That finally leaves us with Sonic Forces, a game I have mixed feelings towards. Eventually, I gave it to a friend for no charge. Put simply, Boom was beyond poor and unsurprisingly, we didn't complete it. To this day, I've never seen anyone throw a physical disc at the ceiling, but that's exactly what happened I played with several friends. well, it's a good thing we can class that as a spin-off. Sure, that wasn't a terrible game, but several gameplay aspects left many feeling not especially fond, either. Sonic was on the up once more, but like all good things, they just don't last. Colors came next - a game I'd consider one of Sonic's best 3D outings - and by celebrating the series' wider history, Generations also put in a strong effort. Eventually delivering Unleashed, it was arguably held back by the Werehog sections, but daytime sections showed promise. Slowly but surely, Sonic's return to form was on the cards. Realising how badly they'd messed up, Sega began rethinking their approach. Bad camerawork, long load times, an awful story that aimed for realism and numerous glitches wrecked this experience. It should've been a (then) next-gen showpiece for the Xbox 360 and PS3, but rushed development left it a complete mess, yet I still beat it twice (I didn't have many games then, leave me be). After that baffling decision to give Shadow the Hedgehog a third-person shooter, Sonic '06 was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. While Adventure and Adventure 2: Battle are still nostalgic favourites - and I'll defend Heroes to the death - things quickly spiralled from there.
This wouldn't be the first time Sega's toyed with an open premise, considering Sonic Adventure used open-ended hub worlds called "Adventure Fields", but like many Sonic fans, I'm braced for potential disappointment.Īny fan will tell you that Sonic's history in 3D has been undeniably turbulent. While those two commentators weren't particularly impressed, they acknowledged it was an early build and on paper, I'm interested to see the end result. Specifically, that'll feature a skill tree, puzzles, challenges and "cyberspace levels", similar to Sonic Generations. I won't link the original post (Screencaps are on Twitter), but Sega allegedly carried out a focus test, which "revealed" Rangers as an open-world entry, taking inspiration from Breath of the Wild. Back in January, rumours spread across 4Chan as they often do, offering some specific details. Now, we've seen details about a "Sonic Rangers" game before, and fair warning, there are potential gameplay spoilers ahead in these next two paragraphs. We saw Sonic running through a forest, a mysterious symbol and a 2022 release date. While we don't have an official name for it yet - though Sonic Rangers is heavily rumoured - this tease was. Finally, they ended by teasing his next main entry. Then, we had Sonic Colours: Ultimate, a remaster of the 2010 Wii entry, arriving this September.