holy shit quarantine is fucking people up, some people are actually starting to call this and Sonic Forces fun.
Look, it's Sonic 06. You know it's awful. I know it's awful. But 06 is more than just a bad game, it's The bad game, the granddaddy of bad games where absolutely nothing works and nothing ever works. I legitimately believe that even if this game got 'finished', there would still be a lot of shit that just doesn't work - even if this game wasn't a broken, glitchy mess, a lot of the levels would still not be all that fun to run through and the game would still look terrible.
06 is a holistically bad game that fails from the word 'go'. The low-res graphics look like they're still running on PS2 technology with characters that can't properly emote and lighting / shaders that just look... off, and the overall visual design of Sonic 06 is really uninspired and dull-looking outside of a few neat ideas like Crisis City or the Venice-like Soleanna itself. Wave Ocean is just a generic-ass beach. Flame Core is just a volcano. Dusty Desert is just a goddamn desert. There's no flair, energy, or wacky 'Sonic' architecture going on here, these are little more than decent JRPG locations lazily given to Sonic. And unfortunately, the bland visual design ethos also extends to the level design. These levels aren't fun to sprint through even when the game decides to behave and play normally - a lot of boring corridors and tightrope-act grinding sections over bottomless pits and wide-open spaces with minimal platforming & reason to explore them. Even the best stage in the game, Crisis City, would be a low-tier level in a great Sonic game (and it was, in Generations).
Even if the game was operating at full capacity, it doesn't change how uninspired and dull the overall levels actually are. But, don't worry, the game never manages to run at even 10% capacity. Sonic 06 falls apart and collapses at even the slightest of sharp turns or the weirdest of jumps. Sometimes even scripted events glitch out in hilarious ways. It's honestly the most entertaining part of an otherwise bland experience. There are so many glitches and bugs packed into 06 that the fandom hasn't finished documenting them - there was one time that I spawned into Shadow's Aquatic Base and the entire level geometry began to collapse, turning it into a slow, stuttering series of dark, shapeless corridors where only the very distant background textures (the dolphins and the bulkhead glass doors) had loaded in already. And I'm almost positive no one's documented that one yet. It turns the process of actually playing 06 into a weirdly personalized experience - you will never experience glitches the exact same way any other person might on any given playthrough.
The story is hilariously trite and convoluted - the old characters don't do anything of note unless their name's Shadow (the only halfway-decent character in the entire game), and the new characters are fundamentally broken, from Elise's nothingness to Mephiles' needlessly convoluted plans to Silver's dorkish naivete and obnoxious voice. The overworld is an okay one to explore and there's a lot of side missions (decent idea), but the unbearably long loading times turn them into a non-starter. You just don't want to do them because of this, and sometimes you have to, like the fucking Trials. The soundtrack is pretty good in places, but I honestly think it's a tad overrated - a lot of the level themes didn't really stick out or grab my attention all that well, so in spiteful of a handful of terrific songs (His World + Dreams of an Absolution), I find the OST to be a bit on the bland side. The only thing that works about this game (outside of the functional soundtrack, I suppose) is the money system. Rings are currency again like they were in SA2B's Chao Garden, and you can use Rings to buy upgrades. I like this. It re-contextualizes Rings into something more than just 'health' or 'score points', and you can buy the Gems with Rings. The Gems are fun. They break the game in creative and hilarious ways, and it makes playing Sonic himself much more fun than the other two (Shadow's story is a mid experience throughout and Silver is a miserable physics-oriented playstyle that never feels fun to play unless you're playing Blaze).
Terrible game, man. This isn't 'secretly fun', and it barely even falls into 'could have been a masterpiece'. Because even if this game's edges were ironed out and the glitches were gone, it wouldn't fix this game's terrible story, boring levels, or pasty, outdated visuals. It's easy to see how this was the game that ruined SEGA as a company. After all of the hype and buildup to this seemingly generation-defining game, it wound up being the Sonic game that made everyone around the world realize that Sonic, at the end of the day, wasn't that good of a series.
Everyone should play this game at least once, though. I firmly believe that. It's part of gamer culture at this point.
Look, it's Sonic 06. You know it's awful. I know it's awful. But 06 is more than just a bad game, it's The bad game, the granddaddy of bad games where absolutely nothing works and nothing ever works. I legitimately believe that even if this game got 'finished', there would still be a lot of shit that just doesn't work - even if this game wasn't a broken, glitchy mess, a lot of the levels would still not be all that fun to run through and the game would still look terrible.
06 is a holistically bad game that fails from the word 'go'. The low-res graphics look like they're still running on PS2 technology with characters that can't properly emote and lighting / shaders that just look... off, and the overall visual design of Sonic 06 is really uninspired and dull-looking outside of a few neat ideas like Crisis City or the Venice-like Soleanna itself. Wave Ocean is just a generic-ass beach. Flame Core is just a volcano. Dusty Desert is just a goddamn desert. There's no flair, energy, or wacky 'Sonic' architecture going on here, these are little more than decent JRPG locations lazily given to Sonic. And unfortunately, the bland visual design ethos also extends to the level design. These levels aren't fun to sprint through even when the game decides to behave and play normally - a lot of boring corridors and tightrope-act grinding sections over bottomless pits and wide-open spaces with minimal platforming & reason to explore them. Even the best stage in the game, Crisis City, would be a low-tier level in a great Sonic game (and it was, in Generations).
Even if the game was operating at full capacity, it doesn't change how uninspired and dull the overall levels actually are. But, don't worry, the game never manages to run at even 10% capacity. Sonic 06 falls apart and collapses at even the slightest of sharp turns or the weirdest of jumps. Sometimes even scripted events glitch out in hilarious ways. It's honestly the most entertaining part of an otherwise bland experience. There are so many glitches and bugs packed into 06 that the fandom hasn't finished documenting them - there was one time that I spawned into Shadow's Aquatic Base and the entire level geometry began to collapse, turning it into a slow, stuttering series of dark, shapeless corridors where only the very distant background textures (the dolphins and the bulkhead glass doors) had loaded in already. And I'm almost positive no one's documented that one yet. It turns the process of actually playing 06 into a weirdly personalized experience - you will never experience glitches the exact same way any other person might on any given playthrough.
The story is hilariously trite and convoluted - the old characters don't do anything of note unless their name's Shadow (the only halfway-decent character in the entire game), and the new characters are fundamentally broken, from Elise's nothingness to Mephiles' needlessly convoluted plans to Silver's dorkish naivete and obnoxious voice. The overworld is an okay one to explore and there's a lot of side missions (decent idea), but the unbearably long loading times turn them into a non-starter. You just don't want to do them because of this, and sometimes you have to, like the fucking Trials. The soundtrack is pretty good in places, but I honestly think it's a tad overrated - a lot of the level themes didn't really stick out or grab my attention all that well, so in spiteful of a handful of terrific songs (His World + Dreams of an Absolution), I find the OST to be a bit on the bland side. The only thing that works about this game (outside of the functional soundtrack, I suppose) is the money system. Rings are currency again like they were in SA2B's Chao Garden, and you can use Rings to buy upgrades. I like this. It re-contextualizes Rings into something more than just 'health' or 'score points', and you can buy the Gems with Rings. The Gems are fun. They break the game in creative and hilarious ways, and it makes playing Sonic himself much more fun than the other two (Shadow's story is a mid experience throughout and Silver is a miserable physics-oriented playstyle that never feels fun to play unless you're playing Blaze).
Terrible game, man. This isn't 'secretly fun', and it barely even falls into 'could have been a masterpiece'. Because even if this game's edges were ironed out and the glitches were gone, it wouldn't fix this game's terrible story, boring levels, or pasty, outdated visuals. It's easy to see how this was the game that ruined SEGA as a company. After all of the hype and buildup to this seemingly generation-defining game, it wound up being the Sonic game that made everyone around the world realize that Sonic, at the end of the day, wasn't that good of a series.
Everyone should play this game at least once, though. I firmly believe that. It's part of gamer culture at this point.