to Amy's story and when we first see her she's thinking about Sonic after going shopping cuz that's what girls do right they think about boys while shopping she runs into a bird that's being hunted by one of the Eggman's robots zero and she vows to protect it but first she asks Sonic to protective because she couldn't possibly do it on her own instead of the feeding zero her gameplay is centered around running away from him because why wouldn't a me be the only character not capable of defeating a robot zero kidnaps Amy and the bird and brings them aboard the egg carrier he wanted to gama confronts amy and demand she give him the bird Amy refuses showing gamma the emotion of love she later intervenes with Sonic and gammas fight and prevents Sonic from killing gamma Amy and Tails leave the egg carrier and Amy sees that the bird is missing it's family she goes to Eggman's base to look for the family but decides probably on the egg carrier instead there the bird finds its family and Amy beats the [ __ ] out of zero finally amy has the shortest story and I think I've made it obvious that I have a few problems with it first they ate it up Amy from when we last saw her so her obsession with Sonic is no longer a little girl with a crush but it's someone who is close to Sonic's age so her crush goes from being cute to kind of harassment and since she's older now her being kidnapped is because she's a girl not because she's a kid her story is actually similar to tales it's about her becoming independent but at the same time she needs a weapon and is unable to defeat zero on her own without using her surroundings she's clearly painted as weaker than the other characters plus the focus of her story is on the bird not her becoming independent we're tails has the full focus of being independent even though we've seen him act on his own in Sonic 3 next we get too big the cat's story and I really don't know what to say about this so I won't ladies and gentlemen mr. hey Doc's big story really encapsulates the feeling of being lost in the wilderness and finding true love we first see big in a cottage and with his friend froggy he's just hanging out in a manger but what happens to big next is that froggy finds a Chaos Emerald and eats it causing him to grow a tail and grow out of control big being the lover that he is chases after froggy who tries to escape this fat cat big goes on this big adventure to try to find froggy and it eventually turns out successful for him when he fights Kaos 6 on the egg carrier in a short battle he gets froggy back and returns him to his home without the Chaos Emerald and after that we don't really know what happens to big could big be living out the days with his Frog lover could he be raising children of his own with his Frog lover after all this is a story about Frog and cat love that's the main driving force in bigs narrative love maybe unnatural love but big and Froggy's love is real and we see it through the story in gameplay biggs gameplay gets frustrating really quick it involves fishing for froggy and the camera becomes a real hindrance his controls are really frustrating in his gameplay is out of place with the rest but once you figure out how to catch froggie the very first time the tactic doesn't really change and the rest of the levels become a breeze Gama's story is the final part and what a lot of people call the heart and soul of the game gamma is a robot created in a series by Eggman Eggman demands gamma and his older brother beta to battle to the death because apparently self-sufficient robot upkeep is too expensive now I guess dr. Eggman has so much time on his hands that all the effort he put into these robots is meaningless gamma then outperforms the rest of his brothers on a task that Eggman demanded all of his brothers are sent off and punished Amy shows gamma that you can care for other beings and his life is changed he decides that he must free his siblings by destroying them which at first seems very generic and overused especially involving robots and tell you remember that Eggman's machines are powered by little baby animals gamma and beta destroy each other and is revealed that they are powered by the two birds that Amy's bird was looking for and so everyone gets reunited it yay huh that's actually really clever and don't get me wrong the sentient robot misinterpreting something resulting in murder has been done a million times but here and you want a to gamma story it seems to be going in a generic route until you realize that the idea of freedom is literal in this established Canon the robots and Sonic have always been powered by baby animals his gameplay oddly enough is the fastest paced of all even more so than Sonic there's emphasis on speed but he's a robot that can shoot and the way his shooting is incorporated into the gameplay is pretty simple he has a time limit on the level but he gets extra time for shooting enemies which is a pretty clever way of combining the two types of play throughout all six stories characters have visions of the past and then the final Super Sonic story all these visions come together when Kaos steals the chaos emeralds from knuckles and tails Plains to become perfect chaos gross sonic finds out that title sealed herself in the Master Emerald to prevent chaos from eventually destroying the world eventually [Music] sonic says that he won't seal chaos back in the Master Emerald but instead will open his heart Sonic defeats chaos on the most epic and easy boss battle of all time and then chaos along with Tikal and the Chows ascends into the clouds heaven whatever the end oh yeah I skip the part where the Chows were murdered the end Sonic Adventure was a very ambitious game and was very impressive for the time it was released it wanted the showcase the power of the Dreamcast while also translating Sonic's gameplay into 3d and what see 5/6 times 183 point three percent of the stories do that the game is still just good for its time and has not aged well the animation is atrocious the camera is atrocious the voice acting is atrocious and apparently the voice actors were never given context to the scenes they are recording for resulting in strange line readings Oh No give it your best oh no and just to clarify I don't think these voice actors are bad I think they were just given a really really bad direction I find it interesting that even though this game is called Sonic Adventure it never feels like an adventure all the levels are more tasks than contributions to the story the characters always go to a level then come back to the overworld for the story to progress it's not linear enough to feel like a real adventure it should be called Sonic Erin's Runner be right back gotta get a Chaos Emerald oops tails crashed let me go pick him up all the stories do interconnect but they aren't all a part of the same story it's more like a series of vignettes rather than an all-encompassing narrative I do feel like the story succeeds as a story it's not too engrossing but it's satisfying the story not only isn't overdramatic but it expands on established lore something no other Sonic game really has tried to do the Chaos Emeralds are a big plot point and we get a possible explanation for why dr. Eggman wanted the Master Emerald in the last game and even though we've seen most of these characters before this is when they were clearly defined the way they talk the way they interact with each other and how they feel about each other on top of that characters like Amy and tails are given a character arc the story is almost everything I'd want out of Sonic the Hedgehog story of course I'm not moved by it but I had fun watching it and playing through it and that's all it needs to be when I was younger Sonic Adventure was one of my favorite games ever and looking back on it I am very nostalgic towards it however I accept its flaws I definitely still enjoyed playing it but I recognize that many people who didn't grow up with it may not enjoy it as much as I did I loved Sonic and I loved Sonic Adventure but I'm not too proud enough to say that it's a great game just because I enjoy it it helped relaunch Sonic into the public eye after years of no main series game and it's definitely important to the characters history to the fans the Sega Dreamcast had a fast lifespan its legacy is written with a nicely sized collection of great games and a strong dedicated cult following in early 2001 not even a year and a half after launch Sega announced that be discontinuing the Dreamcast within the year making its lifespan just over two years when Sonic Adventure 2 was being produced ii knew it was gonna be the last Sonic aim to come out for a second system and the timing couldn't be better for Sonic's 10th anniversary they wanted to go all out like the relation to Sonic 1 & 2 Adventure 1 was developed by Sega of Japan an adventure 2 would be developed by Sega of America even at this point the goal for Sonic Adventure 2 would be to bring Sonic back to his roots and focus more on action as the classic games did gone would be the overworld and the focus would turn from the story to the gameplay second one an adventure 2 to mimic an American vibe with references to American film and locations that he escaped is based off of San Francisco where Sega of America's office was located at the time of the game's development when the game was announced at e3 only sonic Knuckles Eggman and a teaser of shadow was shown there would be no Rouge or tails gameplay they were added later on after fan outcry Sonic Adventure 2 was released worldwide on June 19th 2001 new features include two player vs. gameplay an expanded Chao garden with Dreamcast vnu and Game Boy Advance compatibility being able to play as Doctor Eggman two new characters new abilities in to truly interconnecting storylines the theme of the game would be light versus dark instead of each character having their own story you'd play through the hero story and the dark story separately illustrating each side of the narrative from different points of view the hero story starts off with Sonic escaping from a military helicopter after probably murdering all of the personnel Sonic rolls around at the speed of sound escaping a truck and then he beats up a robot afterwards he meets shadow who jogs right by Sonic Sonic figures out that shadow uses the Chaos Emerald to run fast and then shadow uses a move called chaos control to teleport out of there sonic gets recaptured by the military fast forward two knuckles who was not on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald instead he's discussing who truly owns the Master Emerald with a drawing from the characters private sketchbook that was mistaken for bean production notes Eggman sees that knuckles is distracted and takes the opportunity to try to steal the Master Emerald and instead of trying to get it back knuckles punches it so hard that it shatters and of course it doesn't just shout her around the tiny little area therein but all around the earth knuckles goes looking for the missing pieces next we see tails flying towards prison Island to rescue sonic he sees Eggman approaching Amy who is there for the same reason tails beats up Eggman and they go into the prison to rescue Sonic Amy let Sonic out who runs away from the military base hops on a missile that leads into a platform in the middle of the ocean where I guess he kind of teleports to the middle of the rainforest because it was in the middle of the ocean and last time I checked sonic can't swim he sees shadow and for whatever reason they call each other a fake Hedgehog and because their Hedgehog masculinity is so fragile they fight over shadows Radio Eggman tells shadow to leave the island before it blows up tails Amy and Sonic all escape before the island does go back to Knuckles where he finds a few more pieces of the Emerald leg man announces over TV that he has a super weapon and opened fires on the moon half of the Moon is destroyed and the biggest inconsistency of Sonic ever is created okay so Sega says the reason why we never see the moon blown up and other Sonic games after this is because we're viewing another side of the Moon when in fact the moon rotates at the same rate that it revolves around the earth because of that we only ever see one side of the moon from Earth it's called tidal locking thanks ast 10:02 tails runs around the city knuckles finds more emeralds in some of mine and then he meets up with the rest of the crew tails drives up close to the president's car and then Eggman demands that President Bush ttyn surrender to the Eggman Empire or his country will cease to exist and because the president was making this top-secret call with the goddamn window open Sonic hears and says no way it jumps into the car Sonic and Tails find out that Eggman was transmitting his signal from the space colony Ark and yes I too was able to determine that because the signal was coming from space Eggman secret base on earth must be in Egypt their knuckles find three keys to unlock Eggman's base and he fights a ghost why they break into Eggman's base and steal a shuttle on the spaceship knuckles gets frustrated and accidentally releases the pieces of the Master Emerald he had into space the crew then develops a plan to use the fake emerald that tails created the throw off Eggman who needs all seven Chaos Emeralds to power the Eclipse cannon the super weapon on the ark knuckles goes off and finds more emeralds on a meteor and fights how the heck did you guys find my deviantart she slips and almost falls into some lava and even though she clearly has wings knuckles has to save her then Rouge gives Knuckles this look yo Eggman kidnaps Amy and demands that tails and sonic give over the emerald they have Sonic tries to give Eggman the fake emerald an egg man's like do you think you could fool me with that fake emerald and Tails like how did you know it was a fake and Eggman responds because you've just told me Sonic sneers that tails like tails you stupid piece of [ __ ] but he keeps his cool and says take care of Amy Sonic gets launched out into space and Tails beats up Eggman Sonic attempts to use chaos control on is able to use it with the fake emerald sonic runs around and find shadow who's like I have to kill you sonic beats up shadow and places the fake emerald in the Ark saving the day hey look he's looking at you he's looking at you heading over to the dark story we see Eggman breaking into a gun facility there he finds shadow his grandfather's secret project shadow introduces himself as the ultimate life-form whatever that means and for releasing him shadow promises Eggman a wish as long as Eggman brings him Chaos Emeralds to eat and also Eggman has to meet him on the space colony Ark then we see knuckles and Rouge they both go off to find Master Emerald pieces Eggman goes home after a long day of work and flips on TV to see that shadow stole the Chaos Emerald reporters and the government have now mistaken shadow for some shadow has a flashback to his friend Maria who was killed by gun soldiers aboard the space colony Ark 50 years ago he promises her revenge shadow confronts Sonic where he jogs by him slowly brews breaks into Eggman's base while Eggman a shadow go into space shadow explains to Eggman that the ark has a super weapon called the Eclipse cannon but they need that Chaos Emeralds to use it Rouge gets caught in Eggman's base in tempts Eggman and shadow by telling them where there are three Chaos Emeralds they all go to prison Island Rouge steals the emeralds Eggman gets beat up by tail and shadow lays down explosives to blow up the island shadow see sonic they call each other fake hedgehogs and then they fight Eggman yells at shadow to get off the island before it blows up but first he rescues Rouge because he's a nice guy like that the island blows up and you has a six-year-old kid playing this for the first time realized you just killed thousands upon thousands of people Eggman fires the Eclipse cannon at the moon and then Rouge and shout out try to track down the last Chaos Emerald which tails has they failed all of the heroes infiltrate Eggman's base that Eggman has to fight this guy they head into space Rouge fights not goes in the sexual tension gets too intense to watch any longer I command kidnaps Amy sensonic into space and then shot up questions Rouge on being a government agent he's like Rouge are you government agent and then Rouge is like yeah but are you even the real shadow shudders like alright but I have to go beat up Sonic then shadows like yo Sonic respect for using chaos control they fight someone wins in the final story after entering all seven Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse cannon a secret message is played from dr. Eggman's grandfather he says that once all seven Chaos Emeralds are entered into the cannon the ark will crash into Earth wiping out humanity and that this is revenge for Maria being killed fifty years ago all the heroes and villains are like oh no we can't let that happen so everyone but shadow and Amy work together to stop the arc from following shadows like I'm okay with everyone dying until he realizes Maria didn't want people to die shadows like oh she didn't want me to kill everyone okay he gets down to the bottom of the ship where there was a replica of the master emerald shine from Sonic Adventure 1 there a giant [ __ ] lizard comes out of nowhere and shadows like he's not the ultimate life-form I am shadow beats up the giant [ __ ] lizard then knuckles uses the Master Emerald to stop the Chaos Emeralds but then the giant [ __ ] lizard uses chaos control a teleport itself outside the ship and shadows like is that what chaos control is I guess the line just sounded cool cuz he clearly did know what it was then sonic and Shadow were like we have to stop him because we've lived there go super and beat up the bio lizard by popping his gross ass pimples no seriously shadows then like I must go my home planet needs me and the game is like they all get along temporarily the end and at this point this final image in the game became every twelve-year-olds desktop wallpaper okay where do I begin the story is certainly fun but by no means is it's good if gun rated the Ark and killed Maria and had shadow under custody why did they mistake sonic for shadow if Amy proved herself in Sonic Adventure why did she get kidnapped again and why didn't she help at the end of the game if Rouge was working for gun why did she let Eggman blow up prison Island and kill possibly thousands of soldiers if Maria was so important to shadow how come he didn't remember her last words or why shadow think Maria would want him to murder everyone why is a lizard shadows prototype what does the ultimate life-form mean but most importantly why did I enjoy this story I think it's because it was different sonic adventure really feels like a big grand adventure it's fun and light-hearted the Sonic Adventure 2 is dark and even at the end it's not upbeat it feels like the second entry of a trilogy but it's not a part of a trilogy I think that's why so many people want to see a Sonic Adventure 3 I also think a reason why I enjoy the stories because of the character interaction the pairings are fun and you see the characters act in ways that they had it in previous games you see Sonic could get frustrated he attacks shadow without being provoked tails and Eggman work together Knuckles a character who has been living alone on a deserted floating island his whole life meets a promiscuous and flirtatious treasure hunter the whole story seems like an adventure to its linear and like so many adventure stories there's a map laid out for you so you can follow the characters progression it keeps its momentum which is something adventure 1 failed to do and what helps maintain a fast-paced and energetic feeling is the soundtrack which many people will agree with me when I say it's one of the best sonic soundtracks so here to talk about Sonic Adventure two's music Steven knucks the music of Si - well it's something special alright look my name is Steven Hawks and multi-dimensional was most definitely snubbed at the Grammy Awards what sets this soundtrack apart from what you're used to in 2001 is that there's a great amount of character personality and that's a 1 you have the epic film score like sound signified and moments and adventure the soundtrack was buried with instruments feelings and scope to give sonic a grand jump into 3d the benefit of essay 2 is that since it doesn't have to rely on being the gigantic first impression it can explore other areas of music most notably vocal themes in regular stages we've never seen that before with Sonic and we never will knuckles has raps 2 continuous chill tuff persona from sa was introduced with the relaxed to jazz composition to illustrate her smooth sexy personality shadow and sonic with intense guitar melodies because my speed edge and tails and Eggman with more of an industrial electric guitar sound [Music] a lot of the tracks are pretty recognizable especially the lead track live and learn I'm sure you've heard this song si - sound track is a nostalgic as hell does every character justice and rightfully deserves its place in the Sonic Hall of babe that exists thanks Steven so even though there are six different characters in-game the gameplay is only broken down into three unique types first sonic and shadow we get a great selection of levels all of which provide the essentials for sonic fast action gameplay in cinematic moments I have to say City escape may be one of the best openings to any Sonic game ever the music the level design the opening cutscenes in the truck set the mood for how sonic will play where the gameplay doesn't shine is within the boss battles the camera is locked down and nearly out of your control creating a locked-in environment that's hard to maneuver the wall running mechanic in this game feels better than it did in Sonic Adventure and the inclusion of rail grinding and the more quickly accessed light - allow Sonic to keep moving forward without having to stop sonic and Shadow are given a somersault ability which is used to go under things and easily destroy boxes however it's the same button as the spin - so using the spin - while running becomes nearly obsolete levels like City escape route up the highway and green forests have become some of the best levels in the franchise history and it illustrates the potential the series has I enjoy every moment when I play as sonic and Shadow truthfully every moment so moving on to Rouge and Knuckles we see the game slowed down significantly just like in Sonic Adventure knuckles gameplay is centered around hunting for the missing pieces of the mass for emerald but in Adventure 2 the radar only shows one emerald at a time so even if you're right next to the wrong emerald shard the radar won't go off the small levels and the levels that are easily traversed are fun but the larger levels could take up to 20 minutes to complete and the emeralds are at random locations every time so even if you played through the game you have to search for them speed running is almost impossible the camera in game is terrible and when you're going through small corridors looking for emeralds it becomes evident how truly atrocious it is levels like aquatic mine have tons of underwater corridors that you can drown in and when the camera makes it hard to even play through it's more unfair than truly challenging mad space has transitioning gravity between different planetary bodies the gravity mechanic is incredibly frustrating because the control scheme changes when gravity changes I can confidently say that these two levels are some of the worst in the franchise's history and it's weird to note because as a kid my least favorite level was security Hall because there was a five-minute time limit but now it's one of my favorites because it does a good job with keeping the gameplay fast finally we get to Eggman in tails who attempt to recreate gammas gameplay style from Sonic Adventure but they missed the ball pretty hard because the gameplay is significantly slower and even though they're Mexico platform well a lot of their gameplay requires platforming in order to rack up points you have to lock onto multiple enemies before shooting them I have to admit that unloading on these enemies actually kind of feels good whose stupid piece of [ __ ] the only truly fun level I would say as cosmic wall in which egg man's jet boosters can be used without limit due to the low gravity but besides that these levels aren't too overly frustrating but they're not fun either they're just kind of there players are also given the option to go through levels to perform alternate missions this includes collecting 100 rings finishing a level on a certain amount of time a hard mode etc another new feature in the game is the ranking system maybe I didn't try hard enough by finishing the level and a good time and by performing some sweet moves you earn points and sometimes these point notifications can be sarcastic [ __ ] the more points you get the more likely you are to get a good ranking by getting a rankings for all the characters you unlock alternate costumes for the two-player mode and some of them are well the two-player versus mode basically boils down to racing hunting treasure and shooting the heck out of each other there's also a bare minimum kart racing mode based on the cart segments from the game the two-player mode is a good way to kill twenty minutes but the real replayability comes from the chao garden the Chou's originated in Sonic Adventure and although you can raise them in that game Sonic Adventure 2 has much more diverse options players play through levels to collect rings which can buy them items enemies in-game either drop a coloured battery or a baby animal by giving Chao is one of these they'll have their abilities raised and take on a physical attributes of the animals if we raised them nicely with hero characters or dark characters they can turn into either a hero or a dark Chao and you can actually have them change physical features depending on which attributes are stronger you can unlock different gardens that correlate to hero and dark and you can also take them with you via the Game Boy Advance link cable I've killed too many hours of my young life playing this game for the chao garden ii whatever you do please do not bring back the chao garden i will never get anything done but hey if you want to please bring it back I have trouble articulating my overall thoughts for this game because the sonic and shadow levels are great and they earn being fun it's not a situation where you have to look past huge flaws but then the shooting levels can be boring in the treasure hunting levels are abysmal and really slow down the game and not in a way that complements the pacing its truthfully a game that I can't give an overall consensus to because the good parts are too good for it to be considered bad but the bad parts are too bad for it to be considered good it kind of just exists Sonic Adventure 2 was the last Sonic game released for a sec akan Sol and marked the end of an era but it also marked the beginning of a new one in December of 2001 Sonic Adventure 2 was re-released as Sonic Adventure 2 battle for the Nintendo GameCube Sega had shaken hands with Nintendo and allowed me to experience the game I have a lot of fun everything like side effects in fact it's one of my favorite games in December of 2002 for Christmas I got a Nintendo GameCube along with Sonic Adventure 2 battle and before I had a Gamecube I had a Nintendo 64 so the concept of a memory card was kind of foreign to me every time I boot up the game I hear Sonic say did you insert a memory card I played that game to no end and I committed it to memory the first time I ever beat Sonic Adventure 2 battle I did it without ever saving this game means a lot to a lot of people and it was an entrance point for a lot of people into the series and although I do not think as a whole it should be considered a good game I understand the importance it has within the series and I think it really has impacted it positively and even though as an individual standalone title I don't think it's considered good I think it ultimately did good for the Sonic series and at the end of the day I think that's more important than being an good title [Music] you're a hedgehog and you have supersonic powers all up right now and roll action come on honey break after the sonic adventure series was re-released on the GameCube Sega had established itself as a successful third-party company Sonic Adventure 2 battle went on to become the ninth best-selling game on the Gamecube and Sega was ready to reach a new audience and order to broaden their horizon the adventure title would be dropped the game was to be published on all three major consoles and PC and once again the focus would turn from the story to action and adventure Sonic Heroes was to be a soft reboot for the series the art design would go back to a classic look and instead of only focusing on a core group of characters every goddamn character ever was added because that's how you create a game that invites new fans new features include team-based game play with four different teams surrounding three different archetypes speed which is fast power which is strong and flight which is high one new character in that's really in the game isn't aiming to do anything new it just wanted to be a 3d Sonic game but my question is has it been forgotten because it didn't do anything unique or is it a hidden gem there were development issues with the xbox and playstation 2 version as Sega had never developed for those consoles the GameCube version is considered the best with the alternate ports having severe framerate issues even though I do own the GameCube version I'll be looking at the Xbox version mostly because it's easier to capture footage from it so let's take a look at that story first we get to team sonic which is compromised of Sonic Tails and Knuckles the story begins and Sonic is running around the desert Tails and Knuckles pull up next to him and sonic says the single most common phrase in any Sonic game ever long time no see tails gives sonic a letter from Eggman which states that Eggman will take over the world in three days team sonic goes to stop him every time they think they see Eggman it turns out to be a decoy and the audience gets to see that it's a metal sonic looking character disguising itself as Eggman oh I love that dramatic irony they infiltrate man's Armada and save the day that's it the sonic story is simple and fun and relies on nothing but the gameplay but we do need to find out why that definitely not metal sonic character said Sonic and the crew on this wild goose chase next we get to team dark which is made up of shadow Roush and E 1 2 3 Omega a new character which is one of Eggman's robots who wants to kill everything the story starts off with Rouge entering Eggman secret base and she finds shadow locked in the container she lets him out with an Omega attacks it Rouge breaks up the fight in States they all need to go looking for Eggman together because also shadow has amnesia bt-dubs all the characters follow the same path so the moment were is revealed in Sonic story that the Eggman is a decoy we also see that there's a shadow decoy shadows like is this real life they leave in a metal sonic looking type says he has scanned the ultimate life-form data they infiltrate Eggman's Armada and Rouge discovers a room full of fake shadows and then apparently shadows amnesia gets so bad that he forgets he has amnesia when picking a character heavy story-arc either picked number one the character has amnesia or number two the character may be a replica of himself the reason they don't work at the same time is because the dramatic elements of possibly being a clone contradict the amnesia part because a character wouldn't care if he was a clone with fabricated memories if they didn't have the memories in the first place [Music] why would shadows say that if he doesn't even know what it means I have a suggestion that would make both the amnesia part and the maybe shadows not real part makes sense you know that metal sonic looking character that we keep seeing yeah that's actually Metal Sonic in disguise spoiler alert at the end of the game what if Rouge only finds one shadow capsule and now she's opening it the other shadow comes out from behind her and starts to melt like the Eggman decoy did then we find out that the shadow you've been playing with the whole game was actually a Metal Sonic disguised as shadow it would add to establish elements of the game's story and make both the amnesia and possible replica story makes sense team Rose cream the rabbit loses her Chao big loses froggy again and Amy wants to bang Sonic they go on a quest to find their friends and something cracks and Amy finally realizes that she meets the threat Sonic to get with Sonic Amy what are you doing here all but a me successfully reached their goal there's not much else to say team chaotix story begins with vector the crocodile Charmy to be in SPO the chameleon getting a package from a mysterious client they all need money to pay the rent so they take a non-descriptive job that eventually turns out to be rescuing someone from Eggman's base vector makes observations about the pseudo Eggman Eggman and then he comes to the conclusion that they are in fact rescuing Eggman from Eggman's base when they ask to get paid Eggman can't pay them I have to admit I enjoyed the chaotix more than I should have I know a lot of people think they're annoying but here we don't get a massive amount of time spent on their dialogue so to me it's the perfect amount after you beat all the stories find out that Eggman was captured by Metal Sonic Metal Sonic transforms into a big metal sonic and all the twelve characters have to beat him up after that metal is looking off with that again sonic says hey you can challenge me any time Omega picks them up and sonic advertises the game you just beat yeah where Sonic Heroes [Music] the plot of Sonic Heroes isn't as in-depth as the sonic adventure titles so there's not a whole lot to criticize but I do have to say about it however is that the presentation is better than both Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2 this is the only time we get to hear these voice actors both recording their dialogue under good circumstances and with proper sound mixing moving forward into the gameplay despite having 12 characters there really only are three different playstyles speed power and flight first your speed character's sonic shadow amy and espyo they're fast and have specific abilities that complement that the homing attack returns there's an ability to stir up wind in a spindash type attack that's hardly ever used sonic and shadow have a wall jumping ability and the light - espyo can turn invisible and amy has a projectile wind attack you think in a Sonic game the speed characters would be the focus but in reality they have the least amount of polished controls they're too fast and I know that sounds absurd but stopping and changing directions it seems impossible at times however because Amy's at the girl she's slower than all the other characters and actually it makes her the most fun to play moving on to the flying characters tails Rouge cream and charm II all of them can fly for a short distance they'll have a thunder shoot ability which allows them to propel the other two characters forward as a weapon but cream has a third projectile her chow cheese Charmy can open up a robotic flower and tails and Rouge have a dummy ring ability playing as the flight character's is extremely slow and unless they're completely powered up their characters can only stun enemies finally we get to the power character's knuckles Omega big and vector knuckles and Omega primarily use the other characters as projectile weapons but big in vector rely on themselves mostly by slamming their own weight down on the enemy the reason that makes these three different archetypes integral to the gameplay is because enemies now have other requirements to beat them other than just jumping on their head they have health bars now power characters to more easily drain enemy's health blind characters can stun enemies and speed characters can make enemies easier to hit but it really slows down the pacing but when you're able to get into a rhythm with the different characters and take down enemies it feels rewarding but it happens too often and slows down levels which are alright absurdly long part of the way difficulty changes is through the Louisville link team rows range is anywhere from two to four minutes okay team sonic ranges anywhere from eight to twelve minutes and team dark ranges anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes the Louisville length doesn't even contribute to the core difficulty either instead it creates a challenge of will which is easily seen in the last level of team dark storyline final fortress you see before an incredibly hard final section there's a checkpoint that's good but the last checkpoint before that is about six minutes behind it if you keep dying and you play for close to six minutes each time you die that time adds up very fast I was originally going to criticize how hard certain aspects were like this one ridiculously hard part at the end but having an intense difficulty is okay what's not okay is the hour of work to get back to it every time I get a game over even though there are unique aspects to the level depending on who you're playing as a majority is recycled and gets incredibly stale it took me more time to beat this game than it did for me to play through both Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2 but those games have more unique content finally moving on to team chaotix I actually enjoyed their gameplay more than I thought I would all of their levels are mission based and some can be incredibly easy while others can be equally as frustrating as team dark you can tell this game was built for linear platforming and a lot of their missions require you to find things but the levels aren't built for a collectathon a lot of times you can just play through the level and complete the mission at hand but sometimes you need to run through the same level multiple times to find multiple objects so I want to clarify I think this game had amazing potential but the problem is it came out over ten years ago and the potential has burned into a legacy and it's a legacy I cannot stand it's not because the game is bad either I can tell effort was buried into it the levels despite being incredibly long are awesomely designed if there was a minimal amount of recycled material between the different stories just the thread the unique parts together this may be a great game I didn't say good I said great the controls truthfully kill the experience that the levels want to create it's like being on a really fun ride while in an uncomfortable seat you're distracted from what should be fun the characters with the speed archetype are too fast while creating a distinction between the power characters and the speed characters the power character has maintained a fast speed and the speed characters turn their speed up way past 11 - [ __ ] it levels of speed amy runs slower than the other speed characters and she controls better there were too many times where I would die because of this it's most problematic when your rail grinding and let's just say that not all characters were built to do that a new mechanic introduced to grinding is switching between rails by pressing the action button and the direction saimultaneously you could change what rail you're on which makes it easier to avoid obstacles but the problem is that it doesn't work you'll often skip multiple rails and fall off the edge when the difficulty is being built around rail switching you're battling both the challenge of the game and the controls I want to love this game it looks really good the levels despite being really long are really well designed and allow for almost rhythmic gameplay between the three archetypes but the controls the larger enemy health bars and recycled levels kill the experience I'm not a game designer but I really feel like there are only a few things necessary to make this game a great game not a good game a great game so here are some suggestions number 1 ditch the 4 stories each set of characters only have a few cutscenes integral to their story so it's not necessary for them to play through the whole game if the game had 16 levels instead of 14 levels you could divide them up evenly amongst the different teams but then you could go back and find secrets of other teams number to shorten the level length but short does not mean easy team Rose's difficulty was a joke you can have the game progressively go from decently easy to [ __ ] difficult but there needs to be progression number three have the speed character slowed down and the power character's - in order to keep a distinction between them a common question I get is what is my most hated Sonic game I really don't think I can truthfully say I hate a Sonic game it's not like I have a personal relationship with Sonic but I can't say Sonic Heroes is probably the one that bothers me the most not because it's the worst game in the Sonic series but because it lost the most potential you don't get mad at somebody who's unintelligent who slacks off and gets bad grades you get mad at the genius who slacks off and gets average grades Sonic Heroes is a game that deserves to be above average but because of the unpolished controls the recycled content and the pacing issues it just balances out to be an incredibly average experience and it doesn't live up to the caliber it really deserves - despite this reviewing all these Sonic games has given me a more positive outlook on the series I used to think Sonic was my guilty pleasure but I realized that from an outside perspective it's easy to view the Sonic series just as bad but as someone who's really trying to look at these games objectively as a sonic fan I realized that it's not a guilty pleasure but it's comfort food there's nothing to be ashamed of as a sonic fan it's just good fun and nothing can kill that spirit they called it Sonic the Hedgehog no subtitle just Sonic the Hedgehog this is what Sonic was supposed to be the definitive version and the worst part is you open the game and then you see it his face just staring back at you confident you're having fun you're not having fun [Music] discovering the secret of my past will be nearly impossible I'll take those odds after Sonic Heroes Sega released Shadow the Hedgehog a game that tied directly into the plots of the previous two games but to believe this plot was planned would be a stretch by definition that game is a spin-off so I'm not talking about it yet one day shut of the Hedgehog was a big departure tonally Sonic Adventure 2 had some dark elements Sonic Heroes was completely light-hearted then a shot of the Hedgehog came back with extreme elements of both so it was an odd tonal hodgepodge and that's just a theme with all of the adventure era games it's just totally inconsistent Shadow the Hedgehog seemingly brought an end to all of the plot points developed since Sonic Adventure 2 so Sega was free to do something new Sonic the Hedgehog a phrase in which he refers to a video game from 2006 which shares the name with a much better video game the game was planned after Sega got ahold of a developer's unit for the Xbox 360 and soon they realized they had unlimited power 2005 a trailer leaked and people were actually hyped the trailer showed Sonic being Sonic but in HD this was supposed to be a return to classic form once again for like the billionth time Sonic oh 6 was supposed to be the thesis of the adventure era combining the best aspects - the Chow garden because reasons to pay homage to the classics the game was titled Sonic the Hedgehog originally it was going to be released on the Wii but Sonic Team split itself up to work on two separate games Sonic oh 6 and Sonic and the secret rings another Sonic spin-off Sega had trouble handling the different consoles both versions received harsh critique but the PlayStation 3 version is considered to be inferior some of the most uninspiring environments shoddy controls and degenerate use of the same stages over and over again by characters even less defined than a Rorschach test the clarification I've always had the xbox 360 version when I got it I kind of knew I didn't like it I couldn't admit it but it successively became the first Sonic game that I actively stopped playing I've done my best to return to the game and beat it but I've never been completely accessible until this review and even now it took me months not because it's difficult but because I couldn't sit down and marathon it without going crazy new features include a new character named silver subtle redesigns so the whole cast except for dr. Eggman who's given a complete overhaul and the first time a man serious sonic game switched the voice actors this time utilizing the voice actors from Sonic X thanks a lot I didn't think you could talk I can do a lot of things a story is split up into three episodes sonic silver and shadow story elements intertwine with each other so I'm going to do my best not to repeat myself while still making sense of the story presenting a story in separate episodes sometimes leads to confusion but that's the way the game does it so that's how I'm going to do it sonic story begins with the princess of so Liana a country starting the festival of the Sun at night Eggman comes to kidnap her but Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic rescues at least but he proves that he's no Mario because at least gets kidnapped immediately afterwards wait maybe that means Mario instead of running after Eggman Sonic admits that the beach would be a much prettier first level he even has time to imprison this whale Sonic gets a lease back and heads to the desert relationship development smile at least tell Sonic about how Eggman wants to release Solaris a God who almost killed all of so Liana and so Liana's food court silver confronts Sonic stating that Sonic will destroy the world but it's no use police gets captured again Amy stops silver from killing Sonic even though he's the evilest trigger more on that later Sonic and Tails meet up with Knuckles who show Sonic a message from egg man who says healed exchange a lease for the Chaos Emeralds I'm going to assume you mean the Chaos Emeralds then they go to egg man's based on a snowy mountain in the middle of the Mediterranean then sonic oh six nostalgia panders before it was cool and as they attempt to make the exchange Eggman said Sonic and Tails and Knuckles back to the future Eggman reveals that he needs all seven Chaos Emeralds you activate the true power of Solaris the squad meets up with the Suicide Squad in a destroyed future they work together to find some Chaos Emeralds and then Sonic discovers that Elise died a few days after they were sent to the future they try to go back to the past but first they have to fight an Alaskan named a 'bless using a doula version of chaos control they get back Sonic rescues the lease and the to have some time to discuss their strictly platonic friendship friend [ __ ] sonic gets at least back to the castle but Eggman threatens to blow up the country if the lease doesn't give herself up silver and Sonic team up to rescue Elise once in for all the egg carrier crashes but sonic time travels to one day earlier he rescues Elise more relationship development nice smile the sonic story boils down to sonic versus Eggman but they throw in this totally platonic relationship with him in the lease any fun tone is totally desaturated besides the opening cutscene you never see Sonic being Sonic I think the scene that best describes the tonal shift is this one don't be late same to you sonic and Shadow have always had this Goku Vegeta relationship they challenge each other but they enjoy doing it the plots of Sonic games have never been high quality but up until this point they've been fun when you take all the fun away all you're left with is a story about anthropomorphic hedgehogs that is nonsensical boring and takes itself too seriously next we get the shadow story shadows story begins with him on a mission to rescue Rouge by the way shadow is now working for Gunn the organization that shot and killed Maria Robotnik his very own platonic relationship but Captain America joined Hydra so okay Rouge has a staff that's pretty magical she stole it from dr. Eggman shot I was confronted by a good boy that out of 10 shadow takes Rouge to a gun rendezvous but is confronted by dr. Eggman which results in the staff shattering releasing a dark being named methyl Asst way more hardcore than shadow who no shadow probably from like Hot Topic or some grimy coffee shop methyl is Sun shadow and Rouge to the future they see II 1 2 3 Omega whose half-dead shadows a little sad but he has to live up to society's masculine expectations chest hair punk rock meets up with pop punk and the same [ __ ] happens the shadow stays in the future shadow fights muffle is who has reached his second form Rouge in the present finds Omega and gives him a Chaos Emerald to give to shadow into the future Omega sits around a few hundred years and we experienced it with him because of the loading time [Music] with the help of Omega shadow returns to the present and figures out Eggman wanted methyl Asst shadow confronts Eggman who tells shadow about the Solaris project some [ __ ] that happened ten years ago shadow save sonic from silver they fight and then shadow and silver go back to the past to find out about that [ __ ] that happened ten years ago they discovered that Elise's dad the Duke was working on a solaris project but when the project failed methyl escaped and a 'bless was sealed into a lease only to be released at least Christ his young children never cried Omega fights metalist methyl Estelle's Omega that he was designed to destroy shadow the actual lore development that makes sense - bad wolf never gonna follow up to the seeded plot line shadow Rouge and Omega track Memphis down into the desert shadow removes his inhibitor rings and tries to kick ass but to be continued shadow story isn't satisfying in any particular way but instead offers insight into the plots of the other two characters finally we get to the trunks story I mean the silver story Silver's from a dark future where the world has been engulfed by the flames of disaster silver and blaze are essentially fire fighters a to fight ablis in his erect form but then Memphis appears and informs silver to go back in time and stop the being that caused a bliss to be released it's Sonic silver and blaze go back in time silver see Sonic but that Amy sees Sonic but it's not Sonic it's silver they hang out get to know each other silver tries to kill Sonic in the food court you know the usual but Amy says absolutely not you can't kill Sonic because he hasn't done anything yet silver questions if he should actually kill Sonic but ultimately he decides to kill Sonic he goes to kill sonic but Vegeta says you're no son of mine and the audience tears because of this scene chaos Patrol shadow literally freezes time in order to teach this boy a lesson it's the most extra thing you'll see all day they go back in time that [ __ ] with the lease happens silver concludes that Memphis only wanted him to kill Sonic so that Elise would cry and released a bless silver goes back to the present help Sonic rescue Elise that silver and blaze go into the future two feet ablis once and for all silver blaze fight a bliss and after the fight bliss is sealed into blaze who says I must go my home planet needs me and goes into a another dimension either explaining her origin and sonic rush or setting up for a silver sequel we never got the silver story is the most complex it's the only story that directly involves everyone I know people think silver is annoying I don't I actually like silver and it's a shame that this was the game he was introduced in finally we get to the endgame methylase has apparently escaped shadows big attack Methos confronts sonic and i imagine just so much it feels more like a memory just like that sonic is dead creating at least one creepypasta explaining that the rest of Sonic's games are just the afterlife I am totally unaware of it if it actually exists Elise cries releasing a bliss and methylase and Iblis merged to form Solaris the god of time at least recognizes that Sonic is probably not dead and asks all of the characters to go fetch the Chaos Emeralds for her they do Elise prays to the Chaos Emeralds to bring Sonic back into oh-o-oh their relationship was anything but platonic and and I'm over it I I get it that this is weird and it's weird on so many levels but truthfully I'm over it the reason why it shocked so many people was because this is Sonic the Hedgehog when you have him rescue the princess and get a kiss at the end of the game it's kind of contradicted to the character because the character was created to literally contradict another character who does just that even if this was say a hedgehog princess it would be just as weird but what evolves it from weird into a notoriously uncomfortable moment is the fact that she's also human but this game came out over ten years ago I'm over it and you should be too egg mitt explains that Solaris is invincible because it is ever-present existing in the past present and future therefore it cannot be defeated but they just beat him up like every other boss in the game which ultimately destroys him okay Alisa Sonic then get the opportunity to blow out Solaris flame which would prevent Solaris destruction but also prevent Sonic and Elise from meeting each other Elise says I don't care if everyone dies even if Elise was a likeable character before this moment she just ruined to all of that what a selfish thing to say sonic understands that Elyse has become a little too clingy and decides to break up with her on the most satisfying way possible he changes the course of history so that they would have never met erasing their relationship and the entire events of the game the day Numa of the game is literally a self-contained apology for its own existence magnificent as a standalone story I don't believe Sonico 6 is plot structure is any better or worse than previous Sonic games there are a few too many cringe moments in the story which distract from the plot itself but the main problem stem from the tone Sonico 6 is plot has the sense of importance that doesn't belong in a Sonic the Hedgehog game the ablest trigger must die the moments everyone remembers in this games are the ones where the characters were betraying what was previously established Sonic falling in love when we see them acting all smooth it's bizarre shadow becomes a gun agent this is the game that turns knuckles from the cool kid with a temper into an idiot but here it's not played for last it's just kind of awkward look at this scene knuckles throw sonic a message from Eggman in the most unnecessarily cool-kid way but when sonic throws it back he clumsily drops it it's animated in a silly way but nobody reacts to it it just sort of happens Eggman who's this silly ass looking character is given this creepy redesign Mike Pollock who is excellent as the character is holding himself back Eggman and will finally come to be it's too powerful for you to overcome he has the silly voice but his delivery is dead serious the game also has this weird relationship with the rest of Sonic's Canon it kind of ignores and simultaneously expects the audience to be familiar with it I've thought about this game and its story a lot but I've never really truly understood what the story was trying to accomplish [Music] sonic is reborn for the next generation in this it'll take an all-out force of nature [Music] sonic the hedghog enter the sonic age there are multiple different playstyles in the game with the main ones being Sonic Shadow and silver Sonic's gameplay does its best to replicate the feeling of the adventure games it fails Wow although Sonic does control decently well when this game this fickle game allows most of the time the game suffers from slowdown having to stop to join enemy health bars long levels and switching to Sonic's friends Tails and Knuckles and certain levels sonic runs fast but like way faster than usual so [ __ ] fast that when he bumps into something by an object in motion will stay in motion Sonic's final gameplay style is when he's holding Elise those big cartoony Hedgehog hands on a realistically proportioned body it's not as awful as I remember it being the only ability Sonic loses his Spin Dash and all I have to say to that is he still has a spin - Sonic highlights being able to walk upside down having to walk on a metal ball avoiding everything snowboarding and white Acropolis I would love to say that the mechanics of the board are broken but I don't think they programmed anything into this up down left and right are all optional inputs that could mean anything every Mach speed section avoiding enemies is difficult enough but precision platforming is almost impossible yet highly necessary if you miss a jump yeah dead and the goddamn battle with silver oh my god the battle with silver this is a special sort of awful during the fight silver uses his psychic powers to hold Sonic at throw him against the wall as you recover he picks you up again and does it again sometimes you'll pick up your ring over and over creating a cycle of never-ending torment and every time he grabs you instead of side characters having their own campaign they're integrated into gameplay tails no longer has his tail with attack instead having the dummy ring ability from Sonic Heroes it keeps awkwardly cutting to this first person point of view and tails flight mechanics are just awful his forward momentum can be ridiculous sometimes but as soon as he gets tired he just drops all that forward momentum stops knuckles can punch and glide which is all good and well but his climbing is broken as [ __ ] half the time he can't even leave the wall correctly he just pressed a over and over again and hope for the shadows play style has just enough differences between him and Sonic to make it unique the focus is more on combat so it's not as bad when you run into an enemy with a lot of health shadows got vehicles yeah I do my best to avoid the vehicles you have the gun buggy which the only way I can explain how it controls us through this visual aid you have the glider and the hovercraft that are forgettable and then in the motorcycle which is the worst but also the most necessary to use you get the motorcycle when trying to run down a train and shadows not fast enough on foot I tried so you're stuck with it shadows playable friends are Rouge and Omega Bruges has the same gliding and climbing mechanics has knuckles but instead of punching she has a bomb that operates the same as tails his bomb Omega sort of plays how he did in Sonic Heroes but the aim seems to be way off silver lovable innocent silver he slowed down way way down silver doesn't rely on physical attacks but his own psychic attacks silver can defeat enemies by throwing [ __ ] and other enemies at them but he can only throw enemies when they're stunned I feel like silver would have been cool if he was this super overpowered character except he's not it's this slow boring gameplay style that is incredibly limited once you start holding more than one object your aim starts to suck really bad instead of limiting characters established powers create a game that is designed to challenge that power highlights the desert level where he has to direct a ball into a hole you can only hit the ball nine times before it explodes and if you try to take your time and carefully plan on where it's gonna go it explodes this usually takes about a half hour to do and it's so frustrating and when it's finally over there's no satisfaction because you remember your reward is getting to play more of this game Silver's friends are blaze and Amy a lot of people consider blaze to be the best controlled character in the entire game and I can definitely see that argument but she's incredibly underutilized Amy could turn invisible I'm legitimately asking now did I miss another part of the Canon where this had happened before as it's been explained at any point besides that she's slow and using her hammer is nearly impossible because she stops dead in her tracks whenever she pulls it out now I could easily nitpick riff on and make fun of different moments in this game for hours it's true fully a mess but I really do think there needs to be a distinguishing factor between individual moments that I can make fun of and moments that actually help support the message of my review that being said now I want to talk about qualities of the game that are shared between all of the characters when a ton of enemies are on screen the game slows down sometimes it feels unplayable it's easy to get lost at times I just couldn't figure out where to go sometimes I would end up going in circles because the levels design made it look like I was linearly progressing only to say no after building this expectation of getting lost aquatic base actually has repeating sections after building this expectation I assumed once again that I was going in circles which resulted in me going in circles certain boss battles are just confusing as hell during the egg Cerberus fight you have to hold on to his face rod and guide him into a wall but sometimes it won't work and guiding him is confusing as all heck the character boss battles are built weakly yet again and the levels are long winded it is so discouraging to get a game over and have to track back through the level after playing for almost an hour I'd take so many sanity breaks that has taken me over three months to play through the game man today's not my day finally the last section of the game end of the world although it definitely was frustrating it's really forgiving because of the amount of extra lives you receive and Rouge can just fly straight to the end of her portion like no joke I found the end of this level completely by accident the final boss is incredibly easy and if this was a good game it would definitely be a letdown once you figure out how to beat it all you have to do is pay attention to the characters ring count just like in Sonic Adventure there's an overworld so leiana immediately after the game starts Sonic is just dropped directly into the overworld no action stage or boss to start off throughout so Lyanna there are a ton of tedious little challenges you can take if you're not trying to 100% the game only a few are necessary just like another masterpiece the first challenge sonic has to do is jump through a bunch of rings these challenges are frustrating mostly because of the game's loading to be clear I've only completed the challenges necessary to finish the game's story mode my favorite one has to be find the guard captain an ordinary definitely not the captain of the guard guard tells you in order to access a level you need to guess which one of these guards is the captain the game loads he explains the challenge the game loads again who could the captain be let's see if the guy who initially came up with the challenge has any clues oh he's the captain of the guard wow that's ranking loading mission done this is the most unnecessary thing I've ever seen so Leona in its entirety just feels unnecessary I get that they wanted to invoke the feelings of Sonic Adventure but the difference is that Station Square is small and easy to get around it and helps you understand where the levels are in relation to the game's location not so lianna it's large instead of going for a charming and easy to navigate city it's aiming for realism and architectural consistency I get lost in so Lyanna because it all looks the same bland and white or bland and green my favorite part is this large grassy area look at all this stuff to do seeing Sonic run around real looking people clashes with his design but to be fair that people only look real when they're not moving and they can only make a few different sounds so Liyana it's a place there's no issue with finding enjoyment out of this game personally I don't and I really believe that it's a bad game a lot of people argue that if it wasn't rushed it would have been amazing but I really disagree people slight the glitches the story in the load time for the game's lack of quality but all of that wouldn't matter if the game was fundamentally enjoyable the glitches yes there are glitches in this game bad glitches but I rarely found the glitches to be the source of my discontent if it were an enjoyable game from the ground up the glitches would be celebrated look at Pokemon the original games are full of glitches but people still love it the story in the low times would simply be annoyances if the game was fundamentally good the major problem is the buggy gameplay but that's just an umbrella term walking upside down or vehicle control slow down lack of sound effects lack of graphical effects visual glitches aiming problems physics braking the camera if the game ran perfectly if all the little problems with it were fixed we'd still have the tonally off story you still have so Lyanna and its problems Sega's track worker would mean that the camera would still be bad silver would still be extremely boring you still get lost inside all of the stages there would still be the awkward mix between realistic humans and Sonic characters Eggman would still look like this this game has become the negative stereotype of Sonic games that is reinforced by other Sonic games this didn't come out of nowhere it was an evolution of the adventure series more on that later first I have to talk about a question that I've had I've been trying to figure out why people continue to defend this game and I'm truthfully not asking that and a rhetorical sense but I'm genuinely curious I approach critiquing media by knowing how it makes me feel but then I need to pinpoint exactly why I think it makes me feel that way I've also made flawed conclusions based off of this tactic like saying I didn't like Sonic threes art because it's too cartoony what I should have said is it's bubbly when compared to the sleeker designs of previous games now what I've determined is that enjoyment of this game comes exclusively to Sonic fans Sonic fans attempted to group the series into different eras the way I see it Sonic Adventure sonic adventure 2 sonic heroes Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 all belong in the same group they share similar gameplay and story lines however Sonic oh 6 does stand on its own in a really bizarre way it's a half reboot that attempts to carry over the best aspects of the adventure games but the real carryovers are everything people didn't want the poor camera the overworld the over complex story to slow down enemy health bars only being able to play a Super Sonic in the file stage these are all complaints I've had in my reviews of previous Sonic games but here it's all together in this poorly wrapped package however I think the fact that these flaws have repeated themselves from previous Sonic games helped some sonic fans enjoy this game in a unique way in the past when I've attempted to play this game I hated it but now as I'm doing this sock overview that hatred has shrunk a little bit It was as if every game before this was me training to deal with all of these problems separately that doesn't redeem the game but I think I get the perspective of people who like it Sonico six wants to be a game for people who grew up with the adventure games but that concept came too soon so much of what sonic operates off of in fact so much of what media relies on is nostalgia but nostalgia is created through time sonic Oh sticks came out only a few years after adventure 2 info 6 were released today with all of its buggy problems fixed and a tweak and tone for the story people would love it it wants to be that perfect a nostalgia game for those who grew up with the adventure series but the problem aside from everything I've discussed is the fact that those who grew up with the adventure series we're still growing up I was 10 when this game came out and despite Sonic being such an important part of my early childhood I couldn't convince myself that I was enjoying the game Sonic o6 his biggest defense is that it came out too soon and I mean that on multiple levels it was rushed to meet a holiday deadline which resulted in most of the bugs and errors you see in the game but even if the game ran perfectly and the story itself actually felt like a Sonic the Hedgehog story the audience that aimed a please just didn't exist yet [Music] after the failure of sonic oh-6 sonic creator Yuji naka resigned from Sonic Team to form his own company learning from their mistakes Sega gave sonic team free rein in no time constraints to produce the next Sonic game in the series during the development of Sonic oh 6 Sega was already looking forward as early as 2006 Sega had began work on the Hedgehog engine the Hedgehog engine compressed animation and game assets in order to allow for faster action consider it modern-day blast processing the Sega Genesis has blast processing Super Nintendo doesn't sowhat's blast proccesing do motion blur particle and lighting effects were all enabled by its development Sonic Adventure 3 was intended to be the first Sonic game to use this engine during adventure threes development focus began to shift solely to Sonic although Sonic was redesigned in 1998 his model changed from game to game so designers the Chico Kawamura was tasked with creating a uniform Sonic model that would be recognizable to all players a balance was found between classic and modern Sonic personally I love the way this iteration of the character looks and even to this day this is the model that Sega uses for Sonic the Hedgehog eventually the title was dropped in favor of Sonic world adventure the game would see Sonic traveled to real world inspired locations although Sonic became the sole focus the director of the game wanted to surprise players by making Sonic a little bit more wild than usual this verted the concept of the werehog a transformation Sonic would undergo at night it's a shame they didn't go with this design because he's the fluffiest this new transformation led to another title change Sonic Unleashed but the title remained Sonic world adventure in Japan Sonic Unleashed was released worldwide in November of 2008 by day he runs rings around the world but when night falls Harry new features include a song by the lead singer from Bowling For Soup Bowling For Soup a revamp gameplay style featuring the quick step which allows Sonic to quickly move from side to side the boost which replaces Sonic traditional Spin Dash a stop ability which allows Sonic the slam himself directly downward Bowling For Soup and a revised homing attack which uses a button separate from the jump button and features a new target for accurate jumping gameplays switching from 2d to 3d perspectives and a completely new play style as the werehog I've never really been a fan of Sonic elation when the game came out my xbox would frequently Redwing and I remember getting bored with the werehog stages between my boredom and the Xbox I owned being a pain in the ass to use I just sort of dropped it but here we go the game begins with Sonic boarding Eggman spaceship in space Sonic kicks ass at what has got to be the coolest opening to any Sonic game yet Eggman is confronted by Sonic but he's like I got you Sonic done reveals he had the Chaos Emeralds the whole time and turned super egg man's like oh no but then he was like it was a ruse as he trapped Sonic and Sonic Slyke ahh Eggman drains the Chaos Emeralds of their power and fires a super weapon toward the earth the earth just like shatters which releases a sleepy being known as Dark Gaia Eggman is really happy about this Dhar guy is released causes Sonic to transform into the werehog Eggman unleashes Sonic out of the ship and the title shows up at the perfect time he was just unleashed sonic plummets to earth and lands on this cute thing who has amnesia Sonic eventually named some chip and reference to his discovered love for chocolate Sonic sees that tails is in danger and he rescues him while in werehog form tails is like ah but Sonic is like nyeh dude I'm so cool tails introduces Sonic to Professor pickle who explains that in order to put the world back together get Sonic back to normal get the band back together and get chips memory back Sonic and chip must place the Chaos Emeralds inside several temples around the world Sonic and chip collect Gaia keys to unlock the temples and place the emeralds inside which restores the world after six of the seven pieces of the world are put back together chip begins to regain his mom he remembers that he is like Gaea a being that battles with Dark Gaia every few million years or so Dark Gaia tears the world apart like Gaia puts it back together it's sort of their alternative to puzzle night the reason why chip had amnesia is because Eggman woke them up too early Sonic and chip infiltrated man land which is surrounding the final temple Eggman releases Dark Gaia and demands that it crushes Sonic but once again Eggman is betrayed by a giant [ __ ] monster once chip and Sonic are ready to meet their end chip calls upon the power of all the temples along with the Chaos Emeralds to build a giant [ __ ] mech Sonic turned super in the final battle ensues chip saves Sonic and they go back to sleep for the next million years or so Sonic keeps chips necklace and remembrance and runs off with tails because chip was just his side bag I have to admit I enjoyed the game's story my overviews are just to give context so I can't recreate its charm part of the reason the story works is because of chip its optimism and quirkiness helps keep levity to what is already a bizarre story look at a little camera I mean the werehog concept is ridiculous but I've grown more accepting of the concept itself I mean just regular Sonic is bizarre when you think about it long enough it's relieving to get a story that's not split into separate chapters and it's able to shine because of it Sonic being forced to help chip allows the game to tell chip story while keeping Sonic involved here's the thing about Sonic stories Sonic is a brand icon having true character development means you changed the character just look at the one time they tried to do it I know a big complaint with the series has been that there are too many characters but adding a character to the game allows there to be a character driven story people remember shadow silver and chip because they were the main characters of the games they were introduced in Sonic is just sort of the vehicle to tell their story these would be one off characters allow for the games to have a story without conflicting with the main cast and here's a simple thing I noticed about this game and maybe it was an idea Sega had if they continued with plot heavy Sonic games water fire earth we're only missing one elemental giant [ __ ] monster although I enjoyed the story I was off taken out of it due to the voice acting the conversation of Griffith vs. Drummond is a conversation for another day but chip I'm not a purist I'll never listen to a Japanese dub unless I'm just curious about it but listen to Kip's English voice actor what is my name now his Japanese voice actor what happened he was adorable I think Sonic's protective nature and immediate desire to help chip works better if chip is perceived as a little kid even the name chip works better because of his love for chocolate it becomes so much cuter but when all is said and done the story works for what it is if you want to get a taste of the stories fun and quirky tone check out night of the werehog a short that was produced by Sega's Marzu studios that is actually helping with the animation for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie which is scheduled to come out next year [Music] here's something interesting there was actually a Sonic Unleashed game for mobile I mean like flip phone mobile it was officially licensed by Sega and developed by game law the featured custom sprite art for both Sonic and the werehog unfortunately it's very hard to track down the more you know throughout the game sonic travels the world and visits different countries all based off of the real-world locations every country has its own unique look which is complemented by the game's art design I mean this game is gorgeous the colors are bright the environments have personality particle effects give a huge sense of action and motion blurring although excessive at times really works the only thing bad I have to say about how this game looks is a complaint I have for all sonic games that use the Hedgehog engine the lighting effects give the characters a weird colour either they're too heavily reflecting the color of their environment or their color is just washed out entirely Sonic Unleashed features two different playstyles Sonic and the werehog during the day you play a sonic and at night time passes naturally with your progression of the game but you can also control the day-to-night transition each country has at least one day and one night time stage with additional and optional acts becoming available as you continue to progress through the game although the game has a linear progression you don't just go from country to country you're constantly traveling back and forth to complete objectives for example when you get to Empire City only the night level is immediately available once you complete a level in shemar you go back to Empire City in the daytime level becomes available this is an example of an overworld done right the villages are charming and easy to navigate in the hub world area provides an opportunity to learn and practice new skills but because the game doesn't always hold your hand sometimes figuring out where to go next can be really confusing the daytime stages is really where this game shines this is the first time where Sonic has felt right in 3d from the get-go Sonic is incredibly fast this is what the Mach sections in Sonic oh six wanted to do it's crisp and new gameplay mechanics address the problems of past Sonic games before the high speed sections were just there as a reward for playing in the game well but now it's an active mechanic the quickstep QuickTime events for tricks and the boost mechanic all help the player remain active while moving fast however if you hold down the booster for extended periods it sort of puts the game back on Rails but ironically you still need to stay active while using the boost even on Rails when Sonic's running key controls great but when you're trying to platform or take it slow he's sort of slippery I kind of wish there was a button I could press just to slow him down because in the village sections where Sonic can't run slower sonic controls great this isn't a problem too much because a lot of the platforming sections don't even take place in a 3d instead heavy platforming segments seamlessly transition into a 2d perspective the 2d segments help break up the speed it is a great way to deal with the inherent problems of 3d platforming the game also fixes past problems I've had with boss battles boss battles have always been a weak point for Sonic 2d boss battles will slow down the action in 3d boss battles would always be screwed because of the camera Sonic Unleashed takes the concept of running boss battles from heroes and well runs with it avoiding enemy attacks and hurting the boss are integrated into the game natural island all the daytime stages rock there was seriously not a single stage that I didn't enjoy up until now 3d Sonic games have always been experimental but Sonic Unleashed is the first game to really have Sonic comfortably fit into this perspective there's constant movement and active participation within the gameplay no question it's some of the best Sonic stages in the history of the character it's the night time stages that present a problem Sonic the [ __ ] werehog instead of fast action being at the center of attention combat and platforming becomes the focus the combat system is pretty well made with a combination of easier to perform special moves and QuickTime events based on combos beating up a bunch of bad guys can feel pretty good and experimenting what the combos can be fun and then you play the game for more than two minutes what happened with my experience is I found one easy combo that worked and I ran with it or in this case I've really walked with it when I got bored of pressing Y over and over I just press x over and over the problem isn't inherently with the werehog itself it just overstays its welcome levels regularly lasts around twenty minutes because you have to kill pretty much every enemy to progress screens will regularly be stuffed with tons of baddies and besides the occasional boss all the bad guys can be beaten just by punching and kicking sometimes I would just browse the Internet while spamming the Y button until all the enemies were gone the only time where I had to pay strict attention was in the Alaska stage which takes place on ice while fighting every punch will make you slide slightly so you have to simultaneously fight but watching where you're standing besides boss battles this is the only point in the game where I really had to pay attention as the werehog the combat system is built well but there's no reason to learn it using complex combos is just as effective as pressing the same button over and over again while the platforming is solid it's hard to enjoy when all you want to do is finish the level the thought of getting a game over and having to restart a level is terrifying and extremely stressful the werehog stages are a chore this is an example of gameplay being bad not because it's glitchy or buggy but because it's boring I truthfully believe the werehog could have been handled well but the levels need to be shorter and I need an incentive to learn the combo but instead it's repetitive and does nothing but make me wish I was playing the other part of the game ever since Sonic Adventure sonic games have had this air of self-consciousness the core sonic gameplay is never enough there always needs to be unnecessary variety variation and gameplay can be good when it complements the formula like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles but it's just there to be different it doesn't help the game the werehog concept itself isn't fundamentally broken it's the execution that's broken it could easily complement the formula but the level length and tedious repetition makes it boring the repetition is just reinforced by the music every time you fight a large amount of enemies it's a shame because I'm a big fan of that glitzy ritzy swing music an example of it working is in the boss battles it's never just beating up the enemy there's always a little puzzle to it when the werehog is engaging it works but the problem is it's almost never engaging stop lifting with your back lift with your legs speaking of chores you can't just continue through the game by beating levels you have to collect Sun and Moon metals to unlock stages which essentially results in replaying the same levels over and over again by the end of the game you need 120 of the Sun medals meaning I had to play for hours just to unlock one stage this process killed my enjoyment of the game each level has anywhere from one to ten medals toward the end of the game I needed to go back and scan through every level meaning uh-oh more [ __ ] werehog it's overkill that's my recurring criticism of the game it milks itself dry luckily you don't have to complete a level in order to collect the medals you can just collect it and quit and the game tries to aid you by allowing you to level up sonic strength and other attributes which tries to make playing through the earlier stages slightly easier so this is the first time I've ever finished Sonic Unleashed and despite all of the game's flaws which ruin it the experience of playing through the game for me I'm glad I played it I mean Bowling For Soup but the reward of the game's completion is the fact that you get a stage select being able to now revisit Sonic Unleashed and ignore all of the [ __ ] makes it worth it but I also think that's why people so strongly defend this game when you have the opportunity to ignore the aspects of a game that make it bad and yeah these aspects truthfully makes playing through the game bad you start to warp your opinion on the game in its entirety despite the fact that the story in the presentation is really nice playing through the campaign is long and arduous effort an experimentation was clearly poured into this game but the thing about experimenting is it doesn't always work I appreciate the attempt to do so new especially because they really tried but the repetition dulls the aspects of the game that is truly great but being able to skip all of that makes it worth it but you shouldn't have to beat a game before you can enjoy it unfortunately the legacy of unleashed is outweighed by its bad qualities only two years after its release Sega D listed all Sonic games with a low or below average Metacritic score Sonic Unleashed was amongst several games that went out of print in an attempt to rebuild Sonic's brand value many Sonic fans consider the period from Shadow the Hedgehog Sonic oh six to be a dark age for Sonic I mean back-to-back games which were critically panned during this time it was really discouraging to be a Sonic fan but I think it's a little unfair to group Sonic Unleashed in this dark age because despite the fact that playing through the actual game is a terrible experience it laid the groundwork for the sonic brand to begin to rebuild itself between Sonic oh six and Sonic Unleashed Sonic fans were clamoring for something they could celebrate and in September of 2009 it felt as if Sega had an answer project needle mouse was a mysterious game which promised to finally return Sonic back to his roots properly [Music] named after Sonic's conceptual name from way back when project needle bauss aimed to give fans from the Genesis era a game they could appreciate over the months Sega used their social media pages to tease fan theories and distribute small details about the game over the course of a few days a playable character countdown was featured slowly one by one eliminating all of the characters playable in the game until only Sonic was left for the first time since Sonic 1 sonic would be the only playable character please if there's some obscure Sonic game where he's the only playable character don't use that as a single example to dismantle my argument be intelligent I'm sure you could dismantle it in another way finally in February of 2010 the title of the game was announced Sonic 4 episode 1 people went nuts oh so infuriated right now this is a complete turnoff it's incredibly misleading I along with most people in their late 20s was expecting the classic style black eyed Sonic this is tails so stressed out a cam and concentrate but for a more accurate picture of how people reacted here's a scene from when a mystery game was announced at screwattack's iron man of gaming in the summer of 2010 [Music] [Applause] besides those lucky enough to play it at an SDC fans would have to wait until october to get their hands on the game when it was released sonic for Episode one was met with decent reception I'm sure it wasn't the smash hit that Sega had hoped for but both fans and critics agreed it alright what do you mean it alright the game is definitely not bad it's just not the love letter to the classics that I was hoping for at this point Sonic 3 had already cemented itself as my favorite Sonic game so to get a promise to a return to glory and get something more akin to bubblegum pop well it was a little disappointing new features include being able to select stages and acts in any order that's all nothing about this game is really new the story Sonic versus Eggman okay let's go each level in the game is visually modeled after an older stage you have good value Green Hill Zone Walmart brand labyrinth zone just off enough to avoid copyright infringement casino night zone and finally Metro paulus so despite the visuals a lot of the ideas present that are new sure you get your loopy loops and squiggly squids but pattern recognitions balancing on big rocks and some sick times puzzle solving helps to make these old locations seem anew what also helps is the fact that some of the fundamental gameplay has changed when Sonic Adventure came out the homing attack was introduced in order to replicate the feeling of bouncing off enemies in a 2d space when Sonic 4 came around took that move created specifically for 3d game mechanics and put it in a 2d space both the spin attack and the jump attack are rendered useless because of the homing attack bouncing off enemies is significantly harder anyways because when Sonic is launched into the air he doesn't form into a ball but instead keeps his arms out which makes him vulnerable to attacks from new new Sonic's acceleration seems off to his walking cycle up until he starts running feels floaty and even when he is running there's not a lot of weight to him but that doesn't matter because when the game lots gonna move fast it does it for you with lots of Springs and boosters sonic 4 does not encourage exploration it takes nothing but holding the controller and moving forward to beat it it's an obnoxiously easy game in hindsight and a dull experience while playing it the game itself feels cheap and it's a feeling that's cemented by poor cell shading and gameplay that fails to replicate the classic games 2d Sonic games in the past make you use your environments to gain top speed and practice the levels to learn how to maintain that speed here that first half is removed rarely is the environment the source of your speed in fact like many 3d Sonic games sonic can just start moving at his top speed by himself the time their speed has been necessary in past games is to travel up a wall but wow visually the game itself looks alright but it's cheap the cel shading which I believe is trying to emulate a 2d style just makes the game look like plastic it's all visually pleasing but these are designs I've seen before rendered out to look cheaper the fact that they didn't use the classic sonic model isn't the worst thing in the world but the more I play this game the more I feel as if they didn't use the classic sonic model because they either weren't allocated the resources or they just didn't feel like it a lot of Sonic's personality is drained the only pieces of animation that sticked out to me is when his arms are wide open because vulnerability and has exaggerated looking up animation which I have to admit is really cute Sonic 4 episode 1 is a game that tries to invoke the feelings of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games but besides some visual cues it's too far away from the classics to warrant being called Sonic 4 but it's not too far away enough to feel like it's own thing sonic 4 episode 1 was developed by dips a studio that was responsible for the sonic advance and Sonic Rush series after playing Sonic 4 I would have much rather have seen an HD console version of Sonic Rush I feel as if they could have done something really special instead what we're left with is a poor cheap imitation [Music] after a year and a half we'd finally see the release of Sonic for episode two if you collected all seven Chaos Emeralds in episode 1 the to be continued screen was shown with a silhouette of Metal Sonic and as a callback to Sonic and Knuckles there was a lock-on bonus if you owned both episode 1 and 2 of Sonic 4 you could play the metal episode a four act a bridge playthrough of Sonic 4 as Metal Sonic Eggman resurrects metal after the fight that happened in Sonic CD and he plays through some levels surprisingly metal feels better than Sonic because that floaty gameplay feels fine because he's literally floating I'm bored [Music] I can't watch this anymore there's an easier way we compare your progressive direct rate to other top companies so you get a great price wouldn't you love to see the world through his eyes I bet I look like the strongest man in the world Sonic 4 episode 1 and episode 2 were released for nearly every major console and they both received a mobile port oddly enough this is also the port that was released on the ouya Sonic's model is no longer cel-shaded and I suspect that if we ever got a re-release this would be the version also please have Krishna Whitehead remaster it [Music] between Sonic for episode 1 and episode 2 one year and seven months past two Sonic games were released including Sonic Generations a game which paid tribute to all the main series Sonic games but whoops no Sonic for it was just kind of ignored finally the weekend that Sonic 4 episode 2 was released came along and I was so pumped finally after years of anticipation and waiting I went to go see The Avengers I mean it was flawed but it was so much fun I mean kablammo I think when Avengers age of Ultron came out that initial excitement was done personally I think age of Ultron improved on the original a lot but it just didn't have that initial wow factor I'm so smart look at me I'm making such good analogies like five years later I finally got around to Episode two first thing I noticed above all else is the fact that the cell shading is gone and it looks so good look at that sunset well episode one was reliant on the past episode two doesn't use themes from past Sonic games except for a single stage where Episode one did the best to invoke the feelings of the first Sonic game episode two tries to take elements from Sonic 2 and Sonic CD tails Metal Sonic but episode 2 is also able to stand on its own because of unique bosses lovell aesthetic and Sonic and Tails can do these tag-team moves tails can lift sonic they can do this big attack which kills all the enemies on the screen and they can do a I like the first two and be honest I use the lift ability sometimes just to see the queue animation between the two of them but this Spin Dash move just shoots them in a single direction you can't stop them this problem becomes evident when fighting against the oil desert zone boss you need to hit his feet toward the end of the fight and most of my challenge was just making sure I was going in the right direction episode 2 is also significantly harder than episode 1 which was one of the easiest games I've played in a while most of the challenge comes from moments where if you make a single mistake instant death the moment that frustrated me the most was one of white Park zones enemies well they're more like obstacles these walruses blow huge bubbles made of ice once they're made you can't break them you can only go around them there's one moment where two of them will prevent for moving forward and you'll be stuck underwater so the only thing you can do they blow bubbles before you get past them is to let sonic drown and try again I hate seeing him drown another highlight is within the first metal sonic encounter metal sonic will often shoot these energy attacks which can be avoided but then after he's done that a few times he'll attack you and destroy the ground from below the way I tried to avoid this was by using the tag-team lifts but it rarely worked it just gave me a moment to realize that I really screwed up Sonic 4 episode 2 fixed a lot of the problems with Sonic's control but the levels of the game rarely allow you to experience the fixed control because look more Springs and more boosters let's count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 overall I do think that episode 2 is slightly better because even if the challenge is a little cheaper I'm more actively playing it Sonic 4 episode 2 ends with Sonic and Tails stranded in space there's no to be continued because Sega didn't know if they were gonna make an episode 3 the original plan with Sonic 4 was to do a complete trilogy eventually plans for episode 3 were scrapped with episode 1 taking heavy influence from Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and episode 2 taking influence from CD and 2 could have been assumed that episode 3 would have taken heavy influence from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles although I would have liked to see episode 3 I don't think it would have been anything special and who knows how long it would have taken to come out to do this episodic release was an experiment but I don't think it's appropriate to experiment with the game called Sonic 4 the idea was to do a back to basics approach but both episodes failed to recapture the feeling of the original games and most of it feels too bland to stand on its own one thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to the Sonic the Hedgehog series is how reactionary it all seems Sonic was created to compete with Mario after final fantasy 7 was a smash hit worldwide Sonic Adventure had RPG in an age of dark and gritty reboots Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Oh sticks were the next steps for the series Sonic 4 does not feel like a game Sega thought would be a good idea but rather a game that Capcom thought was a good idea in 2008 Capcom released Mega Man 9 after years of not having a classic 2d Megaman it used retro graphics retro music and carefully market itself as a love letter to classic fans and it was released as a downloadable game Sega took this idea but stopped at the title these games were released under another name they'd just be alright games you know a fun experience you can have for an afternoon but because they carelessly titled the game Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and even more carelessly planned an episodic release what we're left with is an incomplete experience which had to live up to expectations that it could not fulfill we had a lot of faith in what you had the show and you let me in this poor guy down [Music] 2010 sonic 4 gathered so much hype that Sonic Colors went under the radar but when Sonic 4 turned out to be a slight disappointment people were like what's this Sonic Colors was a response to both of the criticism of the more gimmicky sonic games that preceded it and the newly gained an audience from the popularity of the wheat and the Sonic and Mario series being a Wii exclusive the game was designed to appeal to the Mario fanbase lovell to Louisville a world map would be seen and the storyline was written to appeal to a much younger fanbase needless to say hiring the writing staff to both MadWorld and Happy Tree Friends resulted in a bit of a bland storyline when there was no blood or guts anywhere but the gameplay was designed to appeal to a much wider audience new features include a brand new voice cast again he loves to hear his own lips flap but I gotta hand it to the egg stir this place is epic they're pretty good and power-ups called the wisps lisps know so funny I got Sonic Colors pretty close to when it was released I was pumped to finally play another good Sonic game and I enjoyed it and never looked back oddly enough every time I've played this game it's been with the classic controller this thing is awful the button layout is completely different than any other Sonic game so I kept dying from pressing the wrong button and I never realized how underwhelming a Sonic game can feel without the Rumble I tried playing it with the Wii Remote but ultimately settled on the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo now I'm fully into it all right the story tails and sonic sneak into Eggman's interstellar amusement park full of cookies palm trees and sick one-liners the theme park seems to be an apology for all of his past mistakes but it may be a ruse as he's doing something completely different than he usually does capturing tiny animals to power a machine these wisps give sonic special powers and tails creates a translator to communicate with them they find out that the wisps have been kidnapped by Eggman so Sonic and Tails go to save the day they do the end Sonic Colors plot wanted to bring Sonic back to his inception being a dick hey where are you going to find Baldy Makino of course I'm totally calling him Makhno Zaire but this time tails is kind of a dick too as soon as they get their sonic thinks Eggman is up to no good and tails us like nah not this time sonic Sonic's like tails you have no reason to believe that Eggman isn't up to no good but then sonic remembers that tails is like eight and probably just wants to hang around a theme park Sonic Colors plot serves the purpose to entertain the little ones I'm not a little one and I wasn't a little one when this game came out so I feel like the comments on it too heavily maybe a little dickish that being said here are my opinions I appreciate the shift in tone but the humor doesn't land with me it's so brutally forced all of the humor involves either one-liners and sonic talking just talking for extended periods of time hey did somebody here order a cluttering are you sure it says somebody ordered an extra-large clobbering top with everything okay tell you what I can't take this thing back so I'll give you an extra-large clobbering for nothing oh you're hungry I feel like the writers kept the writing stuff in the hopes that something would just end up being funny but it just feels like the script to that comedy film I wanted to make when I was 12 but the reason why I'm an amusement park is in space is because it's truthfully huge tropical resort is both the entrance to the park and where all the hotels are sweet mountain is made up of donuts and candy and chocolate and donuts starlight carnival which is full of neon lights which I love so good on you starlight carnival here's a doughnut planet wisp which is the home planet of the wisps it's under construction so sonic better wear a hard hat aquarium park which is an Asian themed waterpark an asteroid coaster roller coasters finally there's terminal velocity the incredibly easy incredibly underwhelming final stage although the game takes a lot of cues from the Mario series I am so thankful that they didn't tropical resort to using generic level themes like in the new super mario bros series you know the decade-old series which is a major need of an update this game still has an identity and honestly it's gorgeous I really wish they'd do an HD update of this game because it's phenomenally gorgeous but the resolution causes severe aliasing everywhere I want to be able to appreciate what's there so please make an HD port we're fast-paced action and 2d platforming we're hugging the attention in Sonic Unleashed colors aimed to appeal to everyone therefore power-ups in 2d platforming puzzle shift to be the focus speed segments are there but unless they're the levels focus they feel out of place and on Rails and most of the time they are not the focus the game strips Sonic of what makes him Sonic but instead builds a solid 2d platforming experience and Sonic Unleashed I would often get disappointed when the perspective would switch from 2d after an awesome 3d segment but here it's the opposite anew and in my opinion very welcome addition to this game are the wisps I know a lot of people don't like the wisps and yeah when they show up in later games they're annoying but here I really enjoyed them the game is very puzzling and the wisps really complement that in the Wii version of the game there are eight accurate aliens all of which gives like different powers some of Sonic's abilities from past games are removed and given back as an alien the spiky alien can do a spin - and this air baloon alien can light - across rings the white wisp steals on the white alien fills Sonic's boost gauge and the rocket alien allows Sonic to turn into a rocket and fly the top of the stage the drill alien turns sonic into a drill and the laser alien allows Sonic to turn into a laser and shoot around the stage like a pinball the blue alien turns blue rings into blocks and blue blocks into rings and Sonic into a cube and finally my favorite the frenzy wisp this turns sonic into a scary-ass monster that eats everything and gets bigger as he does it it's tough to control but it's so ridiculous and fun that I don't even care the wisps with the wisps the aliens add an extra layer to the game that was added specifically to compensate for the fact that Sonic was the only playable character it works within the context but I'm not clamoring for anymore wisps one of my criticisms for every Sonic game since Sonic Heroes has been about the level length when a level exceeds 10 minutes it's frustrating to get a game over and have to start from the very beginning it's a great way to waste time and a great way to force me to take sanity breaks while playing Sonic Colors finally shortens level lengths each world is made up of 6 acts but it could have easily been 2x but instead of having each level drag on levels often surround a single theme or a challenge like using a specific kind of wisp or learning a specific level quirk 1 introduced is this floating spring that will follow sonic moving forward but not backwards if you miss the spring he'll fall and die a more annoying one are these blocks which will move forward and backwards and knock sonic off the stage which will cause them to fall and die one of my biggest pet peeves and 2d platformers are 3d obstacles gaining a perspective on these and recognizing the patterns can be difficult because while you're moving on a 2d plane they're moving separately from you some levels are designed specifically to teach you about these challenges and later they'll be combined to really test your skills it's a slow introduction to a lot of these quirks and challenges but later you'll be made to recall them it's really the most traditional 2d platformer since Sonic 1 despite being a really solid game I easily look over Sonic Colors but it's fun and unique within the library colors loses the identity that sonic games have built over the years it was designed to appeal to the Mario fanbase and it's a fun platforming experience but looking back on it I'm a little underwhelmed I think part of the reason why I overlooked it is because I believed that I had forgotten a lot about this game but while revisiting it I realized that there was nothing in this game that I had for guide I just assumed that there was more to it while playing Sonic Colors it's fun but now that I've made this video my relationship with the game is over it was fun entertainment with no positive or negative consequences I really just hope Sonic Colors feels the same way about me colors kind of ignores the uniqueness of the sonic brand that being said sonic has always been a game that experiments and getting too involved with itself could isolate newcomers so to experiment with conformity as opposed to uniqueness isn't necessarily a bad thing and at the time that this game came out its what the series needed 2010 was seen as a renaissance for the series and I do think Sonic Colors was the final piece needed to usher sonic out of the dark ages it returned to the series to its true roots fun [Music] Sonic Generations began as a tribute to the sonic franchise and successfully continued that way up until it was done the plan with generations was to bring back remix levels from every main series Sonic game Sega conducted fan surveys to find out which zones were the most loved but not only would old stages be remixed into 3d but 3d stages would be remixed into a classic 2d to different playstyles featuring two different Sonic's would be available Sonic classic design would be brought back for exclusively 2d levels it was debated if Classic Sonic should be given a voice visually Oh white the actor who played Arkell and nothing else was the only option considered he also played Sonic and three different animated series and another weird animated looking character in the Sonic the Hedgehog fan film ultimately it was decided to keep Sonic mute for reasons unknown the first trailer for Sonic Generations premiered at e3 2011 and the second one premiered about a few hours later ah I was on the edge of buying Sonic Generations when it came out my xbox was broken and I was sort of getting out of gaming at the time so I didn't really want to jump through the hoops necessary to play this game but this trailer changed my mind and forced me to jump through those hoops necessary to play the game aki just asked my friend if i could borrow his playstation [Music] it's not like the Hedgehog and My Chemical Romance is defined by middle school years okay this story on Sonic's birthday all of his friends and even creamed the rabbit throw him a surprise party an evil monster captures everyone in Sonic discovers that time has been split apart another sonic sonic comes from the past to help sonic run really fast the next time that's literally the explanation given in the game from love at a level the Sonic's rescue their friends and even cream the rabbit Eggman gets captured and asks for their help but soon they discover that Eggman and another Eggman Robotnik were behind everything the whole time they go super and through trial and error they saved the day sonic says bye to Sonic and promises that one day he'll be great like himself sonic the end unlike Sonic Colors there are no cringe-worthy jokes burned into my mind but there are little quips and references to the rest of the series totally strange no stranger than rescuing genies and magic books or receiving aliens in an interstellar amusement park it's nothing special and the story was just created to justify what happens in the game my only substantial criticism of the story is of classic Sonic himself classic sonic should be kind of a dick Sonic was so heavily marketed as having an attitude in the early 1990s that a circle back around and became a little lame I totally think that they should have given him a voice and differentiated classic Sonic in modern Sonic 5 old-school R attitude and new-school chill instead they realized that classic Sonic is kind of cute and walked with it but they were actually running it just looked like they were walking because Sonic is so fast every level in the game comes from another Sonic game between the bosses and levels over ten games are represented I love every level selected but what I don't like is that they focused more on picking the best level from each game rather than levels that can come together to represent the whole series there are no casinos space or mind themed levels which are all staples of the series instead almost half of the stages are city themed I understand that these were considered the best levels from each game and isolated they're awesome but they don't come together well the game opens up before the story starts with classic Sonic going through Green Hill Zone although stages feature 1s that their layouts are completely redesigned to pay homage to multiple levels and offer something new the corkscrew was never in the original Green Hill Zone and seaside hill represents a ton of the water levels throughout the whole series like hydrocity zone in labyrinth zone one of the highlights of the game are the remixed music tracks I usually don't comment on music because it's not an area I'm really comfortable talking about I just don't know a lot about music but the remix tracks are able to feel new yet somehow really classic and nostalgic despite the fact that most of these levels come from 3d Sonic games the 2d stages feel like classic 2d sonic levels or the classic feeling is lost is with how classic sonic controls something about him is off I can't pinpoint it exactly but I think it's because he feels heavier than in the original Sonic games the originals were so fluid never stopping when going fast required active participation by jumping and spinning the only thing coming between you and speed was your skill level and knowledge of the level itself but here the fluid movement is missing this time around Sonic's a little bit more stiff when you go down in his ball I can't articulate it exactly but it's on the tip of my tongue it doesn't feel bad just wrong I tried jerking the controller and make it more fluid but no matter how hard I try it still feels stiff most of the game's levels come from 3d Sonic games so after the first three levels classic sonic takes a bit of a backseat to modern Sonic every boss battle from here on out is a 3d boss battle and every stage is a redesigned 3d stage that being said the later 2d levels start feeling more fresh because the closer and closer the game's reference to our two generations in the timeline the more similar they feel to the original version the most similar is rooftop run although I admit this is one of my favorite levels it's not much different than Sonic Unleashed version of it I truly think that generations has the highest quality of levels in the whole franchise I don't think there is a single level in the mix I don't enjoy but I do stand by what I said about a lack of diversity but it's all good and it never feels like a chore modern sonic plays how he's played for the past several games but here everything seems much more refined Sonic's drift feature now hasn't turning into a ball and stages are explosive and more exciting than ever however the game isn't afraid to slow down for a moment just a moment this time around it's more noticeable how slippery 3d platforming is but that's just because the game actually tries to implement 3d platforming more in heavier platforming segments the game will still transition into 2d which is fine and dandy but it happens too much because of classic Sonic I think that they should have limited the amount of 2d segments in modern Sonic's play style but that probably just would have resulted in shorter levels and speaking of short this game Sonic Generations core game features only 9 levels with two acts each and level grinding isn't required to move forward in the story so the game can easily be completed in under four hours at first I was kind of turned off by this but this is actually in line with the length of older Sonic games and actually the real length of modern Sonic games two games like oh six heroes and unleashed force you to replay levels over and over again to progress and so much of its content is recycled if you really enjoy the game there are extra missions that you can do in each level the extra missions act like both of the missions in Sonic Adventure 2 and the more bite-size extra acts and Sonic Colors if this game wasn't for you they don't make a difference but if you were like me you may enjoy playing through every single mission when this game came out I was craving more Sonic Generations and Sonic Generations satisfied that craving a game shouldn't forcefully or artificially lengthen itself any extra content should be optional if a game is bad and has extra side quests that you're forced to do all it does is make the game feel arduous but if the game is good side quests are appreciated the boss battles in this game are awesome but it would have been cool to see some of the 3d boss battles and 2d and 2d boss battles in 3d 1 it would have been an additional way to remix the fight and two it would have given 2d sonic more to do after the first three stages perfect chaos and 2d would be oddly awesome in the egg Walker in 3d would have been weirdly cool the remixed versions of the old bosses however are phenomenal my favorite is silver yes they included the worst boss battle in the whole series but they completely redefined how it's played and it's awesome silver is finally that overpowered guy I wanted him to be what the game ends with a supersonic battle between sonic sonic and the time monster it's awful the perspective switches back and forth between Sonic and Sonic and you can never tell what exactly you need to do to beat the time monster it just eventually kind of happens after a completely confusing and frustrating fight there's no final level leading into the boss so the whole thing just kind of feels a little anti-climatic Sonic Generations feels like a newly wrapped boutique version of the Sonic series and it kind of is it's a short game with phenomenal presentation but it doesn't feel like a new entry in the series because it doesn't really have its own personality so that's what it is and that's why it's different from the rest of the series but judging it as it is it's [ __ ] amazing the game is so high energy and because of its length it's able to maintain that momentum throughout the entire game games need to have pacing because you can't go a straight 12 hours of just non-stop action and excitement but when the game is shortened it can pick up the energy and maintain it until the end I know Sonic Generations isn't the big grand adventure that so many other sonic games are but it's the first sign of game in a while to just focus on designing really good and solid levels Sonic Generations wanted to celebrate this series and with two Sonic's remix music Easter eggs and returning to old locations it does it really well Sonic Generations is a love letter to the fans and honestly it's the best experience I've had playing a new Sonic game since I've had an adult brain [Music] in for a moment it felt like Sonic was finally back Sonic Colors generations and even Sonic 4 showed that the series still had promise but when Sonic lost world was announced in May of 2013 fans were excited to see a follow up to Sonic Generations my hopes were to see a brand new game with new locations and even more refined versions of what we saw in past 3d Sonic games but as more and more details were released I slowly lost confidence sonic lost world's scrap to the Boost style of gameplay first something new mediocrity intense mediocrity sonic lost world was created in collaboration with Sega and Nintendo and while the game experimented with level design and new moves it was an incredibly simplified experience with the Louisville themes and a more generic control layout for Sonic running is now an optional move that adds nothing to the game and is substituted by a rarely utilized parkour system when Sonic lost world was announced I was really pumped to see what it would be like but then gameplay videos started surfacing I was disappointed to see that Sega was once again ignoring what worked and trying something new though I did remain optimistic I actually bought the game day 1 but I didn't play it till about a month later because of all the mediocre reviews I saw well anyways I popped it in and quickly gained no opinion of me I had no reaction I was genuinely underwhelmed but all these years later I think it's time to re review sonic lost world because let's be honest that original video isn't my best work but why have 38,000 people watched it don't go watch that video go watch my digimon video instead it's much better so the plot Sonic and Tails are following Eggman as he captures tiny little animals they end up tracking him down to a place called the lost hex tail seems to know a lot about it but like the audience Sonic doesn't care so he doesn't ask there they find out that Eggman has taken a magic conch which he controls the zeti a group of zeti who live on the lost hex Eggman sends them after Sonic but then sonic screws up and breaks the magic conch the zeti turn on Eggman and is forced to team up with Sonic to stop a doomsday device that Eggman created but now the zeti have control over the magic conch and the doomsday device because Sonic didn't believe in the power of the magic punch the squad travels across the lost hacks speeding zeti after xeni until tails gets captured Eggman dies in Sonic rescues tails beats the zeti and then Eggman didn't die Sonic beats up Eggman and deactivates the doomsday device the end my reaction whoosh oh-ho spoken-- this is the first time where this set of writers have had an opportunity to write a story involving multiple new characters they had a chance to define the characteristics and personality of these characters and they didn't do anything creative to be fair though that may have been out of their control but the final product is generic and stereotypical you have Punk emo Raphael older fat and girl those are their characters and those characters never stray away from that the jokes don't work because of how uncreated the characters are I know the punchline before it happens move it or lose it snow cone the last time we met you ruined my meal I even the interaction between Sonic Eggman entails is bland and it feels so forced and that's because of how dialogue heavy all of the cutscenes are tail starts becoming jealous of Eggman but there's no reason for that to happen tails just sort of explains to Sonic that he's feeling jealous what no I trust you tails it's just that no you don't you trust Eggman more you know how much that bites but like the past two entries this was made for the little ones so Who am I to judge well I make videos on the internet so it's kind of all I do everything seems so pointless the first thing I noticed going into lost world was Sonic himself he's got his Spin Dash back the figure 8 animation is back and all of his character animations are so bouncy and cartoony I love it he's a very appealing character to look at not like that then the next thing I noticed was the change gameplay style so sonic has now moved heavily away from us focus of speed to a more traditional platforming style Sonic Colors tried to do this too but kept a consistent gameplay style from Sonic Unleashed lost world kind of feels like it has the same philosophy but a newly designed play style to fit that philosophy because color used the boost gameplay style it had a balance between puzzle platforming and speed but they were clearly distinct sonic lost world doesn't know what it's trying to do the game tries its best by having Sonic's default speed be a walking cycle only when pressing the right trigger will Sonic begin to run running also enables his parkour ability the parkour ability allows Sonic to keep running even when he hits a wall or another object to just kind of go up it or around it this was a move added to replicate wall jumping and allow Sonic to keep his momentum but the game isn't about maintaining momentum Sonic's default speed is a walk cycle and once you press the run button he starts running at full speed this was added to give the player more control over platforming segments I get the desire to want to have sonic speed be controllable but I think they went about it the wrong way I would have much rather seen a button to make Sonic walk or more sensitive controls to control his speed more than ever this game feels like it's trying to conform to the ideas of a more traditional platformer Sonic's a giant [ __ ] conformist in the first video of the series I explained how sonic uses memorization trial and error to challenge the player where a series like Mario will lay out the challenges beforehand and test your skills and reaction time when first introduced the balance between 3d and 2d segments was used to bounce fast action with more timed platforming but there is no balance here the 3d segments are just as slow and reliant on solving simple puzzles as the 2d segments are like pushing fruit into a blender many levels have a theme or a gimmick some of which work and others are just as bland as the rest of the game like pushing fruit into a blender the ones that don't work are infinitely frustrating and the ones that do copy it from somewhere else sonic lost world's world is one that relies too heavily on past games but instead of innovating on top of it it created a generic version of the Sonic universe there's familiar areas like Hill Zone and a casino but after that you have Beach forest lava snow and clouds there are memorable and unique moments sprinkled throughout the game but they are far and few between it's interesting to note that a goal with this game was to offer something new to the sonic franchise the visual themes are all recycled or generic themes picked up from like Microsoft clipart but the actual layouts of the levels have never been seen in any Sonic game each level has a tubular or cylindrical design with a centralized gravity so Sonic can walk around the entire level this helps create alternating level paths and new ways to experience the same level comparisons have been drawn to mario galaxy and even a cancelled Sonic game Sonic Xtreme I like the tubular design it's the only thing in this game that makes it unique when I remember this game the first thing I think of is the cylindrical levels but before I replayed it for this review I couldn't remember any specific moment or levels in the game itself just the idea of the cylindrical levels I think that says something positive about the concept itself but not the execution Nintendo is known for overusing the word new to repackage old ideas it began with New Super Mario Bros which was refreshing to see at first because it was the first new 2d Mario game since Super Mario World but nearly a decade later those games have begun to feel old and stale sonic lost world is a stale recycled version of the sonic franchise just as my channel has become a stale recycled version of itself recently the game features an overworld in a similar style to the Super Mario Bros series and like the Super Mario series you have to collect certain things in the level to progress the later stages here it's tiny little animals inside the robots the first time I played through this game I sucked at the minigames so I had to grind enemies as I played having to go back and grind enemies for animals as a pain in the ass one of the biggest complaints I've had with the whole series has been forced replayability Sonic levels are usually short and fun so you want to replay the levels anyways but when a game like Sonic lost world comes out a game which isn't exciting you don't want to replay it so the game forces you to what I first played this game I had some criticisms that I didn't find to hold true anymore I thought that the game didn't have enough focus and tried to be too many things but now I see that it really didn't try to be anything it wanted to try something new with the parkour system but then it utilize it in the right game they wanted to surprise Sonic fans but the method of doing that was to create an experience that stripped Sonic of Sonic I said in my sonic colors review that the game experimented with conformity but the caveat to that was with the fact that it blended itself with flavors of Sonic you could cut out the whole story of Sonic lost world and replace Sonic with any stock character and the game wouldn't drop in quality whatsoever it would just be more true to itself when Sonic lost world came out my consensus was essentially I have no strong feelings one way or the other and that's still how I feel there's nothing special about this game and the way it experimented it didn't belong in the game itself sonic lost world is a game that I know I will never revisit however it's a game that the fanbase has latched on to mainly because of the PC port which has resulted in some crazy mods which has given an interesting twist to this once bland game so it's not completely irredeemable it just took the initiative of creative fans to make it worth it and it looks like Sega has caught on to that trend later in 2017 sonic mania is coming out the creative team behind that game were fans who created fan games of Sonic the Hedgehog keep creating and keep loving the character the Sonic the Hedgehog series has had its ups and downs and it's deeper downs but there is a reason why the character is still around and that is because of the fan base but whatever reason Sonic has been a character that has resonated with people although it's been a chore to get through some of these games I'm much more optimistic looking at the series as a whole when I started this project I was incredibly cynical but as I moved through it I have not only become appreciative of the porks and experimentation the series has shown but I've also learned how to talk about media better I'm still going to talk about Sonic after all there are tons of spin-offs and TV shows and media related to the character that I haven't gotten to but for now I want to open the door to talk about some other things too so till next time Sonic you made it this far congratulations if you want to subscribe and see more of my content please consider doing them also do you want to stay up to date with what I'm doing consider following me on Twitter and my blog on tumblr other than that thank you for watching I'll put up another video if you want to watch more of my stuff out for 3 hours

Channel: Billiam

Views: 616,614

Rating: 4.7300262 out of 5

Keywords: Billiam, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic, SEGA Genesis, Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces, SEGA CD, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic The Hedgehog 2006, Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World, Video Games

Id: 9AGo5WOj_VI

Length: 178min 40sec (10720 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2017