This is a 2D Sonic game that exists. The 2D Sonic of all time if I may add. IDK I just didn't really feel that much playing this game due to just how easy I found it to be, the level design being just average, average visuals idk. The game controls as you'd expect for a 2D Sonic game and work fine enough, though something I find weird is that after the first boss Classic Sonic gets the homing attack, which I find weird as it makes the 2D playstyles less distinct. At least in HD Gens it was an optional unlock so it was fine there, but it doesn't really make sense here. The special stages here return from Sonic Heroes, except the controls actually work so they are more fun, it's just that the stages are fairly easy, as I got all of them on my first try. As for the bosses, they're also just fine, particularly I really liked the character battles being races, though racing Metal Sonic in Casino Night and Silver in Tropical Resort are extremely out of place. Seeing Biolizard again was pretty cool, though it's a bit weird that Sonic fights the one that Shadow did on his own. The final boss is at least better than the one in HD Gens as I actually know what I’m doing, but it’s also just alright. Overall I’d score the game about a 5.5/10, like I said it’s not terrible but it’s so average to the point that I'd pick almost any other 2D Sonic game to play over this one. You've probably heard it before, but Gens 3DS in general has a lot of missed potential, as they could have instead opted to represent the history of Sonic on handhelds. Personally, I think it would've been really awesome to see a level such as Music Plant from Advance 2 or Blizzard Peaks from Rush Adventure to return. But alas, we didn't and thus the game is just average.

(written on April 28th, 2024) Ugh... I just do NOT like this game. While I think the first half is just boring and inoffensive, the 2nd half is so infuriating to me with the amount of bullshit such as the torch puzzle in Labyrinth, the bottomless pits at times and the classic Dimps level design trope of "you'll only go fast when we want you to." Combined with Sonic not being fun to control due to missing basic properties such as not being able to properly roll down slopes, no proper momentum and Sonic weirdly being able to stop on a dime at times, you have a game that's not really fun to play and one of the worst Sonic games IMO. The bland visuals and soundtrack also don't help anything. 3.5/10, don't play if you value your sanity. I felt like the only reason I was somewhat sane playing was that at the same time I was watching ATLA (ofc the good one) on another monitor.

Sonic Unleashed is definitely one of the more polarizing entries in the series, and it's easy to see why. The 2 gameplay styles clash so hard to the point that you're playing 2 games in 1, so it's easy to heavily prefer one style. But the despite that, I still really enjoyed this game for what it is, so here's why, with positive and negatives. Let's start of with the presentation. The presentation of this game is phenomenal, and it still holds up to this day for a game made in 2008. The Pixar-like art direction and the awesome global illumination effects does a great job at making the world feel alive and fits really well with the world adventure theme of this game. Same thing goes for the soundtrack, which is easily one of the best in the series due to how much variety there is and just how darn catchy and fitting it is. The story is also more on the lighthearted side, which is pretty fitting for the world adventure theme of this game. The opening CGI cutscene does an awesome job at setting up the story, and I think the theme of light vs. dark is a pretty neat idea. My main criticism with the story is that I kinda wished there was more that happened between the beginning and the end. At least it somewhat makes up for it with really good character writing, and the voice acting, primarily with Sonic as Jason started to get much better with his performance as the character. Now onto the gameplay! The daytime stages just might be some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay in the series. The sense of speed you have is exhilarating, and the levels are a blast to run through, with some solid enough platforming, and obstacles you have to quickly react to in order to stay alive. As a result these levels can feel incredibly rewarding to master, but they can also be kinda frustrating if you're playing these on your first time, cause some of the later levels can feel a bit trial-and-errorish. It's like the desginers were aware of this, since the levels hand out lives like candy just in case. The controls can also feel slippery but nothing you can't get used to after some time. Now onto the night gameplay! Yes, it is indeed strayed far away from what you'd expect from a Sonic game, but what's here is fairly competent. really enjoy the platforming sequences from swinging on poles to grabbing onto ledges, and it can feel good once you start to get a good flow. The combat is solid enough, though you'll need to level it up quite a bit to get a bigger moveset and power. The puzzles are pretty basic and not anything special, but they aren't offensive either. As a result, my favorite night stages are ones such as Cool Edge and Skyscraper Scamper Act 1, while my least favorites are Dragon Road and Arid Sands Act 1 due to how repetitive those stages are with combat. Some other criticisms I have are that the controls of the Werehog could be a bit tighter, and the lack of a proper drop shadow can make certain sections such as beam balancing ones much harder than they need to be. Overall, I think the Werehog is pretty solid for what it is, but I can't blame others for being fully against the idea. This was clearly something added for padding, as Sonic Team knew that game with just day stages would be extremly short otherwise. As for the boss fights, I think the day ones are pretty good with how you have to boost into the bosses in order to knock them over while dodging their attacks, though they can feel kinda samey. I'll have to give a slight edge to the night bosses, as they all have something to set them apart with how you have to expose their weak point, then attack. Last aspects I'll touch upon for now are the hub worlds and pacing. I think the hub worlds are pretty good and they do a solid job at adding worldbuilding, and it's not too hard to figure out where you have to go. The pacing on the other hand is a pretty major issue, primarily because of the forced medal collecting you have to do in order to finish the game. The medals aren't too much of a problem in the night stages as you're meant to take things slower, they're an issues in the day stages, because you are running by so fast that it is very easy to miss medals. Doesn't help the fact that some of these medals are hidden in REALLY obscure places. While it is something that does become less of a problem on repeat playthroughs, it can be pretty demoralizing to encounter the first time and can absolutely drive away new players from the game. Despite the major flaws, this just might be one of my favorite Sonic games. As for recommending this one, I would NOT recommend this game to anyone trying to get into 3D Sonic. I'd suggest playing Colors and Generations first to get used to the Boost formula, and then ask yourself how much can you tolerate alternate gameplay styles in Sonic. If you have a high tolerance for them, I'd say give this game a shot if you don't mind having to deal with medals. If you don't meet these recommendations, perhaps this isn't the game for you.

Definitely one of the best 2D Sonic games minus the forced replayabilty for grinding materials, and the sailing might not be what you'd want out of a Sonic game, but I didn't mind it too much. Rush Adventure basically improves on everything from the first game such as more fair level design with there being less bottomless pit spam, and the boss fights are some of the best in the series as it perfectly adapts the classic philosophy of the bosses being faster the more skilled you are and vice versa, unlike in Rush where you just have to wait around just dodging attacks before you get another chance to hit the boss. The only part that the first game really does better in aside from pacing, is the soundtrack, though that's debatable. I prefer the Rush 1 soundtrack but Rush Adventure still has some great stuff! Overall a fantastic game in general; would highly recommend this one if you haven't played it already.

It's pretty interested to see the team take a shot at doing a roguelike for the DLC. Overall I really enjoyed Side Order, from the awesome music, the visuals, and the overall atmosphere. The gameplay was also fairly solid and at my skill level was mildly challenging, though I wish there was just a bit more variety in objectives. The bossfights overall were also pretty good, and they do a good job at keeping you on your toes. The story was also a bit on the weaker side, but I found the dialogue between Off the Hook and Acht to be pretty enjoyable, and it's really cool to see Acht/Dedf1sh make a physical appearance for the first time ingame. The lore additions this time are also a really neat welcome to a series veteran such as myself. If you're into roguelikes, there's a good amount of fun to be had here, though if you aren't into roguelikes this is probably a pass for you. Really interested in doing more runs in the future.

A game I thought going into that I'd absolutely despise but surprisingly I didn't? Not to say that the game is good, far from it and you can't deny the amount of damage this game did to Sonic's reputation for understandable reasons, but I still managed to somewhat enjoy it because of the level design and the soundtrack. But as an overall package this game is a mess due to factors such as the story being a hot mess aside from Shadow’s, the unpolished boss fights, most of the characters are not fun to play as, long loading times on OG hardware and an excessive amount of load screens (played on Xenia so this wasn't an issue for me), boring town missions, the glitches, and all the other poor qualities everyone knows by now. For all of the reasons I mentioned above, I'd give the game a 5/10, there's aspects I like about it but for future playthroughs I'll stick to Project 06 and Legacy of Solaris, with it being rarely that I'll revisit the vanilla game due how messy the overall package is. Unless you are a curious Sonic fan, perhaps stay away unless you want some laughs.

A really good Sonic entry overall minus the bosses and a few Dimps™️ moments here and there in the level design. Even had enough fun with how special stages are implemented that I decided to go for all of the Chaos Emeralds. The main highlights for me being the awesome soundtrack, Blaze being a welcome addition to the cast, the fun level design (minus Mirage Road for it's pacing at times and Altitude Limit for the amount of instakill hazards), the story is pretty solid, and more that I can't be bothered to list off. Not sure if I would call it one of my favorite 2D Sonic's but it's still a really good time overall.

Sonic Heroes is a pretty interesting game to me. First thing I’ll start off with is that the cartoonish art direction is great and still holds up today, with the environments oozing with color and the levels feel like an actual place with cool set pieces and whatnot. The soundtrack is also great per usual though even if i I probably prefer the Adventure OSTs, there’s still some great stuff here. Now onto the gameplay. I think the team mechanic is great and adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. No character necessarily feels left out and it just simply feels fun to play. A common issue is that that the controls feel slippery, and I only find this part true for the speed characters. When the levels design asks you to do tighter platforming you can use the flight characters for that and the power characters for exploration. The level design is pretty solid, with some of my favorites being Seaside Hill, Grand Metropolis, and Frog Forest. But I despise Casino Park as the pinball sections are more annoying than anything. The main issue I have is that the level design can feel a bit repetitive with the number of poles you swing up and the fans you fly up, and moments where I thought “this seemed done again.” I don’t really mind the longer stages here as well, though I can see why someone may not be a fan. The combat is fine though it becomes faster once you level up the characters. The Lv. 2+ thunder shoot is especially powerful and makes longer range combat easier. Though with the power characters it does suck accidentally sliding off a platform when attacking normally and dying as a result. The boss fights however are a mess. They all boil down to either glorified button mashing, somewhat boring enemy rushes, and tedious team battles. Overall, somewhat better than SA1 bosses but worse than SA2 bosses. Last thing I’ll touch upon for now are the special stages. The way of accessing them are fine, where you have to find a key and take it to the goal without taking damage. At least you can get a couple extra keys if you lose one. The stages on the other hand while they’re neat in concept with how you have to fill up the boost meter to catch the Chaos Emerald, it all completely falls apart due to the controls being very sensitive and the wonky camera. Overall, I'd give the game about a 7.5/10 for my experience as Team Sonic as it was still a pretty decent time overall. Don't feel too pressured to go back to try out the other teams as of me writing this, but maybe later.

My feelings towards this game are odd, since there are several aspects I prefer over Advance 1, such as the refined controls, the graphics and level themes, the music, the bosses, and Cream is a welcome addition to the cast. The main thing that brings down the game for me however is the level design. I feel like because of the addition of the boost mode (a nice one), some of the early game levels feel very "hold right to win." And then there's some of the late game stuff which can feel needlessly unforgiving due to the large amount of death pits everywhere, and the cheap spike/enemy placements. Another somewhat minor thing is that if you game over, you have to start back at Act 1 even if you completed Act 2, which isn't how it usually works? Last thing I'll end off with are that the way you access special stages can be very challenging, considering you have to get all of the SP Rings in a level and not die otherwise you'll lose them. The stages themselves are not too bad though. Overall, due to the weaker level design, I'll give Advance 2 a 7/10, even if I think almost every other aspect is better than its prequel.

Sonic Adventure 2 might just be my favorite Sonic game, from the style, soundtrack, replay value, and the story. The main highlights as expected are Sonic/Shadow's gameplay which is great. The addition of rail grinding is a pretty cool addition, and while not perfect, it has an interesting premise with how you have to try to stay balanced on the rail and the trick system. While the level design might be more linear compared to its prequel, the stages are still a blast to play from the likes of City Escape, Radical Highway, Final Rush, and Sky Rail. What really changes everything is the addition of the ranking system, which is a great way to encourage replayability and homing your skills at the game. The main issues I have with the speed gameplay are Crazy Gadget and Final Chase where the latter especially feels very janky, having the bounce attack and the Light Speed Dash mapped to the same button, and the spindash delay though that's a nitpick. Now here's where things get interesting. Unlike SA1 where you could choose which playstyle you wanted to play as, in this game you are forced to play as the alternate playstyles. While I am someone who doesn't mind this change as someone who enjoys all of the playstyles in SA2, it's not too hard to see why someone might dislike this change and prefer SA1 as a result. Aside from the gameplay I can get behind this change as it makes the plot easier to follow. I also feel like the alternate playstyles are implemented better because in this game the levels are fully designed around each character's unique abilities unlike SA1 where the characters would be plopped into existing levels for the most part. There's also no Big or Amy so that's cool. The treasure hunting gameplay with Knuckles/Rouge to me isn't that bad and can actually be pretty fun once you know how to utilize the hint system to find the treasure instead of purely relying on the radar. The nerfed radar where it only tracks one treasure at the time does suck, and while I didn't mind it [I]that[/I] much, it would have been really helpful in a level such as Mad Space. Another thing that makes me prefer these stages over SA1's is that the controls are more refined and feel great to play around with. Overall, my favorite hunting stages are Meteor Hurd, Pumpkin Hill, and Dry Lagoon, while my least favorites are Mad Space, Aquatic Mine, and Death Chamber. Onto the mech gameplay with Tails/Eggman, which might be my 2nd favorite playstyle. The gameplay loop of racking up combos to get a high score is simple yet addictive. The level design is also pretty fun to navigate through and solve puzzles, though platforming without the hover upgrade can feel clunky, and a few of the enemy placements can feel cheap. My favorite stages were Hidden Base, Cosmic Wall, and Weapon's Bed, while my least favorites were Iron Gate and Prison Lane. Now onto some more general stuff. The bosses were alright and engaging enough, and at worst they're just inoffensive. Particularly the character battles got a massive upgrade as they require a bit of strategy instead of just being a massive joke. Some of my highlights were the King Boom Boo fight with how it utilizes Knuckles moveset, and the final boss is pretty solid as it can be fairly challenging, and the spectacle is just cool. The cutscenes were a major step-up from SA1 in where they actually feel watchable, although some of the mo-cap animations can look a bit awkward and the sound mixing is especially poor in the 2012 digital releases. At the end of the day, even if SA1 might arguably do some things better such as the speed stages or the soundtrack, I think SA2 is better as an overall package, but both are great in their own right. If you're considering checking out SA2 via the 2012 PC port, I recommend checking out the mods in BlazeHedgehog's video on the definitive way of playing SA2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHt5PP3abfE&

NOTE: This review was done on the PC version of SADX with the Dreamcast Conversion mod to make the port more akin to the original Dreamcast release. Sonic Adventure, despite its issues such as the camera being janky sometimes, the poor presentation of the cutscenes or the pitiful bosses, it's still an awesome game in its own right. The soundtrack does a great job at fitting the scale of the game and the overall tone. Presentation aside from the cutscenes the original DC version looks nice, with some effects being pretty impressive such as the advanced transparency effects. The hub worlds do a great job at worldbuilding and feeling like an actual place, though I'll be honest and say that there were times where I had to lookup where to go next. Now for the length part: my quick overviews of each campaign as I felt like that was the best way to articulate my thoughts. Sonic's campaign is the main highlight, since this is a Sonic adventure. Sonic controls feel smooth as butter and are really fun to play around with, especially the spindash for cool shortcuts and finding secrets. His stages are the best out of any campaign, with the highlights being Red Mountain for its scale and the transition from a mountain into the inside of a magma cave, and Speed Highway for its sense of speed and spectacle. Tails' campaign is solid enough for the most part. While he is pretty fun to play as with his flight ability, it can feel a bit bland. The highlight for me here is the character development where throughout the story Tails learns to be more self-dependent which is nice. Knuckles' campaign is pretty good and more fun than Tails to me as I found his moveset of climbing walls, gliding and digging to be much more interesting, and the treasure hunting stages are really fun to play with his moveset. Here's where things start to fall off a bit. Amy's campaign, while it has pretty interesting level design, I didn't really find that much fun in playing due to her more sluggish controls that feels stiff to me. Big's campaign was... something. It doesn't take that long once you learn how the fishing mechanics work, which can be tough to figure out. Froggy latching onto the bait was the hardest part, everything else was manageable enough. You can beat it in under an hour with enough skill. His campaign alongside Amy's is a tossup for me as being my 2 least favorite campaigns. Gamma's campaign is actually pretty decent, and far more enjoyable than the last 2 campaigns. It's simply just fun to blast through the enemies to try and rack up points under a time limit, albeit the boss fights are the biggest jokes so far, and the sound design for Gamma is a bit annoying. The story gets sad towards the end though, which really sticks out to me after Gamma learned about the concept of empathy. The final boss is alright and a solid way to end off the story, although the fight itself is very repetitive. Overall, Sonic Adventure is still very much worth your time, with the best ways to experience it being the original Dreamcast version, or even better the PC port as you can use the Dreamcast Conversion mod to fix the shortcomings and mods in general, and you get some DX benefits such as the gameplay running at 60fps.

Overall, it was a wonderful time with the great visuals, a catchy soundtrack, expressive animations, and the unique ideas such as the Piranha Plant wonder effect, the slime, and the Goomba. The badge system also adds a lot of replay value to the game with the additions it adds to your moveset. I also appreciate the large number of new enemies that were added to spice up the gameplay. The break time and the other mini-challenges were a nice breaks to take in between the main levels. There are some notable issues however, such as how the bosses prior to final Bowser were just Jr. over and over again, with Worlds 3 and 5 not having a boss at all. Some wonder effects and badges feel like filler, the game can feel too easy at times and World 3 was pretty mediocre. Despite that, I’d still give the game a 9/10, and even if you may not be a 2D Mario fan it’s still worth checking out.