Not too long ago, my buddy Jason showed me what was called, “The Sonic Cycle”. To make a long story short it shows what phases Sonic fans go through when a game is announced, which is excitement, the thoughts on the game when the trailer shows up, to which fans usually say “Oh my god, this is going to be the best Sonic game ever!” and then the reaction upon release, which as of late has been a disappointment. This game follows that formula to a tee. It’s no Sonic ’06 in terms of being the worst Sonic game, but this definitely isn’t the step in the right direction.
I honestly don’t know where to begin. The controls are difficult, Sonic is slow, and the music is just not Sonic.
My biggest fear was that this game looked and sounded way too much like Mario Galaxy, and I feel that this is nearly a clone of that game, but with Sonic in it instead. I tried really hard to tell myself that this was just Sonic X-Treme (The unreleased SEGA Saturn game) but it’s difficult to do so when the enemies, and especially the music come straight from Mario.
To me, Sonic has had two advantages over Mario; the music and Sonic’s speed. These are very sparse in this game and while the music isn’t terrible by any means, it’s just not Sonic. It may be weird hearing me say “It’s not Sonic” but most fans know Sonic music when they hear it.
I will admit I have played this game on the Wii U a little bit as well, and one of the things I will say about the Wii U version is that Sonic is a little easier to control and he is a little faster. But that still doesn’t make up for the fact that for the first time ever you have to hold down a button so that Sonic goes from a fast walk/jog to a run. I seriously couldn’t believe that they slowed
down Sonic. I’m sorry, but that’s a major sin in my book and i’m sure Sonic, being the impatient little bugger he is, isn’t fond of it either.
I will say though, that the visuals in this game are gorgeous and really pop. It’s definitely a pretty looking game, but not exactly the adventure Sonic should be taking.
I seriously didn’t want to dislike this game. Really…I am the biggest Sonic fan that I know and it pains me so much when I don’t enjoy his games. I guess at this point, I just have to wait for the Sonic cycle to loop back around so I can get excited for the next Sonic title. Maybe once I get a Wii U, I will like that version better (I did for the 5 minutes I played it). But until then, The 3DS version just isn’t up to snuff and left me disappointed.
3/5
