*Warning, this is a really long read. If you want to skip to different segments, you definitely can. Don't feel forced to read the whole thing
Welcome to my second entry of this series where I draw parallels between two things you wouldn't think have much in common. And yes, you’re reading the title correctly. I’m going to compare Sonic the Hedgehog, a videogame franchise, to the Oakland Raiders, a football team. Why? Let me put it this way, these two franchises were incredibly relevant and popular back in the day. They were once known for having amazing games/teams that also revolutionized their separate businesses forever. But lately, both have gained a similar reputation of simply being shells of themselves. Recent Sonic games for the most part have had terrible receptions and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing Sonic as a bad video game IP. The Oakland Raiders have had a recent history where they’ve played horrible football and like Sonic in video games, fans expect the Raiders to suck. Basically, I’m saying that Sonic is DA RAAAAIIIDEEERS of video games. I'm gonna compare both to in terms of their early history and the last 13 years and how both went from being some of the most prestigious brands of all of entertainment to being laughing stocks. And then how they earned some prestige back and then squandering all their momentum to be laughing stocks once again.
And for craps and giggles, both have made, well, ambitious attempts at producing music to say the least, namely hip hop. Look man, you can enjoy these in a perverse way and I don’t call myself a rap expert, but this stuff doesn’t hold a candle to DMX’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Sure Ice Cube did a rap for Oakland, which makes sense since he’s a Raider fan and because of N.W.A’s ties to the team, but this isn’t his best work. The Raiders in their prime inspired better songs for Cube and N.W.A. And the team did a rap in 1986 if you want to see embarrassing music.
The Clear Differences:
- Sonic is a much more colorfully franchise than the Raiders. The fact that Sonic himself is blue alone proves the games are more colorfully than the Silver and Black team out of Oakland, CA.
- The Oakland Raiders have been around much longer than Sonic the Hedgehog. The team was founded in 1960 and Sonic’s debut was in 1991.
- Sonic’s character design and image has been redone over the years. The Raiders’ logo and uniforms have gone through change, but the modern Raider uniforms haven’t had any drastic changes since the 1960’s.
- Professional Football is a way older business than the video game industry.
- Sonic and friends are fictional, and the Oakland Raiders are real people.
Early History:Lets think back to the early 1990’s for Sonic and think back from the late 60’s to the early 80’s for the Raiders. These were both earlier periods in each respected franchises’ histories as well as when they peaked.
Sonic was initially being conceived in 1990 as a potential mascot for Sega to use for the Genesis console to compete with Nintendo’s SNES and Mario. Shortly after the European and American launch of the Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog came out on 6/23/1991. The game was praised for the sense of speed it gave players and for how beautiful and colorful the game was at the time. It was also noted that Sonic’s character had an attitude that was not the norm for Nintendo’s characters, where instead of being the stoic hero, Sonic was a cocky protagonist. Many people know that if you refuse to move Sonic in the first game, he taps his foot and eventually jumps off the screen, refusing to work with an inactive player. The game would become instrumental in the Genesis’ success around the world and solidified Sonic’s status as the mascot of Sega.
Soon, things got better for the Blue Hedgehog as more and improved titles came out for the Genesis and Sega CD, including Sonic the Hedgehog 2, CD, 3 and Knuckles. Looking back, Sonic beat Mario in the 16-bit era when it came to the quantity of main-line platformers on consoles. Though Super Mario World is the greatest platformer ever, no question. In the early to mid 90’s, Sonic was on fire, as it became the flagship franchise for Sega going forward. The over-confident attitude of Sonic’s character also went in line for Sega’s attitude in their marketing motto, “Sega does what Nintedont”.
The Oakland Raiders didn’t quite start off as smoothly as Sonic did, but much of their earlier history is when the franchise was at its finest. The franchise was founded in 1960 (originally called the Amigos, believe it or not) as one of the founding members of the rival league to the NFL, the AFL. In their first three seasons, the Raiders had a combined record of 9-33. That all started to change when future owner of the organization, AL Davis, became their head coach, and from 1963-1965, the team won a total of 23 games. Shortly after the NFL and AFL merged into one league, the Raiders would appear in the second ever Super Bowl, only to lose to the Green Bay Packers 33-14.
Things got much better for the Raiders during the 1970’s as John Madden, yes the man whose name is on EA's football franchise, led the team to glory. The team won 6 of 7 divisional (or regional) titles from 1970-1976, reached the postseason 8 times under Madden’s tenure, and won Super Bowl XI (11) against the Minnesota Vikings, 32-14, making it the franchise’s first SB win. When Tom Flores took over as coach in 1979, things got better. Under Flores, the Raiders won two more Super Bowls, which were SB XV (15) against the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10, and SB XVIII (18) against the Washington Redskins 38-9 (when the team was in LA). If you were a player for the Raiders during the 70’s and 80’s, you were feared by the rest of the league. Many of the NFL Greats were Raiders, including Ken Stabler, Marcus Allen, Fred Biletnikoff and Bo Jackson. Also like Sonic, the team developed this swagger attitude that wasn't seen by other teams. Both Davis and the players did whatever it took to win a ballgame, even if it was ugly. The motto in the 1983 season was “Just win Baby” and became the team’s official motto. Though the Raiders were known for playing dirty, and that rubbed many people the wrong way. One incident was defensive back George Atkinson knocking out Steelers WR Lynn Swann by using his forearm to hit the back of the head. Defensive end Lyle Alzado ripped helmets off of players in 1982, hence creating the rule to not take opposing players’ helmets off.
Fast Forward to 2002, the Last “Great” Year for Both Franchises:Ok, this is where the timeline argument begins. 2002 was arguably the best year for both franchises in the last 13 years. But as you read, you’ll understand why great is in quotes.
For Sonic, 2002 was an interesting year. 2001 marked the end of Sega Dreamcast console production and Sega became a third party publisher. Many of Sega’s games that were both released on or in development for the Dreamcast were ported to PS2, XBOX or GameCube consoles. For Sonic, its first third party console game was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, a port of the Dreamcast title SA2 to the GC with additional multiplayer modes. People LOVE THIS GAME! The press wasn’t giving this game glowing reviews that other GC games like Metroid Prime or Animal Crossing got at the time. It did, however, gain a strong following from the public. Keep in mind; the original SA2 came out in the dying days of the Dreamcast, so it had little chance to save the system. When Sega announced SA2 Battle for the GC, Sonic fans were buying the GC to play the sequel to Sonic Adventure. For many who had exclusively played Nintendo consoles before, this was their first gaming experience of the blue hedgehog. The game’s legacy is noted for being the 8th best selling GC game of all time and many Sonic fans point to this as the greatest Sonic console title in recent memory. Admittedly, I played this game a few years ago and it doesn’t hold up well, though treasure hunting is slightly better only because I learned that you could kill omichaos. But again, this is one of the most adored games by the Sonic fanbase. Or they love it solely for the City Escape level or because of the Chao Garden.
As for the Raiders, the argument for them having a “great” year in 2002 is perhaps more valid. Under the coaching leadership of Bill Callahan, Oakland went 11-5 in 2002, had the #1 ranked offense, and was the last year the team won both the AFC West and the AFC Top Seed. Oakland would cruise to get to their 5th Super Bowl appearance, taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs were coached by former Oakland coach, Jon Gruden and had the top ranked defense. People were wondering if the Raiders were going to change their gameplan against the Bucs because it is ideal to change your strategy against the coach who once coached your team right? Jon Gruden came up with the Raiders’ plays that were still used in 2002 and you’d think they’d change their strategy to throw Gruden off. Turns out that Oakland did NOTHING to change their formula, and Gruden and the Bucs smothered the Raiders in SB 37. The score was 48-21 TB and this was Tampa Bay’s 1st and only SB victory.
Looking back, 2002 wasn’t the best year for either franchise. But both were quite successful in their different businesses. A good number of Sonic fans will be as likely to point to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as the last “great” Sonic console game as Raiders fans will point to 2002 as the last great season.
2003-2005, Forgettable Years Where Both Giants Began to Fall:The stretch between 2003-2005 was an unmemorable era for both Sonic and The Oakland Raiders. Sonic had a series of lackluster console games from that span and Oakland would begin their drought of playoff appearance in 2003. Yes for the purposes of this blog, I’ll ignore the Sonic Advance titles, even if those were the REAL best Sonic games of the GC/PS2/XBOX era.
In 2003, Sonic had Sonic Adventure DX released on the GameCube, in attempt to capture the same thunder they had for Battle, which was port the original Sonic Adventure with additional content. It ended up controlling poorly and was a mediocre package in general. 2004 had Sonic Heroes, which I’ll admit; there was a drive in me to beat this game, yet I found it despicable. What was wrong with me? And how do you play the game? You switch from 3 different characters based on a situation in a level and it was no fun. 2005 marked the release of Shadow the Hedgehog, a spin off title starring the then popular Wario and Vegeta rip off, Shadow. Never played it, but this game seemed like a mess combining Sonic’s sense of speed with weapon combat in attempt to get edgy, only to be lame.
This time span was a poor era for the Raiders, as teams in that span became one big disappointment after another. In 2003, Oakland went 4-12 and went from being defending AFC Champions to bottom feeders in the NFL. As expected, the team didn’t muster a #1 ranked offense that it had in 2002. Also in 2003, Bill Callahan was fired as a head coach and was replaced by Norv Turner, who also failed to “Just Win”. In Turner’s seasons, Oakland went 5-11 in 2004 and 4-12 in 2005.
Point of this section is to illustrate how both fell from grace since 2002. Now Sonic games still sold quite well around this span, but the quality of the product was deemed as sub par by most of the press. Plus, the Raider Nation was still a strong fanbase as Raider game attendance was in the top 10 in the league from 2003-2005. But again, the fans were watching games where their team was getting beat consistently, which was not seen in 2002.
2006-From Hopeful to Historically Bad:Its funny looking back at these two franchises in the first half of 2006 because both had plenty of hope and optimism to return to the promise land. When Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was first revealed, fans and the press seemed genuinely excited. I remember seeing articles on IGN that were hyping up this title as Sega's grand rebooting of the franchise at E3 2006, or at least what they played looked promising. This was probably because even back in 2006, the idea of a next generation Sonic game was still thrilling to many people. What we got was an unforgettable experience, but not what Sega had in mind.
For Sonic 06’, what else can be said that hasn’t already? The game has reached Superman 64 levels of being an infamously awful game. It had terrible controls and level design, countless glitches, force-feeding players to play as Sonic’s no-fun gang, and a serious love plot between woman and hedgehog. The only other thing I want to say about Sonic 06’ is anytime I see it, it reminds me of those lousy live action cartoon film adaptations with awful CGI characters, like Garfield and Yogi Bear. The world has these realistic (albeit ugly) humans who seem totally okay with these freak, anamorphic animals co-existing with them rather than calling 911. Yeah the Sonic Adventure games had Sonic co-exist with humans too, but at least those games had anime looking humans that made Sonic fit more naturedly. And Dr. Robotnik’s design in Adventure was fine, but in 06...
As for the Raiders, there was also some excitement for them before the season started because the team acquired successful coaches and players. Their head coach was Art Shell, who coached the Raiders from 1989-1994 and had a 54-38 record. Al Davis commented on firing Shell in ’94 by calling it a mistake. The team also got former Saints starting QB Aaron Brooks, who had a respectable TD-INT ratio of 120-84 in the Big Easy.
What happened? The Raiders felt similar pain to Sonic where it was arguably their worst season in franchise history. Oakland went 2-14 in 2006 and not only came in last in their division, but had the worst record in all of the NFL. The only two wins came from back to back-home games against the Arizona Cardinals and the then defending SB champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then they lost 9 straight. The weird thing about this team was that despite the dreadful record, the team wasn’t entirely horrid. The one decent aspect about the ‘Raiders was their defense. It went from being the 27th ranked defense in the NFL in 05’ to being ranked 3rd in 06’ and only once did they allow an opponent to score over 30 points (SF over OAK 34-20). The problem? The offense is perhaps the worst offense in the past 10 years in the NFL and about as unbearable as playing a glitch filled Sonic 06’ level. The team scored 168 points the whole season, which it petit compared to the Indianapolis Colts’ 451 points in 06'. The 2 starting QB’s, Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter, only scored 3 TDs each the whole season. Football analysts may not bash this team as badly as the gaming community has panned Sonic 06’ when it comes to being called “The Worst Ever”. However, if you type in “Worst NFL Offense Lists” on Google, I’d be shocked if the ‘06 Raiders were not on those lists.
2007-2009-More bad years, but not quite like 2006: Going forward into this timeline, there is only one year coming up that will be comparable to how dismal 2006 was for both Sonic the Hedgehog and the Oakland Raiders. It won’t be any of these upcoming years, but all continued the each brand’s failing trends.
Sonic next console game came shortly after 06’, which was called Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. It came out on February 20, 2007 and apparently takes place in the book "Arabian Nights". Many actually didn’t think the game was completely terrible as people enjoyed the on-rails levels. But the game forces the player to do boring missions like killing a set number of enemies that bog down the experience. 2008 marked the release of Sonic Unleashed, the infamous title where Sonic turns into the Werehog. Shame about the game because from what I’ve heard, the 3D speed levels were some of the best levels Sonic’s had up to this point. But Sega still found a way to mess things up with the many werehog levels. Finally in 2009, we have Sonic and the Black Knight on the Wii. The game takes place in the world of King Arthur and Sonic is given a sword now. The game itself is mainly just a simply swordplay action game that was considered by many as an incredibly easy yet dull game.
The Raiders would not have a year as bad as 2006 in the 2007-2009 span. However, each year in that span was incredibly forgettable to many Raider and football fans alike. 2007 marked a year of serious roster changes for Oakland as former HC Art Shell was replaced by former USC offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffen. New players on offense included the #1 overall draft pick QB JaMarcus Russell and former Colts Running Back Dominic Rhodes. This only led to little improvement going from 2-14 in 06’ to 4-12 in 07’ and the offense scored 283 total points. 2008 was marginally better record wise as the team went 5-11 and didn’t come in dead last in the AFC West. Though Kiffen got fired from Oakland and Tom Cable took his place. The moment that got Kiffen fired was making a call to kick a missed 76-yard field goal. 50-yard field goals are already tough tasks for kickers. 2009 was more of the same for the Raiders for literally the past 7 seasons. It was another record that maxed at 5 wins. It was another season where Oakland ended up in the bottom half of the AFC West (3rd in 09’) and for the 7th straight year, no playoff appearance.
And here is the Raider equivalent of a Sonic glitch.
2010-2011- Years of Improvement: When compared to the previous years, this was when both franchises were at their best. After years of mostly terrible Sonic games and horrid Raider seasons, both finally showed signs of improvement. Yet despite the upgrades in quality, neither reached the goal of gaining the relevance they once had.
In 2010, this marked the release of Sonic Colors for the Wii and the DS. There was reasonable doubt for Colors considering Sonic’s lackluster resume of the Wii, but it turned out to be one of the best Sonic games in years. General Consensus for Colors was quite positive as it was praised for utilizing Sonic’s speed appropriately with decent level design and the little alien power ups were a nice little touch. While Colors was praised, it was an overlooked platformer in the press’ and public eyes in favor of other 2010 platformers. Mainly other Wii Platformers (Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, DKC Returns) and Indie Platformers (Limbo, Super Meat Boy) captured more love. 2011 also had a quality Sonic game released but this time on different platforms, which was Sonic Generations, which was released to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary. I’ve played a bit of this game and was impressed with how it handled the different level styles with classic 2D Sonic and the faster, modern Sonic levels. But again, despite the positive buzz in reviews, that game was overlooked and platformer nominations and awards went to games like Rayman Origins, Super Mario 3D Land and Outland.
Kind of like Sonic in making some steps to improvement, the Raiders would have some of their best seasons in the last 10 years in 2010-2011, only to still disappoint their fans. 2010 was a strange year for Oakland. The team won all 6 of their Divisional matchups that year, including a 59-14 road win against the Broncos. Technically the Raiders should have won the AFC West by beating everyone else in the division. However, they went 2-8 against non-divisional teams and went 8-8 overall. The 2010 Raiders made history by being the 1st NFL team to win all their divisional games and missing the playoffs at the same time (KC Chiefs won AFC West in ’10). The season did bring some hope for Oakland fans because the Raiders finally didn’t have a losing record. This was Tom Cable's last year as the Oakland head coach because he had allegations of violence against women and was accused of beating up assistant coach, Randy Hansen (he now works as an assistant coach for the Seattle Seahawks, believe it or not). In 2011, there was sincere belief that Oakland could finally make the playoffs. Oakland for the most of the 2011 season had a winning record and by the end of week 12, was 7-4. But they lost 3 of 4 from weeks 13-16 and had a divisional game against the San Diego Chargers to determine the AFC West champion. All Oakland had to do was win and they’re in. Unfortunately, the Chargers maintained a lead throughout the game and the Raiders lost 38-26 and went 8-8 again. It would be the Tim Tebow led Broncos who won the tiebreaker over both the Raiders and the Chargers to earn the divisional crown and playoff berth. This was the closest Oakland has gotten to getting a postseason shot in a long time, and they left their fans heartbroken that they couldn’t seal the deal. Oh and they had a new coach called Hue Jackson who they should have been given a second chance, but was fired after one season and later seasons proved the move to be a mistake.
2012-2013-Years of Decline: While the last two years were seen as high marks for each franchise, the following years would show that both would start to go back to their underwhelming ways. And no, Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed will not be brought up because it’s not a proper 2D/3D Sonic game.
Instead, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Part 2 is the default choice for this essay. There was already Part 1 that came out in 2010 and was criticized for being too easy and having iffy physics. Part 2 came out in 2012 and included Tails to pander to fans of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and was used to have co-op maneuvers. While most people praised it for correcting the errors of Part 1, Part 2 was panned for having lackluster level design and some boring boss battles. 2013 had Sonic Lost World for the Wii U. I will say that it is a bit unfair to compare this Sonic game to the other Sonic titles and the terrible Raider seasons. Its because this game was praised for trying to do something fresh with Sonic by slowing him down to focus more on exploring levels. This was Sonic Team’s attempt to make their Super Mario Galaxy. However, despite people appreciating the new ideas implemented, the game still got bashed for a frustrating control scheme and questionable level design anyways.
Oakland would begin to enter familiar territory from 2007-2009, as the team would begin to win 4 games a year in 2012-2013. Dennis Allen would become the new head coach in 2012 and this came from new team owner, Mark Davis, wanting to start a new era for the Raiders and felt Jackson couldn’t lead the team in the era. Mark Davis is the son of former owner Al Davis. Mark took over shortly after his father unfortunately passed away in 2011 (RIP). Despite Mark’s efforts in bringing in fresh faces for coaching and the team, the team underperformed coming in 3rd in the AFC West, only ahead of the 2-14 KC Chiefs. 2013 was another disappointing year going 4-12 again and came in dead last in their division. To me, this is why firing Hue Jackson was a mistake. While his team choked at the end of 2011, he had an 8-8 record and showed potential to improve the team. Dennis Allen’s record as the Raiders head coach was 8-28 and proved to be an inferior head coach. We don’t know if Hue Jackson would actually lead Oakland to a winning season, but I believe he’d be better than Allen.
2014-A Year that is Somehow Comparable to 2006 in Terms of Sheer Awfulness:Boy, 2014 was incredibly unkind to both Sonic and the Raiders. This year was a complete disaster for both, as both would experience debacles in their quality that is almost as bad, if not worse, as 2006 was to both.
For Sonic, Sega had created a massive multimedia campaign to reinvent Sonic the Hedgehog, called Sonic Boom. The campaign promised video game releases exclusive to Nintendo systems that tied into a CGI cartoon of the same name on Cartoon Network. People got a little hope for Rise of Lyric when it was announced that a developer composed of former Naughty Dog employees, BigRedButton, was in charge. When the game was released, Rise of Lyric was panned across the board and even has the lowest Metacritic score of any Sonic game (32). The game was reviled for repetitive level design, rotten graphics, dump truck loads of bugs (Many of us saw High Knuckles) and the characters preaching about bounce pads and rings. Some of these criticisms felt like parallels of what made Sonic 06’ a notorious blunder. And if you were thinking that at least this game sold well like other Sonic titles, you’d be wrong. This title only sold 620,000 copies as of May 11, 2015, making it the lowest selling Sonic game of all time.
And where to start with Oakland? Let me present all these facts to show how bad 2014 was for DA RAIDERS. Dennis Allen got fired after starting 0-4 and Interim coach, Tony Sparano, took over for the rest of the year and soon got canned. Dating back to 2013, Oakland had a 15-game regular season losing streak that started last year. The Raiders were the earliest team to be officially eliminated from the playoffs since the 2004 Dolphins, after losing to San Diego in Week 11. As you can tell, Oakland became the last team to earn their first regular season win in 2014 after upsetting the Chiefs in Week 12, 24-20 and even then found ways to almost lose. That was Oakland's first win since winning against the Texans on 11/17/2013, and the Chiefs game was on 11/20/2014. They would later win two more games to go 3-13. Oakland played close yet lost to playoff teams this year, including 24-13 to the Cardinals, 30-24 to the Seahawks, and 16-9 to eventual SB champion, the Patriots. Yet managed to get shackled by mediocre teams, such as my Dolphins 38-14 and the St. Louis Rams 52-0.
Oh and you may be wondering, sure Rise of Lyric and the 2014 Raiders sucked last year, but at least Oakland didn’t do any weird tie ins with any cartoons right? Guess what, they have. In 2013, the organization revealed a new mascot for NFL Play 60 events in Oakland, which are the NFL’s child fitness programs. It also tied-in with the cartoon called NFL Rush Zone. The show is about these aliens who resemble all 32 teams and work with kids to defend these shards of power that are found in every NFL stadium from invaders. THIS AIN’T NO NFL FANFIC, THIS IS REAL! And so Oakland’s mascot is suppose to represent the Raider alien and…well… its garbage.
What's worse, Roid Knuckles or this?
Conclusion and What the Future Holds for Both:
Sonic the Hedgehog and the Oakland Raiders were once proud franchises that revolutionized each of their industries. Both were innovative in their separate businesses and have gained strong followings mainly due to their legacies. But recent times have hit Sonic and the Raiders hard and with the horrible, modern track records both have, we’ve gotten used to expect the worst from these 2 franchises. Oh and you may of noticed that I named every head coach the Raiders had in the span from 2002-2014. That’s because the Oakland Head Coach change is about as frequent as the changes to gameplay for a Sonic game in these last few years!
As for the future for both, time will tell. For Sonic, 2015 doesn’t look like the year of redemption. We’ll have another Sonic Boom game coming out for the 3DS called Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, and the only console game that has Sonic tied to it coming out (in 2016 actually) is Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Though Sega stated that they felt they’ve betrayed fans in recent years and hope to be relevant again. That may also mean that they have plans to try to bring Sonic back in a meaningful way yet again, but we’re not sure. Oakland is making strides to improve their team down the line. They have young offensive talent now w/ 2nd year QB Derek Carr and rookie WR Amari Cooper is being hyped as being the next Calvin Johnson, meaning he could be the best WR in years to come. Oakland got humbled in their week 1 matchup this year against the Cincinnati Bengals, 33-13, but just upset the Baltimore Ravens in week 2, 37-33. Defense doesn’t look good, but the offense could have potential (Oakland ended up with a 7-9 record in 2014). The NFL season is still young and we still don’t know how the Oakland Raiders, or any team, will do throughout the season.
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