In honor of Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th Anniversary and the recent release of Sonic Generations, here’s a blog about my favorite Sonic games and characters, plus my top Sega characters overall!

Now, before we get started, I have to say that I’m not the biggest Sonic aficionado around. I’ve never been a big fan of the gameplay of most Sonic games. All the high speed loops and twirls may look cool, but I’ve always felt I was more of a passenger than a player during those times. And for a game all about high speed, they sure do penalize you for going fast, whether it be falling into a pit or unseen enemy, or speeding through a wonderfully designed level so fast that you can’t enjoy it. Stop and smell the roses sometimes, Sonic. Also, I’m not too keen on Sonic’s ‘too cool for school’ attitude that helped him rise to the top. That kind of character always turned me off.

But I’m not a total Sonic hater for two reasons. One, kids love Sonic. It’s a fact. Every kid I know does. And you know, I can’t bash on something that makes so many kids happy. The other reason why I’m not a Sonic hater is because there are a few Sonic games that I actually DO like! So let’s go over which ones those are right now!

Sonic 3

When the first Sonic game came out, I wasn’t very impressed with it. As I first saw it in a demo station at a store with a bunch of kids gawking around it, I thought to myself, “This is better than Super Mario World…how?” And even though the second game was better, it still didn’t pull me in. But the third game? I thought it was great. Levels were designed much better; you weren’t just running left to right all the time. Graphics and music were also 16-bit tops. And you could save your progress, which hadn’t been done before until then! But mostly I just liked the bonus stages where you ran on a sphere collecting orbs, because it reminded me of Pac-Man!

Sonic 3-D Blast

When I got a used Saturn years after it had met its demise, Sonic 3-D Blast was the only game I could find for it that I wanted to play. But while many others panned it, I loved it as it combined aspects from two of my favorite games. It had the isometric viewpoint of Marble Madness and gameplay like the old Sega arcade classic Flicky.

Sonic Spinball

One of the things I did like about Sonic 2 was the Casino Night Zone. As a big fan of pinball, I thought they could make a whole game out of that level. And they did about a year or so later! A lot of reviewers at the time panned it, saying it wasn’t a true Sonic game. And that may have been true, but it was still a pretty fun little game of pinball!

Sonic Adventure

I don’t like most of the 3-D Sonic games, but I actually kind of enjoyed the first one. It hasn’t aged well but it still is fun. Most of the 3-D Sonics are plagued by bad camera angles. This one was, too, but the way the stages were designed, it didn’t hinder you much. And while most people complained the addition of other characters’ stories took away from Sonic himself, since I don’t like Sonic that much, I was happy to play as other characters like Tails and Big the Cat. And the game had a neat ‘vacation’ feel to it, too.

Honorable Mentions

I really couldn’t think of a definitive five Sonic games I really like to make this a top five list. I would’ve said Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing, but I don’t know if you’d consider that a true Sonic game. I did enjoy Sonic Advance 1 and 3 on GBA (but 2 was not as good). I enjoyed most of Sonic Adventure 2, except near the end when the camera angles got so bad I had to stop playing. And Sonic Heroes had a lot of good IDEAS, it’s just that the game was such a buggy mess you couldn’t enjoy them. That’s actually how I feel about a lot of Sonic games: lots of good ideas, just not executed very well.

Cary’s Favorite Sonic Characters

And that’s all my favorite Sonic games. Now let’s look at the Sonic characters I like:

Tails

There are two reasons why I like Sonic’s sidekick the best. I like him from a character standpoint and a gameplay standpoint. Tails is everything Sonic isn’t. Smart, honest, and humble. And from a gameplay aspect, he’s cool because he uses his two tails to fly. So instead of speeding through a level, you can fly around and enjoy all the cool hidden secrets in the stages that Sonic just zips by. I would say Tails should have his own game, but he already had two on the Game Gear. Tails’ Adventure was a fairly decent platformer, but the shooter Tails’ Sky Patrol kind of sucked. Sorry Tails.

Big the Cat

When I pick my favorite characters in things, I usually gravitate toward the smallest, cutest characters, or the biggest, dumbest ones. Guess where Big lands. I also like him because it’s like he was created to spite die-hard Sonic fans. In his first appearance in Sonic Adventure, instead of going on high speed chases, your goal was much more slower paced…fishing! I loved the irony! And the last boss you face as Big in that game is one of the easiest boss fights in the world! Plus, Big is annoying, and I like annoying characters. Like Xianghua.

Metal Sonic

One of the reasons why I don’t like Shadow the Hedgehog is how they made him be like Sonic’s rival. But Sonic already HAD a rival! Metal Sonic! I just thought Metal Sonic looked cool, and he was even kind of neat in that awful Sonic anime movie they made in the mid-90’s (actually it wasn’t THAT bad, considering what else is out there). They should bring back Metal Sonic more and ditch dumb ol’ Shadow.

Knuckles

I don’t really like Knuckles that much, but he’s my brother Jeff’s favorite Sonic character, and anything Jeff likes is OK in my book. While he’s not more fun to play as than Tails, it’s still pretty neat to explore levels with Knuckles’ gliding and wall climbing abilities. I do have to tell one sad story that involves Knuckles, though. At my dad’s house, they used to have a neighbor family with two kids, and the littlest one was good friends with some of my younger brothers. We saw him all the time at the house, so he was almost like family. Well, that little kid drowned on vacation and when I found out, I was so sad that I couldn’t work for the rest of the day. When we visited his gravesite, they had one of his favorite plush toys, a stuffed Knuckles, by his grave. When I saw that, I just lost it. So now I always think of that little boy every time I see Knuckles. See, I told you kids love Sonic games!

Chao

I guess Sonic Adventure came out at the tail end of the keychain virtual pet craze. And since I’m fascinated with that kind of stuff, I did get into the Chao raising mini-game a slight bit for a while. Plus, the Chao are just adorable. I have a plush Chao in my room that a friend gave me a long time ago.

Cary’s Favorite Sega Characters

Sonic may be the most popular, but Sega has a lot of other great characters and games, too! So I wanted to honor them a bit as well, so here are my other favorite Sega characters.

Ulala

I love the fun future setting of the Space Channel 5 games. And Ulala has pink hair, so that’s cool.  Honestly, though, I’m not very good at the Space Channel 5 games, but I do have fun playing as her in Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

Ristar

I actually enjoy the gameplay of Ristar better than Sonic. I remember when Ristar came out, everyone was mad because they thought he was going to replace Sonic as Sega’s mascot. Did you know the gameplay of Ristar was what Sonic was originally going to be like? I think Sega should bring back Ristar. One time I had a dream that I played a sequel to Ristar, and it was two player simultaneous. Player 2 was a girl named Comette. She looked like Ristar but she was pink and had a long ponytail like a comet. Even though it was just a dream, I thought that was a neat idea, don’t you?

Bonanza Bros.

I played the heck out of this game in the arcade! You played as robbers and had to sneak around to get all the treasure. I loved the simple art style, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

Opa Opa

You know, before Sonic, Sega had other mascots, and the cute spaceship from Fantasy Zone was one of them. They put him in other games as well, such as his world was in Space Harrier, and sometimes an icon of him was a bonus item in other titles. Again, I was happy to see him in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, too.

Amigo

Before Taiko Drum Master, Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast was my favorite music game (too bad the Wii version sucked, but at least Ulala was in it). Amigo the monkey is just so crazy freaky looking! Speaking of monkeys, when I play a Super Monkey Ball game, I always pick the Baby, so I guess he’s a favorite Sega monkey, too.

Honorable Mentions

Another pre-Sonic Sega mascot was the bird Flicky. He even appears in many Sonic games, and the original Flicky arcade game is one of my favorites because it kind of reminds me of Mappy. Speaking of arcades, in Golden Axe I always picked Tyris Flare for some reason.  She had cool magic attacks.

And that’s all I feel like talking about Sonic. Hopefully I’ll get to review Sonic Generations later, so check back in a week or two to read it! In the comment section, let me know what you think of my picks, and tell me your favorite Sonic games and Sega titles, as well as your favorite characters! Later! –Cary

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