I was never a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan. My first experience with the franchise was when the game first dropped on the Sega, and I was at a Military Exchange [Camp Lejeune], and it had Altered Beast and Sonic the Hedgehog on it. I would play it every couple of months when I went with my Grandmother, but I never owned a Sega machine until the Dreamcast. I’ve still never owned a Sega Genesis, Master System, CD, et cetera. I was proudly held hostage by Nintendo until the Sony PlayStation. But that was about 25 years ago! Happy Birthday, Sonic! And how do we celebrate? With a new game! And this one promises to not suck! I enjoyed Generations, it was a solid 2/3D Sonic game to make up for the plethora of just awful ones.
- Sonic and the Black Knight
- Sonic Boom [all of them]
- Sonic and the Secret of the Rings
And the list of subpar games in the Sonic franchise just goes on and on. I haven’t had the opportunity to play the “Sonic 4” episodes that are out, but I had a bit of trepidation, since every last game I played outside of Generations, so I didn’t bother. A lot of people love this series, in all of its forms, but I’m a bit of a skeptic. However this weekend, I saw the trailer for Sonic Mania. And holy shit. It looks like a real Sonic game! It has Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, and it’s an intense, fast-paced by-the-numbers Sonic game. That’s what people have been asking for I think. A game that feels like a Sonic the Hedgehog game of old. And it will be on current gen consoles. While all I’ve seen is a brief trailer and that’s it, I have very high hopes for this game. The action looks non-stop, and I can play as Knuckles again, who was my favorite of the main three. I didn’t have Sonic and Knuckles, but almost all my friends as a younger lad did, so I got to play Sonic 1 2 and 3 as Knuckles and that shit was amazing. It won’t be out until Spring of 2017, but Sega’s collaborating with it, so it is my hope that this is the game we’ve waited for. I hope. Please don’t drop the ball, Sega.
