THE SONIC CYCLE

Ever since Sonic Heroes and the ugly beast that was Shadow the Hedgehog this is a sad reality. I won't give up hopes on the gutsy blue speed demon though.

Personally, I thought Sonic Unleashed was a fantastic game was simply stunning visuals, extraordinary gameplay (bar the night levels), and a magnificent music score. All points which most reviews did not pick up on, which fuels a deep-seated distrust I have with Sonic game reviews. Sonic Unleashed was most deffinately a positive incline on the largely negative line graph, that is his game repertoire since the early/mid 90s.

Also I think lots of people forget about Sonic Rush on the NDS. That game was marvellous, and quite the challenge too. What Sega need to do, and I feel I'm repeating what most of the gaming universe is saying, is going back to the roots and staying there. 2D, side-on, running-through-really-huge-loop-de-looping action. No exploring through three dimensions - that just creates strange blue tornados and bizarre homing attacks that throw you off the edge of the stage every once in a while. While running along a set track kinda worked in Sonic and the Secret Rings and (with improved controls) worked better in Sonic and the Black Knight, sticking to the 2D plane is deffinately a safe bet.

Poor Sonic. He's just the butt of jokes now.

Like this one:

His fanporn has better quality than his current games. Boom.

I judge games based on two factors: fun factor, and replayability. Therefore, while there have been a few Sonic games that rued the day they toyed with me (rest in pieces, Shadow the Hedgehog), I find the majority of them to be really fun to play.

Sonic and the Black Knight, for example, was judged by IGN based on how it compares to older Sonic games, resulting in a score of 3.9/10. Last time I checked, that's even lower than Shadow the Hedgehog. Therefore, I believe IGN has mustard gas for brains, because SatBK was designed to give a new type of experience with Sonic, not bring him back to his roots.

I sense a new meme...
and it's sad, really sad, to think sonic's Sega main franchise

I'm not really much of a Sonic fan, but I surprisingly enjoyed Sonic Rush.

Then I played Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and frankly, it's like SEGA took one step forward and took 2 back.

Anyways, 5/5.

I thought it be cool if they just remade Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3 in 2.5D just to keep us old sonic fans happy, i think the idea of Sonic Unleashed during the day was a great breath of fresh air. All my mates hate sonic the hedgehog games but soon they will get back to the top.....or not :S

aww man, so much long comments , I'm not reading them ^^;

I see what you did there.
but I thought that Sonic Unleashed was really quite decent.
Sonic and the black knight = swords
swords + sonic = :P
:P = Sonic and the black knight.
the math works perfectly for THAT game

This wouldn't be bad if they just kept Sonic in his own element: 2d Fast Paced Platforming!

Not stupid spinoffs involving Air-boards or Swordplay!

Wow, this (old) pic has evoked some long comments.
I just ordered Unleashed for £12 actually. No-one in their right mind would pay full price for it, surely?
I do think this whole hating-on-Sonic thing is a bit of a bandwagon though. Lots of people judge the games without playing them. I'm gonna play it before I judge it - it may yet turn out to be awful, it may be alright. :-)

sadly, nintendo is leaving us with such a cycle, and by us, i mean the hardcore gamers, the ultra casual gamers are prospering =/

Less of a cycle, more of a depressing spiral...

The new Sonic games are like movies based on games. Your hoping it'll be good but turn to be waste of money.

Well yeah, sonic started sucking since the release of the PS2/Xbox. Every single sonic related game (Gameboy Advance not included, since all the games released on it were good - probably has something to do with the fact that they're 2D, and very same old same old) released since has sucked. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the new sonic was going to suck, especially after i heard about the whole 'Werehog' thing. Don't get excited about a sonic game on a console anymore, it will definetely dissapoint. On the DS though it will be either okay or good.

umm... did anyone read the game informer magazine that had the bioshock 2 information on it... in there is an interview from the head of the original sonic team... and when he left he told them that they need to kill off the sonic franchise so they can work on something else so they make barely playable games (and even said that the werehog idea doesnt even sound like a playable idea) but every time they make a bad game their plan is thwarted by fanboys who WILL NOT STOP BUYING SONIC GAMES... so until the periodic sonic cycle is broken by a time of no sonic games... there will never be a good sonic game... EVER