Hello, friends.
I am REallyN, you might know me from my critically acclaimed Lesbian and Sonic megathreads, the latter being what I wish to talk to you about today.

Since playing the games on the GameCube as a lil' kid I've always been a big Sonic fan, but it seems like the recent string of games have been looked on particularly negatively even by fans like me who will generally defend even the more controversial titles like Black Knight and Unleashed.
Too quote one review on steam:

Sonic Forces tries to be a bad 3D Sonic game without any of the charm of the bad games and it fails, completely.

As funny as the comment is, I think it makes a salient point.
Despite how weird or bad in some areas alot of Sonic games could be there was always this charm to them that alot of fans (or atleast alot of fans like me) could appreciate.

Sonic Team seems very aware and insecure that the popular conception of their games is that the 3D ones are dogshit compared to the 2D ones and I think recently it has led to the creation of games that can't stand on their own two feet and pleases no one.
Sonic Generations is a great game, but I think the sucess of it unwittingly put this ball into motion to the point where ST feels the need to hamfistedly shoehorn Classic Sonic into Forces.
This direction makes Lost World and Forces feel kind of like formulaic nostalgia cash-grab attempts that lack the heart/charm of the other "bad" games and it suffers for it.

Gameplay wise Lost World actually had alot of the building blocks to be an interesting take on the Sonic formula.
With a new parkour system, a backflip that serves as a double jump, and the ability to kick enemies into each other in lieu of just homing attacking them.
But the level design really underutilizes these aspects and there are alot of gimmicky sections like rolling into a snowball and slowly trying not to fall like those parts in Mario Galaxy.
Now I'm not opposed to gimmicks in a Sonic game, but to compare it to Unleashed which also introduced a new take on Sonics playstyle, the werehog night sections don't take away from the many great fast pasted and fun day levels that really utilize the new mechanics.
It's just an added bonus.
Or look at Shadow the Hedgehog which has an (honestly) really weird playstyle, but it firmly stands on it's own odd-cringey-edgey feet atleast, while Lost World desperately tries to emulate the 2D games.

They try to slap this nostalgic coat of paint on everything in Lost World.
From the aesthetics of the Lost Hex trying to capture the look of the classic levels, to the homing attack being more bouncy and arched to resemble the original games.
Eggman is again capturing animals in those capsule things and even the badniks are back.

Now trying to synthesize aspects from the 3D and 2D games isn't bad in and of itself, but in this case it comes off as corporate shallow and insecure.
It's a shame because Sonic Colors was a game that I think did this really well while still retaining it's own sense of identity, and that came out years before.
Colors gameplay is a really good blend of the boost mechanics from Unleashed while adding 2/2.5D platforming from the first games.
The Wisps are a cute alien combination of the captured animals and chaos emeralds while also offering their own unique gameplay.
The enviroments are whimsical and beautiful and don't feel rehashed.
And while I wouldn't say it has the best writing out of any Sonic game, it still manages to capture and harken back to the environmental message of the old games while also having some of the heart of the 3D stories.

Speaking of stories, let's move on from gameplay and focus on that alittle.
Since Adventure the games stories have been a combination of saturday morning cartoon with a mix of stuff that is more deeper and serious.
This is too varying degrees of course.
I would say Adventure 2 leans the most into the serious and Heroes the most into the the saturday morning vibe in it's own charmingly cheesy way.
Unleashed imo perfecting this blend.
(even with Dark Gaia being so similar to Chaos which is the most dogshit part of that game)

Despite how mediocre those games and their writing could be there were still moments with genuine emotional weight to them and a sincerity that I think alot of fans found charming in spite of everything.
Sonic was a character that stood for things.
Like freedom, perseverance, standing by your convictions, friendship and living life to the fullest.

And while I think Colors was able to retain some of this heart, it definitely started the writing trend that would lose it.
Alot of the cutscenes (not all mind you) in that game just serve to have sonic make some kind of quip and it gets even worse in Lost World.
The Deadly Six aren't characters they are bosses, and even Chaos a character designed around being a boss, who doesn't talk at all, and is subject to the limitations of late 90's videogame story telling manages to have more depth to them.
If this was any previous game Sonic would eventually have some kind of heart to heart with them and they would team up against Eggman at the end.
But instead they just show up, sonic says a quip and beats them, and they disappear.
Eggman is still the final boss of the game but it's just kind of pulled out of nowhere and there is no climactic arc for these newly introduced characters.

I feel like I am rambling now and somewhere along the way it turned into a rant about Lost World, but I hope this post shines some insight on what I think the Sonic series has lost and why that potentially could be.

Heres hoping Frontier is actually good :so-true: