Best Sonic the Hedgehog game, ranked

Sonic is 30 years old-let’s celebrate by ranking his most popular songs.

Today marks thirty years Sonic the Hedgehog, One of the most influential and important games in history, is also the origin of a series that is very important to me personally.

Sonic is the first game that I am really obsessed with video games-games, cartoons (especially the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Looney Tunes style farce) and comic books. Before I was a teenager, the first online gaming community I entered was the Sonic community. In many ways, these communities have put me on the path of this job, and I am fortunate to have been thinking about and writing video games.

However, Sonic has an interesting ancient history. He gets as many clicks as he does… well, add a letter to the word “clicks”, right? There is a lot of rubbish on Sonic’s resume. Of course, there are many benefits. Some of the best games ever. But which is his best?

There is only one way to find! A list! By discovery, I mean let us tell you our choice of the top 15 Sonic games. Anything not on this list…we think it’s worse than everything else on this list. Don’t be angry; if you disagree, please respectfully disagree in the comments, right? Grab a chili dog and settle down-because here is the list…

15. Sonic R

It may be the last one on this list, but Sonic R is great-remember that there are a lot of Sonic games that are not on the list at all.

Sonic R is worthy of this position in terms of its music alone. Sonic R is hardly Mario Kart. It is certainly not as good as Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing and its sequels (there are no more Sega games in this list than Sonic games), but it is The Sonic racing game that people admire, it actually keeps the characters (mostly) on foot, as they should be in this series.

14. Sonic Go 1-3

When Sonic finally graced the Nintendo system, the first brand new game from blue blur to near Mario was Sonic Advance-if nothing else, this gave this little trilogy great historical significance.

However, other than that, all three Sonic Advance games are powerful 2D platform games, and they work together to re-transform Sonic Adventure’s game style into 2D-making its gameplay an adapted version of the adaptation, which inevitably Title with Mega Drive. All three Advance games are good, but they also have flaws and paved the way for the excellent Sonic Rush games on the DS.

13. Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 GG/MS, Sonic Chaos

Sonic is of course to promote Mega Drive and give Sega a chance against Nintendo. Sonic’s pinball-like gameplay and super high-speed are designed to show that Mega Drive can even do better than SNES-but as the company’s mascot, Sonic has also seen versions of his earlier games on weaker systems.

Enter the Master System and Game Gear versions of Sonic 1 and 2, which have roughly the same theme, but are also quite unique, with different regions, bosses and music. Both are great Sonic games in their own right, although they are definitely more traditional platform games with fewer speed opportunities and fewer physics-based antics. This pair is well worth seeing, only as a historical curiosity-but they are also interesting.

The one that completes this set is an original game whose gameplay is roughly the same as the other two games, but is completely unique to these platforms. This is almost the same, so archive them all.

12. Sonic spin ball

In the 1990s, Sega USA made several attempts to make its own Sonic games-most of which ultimately failed, including the infamous Saturn Sonic X-Treme. However, one game was successful, and this was a good choice: Sonic Spinball.

Sonic’s luck with derivatives is not good. Look at his poor, God-forsaken Mario Party clone attempt-a terrible game that makes Mario Party look like a masterpiece. However, Sonic Spinball is a smart choice. In any case, the series is always based on pinball, so pinball adventure games are very meaningful. It also has the kind of ridiculously crunchy music that only Mega Drive can provide.

11. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Speaking of Sonic’s luck with derivatives, how about this game-a Sonic game, it’s a BioWare RPG! not completely. Many people don’t even know the existence of this game-a rarely-discussed Nintendo DS RPG, it is basically a child-friendly version of BioWare’s larger budget game on its HD console.

Sonic Chronicles is now mostly ridiculed for its music. It completely failed in some kind of music repertoire exchange in the late game, causing some music to sound like a mess, with the wrong instrument being played at the wrong time. However, if you dig deeper, you will find a very powerful child-friendly RPG that takes full advantage of the dual screens of the DS.

10. Sonic Rush & Sonic Rush Adventure

As 3D Sonic seemed to switch from one gimmick to another with great success, a new kind of Sonic appeared on Nintendo DS-it was a fusion of the beloved original 2D gameplay and 3D Sonic focused on speed sprint . This is not a return to Sonic’s roots, but it is not entirely new. It’s both.

The sense of speed here is higher than any other 2D game ever-and they have an absolutely killer soundtrack, provided by Hideki Naganuma of Jet Set Radio. Only available on the DS platform, it feels like these games are slowly being forgotten.

9. Sonic Adventure 2

If needed, you can exchange SA2 and its immediate predecessor in this list; there is not much difference between the two games. On the one hand, SA2 has half of the different “models”, discarding the two role gimmicks in the first SA. On the other hand, this means that due to Shadow the Hedgehog, the number of traditional Sonic levels is twice as much as the best part of the game.

SA2 has been improved in other areas, providing a more confident storyline, a multiplayer game mode (on some platforms anyway), and the final version of the excellent Chaoyuan mini-game so far. However, I don’t like it as much as the original Sonic Adventure.

8. Acoustic color

As the remake progressed, Sonic Colors became the focus of attention again-it actually deserves some attention. Maybe it’s because it was launched on the Wii, which is a game console known for non-traditional video games, but it can easily become one of the best attempts of 3D Sonic so far. The enhancements it introduces are in execution It feels like a more traditional platform game to Sonic’s usual shield-based power-up system.

Colors borrowed the formula of Sonic Unleashed and carefully refined it into something truly pure and interesting-and it is crucial that it is not interrupted by a slow-paced secondary game mode designed to extend the game time.

7. Sonic Adventure

In many ways, “Sonic Adventure” sets a trend for 3D Sonic: the incredible first level surprises you, and then a different quality that will never reach those high points again. game.

Having said that, you must admire the achievements of “Sonic Adventure”. In terms of original ambitions, it is Sonic’s 3D blueprint, comparable to Super Mario 64-in fact, it can be said to be more ambitious because it has six playable characters, each of which is unique The skills and challenges need to be solved. It may be too ambitious-that’s why it is a jerking, buggy mess… but I still like it.

Sonic Adventure has something special. It has X-Factor-there is lightning in the bottle here, which can solve many problems in the game.

6. The Sonic Generation

As an anniversary game, you can’t really beat Sonic Generations as an idea. Sonic lives in two different worlds-2D and 3D-so why not integrate these versions of Sonic into one game? The result is a wonderful play in two styles of familiar levels-so you can see the 3D Sonic version of the chemical plant area, and the appearance of the 2D city escape.

In many respects, Generation faces many of the same problems as other 3D counterparts, but its expressiveness and quality of professional fan service have improved it. There are even two different versions at completely different levels-Pocket PC and Game Console/PC. Indeed, the 2D cross-section physics is not exactly the same as the original, but it is close enough to cause a sensation.

5. Sonic the Hedgehog

The fact that the first Sonic game was so high on this list so many years after its release speaks to its quality and also illustrates Sonic’s struggle to match his early outings in future versions. It is still a ridiculous masterpiece; colorful, fast and full of attitudes that were not available in platform games at the time.

The first Sonic also has this rare energy, and you can taste the potential of this franchise with excitement, budget and hardware, and a million other reasons at the edge of the first entry. Even with these limitations, its team delivered a groundbreaking and groundbreaking game. And this will only result in better entries in this list…

4. Sonic CD

To be fair, Sonic CD is not for everyone. It’s not the 90s either, it’s not just because most children can’t afford the Sega CD; it’s just…confusing, which makes it an acquired taste.

Sonic CD time travel requires some learning-but once you understand it, there will be replay value. The same can be said for its intricate level layout. The best expression of some of Sonic CD’s wild ideas can now actually be found in Sonic Mania’s tribute to it-but for time and space adventure, you need the original.

3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Oh oh. This is the point of the list, and inevitably, some people will get angry. But no, Sonic 2 is not our first choice. Obviously, this is a cold classic: Tails, Silver Sonic, Super Sonic, Death Egg, that damn chemical plant area music… I mean, oops. What a game.

Creating a sequel to Sonic w’s breakthrough hit is no easy task-even faster to complete. But somehow, Sonic 2 managed to provide an experience superior to its predecessor in almost every respect. In many ways, Sonic 2 is the game that has stood tall and cast a shadow over the rest of the series since then-which is remarkable considering the legacy of the original.

2. Sonic 3 and Knuckles

Yes, they are a game. No, otherwise you won’t convince me. I know that these two are actually released as two separate games that can be “locked” to combine them-but S3K is always considered a single experience, and as a child, I am getting Sonic Always treat it and the knuckles like this after the copy. Even so, these two components are excellent and easily become the top five.

However, locking them into their original form really completes the game. It is the largest, most complex and ambitious Sonic game ever made, even today-considering it has no dialogue, no text, and only 16-bit sprites, it somehow manages to tell a surprising A complete and coherent story.

Nowadays, fan modules like Sonic 3 Complete and Sonic 3 AIR have completed their original vision before splitting the game into two parts to reduce costs-although it is unofficial, diving into these may just be the best you can have Sonic experience.

1. Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is indeed an astronomical achievement. When I was a kid, I used to hang out on many of the same message boards with Christian Whitehead—in fact, this fan managed to slowly persuade Sega to first port some Sonic games to the new platform, and then finally let His own, officially recognized Sonic is honestly incredible.

His team has also created what a great Sonic. Like Sonic Generations, it pays homage to everything before and injects some new elements-but by focusing on pixel-perfect reproduction of the physics and feel of the original 2D Mega Drive game, it provides a closer reproduction. The original is so good-in fact, it is almost indistinguishable.

However, “Sonic Mania” does not even stop there. The original area and content of the game showed the inner thoughts of fans. They obviously spent decades wondering what the next 2D Sonic would look like if they insisted on using Saturn or Dreamcast. This is a wonderful love letter to the series-now the best game in the series-with a hair.