Netflix’s Sonic Prime is so good it should’ve been a game

The release of each new episode of Sonic the Hedgehog feels like a coin toss. You either get a game that serves as a breath of fresh air and is acclaimed by critics and fans alike, or you get a game that doesn’t live up to the potential of one of gaming’s most iconic characters. Of course, it’s not as if the franchise has always had the reputation it has today; The classic Sonic games are still popular today, fusing gameplay and designs that evoke a sense of speed and an air of cool with stories that are either driven by subtle but important messages of activism and rebellion, or are character-driven dramas that something bring the anthropomorphic creatures to life.

But Sonic’s ventures into other media have had a far greater success rate. The Sonic Comics – with their wild and wacky stories and incredible depth of lore, a cast of characters that would pull it off game of Thrones feel small, and plots that have odd events like two comic characters becoming powerful demigods – have always done well. Once they got rid of the teeth, the film franchise skyrocketed with audiences and critics alike. Sonic’s appearances in animation are also popular with fans; He succeeds in capturing the essence of the character – and in a medium that can take full advantage of his cartoonish looks and speed. So, when Netflix announced it was producing sonic prime, I was more than a little excited. Here was an opportunity to dip back into the world of Blue Blur and see what new fast-paced action can be squeezed out of the franchise.

And it was good. In fact it was really good. And the biggest reason why is because Sonic Prime would have been a Yes, really Good Sonic game.

Image: NETFLIX

Sonic Prime is by no means a complicated story. Co-produced by Sega, Man of Action Entertainment and WildBrain Studios and animated by Netflix Animation, the series runs on the premise that every viewer knows the basics of the franchise. Season 1 begins with Sonic and his gang fighting Eggman over the latest McGuffin he’ll use to take over the world: the Paradox Prism, a stone of unknown power. Pretty standard setup, right? Sonic thinks so too, so he storms in in classic Hedgehog style and joins the fight, ignoring his friends’ warnings. Why shouldn’t he? He’s Sonic the Hedgehog! But this hubris leads to the shattering of the paradoxical prism and a multiversal main event.

Sending Sonic into the multiverse allows the creative team to take iconography, imagery and audio from each of Sonic’s eras and warp and twist them in different ways to create a familiar yet unfamiliar feel. Every world inside Prime is a twist on the Green Hill zone, either urbanized, overgrown, or flooded, but a few key set pieces remain, like the iconic Green Hills loop or the palm trees that line the backdrop of the franchise’s very first level. The premise also gives Sonic a chance to deal firsthand with the consequences of his actions, in worlds where Eggman won or his friends were divided and without his influence, they fought among themselves to guide them. Instead of just letting him race to victory, each new multiversal zone forces him to actually slow down for a change and see the world around him and his part in it. It’s exactly the kind of message-driven storytelling that’s been present in all the great Sonic games – be it Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, the Sonic adventure Play on the Sega Dreamcast, or even the few well-received Modern Stories – such as sound colors and the classic throwback sonic mania.

Each time Sonic travels to one of these new worlds within the Shatterverse, his shoes and gauntlets are altered to provide an advantage in each world – in a choice that reflects upgrades we’ve seen in games like Sonic adventure 2

. In an overgrown Green Hill these are claws for climbing and chopping down trees, in the flooded world they are hoverboots like Shadow’s to overcome Sonic’s fear of water and deal with it. The twists give each new world a self-contained story and a variety of designs that really lets you appreciate the differences in each version of Green Hill.

By contrast, modern Sonic games have fallen into the trap of feeling more familiar, as opposed to the show offering unique and alternative looks at Sonic’s iconic imagery – these games tend to take you through zones with which long-standing fans are very familiar. Green Hill has appeared in no fewer than twenty-six games since the series began – and many of them blend into the same blurry backgrounds. During 2D matches, the stages featured multi-level designs – allowing you to speed through the upper sections or focus on the slower, more puzzle-based section below. These design elements remained Sonic adventure and adventure 2which offers multiple routes or gameplay options, so each level feels fresh and offers something different to appeal to a wide range of players – but over time the franchise has scaled back these more varied options, leaving you mostly running through the same few zones every few years.

Image: Netflix

But the problem goes beyond just level design. Sonic has shed his past since 2011 sound generations, in which the game is a loving homage to the history of the franchise – combining modern and classic Sonic in a story that takes you through some of the most iconic stages in the franchise’s long history. Every game since has shown some sort of throwback to the classic era. 2013 Sonic Lost Worlds

brought back the wisps sound colors (for many people the best modern Sonic game), sonic mania was basically a sequel to Sonic and Knuckles. the following game, sound forces, Classic Era Sonic brought back its gameplay generationsthe will-o’-the-wisp, and connected sonic mania. those years Sonic Frontiers features small set pieces from the past that are similar to modern Sonics movements generations, but they go by so quickly that they struggle to be fun as you spend more time in Frontiers’ open world. Don’t get me wrong, Sonic has always been a great franchise – but you can only make so many callbacks before it just becomes a scrapbook of better tunes. Sonic Prime is a good opportunity for developers Sonic Team to continue to honor the past and look to the future.

Sonic Prime doesn’t give up on what worked in the games; Aesthetically, the franchise’s use of iconic imagery, audio, and design borrows heavily from the classic games with a modern twist. The voice acting and script result in characters that aren’t nearly a grade, as they often became in Sonic’s later episodes, and the reduced cast means Sonic can keep his ensemble cast, but not so many that anyone feels left out . Shadow in particular has transformed from one of the most edgy characters in western media to a more focused and mature individual who is constantly annoyed by his blue counterpart’s whims. And as the team explores the multiverse, we see different versions of these characters, with the most notable being a nihilistic and slightly grittier version of Tails, who acts as a constant reminder of not only Sonic’s influence, but his flaws as well.

With the Shatterverse, anything in the Sonic universe seems possible. There is a lot of potential to become an epic multi-season story. I’ll be watching with interest, but also with some sadness. It feels like it’s screaming out to be the video game that will finally bring Sonic back to the gaming greats. To be the game that finally lets Sega and Sonic Team try something new while still keeping things familiar, all wrapped up in the first story in over a decade that actually got me interested in these characters again. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a Sonic game. I just wish it was one.