| | Anniversary: Sonic Turns 24, Today! |  Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:00 pm by Knuckles | Exploring The Blue Blur's Past and Future
Sega's anthropomorphic mascot has certainly had a rough life. Starting strong out of the gates in 1991, Sonic made it possible for Sega to compete toe to toe with Nintendo. Now, Sonic is lucky to get positive review scores and not have his games be released in an Alpha build. While we aren't denying that Sonic's adventures haven't been great as of late, Sonic has had some amazing games. Lets take a look at some the Blue Blur's most iconic adventures.
16 Bit Era
Sonic 1, 2, CD, 3, & Knuckles
These were the games that started introduced Sonic to the world and defined what a Sonic game was. High speed, fast platforming, rescuing animals, and defending the world of Mobius from the Evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Having Blast Processing and some of the best music from the 16 Bit Era didn't hurt either. Unlike Sonic's games on the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox, these games didn't feature too many characters, playable or NPC. Tails and Knuckles both added a fun spin on the Sonic formula of just running from Point A to Point B. Sonic CD is also fully fledged Sonic title worthy of purchase on any device, introducing the world into Sonic's metallic doppleganger and "love interest. Also is home to the song Sonic Boom
Dreamcast Era
Sonic Adventure 1 & 2
After not seeing any new main series Sonic games in the Saturn Era, the Dreamcast received two of the most loved Sonic games of all time; Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic Adventure brought the series into 3D, gave the cast voices and gave rock band Crush 40 a steady job for a decade. These games received updated ports on the Nintendo Gamecube in the form of Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. While these games have not aged well, they are brought in a new generation of Sonic fans, ones who loved 3D Sonic. SEGA now had to cater to fans of Sonic's Sidescrolling adventures and his 3D wild rides.
Handheld Games
Sonic Advance & Sonic Rush
While the quality of Sonic's games quavered in the 3D world, his 2D adventures were still top notch.(Editors Note: We are excluding Game Gear, PSP, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and mobile phone games) The Sonic Advance games reassured the world that Sonic could still have good platforming experiences. Like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Advance games featured several playable characters, Sonic, Tails Knuckles and Amy, along with newcomer Cream the Rabbit. Fast Forward a few years and we get the Sonic Rush games on the Nintendo DS. Featuring stages that spanned both screens, and speeds more akin to those in the 3D games, Sonic Rush made quite the impact. Sonic Rush and its sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure both received praise and were accepted by fans. Like the Advance games, Sonic Rush also had a new Co-Star for Sonic, Blaze the Cat. Sadly, all of the long time veterans lost their playability status in Rush and haven't been playable as a main character since. Don't believe us? Rush debuted in 2005, and in Sonic '06, every character san Shadow and SIlver were demoted to a small playable section within Sonic, Shadow or Silver's story, not a playable character in their own right. Following 06, Sonic has been the only playable character in the main series games.
Modern Era
Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations
Sonic's games are performing the worst they ever have. Sonic 06 was a failure in every sense of the word. Sonic has struggled to find his footing since his disastrous 15th anniversary title. With Sonic Unleashed, the daytime stages were praised as a return to good gameplay from Sonic, but they were outweighed by the Werehog night stages. Thankfully, in 2010, Sonic Team nailed Sonic Colors, a 3D Sonic game that was all around praised, along with Sonic's 20th Anniversary, Sonic Generations. However, these might have been one hit wonders, because Lost World restored the shaky quality and the Boom titles last year didn't help either. In order to be a success, Sonic needs to stop experimenting with gimmicks and get back to core gameplay. What made Sonic Colors successful was its use of power ups, and not an over reliance on them.
The Future
With Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice announced for 3DS in the latter part of 2015, this makes for the second year Sega has not released a main series Sonic game. The following is all speculation of this writer, and not confirmed.
Sega is a company who has always tried to go big on Sonic's anniversaries.
They released Sonic Adventure 2 for Sonic's 10th anniversary, Sonic '06 and Sonic Riders for his 15th, and Sonic Generations and Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for his 20th.
Even if they already have one game ready for the anniversary, it would make sense that they would try to release a main series game for Sonic's biggest anniversary yet.
Next year is Sonic's 25th, and Sonic Team hasn't released a Sonic game in, what is set to be, two years.
I would suspect that Sonic Team would logically be working on a type of anniversary project, be it game or other release, and that next year will be big. However, that is just the speculation of one fan. Take of it what you will.
Regardless of your stance on Sega's Mascot, he is indisputably an icon to gaming. Hat's off to you Sonic, Happy 24th Birthday.
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