"it's so good it could be an official Sonic game" is... not very indicative of quality.
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
116 points (97.5% liked)
RetroGaming
20640 readers
993 users here now
Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
- Be kind.
- No spam or soliciting for money.
- No racism or other bigotry allowed.
- Obviously nothing illegal.
If you see these please report them.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
They probably mean in comparison to the likes of Sonic Mania.
I haven't ever heard anyone say Sonic 1-3 are bad so this is in the clear.
"Official Sonic games" run the gamut from Sonic 2 to Sonic Boom/'06. It's kind of the poster child for a franchise that is an unstoppable media juggernaut that has beloved all-time classic games... and some absolute garbage games.
Yeah but if you watch the trailer its clearly homage to the 2D games. So we can kind of judge quality on that, which flash game developers mastered long ago.
Edit: also Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles are masterpieces so Idk about this gamut talk including those.
Even limited to 2D Sonics, there are official Sega products that are just terrible. Remember Sonic 4?
It's still a tolerable playthrough, especially with part 2 in the mix.
And honestly, people get stuck talking about 1-3 as if they had stopped making 2D Sonic games until 4, but the Nintendo portable games are mostly some shade of solid, with maybe a couple of exceptions.
Thats a 2010 game and itself a simulacrum of the classic Sonic era. That was also 2.5D and not 2D, which already breaks from what we see in this post.
There was a period in there where people got into the idea that "it was never good" and made the case for 1-3 as a bit of a contrarian take.
Got way less defensible in the context of Generations, Mania and Frontiers getting a bit of a franchise revival going, but it was a thing for a while.
I will say it, Sonic 1 is bad. Going fast is actually never the answer in that game somehow. Maybe I just suck. 2 and 3 are obviously great.
I'm always a bit weirded out by these super good fangames that clearly are a sprite swap away from being viable commercial products because... man, just make your own game, you clearly can do it. But at the same time, it would likely not be nearly as popular without it being skinned as a Sonic or a Castlevania or whatever, which is a bit of a bummer.
In other news, go play Penny's Big Breakaway. It's good.
Freedom planet 1/2 is also good.
Yeah, for sure. I find it needs less of a defense because it was an early indie darling built on top of a fangame foundation, while Penny's ended up being a bit of a bomb on the back of not having stuck to the license or the specific set of Sonic mechanics.
Both are worth a try, I'm just saying that Penny's could use the attention more.
Developer of Sonic Before/After the Sequel actually did that, Spark the Electric Jester. First game is classic Sonic meets Kirby while second and third are Sonic Adventure inspired.
That looks too good to be an official Sega product.
Chances are it won't be completed, same as many more Sonic fangames. I wish to be wrong.
I would love a super casual sonic-esque game that you could just mindless meander through without having to worry about falling into environmental hazards or bumping into enemies. Basically just complete and utter freedom to blast through a level without having to think too much about it and not having to fuss with a lot of different controls/buttons. Wonder if anything like that exists.
Fr that’s all I want in a game. Satisfying travel mechanics thru pretty scenery. A Short Hike is great.