Ranking the Sonic games

This article stems from intense boredom and also i needed a day to do something easy don’t judge me

I will be doing all the mainline games, skipping Secret Rings and Black Knight because I’ve never played those. Not much more to it. It’s time to go fast:

14. Sonic 2006

Easy hanging fruit, but honestly this was such a complete and utter mess from top to bottom it’s hard not to rank it at the very bottom. You all know about how incredibly glitchy it is, but beyond even that, nothing about it works. The story is nonsensical and all over the place, the game design pretty much doesn’t exist, and it controls just so, so badly. It’s certainly earned its infamy.

13. Shadow the Hedgehog

I mean, just, c’mon. This whole game reeks of “what are the kiddies in the west into” by some marketing exec. It’s hilariously edgy and takes itself so seriously you’ll probably spend the entire story laughing at it. But the real reason it’s here is the plodding, loose, and incredibly boring gameplay. MMO “kill x number of monster quests” in a Sonic game? No thanks. Add in needing to replay stages for a choose your own adventure type story, and this is a game you should just look up the cutscenes for.

12. Sonic Adventure

Horribly unpolished gameplay with nothing getting the attention it needs. Awful voice acting. Control so loose I swear Sonic’s about to fly out of the T.V. This game is just baaaaaad.

11. Sonic Lost World

This one is just… eh. It’s just so aggressively mediocre. There’s no sense of momentum, you’re either going “fast” or “slow” with nothing in between. The game uses so many gimmicks it’s a rarity to just have an ordinary level for once. The story is very childish and devoid of any backstory or context. It’s just… a 5/10 from start to finish, and I was snoozing by the end of the first world.

10. Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic’s 1st game, the one that started it all, is just… it’s ok. Some of the best stages are Green Hill, Spring Yard, and Starlight, deep and layered levels that are a ton of fun. But zones like Marble and Labyrinth are just so awful they make the game not worth going through, in all honesty. The highs are high, but the lows almost wreck the game. You’ll get it right next time, Sonic.

9. Sonic Adventure 2

This game is great when it plays to its strengths, as in a high energy speed based platformer. Thing is, it often doesn’t do that. Subpar shooting segments and hunting segments bog the entire experience down, alongside a story that just falls flat on it’s face. This one’s fun if you can get it for like under $5, but you’re being ripped off otherwise.

8. Sonic Heroes

Heroes gets this high almost purely because it focuses on one gameplay style for one, thank god. But really, Heroes starts out strong, and when you learn to speedily dispatch enemies and blaze through levels, it can be quite a good time! Sloppy controls and much too long level design bog it down in the end, however. Plus you need to play through it 4 times. Bleh. So close.

7. Sonic Unleashed

Unleashed is confident. Sure, it’s a bit of a reflex based roller coaster with not as much subtey and depth, but it wears than on it’s sleeve. The entire half of the game about going fast is so much fun, and I wish more games would just be open and fully embrace the zany arcadey fun they want to offer. But, again. The werehog. Why.

6. Sonic Generations

Generations is 2 halves: a slightly worse version of Sonic’s 2D escapades, and a slightly less energetic and fun version of Unleashed’s gameplay. Combine those together and you get a pretty fun game in the end, but a bit passionless. It was a relief to see Sonic in a good game, but if you look at it, it’s just that. Only good.

5. Sonic Colours

In the vein of the previous 2 games, Colours is boost based and a pretty good time! It’s got more personality than colours, and the entire game is one gameplay style, so it’s better than Unleashed and Generations. It’s still good! Above average good. But just good.

4. Sonic CD

Ah, now we get to the really good stuff. Sonic CD’s levels are very layered, and the majority of levels are on the quality of the really good ones from Sonic 1. 4 different possible level layouts, with secrets abound to discover. An actual gameplay incentive to keep momentum and an amazing ost top off this quality game. Really good stuff.

3. Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is a tightly done game. It doesn’t have a real story or much originality. But it’s content to pay tribute to and improve on past levels, and it does that well. Mania feels built up from the ground for speedrunning, and when you get good at it, you can do some crazy stuff. It doesn’t always do it perfectly, but for the most part, it does it very very well. A supreme example of a nostalgia trip.

2. Sonic 2

Sonic 2 is a brilliant game. It’s got level design that facilitates momentum and rewards it, albeit a bit abstractly. It gave us the spindash, a brilliant piece of game design all around. We get iconic levels and a bopping soundtrack. And most of all, we get tails, otherwise known as easy mode, and what a great way to make future 2D games have a nice variable difficulty. All in all, fantastic game.

1. Sonic 3 and Knuckles

I mean, you saw this coming, most likely. Sonic 3 does everything Sonic 2 does, but with slightly tighter levels, and 2 more characters. There’s an actual story with good pacing and nice continuity. The setpieces understand how spectacle should be handled. And it’s got an absolutely legendary soundtrack that’s great to listen to and serves a fantastic atmospheric purpose. All in all, I can’t think of many platformers better than this game.

The Drop Dash is the best part of Sonic Mania

The drop dash in Sonic Mania is the best thing. If you asked me what the smartest game design choice was this year, the drop dash would certainly be up there. It’s just so so good.

Taking a step back, the only ever truly successful addition to sonic’s 2D moveset before this was the spin dash. You all know how good this is. You go from 0 to 100, and all in your enemy destroying rolling state. It’s a fantastic mechanism to get up to speed when things go bad, but it’s also harder to control yourself when using it. Add in a satisfying revving up sound effect and dust, and you’ve just got a brilliant addition. It’s so integral that it’s hard to go back to play Sonic 1 without modding it in, it’s just that good.

Many more successors have tried, and failed, to replicate the spin dash’s success. The super peel out from Sonic CD looked cool, but functionally was too dangerous to use since you didn’t curl into a ball. Most of the time the spin dash was just a better option. The insta shield from Sonic 3 was fun and cool, but limited in functionality and kind of unmemorable. And Sonic 4 tried out the homing attack, but the less I say about Sonic 4, the better.

So it’s basically been decades since Sonic got a proper 2D move expansion, and whooboy, did we ever get one. The drop dash is basically a spindash you can charge up in midair and release once you hit the ground. It’s all about continuing movement, rather than starting it. It’s super fluid and useful throughout the entire game because of this, for starters. Rather than being used for specific enemies, or just to look cool, it’s a move you have to think about when to use, and not just using it when you obviously need. It also plays into Sonic’s whole momentum schtick in a great way, being used entirely to keep him moving.

But what really makes it a great move is that it’s got restrictions and limitations, unlike the insta shield or homing attack. For a starter, it’s a bad idea to use it in tight platforming areas, much like the spin attack. You need to jump yourself to execute it, meaning if you launch off a spring or similar you can’t use it. Plus, when you use it you’ll have a frame of time where you can’t cancel out of it, so you need to consider that loss of control. Finally, it just doesn’t launch you forward as fast as the actual spindash, and doesn’t serve as a complete substitute.

All of this leads to expanding your arsenal in interesting ways, and adds more depth to the game, as opposed to just a flat upgrade with no downsides. The drop dash is a super cool addition to Mania overall. It’s a good clean move that I hope sticks around in games to likely come.