Board 8 > True or False - Sonic was never a great franchise.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Curious what everyone here thinks. Personally I believe the genesis games were good but flawed, and about 90% of what had come out since then is mediocre (Mania is good). Does that make the franchise great? A handful of quality in a sea of turds? Or was Sonic 2006 a gem only the most brilliant of hardcore gamers understand?

My similar topic on a different board has gathered some unique perspectives from both sides and discussion if anyone is interested:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/213-nonstop-gaming-general/77831341

Who are yooouuuu?
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This topic is a bit too 2005 to bring up no?

Shadow The Hedgehog (2005) killed it.

Without a definition of "great" it's a pointless discussion
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It was unanimously great while the Mega Drive/Genesis lasted at least.
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XIII_rocks posted...

Without a definition of "great" it's a pointless discussion

I suppose by Great I'm thinking hall of fame.

Like sports, we look at your accomplishments and your body of work. Has sonic been amazing the majority of the time over the course of its history? Has it held standards?

I was never a fan, but I get why people liked it.
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Yao posted...

XIII_rocks posted...

Without a definition of "great" it's a pointless discussion

I suppose by Great I'm thinking hall of fame.

Like sports, we look at your accomplishments and your body of work. Has sonic been amazing the majority of the time over the course of its history? Has it held standards?

"Was never" implies that it was never great at any point in its history. I'd argue that it was "great" at one point in the Genesis era.
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I think most of his enduring popularity comes from the cartoons.
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Through Adventure 2 it had many hits with few duds.
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The Genesis era was great. After that, no other period was great, although a few individual games like Mania have been great.
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It had its high points, but at no point was it ever better than Mario.
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Honestly, true. The period people look back on fondly only ran from 1991-1994 and arguably the last part of that trilogy already didn't have the impact of the first two.

With that said, I actually think there have been more great games since - Advance 1&2, Rush, and Mania are really good but never get the attention that the "mainline" games get.
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It really wasn't
It was good for it's time compared to other shit, but never on top, never "legendary"
Level design was never really good. I still remember that in Marble Garden Zone there was a Mantis who you just had to crash with if you moved fast as the level wants you to
Not to mention some spikes rising from the ground
It made me scratch my head and wonder if I need to play it fast or slow, it's super dumb

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are the best games in the series and they are 8/10 at best
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It was great from 1991-1994.
Just like grunge music.
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Not really imo but

Yao posted...

Like sports, we look at your accomplishments and your body of work. Has sonic been amazing the majority of the time over the course of its history? Has it held standards?

It's one of the most successful franchises of all time so, by this comparison, yeah, easily.
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tazzyboyishere posted...

Not really imo but

Yao posted...

Like sports, we look at your accomplishments and your body of work. Has sonic been amazing the majority of the time over the course of its history? Has it held standards?

It's one of the most successful franchises of all time so, by this comparison, yeah, easily.

Popularity doesnt equal career accolades

LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

It was great from 1991-1994.
Just like grunge music.

To follow up on my comment.

And just like grunge music, Sonic from that time period is still greatly enjoyed today.
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Nah but it hit greatness with sonic adventure 2
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XIII_rocks posted...

Without a definition of "great" it's a pointless discussion

Consider the quality of posts from this user, I think "great" includes at least Sonic Heroes
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How is a system seller not great?

Oh and in my opinion Sonic (among other platform heroes in the 16bit era) showed how boring 2D Mario really was..
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pjbasis posted...

Nah but it hit greatness with sonic adventure 2

Something hit SA2 but I don't think it was greatness

Also the Genesis Sonics are all good, and S3&K is one of the greatest platformers ever
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Zylothewolf posted...

How is a system seller not great?

Oh and in my opinion Sonic (among other platform heroes in the 16bit era) showed how boring 2D Mario really was..

Lol wat.
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Sega does what Nintendon't
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Waluigi1 posted...

Zylothewolf posted...

How is a system seller not great?

Oh and in my opinion Sonic (among other platform heroes in the 16bit era) showed how boring 2D Mario really was..

Lol wat.

I'm with him on that. I've never "gotten" Mario. Still don't. I have Odyssey on my Switch and it isn't grabbing me. And I think one of the reasons why is because I played Sonic as a kid and going to Mario after Sonic just felt like a step down.
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I just feel bad for you.
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Ok
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Oh no people dont have the same opinions I do oh noooo I feel bad for you
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Well I didn't want to be mean and insult his bad taste so I went with that. But I can say he has terrible taste and Sonic is a bad series instead if you want?
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Jesus christ, dude
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Good 16 bit games, mediocre 3D outings. A bit like Mario in that respect.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Uglyface2 posted...

Good 16 bit games, mediocre 3D outings. A bit like Mario in that respect.

What

Sonic 1-3 are like console defining games. Maybe not the absolute best games on the system, but still I consider them top tier. That said, they are nowhere near as good as like Mario's comparable games. Mario just has better level design, more variety in things you can do, and I think the difficulty curve for the games are also a lot better. Like, down the road it was clear that Nintendo wanted Mario to be what Mario was and made his 3D innovations based on a creative vision and trying to innovate something new. Sometimes it really works out (like in 64) and other times it doesn't (like in sunshine). But you compare that to Sonic's eventual 3D outings in like 06, shadow, etc, and it's clear that they tried to continue to base the character on what made him popular in the early 90s. Of course, a lot of things contributed to the downfall of the Sonic franchise (like bad games), but simply Sega's inability to understand what their fans and gamers actually wanted surely contributed.
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