Sonic the Hedgehog: Before and After

Sonic Rant

Introduction

Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA's mascot, former rival to Nintendo's Mario, and video game icon. Love 'em, Hate 'em, or Like 'em, he has earned his place as a cultural icon. The hedgehog had his beginning in 1991 with the game of the same name, Sonic the Hedgehog, and still going. I can assure you this isn't a history lesson, it is a rant, on what happened to this beloved hedgehog. I have played every entry in this series, even taking a look at six particular titles and their ports, comparing, reviewing, and examining each of those titles. The problem I found in the titles being released today is it lack on story. They know how to make great gameplay as the Boost trilogy (Unleashed, Colors, & Generations) and even the Parkour in Lost World, while it needs improving and more explanation, Sonic Team nail gameplay. But, the price is lack of story, starting with Sonic Colors and still haunting them with Lost World. The story in Sonic Colors was fine, the concept is great, but they held onto jokes or tried too hard to be funny. Sonic Generations could've done so much more, instead of being a heartless and bland story. All they do is complete the level as Modern and Classic Sonic, or current and young, you're pick, beat three missions, the rival, the boss, repeat two more times. They only comment on the first two levels, then just spew exposition. You get to see Sonic's friends, but they do nothing, the 3DS version did it better, just don't show them if you ain't gonna use 'em, it only teases the fans and/or those who would love to play as them. And Lost World, it starts off decent before the deadly six turn on them, then it becomes Eggman's story as Sonic becomes too reckless to listen or stop and Tails act like a selfish brat not willing to help Eggman, not even for Sonic sake, he puts his pride ahead of his best friend Sonic. Sonic and Tails are unlikeable here, or puts their pride ahead of each other. And let's talk about how people like to compare the hedgehog to a certain plumber, here the problem with that strain of thought.

Difference between Mario and Sonic

Mario is known as Mr. Videogame, as such he has established himself as gameplay incarnate. Every one of his games, aside from Mario teaches Typing, Mario is Missing, Mario's Time Machine, and Hotel Mario (also known as Mario CDi). If you find enjoyment great, but every one of his platforming games are about gameplay with little to no story, again aside from a few (Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and possibly the upcoming Super Mario Odyssey). The plumber also hardly show any personality outside of his RPG, sports, and few of his platforming games. I see him as a video game equivalent of an actor, putting up a performance pending on the game he's starring in. I could be wrong, but he always has a force on gameplay and doesn't worry about story.

And this is where they're both ultimately different from each other, Sonic is a different kind of beast. He needs story to survive, which is where I agree with a certain Sonic group, he also needs spectacle. Sonic requires personality, spectacle, and story to survive. Gameplay is a given, why play a broken game. But why play a game with a boring character and story as well. Even games during the Genesis era had story. Sonic 1 introduces the hedgehog we all love and is the beginning of his adventure as he battles the Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik to rescue the defenseless animals. Sonic 2 introduces Tails, the Death Egg, the chaos emeralds, and Super transformations. This is also where Robotnik plans to use the chaos emeralds to power his Death Egg to rule the planet, he isn't just simply capturing animals, he going big, he wants the planet. Sonic CD, while not part of the trilogy, introduces Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, showing the mad doctor trying to rule a planet, Little Planet (the location, not the game), and Sonic rescuing not only Amy, not only stopping the doctor, and not only his metal counterpart. He is rescuing an entire planet, not to look good, because of greed, but because he fights for justice and willing to risk his life. And Sonic 3 & Knuckles, introducing Knuckles and the Master Emerald, also Super Emeralds but they don't appear after this. The story follows the fall of Eggman's Death Egg, where he tricks Knuckles the guardian of the Master Emerald into stopping Sonic, next thing you know, he knocks the chaos emeralds out of Super Sonic, he not only stopped the unstoppable, he stole the emeralds from him. Then he proceeds to stop Sonic and Tails at every turn. If you collected all seven chaos emeralds or super emeralds before the end, you stop Eggman and rescue the Master Emerald, ending the story with a new alley in Knuckles. Even the overlooked game, Sonic Pocket Adventure, shows Eggman's transformation from his Genesis look to his Modern design. His games also have callback to the previous games in some form or fashion, such as Adventure, Unleashed, and Colors. Sonic Adventure with Master Emerald, Sonic Unleashed with Soleanna Hotel from Sonic 2006, and even Sonic Colors with the Miles Electric from Unleashed. The hedgehog needs story and spectacle along with functioning gameplay to survive. I know everyone has their preferences, but just remember, Sonic can never be the same as Mario as he was created to compete against him. And how do you compete/fair against a series with great gameplay with no story, have equally great gameplay with story.