The next 3D Sonic Game has finally been revealed. While rumors are circulating about it, Sega has yet to formally reveal any details about this mysterious new title. Before Sega comes it and tells us everything about it, let’s fill this void with some requests for this new game.
The quality of the 3D games has been a rollercoaster ride over the last few decades, to say the least. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Here are a few core improvements that the Sonic Team could make in the next Sonic game that would get it off on the front foot.
Complex Level Design & Longer Levels
Perhaps the worst part of Sonic Forces is how the Sonic Team shifted the gear into reverse and delivered clearly inferior 3D levels as compared to what was seen in Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, or even the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed.
The only excuse that would make any sense is that Sonic Forces was rushed. It’s not a particularly good one, but it would at least make some sense as there is no other reason for the Sonic Team to mess with what was working so well.
Sonic Generations built on what Sonic Colors and Sonic Unleashed had put in place when it came to 3D level design, and it ended up becoming among the best 3D Sonic games to date. The stages were beautiful, most of them took around five minutes give or take to complete for the average player, and there were plenty of alternate routes that players could explore. They were just fun to play and mostly free of any pain points that had plagued the 3D series to that point such as glitches or lame deaths.
Sonic Forces just decided to do away with all of that. The courses were far shorter, there was very little variation, and most of the stages were just not fun to play. I played through Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations multiple times for faster times just because the stages were fun to play through. I cannot even recall the name of a single stage of Sonic Forces. Couldn’t pick them out of a lineup if my life depended on it because they were just so unmemorable.
Tighter Physics and Gameplay
I don’t want this entire article to turn into “undo what Sonic Forces did” but… kind of yeah that’s what needs to happen. Another sin of Sonic Forces is that for whatever reason they decided to just completely nuke the well-received physics and feel of Sonic Generations and replace it with something that was just objectively worse.
Before Sonic Mania re-established the 2D Genesis-style series, Sonic Generations was probably the best feeling Sonic game with 2D elements in years. Even if Classic Sonic in that game didn’t feel as good as the Genesis games, it was still very playable and it was definitely better than Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and other recent attempts at 2D.
The same can be said of the 3D gameplay as well. Sonic Unleashed got it right with its Daytime stages. Sonic Colors and Sonic Unleashed improved on that feeling to make it even better. It still wasn’t for everyone, but it had established a fanbase that could appreciate it.
Sonic Forces came along and threw all of that progress in the garbage for its own brand of subpar gameplay. Jumping and moving in 2D felt awful, worse than even Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in that regard. It was also the worst feeling 3D game since Sonic 06. Sonic was incredibly difficult to control, and the platforming as a result is imprecise. The game was either faceroll easy or when there was something that could kill you, filled with cheap deaths because of how poor the physics were.
I really hope that for whatever the next 3D Sonic game is called, the Sonic Team has done some serious self-reflection, gone through what has and hasn’t worked over the last few 3D games, and have put together a product that feels good to play.
No one wants to control a loosey-goosey Sonic that just is a nightmare to control any time he isn’t boosting in a straight line. Slow the gameplay down if you need to, but get it right and make it fun.
An Establishment of Its Own Identity
The Sonic Team for years now feels like it’s chasing trends and coming up years short. Ironically, for as much as I’ve trashed Sonic Forces in this article, it was probably the only game in recent memory that at least attempted to establish an identity of its own.
For decades it seems as though the Sonic Team looks around the gaming landscape, looking to see what is popular, and then tries (and usually fails) to shoehorn something into their Sonic games that don’t belong. Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Unleashed’ nighttime stages, Sonic Lost World’s years’ late attempt at copying Super Mario Galaxy, the list goes on.
The Sonic Team just keeps trying new things with every passing game and the series never seems to grow as a result. Sometimes, the shit they throw at the wall does stick, as we saw with Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors. But instead of peeling that off the wall, and working on it, the Sonic Team just keeps throwing shit.
Please Sonic Team, find a formula that works on a basic level and that you’re comfortable with and stick with it. Even if this new Sonic game doesn’t get perfect scores across the board if they are capable of responding to the feedback they can patch it up, improve it and take what worked and continue to build on that aspect of the game. If they don’t have to start from scratch with every single 3D game, they might be able to even release more often, and to improved critical and commercial recognition.
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