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Dying Franchise Warnings Ep. 3: Not What It Used To Be
Added by TissueShoe on Aug. 3, 2008
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Sonic the Hedgehog is without a doubt one of the most loved, respected series of all time. His debut games on the SEGA Genesis were huge hits and people still enjoy them today. Speaking of today, what's been happening with everyone's favorite hedgehog lately? That's what I'm here to talk about.

Sonic the Hedgehog has gone from being one of the most respected franchises out there to a series most are very cautious with due to a bad streak of mediocre-at-best games on consoles this gen.
                          

Sonic was a very well-liked series for a very long time. Hit after hit came with his first three titles for the SEGA Genesis and more acclaimed 2-D platformers in later years. Then Sonic went 3-D on consoles with Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, the first having a GameRankings.com average of 88% and the sequel an 89% on Metacritic. These two games were loved by the fans as well (including me, especially Adventure 2) and they were both remade on GameCube.
 
                                                                       

Then came Sonic Heroes, which was great but equality with Sonic's previous 3-D outings was certainly not achieved and the game was critically much less acclaimed than the Adventure titles. And then Sonic's dark side was revealed in Shadow the Hedgehog, which was recieved pretty poorly by the critics, yet still managed to do well on the sales charts. It was criticized for numbers of reasons, such as the overuse of profanity, yet was also praised for its sky high replay value. Despite the fans' bits of praise for the game, I consider this to be the real beginning of Sonic's downfall. Next came Sonic Riders, which wasn't recieved all that well by the critics with an average of 62% (on GameCube, the highest rated of the three versions). Personally, I thought it was great, and clearly it was good enough for SEGA to release a sequel, because they did.

                                                                               

All the while, Sonic's works on the DS were going strong. Sonic Rush was a great platformer that was given several high scores from the critics and was also very well-recieved by fans. Sonic Rush Adventure was also well-recieved with an 80% GameRankings average, and a Sonic Rush 3 is tentatively planned for release in 2009.

But at the tail end of 2006, SEGA planned to revolutionize the series with a next-gen title for the 360 and PS3, which they found so redefining that they simply named it 'Sonic the Hedgehog.' This game was NOT well-recieved or well-liked. In fact, it was hated and bashed by critics, and didn't sell nearly as well as was speculated. The question is: What happened? This was supposed to be revolutionary and awesome, yet it brought Sonic into a deep pit of disgust rather than onto a golden throne of glory for the current generation of video games.That pretty much covers Sonic's history. The big fall was definitely in 2006 with the supposed 'revolutionary' title for 360 and PS3, yet the Secret Rings for Wii didn't help out much either. The thing about the 2006 game that made people cautious with Sonic was just how disappointing it was. Now, Sonic has a much lower reputation in the gaming world because of that one game.

So what does the future hold for Sonic? Apparantly he has quite a ways to go yet: two games are planned for release this year that could possibly bounce the series back. Sonic Unleashed is coming to consoles late this year, and I'd expect (and advise) most people to be extremely careful about buying this because of the failure of the previous major console release.

I think Sonic's best chance at redemption is in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood coming for DS this fall. A promising RPG, Chronicles is being developed by the revered Bioware, giving SEGA a break and putting Sonic in new hands for some hope.At this point, all we can do is hope. Hope that Unleashed ends up to be a great game and Chronicles ends up being a fulfilling experience as well. For now, the future looks like it could go in either direction for the likeable Sonic the Hedgehog, and only time (and games) will tell just how long he can last out there.
                                                                        

Soli Deo Gloria
TissueShoe
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