Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

I played this way back when I was little, and I enjoyed it back then. However, revisiting this and playing it now, it was a struggle to get through. No game-overs, but there were some BS deaths lol.

The biggest thing is the control and the physics. It was broken and while it tried to be like Adventure, it didn't feel like how the Adventure games did. There would be sections where you're locked in motion due to something such as using a dash panel, and somehow you would fall off stage or lead you into an obstacle that would lead to your death. Moving around otherwise was okay, but trying to start and stop, or change directions was not good as often it felt they would try to keep their momentum going rather than slow down first. The amount of glitches as well was just not fun to experience. I was aware of both of these back then but I guess I was just more patient back then.

The story was okay, but for sure awkward and would have benefited a lot from quite a bit of revision, especially regarding Sonic and also Elise. Shadow's was pretty solid, and Silver's was decent. However, what was annoying throughout was the loading screens. This would happen everywhere, including just loading different cut scenes. And they took a while.

Gameplay wise, I actually felt Silver's to be the most enjoyable experience because the slow movement meant that I didn't have to deal with as much of the annoying physics that took place with Shadow or Sonic ie. But it's not much better, because Silver could still have benefited from a bit more movement speed like through a better flight mechanic to allow him to traverse through his stages more quickly.

The stages were often long, and not the most enjoyable. I think the stages could have benefited by being broken down into a couple acts (In fact, many stages do have multiple parts where the game has to load them in first!). I liked having the character's allies come through and help. Perhaps that could have been through smaller acts on their own? This would help because the side characters, which are still playable in some levels, did not feel fully fleshed out in terms of gameplay. It would also allow some time to breathe, but also not have to restart a long level, if you did get a game over towards the late part of the stage for example. The design of the stages were nice, but I do think some levels seemed to recycle areas a decent bit.

One of the positives is the Hub Worlds. I actually liked them a lot. Castle Town is really well designed and I think the best, followed by New Town and then the Forest. The Town Missions can be fun, but definitely hit or miss. However, I think they were good additions, if they didn't take so long to load. I do agree that they didn't need to go and make the world full of like real looking humans. They probably should have used more of the cartoon/anime style ones like either in Adventure in Unleashed.

Another is the music. The music for the most part is solid. Not as memorable as in Adventure but still pretty good, and I think fitting for the different worlds.

The cutscenes themselves and the graphics actually looked pretty good too!

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) or better known as Sonic '06 is one of the worst games I ever played. It's awful. I'm happy that I'm putting this game behind me. There's a lot to digest here... Here goes

Sonic '06 had a very interesting development. Sonic's 15th Anniversary was approaching and Sega wanted to make a game in celebration of this. It was promoted to be the magnum opus of the series, a game that would redefine Sonic. It was gonna be part of the Xbox 360 launch and would also have PS3 and PC versions. The team wanted to give it a Wii port as they believed that the Wii was on par power-wise. However, when they were given development kits, they realized how underpowered the Wii was and they knew that Sonic '06 just wouldn't work on the Wii. So they split the team into two. One half would work on Sonic '06 and the other half would work on Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. It didn't help that Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic left Sega during production. The team got smaller and smaller and due to a refusal from Sega to delay the game, the game came out unfinished and broken. Sonic '06 isn't bad because they didn't care. It's bad because of circumstances and having no time. I respect them for trying but my lord this game is a disaster.

The game came out on November 14, 2006, and sold well, but it was critically panned and soon gained a reputation of being one of the worst games ever made. The PC port was cancelled and it was humiliating. This solidified Sonic as a joke in the gaming world. Gone are the days where he was good. It ruined him.

Sonic '06 is a lot like the Sonic Adventure games in terms of how it's structured. There are 3 campaigns and doing them unlocks the last story. You got Sonic's Story where you play as characters such as Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. You got Shadow's story where you play Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega. And you got a brand new character, who was conceived as a way to play with the game's unique physics engine, Silver The Hedgehog where you play as characters like Amy and Blaze The Cat (A character from Sonic Rush who got retconned for this game).

Sonic's story is about saving another new character, Elise, Princess of Soleanna from Dr. Eggman who is trying to unlock her power. Sonic's story is extremely inconsistent and sometimes things just happen for no reason. Elise (Who has some of the worst acting and writing I've ever seen) is a bland damsel in distress who gets captured like 8 times. Sonic's gameplay is all over the place. He has 3 gameplay types. One where it's just him getting to the end of the level, which is filled to the brim with bugs and unfair deaths, slow gameplay, a homing attack that is so hard to aim and is generally very broken. The other gameplay type is where he carries Elise which makes all the glitches worse, and where he goes super fast. This is especially bad because if you so much as touch anything, you die and It never feels fair.

Tails and Knuckles are also playable and they are shells of their former self. Tails can only fly and throw ring bombs. And it's so boring and lazily designed. Knuckles is the same but more broken. I swear he gets stuck on walls and then dies so much. The bosses are also unfun because they are so broken. The camera just doesn't cooperate. The fight against Silver is a perfect example of this. You hardly see where he is, he spams the same "It's No Use" attack, and before you know it... You're dead

Shadow's story is about stopping the evil Mephiles The Dark. His homing attack is worse and more slippery. There's also a delay with every homing attack. Shadow can shoot Chaos Spears to stun enemies and punch them mid homing attack. As well as unleashing a rage mode of sorts. But I hardly felt the need to do them because the levels never motivated me to do them. He can also ride vehicles that control horribly. His own game plays better than this. Rouge has the same issues as Knuckles except she is slightly better, and E-123 Omega is very mindless. Just hold forward and you're done

Silver's story is about going back in time to prevent the catastrophic future he lives in. Silver is the slowest but has the ability to use Psychonetic Powers which allow him to lift objects and throw them at enemies. It's too hard to lift objects and you can't aim the objects you throw. It's extremely clunky due to the physics being awful. Amy is awful in this game. She has one attack and a double jump which hurt you more than it helps. Blaze is my favorite to play as but she still has issues with how she's played. Silver's bosses are too easy or too hard and make me wanna break my controller. The physics don't work for him.

The story is horribly written and none of them leave any kind of impression. Even Shadow's who has the best story can't save this one. All of these stories conclude with the final story where Sonic dies and the cast has to get the Chaos Emeralds to bring him to life and stop Solaris the Sun God. This leads to the horrible kissing scene with Elise and Sonic. They already have a weird and dumb romance but this was the nail on the head. This results in Sonic, Silver, and Shadow going super and fighting Solaris. Which actually isn't all that bad compared to everything else.

Easily the worst thing about this game besides the horribly structured story, writing, acting, and gameplay is the loading. There is so much loading in the game and it takes like 30 seconds each. It's awful and bogs the already bad pacing to a screeching halt. You would talk to someone, which leads to a long load time, they explain what to do and then it loads again, you do the thing, it loads out, they say "good job", it loads again. It's awful. It's all over the place.

Now, this game has some good stuff. The CGI Animation is pretty well done and not hard on the eyes compared to the in-game graphics. Silver is an interesting character even if he's poorly written. And the music is actually really good. It has a pretty great soundtrack with great vocal songs as well. Silver's Dream of an Absolution and the main theme, His World are pretty good. In-game songs like Dusty Desert and Crisis City is also really good. But the bad outweighs the good in every way.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) may have good music, CGI animation, and an interesting character like Sliver, but the game is an embarrassment on every level. Filled with awful writing, acting, and a dysfunctional story, with bugs everywhere, poorly designed gameplay, and awful loading times. I'm never playing Sonic '06 again. I just can't. Shadow The Hedgehog may have begun the Dark Ages for Sonic. But Sonic '06 is when it really set in. It's a shame this game, despite how ambitious it was caused Sega to play it too safe later on. I at the very least have respect for this game. It tried really hard to be good. They wanted to make the best Sonic game of all time but due to not being allowed to delay the game and an abundance of issues, Sonic '06 lives as a constant reminder to Sega to never be ambitious again. It's sad. If going through these games taught me something. It's that with enough ambition and work, Sonic can be amazing. Even '06. Because say what you want... This game was and still is, their most ambitious game yet. If only it landed. Maybe the franchise's reputation would be better. I don't know. I'd like to hear more about this topic. I hope we never see another Sonic '06. What I do hope, however... Is the ambition and passion Sega once had. I'm not saying the later games aren't good. Some of them are great. But I believe everyone would be happy if we saw this level of ambition but with a finished product. I have respect for this game. But I won't play it again. It's hurt my love for this franchise enough. Goodbye, Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)

Wouldn't Recommend

1/5

This game is horrible. It's a broken, buggy, ugly, gross, horny, convoluted, agonizing, garbage fire of a game. It just feels wrong from the first second you take control of Sonic and it just gets worse from there. The load times are abysmal, taking several minutes to load a single sentence of dialog followed by another load screen. The physics engine causes literally everything in the game to behave in a nonsensical way that defies gravity and logic. The game is absurdly long, featuring 3 separate campaigns, each one worse than the last. The story is incredibly shoddy, even by Sonic standards. Sonic kisses a human girl. It's weird. Every ill-conceived mechanic comes collapsing down onto itself in a massive frothing cluster-fuck of furry-baiting digital malaise. This is rock bottom for Sega. This is memes. This is Tommy Wiseau's "The Room", but for video games. This is the game that spawned some of the best YouTube LP's of all time. This is staring into the abyss and the abyss staring back. This is one the most unintentionally hilarious pieces of media ever made.

I love this game so goddamn much.