Sonic The Hedgehog – 1990’s to 2000’s – 2D to 3D

For my observation, I will be comparing the Sonic The Hedgehog video games franchise in the 1990s

and the 2000s in terms of success, design and gameplay. I will be covering the majority of the games

that had the most influential impact into the gaming universe, whether they were critically

acclaimed or controversial. I chose to pick this topic because I think that both use of 2D and 3D

platforms in each instalments have taken part in directing these games as time passed. We can also

notice their style of gameplay adapting towards multiple target audiences.

To begin, the first game to be released in the franchise was

Sonic The Hedgehog that debuted in1991. In attempts to

tackle the already successful Super Mario Bros, Sega had the

intention to switch the emphasis from platforms to speed

running. This approach gave the company a massive success,

allowing the blue hedgehog’s capability to be driven forward.

It is stated by Frank Provo of GameSpot that he expresses this

game to be “one of the best platformers of all time".

This game features hazards, obscuring stages from becoming a

breeze to play through and interactive objects that allowed

Sonic to advance through his side-scrolling adventure in

return. In terms of graphics, this game was at its peak with a

pleasant display of imaginative background and character

design into one of the fastest paced games of all time at this

era of time.

A year later, a new game was released called Sonic The

Hedgehog 2. In this game, Sonic was on another adventure to

stop Dr. Robotnik from turning wildlife into blood thirsty

robots. However, he was not alone in this battle, as a new character was introduced into the

franchise known as Mile “Tails” Prower. From the get go, we can already see Sega continuing to

improve gamer’s experience with the chance to have a second player join in as Sonic’s trustworthy

sidekick.

Continuing to impress, Sega release Sonic

The Hedgehog CD which featured 2 new

characters; Amy Rose and Metal Sonic.

Also, the opening theme song was a big

hit with well-placed composition and a

visually eye catching animated music

video. For each stage there was unique

variants of time periods where the player

could go to the past, present or future,

showing different layouts of the stage the

player was engaged with. Adding a form of dystopia played with the player’s heads, as well as

utilising enhanced graphics in special stages in particular with the 3D-like effect.

With a closer focus to plot, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles told the story of a new

character called Knuckles the Echidna. This game allowed players to save game progress to the

game cartridge, including being able to choose between Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as a playable

character. Although these games are separate, they were intended to be a single game to compact

all of the new features but finance and time consumption restricted this decision.

When Sega moved away from the

second dimension, Sega had worked on

a new title that feature 3D sprites called

Sonic 3D Blast. Despite the game

claiming to be a 3D platformer, it is

proven that this game is technically

operated in 2.5D since the player

cannot freely move around in an open

space with a full and spacious

perspective of the levels, meaning the

viewpoint is 2D. Other issues rose by

critics included a lack of purpose in the

game that was wanted players to emerge into the game. To elaborate further, Lucas M. Thomas of

IGN mentioned that "the sense of speed and intense action that Sonic's name was built on is absent

here, replaced by, essentially, a looping, lazy

fetchquest". In comparison to the previous

games, this is slow paced with an explorative

approach on the player using the space to

use Sonic in a different vision that we can’t

see in the past few games.

Although it is not fully 3D, this was a

courageous step towards creating something

new for fans of the franchise. Tis proved to

be a path worth following since the fully

fledged 3D game called Sonic Adventure was

a major hit in 1998. Considered one of the

best games of the franchise, this game

features high speed gameplay, a fully

interactive world to explore and a wide cast

of characters of play as with their own story

to tell and how they collide to the main plot.

Their success was that high, the game was rebooted as Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut in 2003.

This included new features like Metal Sonic becoming a playable character under certain conditions.

On top of this, the graphics were majorly improved with the alteration of the background and

character designs. From this,

we can see that textures look

more appealing and realistic,

characters are given more

expressions which make them

look much more animated

and finer details have been

added to add depth of field.

Also, previous Sonic games

were unlockable in the game,

such as Sonic Drift and Sonic

Spinball.

As the 2000s were approaching, Sega were already

set on working with 3D since at the time their

previous title was critically acclaimed. This led to the

creation of another fantastic instalment in 2001,

called Sonic Adventure 2. In a nut shell, this took

everything that didn’t impress players from the

previous game of this sequel and made it something

to be praised in this game. Vast amounts of features

were improved like voice acting, soundtracks, level

designs and much more. In this game, each

character has a style of gameplay that is unique to

them, like high speed stages for Sonic and Shadow,

mechanical shooting with Tails and Eggman and

treasure hunting for Knuckles and Rouge.

After some time, this game was given extra features

with the reboot on the GameCube known as Sonic

Adventure 2 Battle. It included additions to the highly addictive Chao Garden and being able to play

against another player in battle mode with

additional characters for this mode alone. The

Chao Garden has cute creatures that players

can raise and train with the playable

characters. In terms of 3D development, we

can see how this has allowed them to add new

features in their games that are more than just

dashing through stages, meaning that changing

their direction hasn’t been bad.

In 2003, Sonic Heroes was released with a new

way to play as Sonic and his friends. With a

great way of incorporating teamwork into

gameplay, this game used the focus on working

together into action as the player could play as different teams to guide them through stages with

different ways to play on demand. This included using

a Power type character to smash through walls and

enemies or use a Flying type character to ascend their

team mates into the air. As well as high end visuals,

the game had a good crisp appearance that made the

game look squeaky clean, which added on to its

success.

At this point of time, this is where the franchise were

experiencing heavy fire for their controversial

instalments from the period 2004 to 2010. However,

their pattern of providing new experiences for players

was improving hugely, as they took on the 3D world of

gaming to the new level, as graphics were more

distinctive and attractive, as they took the advantage of showing the capacity of 3D high speed

platforming and made new genres for themselves.

Starting with the most

immense change of tone,

Sega wanted to give fans

the full story of Shadow

The Hedgehog by self-

titling a game in his

humour in 2005. As soon

as players started playing

this game, it was like Sega

was going through a

phase. Lots of dark colours

and behaviour was put

into this title for setting

the attitude for the

character but it is seen as

little bit too intense due to the questionable introduction of weapons and guns into a Sonic game,

which is clearly tackling the appeal to a younger audience. However, it added an intriguing element

to the game, as players could dash around whilst blasting away evil creatures.

Shortly after this game, one of the worst Sonic games was released in 2006 called Sonic The

Hedgehog. Straight away, fans

were very disappointed for its

confusing storyline, wobbly

controls and unappealing

graphics. More than anything,

this was a game that wasn’t

suitable to be played at all with

the dodgy mechanics. Although

the level designs were attractive,

it covers up its stability.

However, this game proved that

Sega can make Sonic much faster

in terms of gameplay, but poorly

achieved this in this title. GT rounded out this game to be "flat-out unfinished, unfairly difficult, and

most importantly, just isn't much fun."

Attempting to make a recovery from a major loss,

Sega looked towards the Nintendo platforms for

some luck which did in turn help them out with the

release of Sonic and the Secret Rings in 2007 and

Sonic and the Black Knight in 2009. These games

looked at combining fast gameplay with added

mechanics that would make the game more fun to

play. This had a great intervention with the Wii,

since the Wii Remote gave the gameplay the

capacity it needed to have more interaction with

the player. Also, level designs and concepts were

coming back as some nice visuals to praise.

With a more ambitious approach, Sonic Unleashed was released in 2008 to grab the attention of

fans into a gripping adventure that will take them across the world – literally. Incorporating

exploration into the real world along, this added more to the game as the player could travel to

various places of the earth. Also, Sonic has the power to turn into a Werehog but without his

control. This allows the player to smash their way through stages with strength and hack and slash

style gameplay, along with never faster than before action stages.

Near the end of this era was the release

of Sonic Colours in 2010, which gave Sega

a great recovery from a hard fall. This

gave Sonic a rejuvenation by allowing him

to use the power of wisps to gain ne ways

other progressing through levels such as

turning into a drill to burrow through the

ground. With beautiful visuals and a great

plot that was fresh and original, this

allowed the game to shine with a great

way of adapting the fast packed

gameplay into something more

entertaining.

Heading back into the 2D platforms, Sega went

back to their origins with the release of the Sonic

Advance trilogy. Looking back at what made the

franchise head into fame, this looks at their classic

style with a reboot. Mechanics for 2D were

majorly improved, as the gameplay had a great

flow of speed and control.

This was revisited in 2005 with Sonic Rush. This

game introduced a new character called Blaze the

Cat and included a boost ability for the first time

in the franchise ad was used in the 3D games to

add more depth and progression in these

immersive stages. Also, this game allowed Sonic

and Blaze to perform stunts and tricks to make

the gameplay have a better pace and flow, so

that the players won’t get bored or feel like that

the game is playing itself.

Again, Sega went back to 2D in 2010 with Sonic

The Hedgehog 4 An addition to the first sequel,

allowing long-time fans to feel the nostalgia of

the first games with a much faster pace of

speed. Also, the visuals had a glossy effect in the

stages, which made the backgrounds and level

design stand out whilst dashing to the goal ring.

Even with the flexible controls, this game still

gave players a challenge just like the first games

of the franchise to start with.

To conclude my observation, I can see that the 2D platforms achieved an addictive gameplay

behaviour with a complimentary soundtrack to match this. Also, background and character design

was limited to do with the low use of graphics,

since the screen is restricted to a letter box side-

scrolling view. However, high speed platforming

works effectively as players’ progress through

vast amounts of stage, slowly making the game

harder as they progress.

With 3D, a new world can be seen as this shows

the capability of creating an environment where

the player can sprint through gorgeous scenery

and level design. As well as this, execution of

storylines were top notch as the story could be

told as if the player is in the game. This shows

how we can come close to reality, with

mechanics that exceeds the need of pace, flow

and speed.

Change may possibly be the downfall of this franchise but

this should be seen as a bad point, since it is a vital part of

life in order to appeal towards new generations of

gamers. Also, Sega showed that take risks is not all in

vain, as they could learn from their mistakes and work on

what went wrong to creative game that meets the

requirements for their loyal fans and new players.