I mean, I never has a die hard fan of the series, but I enjoyed the games, and the quality has gone downhill. I'd just like to think that side scrolling was more of their strong suit, and while they try with the 3D games, I think they're running out of ideas.

Not to sound like a die-hard fan, but I really have enjoyed almost every 3D Sonic game released, barring of course the Sonic Riders games(they're.... so-so at best), and I don't even have the ability to play the 360/PS3 Sonic since they refuse to 'dumb it down' to Wii level.  I could take a PC version too ya know....ah well, the story was over-inflated and sucky anyway.  I'd chalk that one up to trying to outdo their previous games WAY too much.


Anyway, lemmie tab through them.  Adventure was a GREAT break into 3D compared to other series' attempts.  It still had the speed, varied some levels with different gameplay mechanics, and for the time, just looked, played, and sounded great.  Comparing it to other future titles beyond its release, sure, you might think it sucked....but it really did up the ante from what a lot of PS1 and even some PS2 platformers did.

SA2 dropped the character select and world-hub-adventure sort of deal, but the story flowed really well, a lot of problems were fixed, and on the Dreamcast side of things, it was the first fully 3D game I'd ever played in 60fps, and it felt GREAT.  Literally, within minutes of playing it, I popped in SA1, played it for a few minutes, and then played SA2 again just to get the full effect.  Anyway, the gameplay itself was a little more varied and refined, the levels were interesting, and the added Emblem Challenges were pretty challenging and even fun, if a little frustrating.

Heros was a nice throwback to the older 2D games, but still not on par with S3&K.  Its worst problem was that, despite different characters, the game played roughly the same each and every time, and having to do it four different times annoying.  Worse, it was an absolute CHORE to make sure to get what you needed in order to get to the Emerald stages, which were actually harder and more frustrating than even Sonic 2's emerald stages(which I only compare to because of the pipe-theme, otherwise they were more superior than SH's full-pipe crap).  It was a decent game overall, and props to it for bringing back Metal Sonic, although by time he was in 'play', he was a huge malformed boss that didn't really make you feel like you were battling Metal Sonic anyway.  I'd say that out of the actual 3D Sonic games that I've played, this one is the least interesting, but exactly unplayable.

And what I'm sure most fans would hate on forever, I'd say that Shadow the Hedgehog was better than Heros, and much more fun to actually play(in the early levels anyway).  Look: the game does not center around guns, but if used properly, the gun mechanics actually work very well ---- FOR GAMECUBE.  Just recently LuizPrower showed a comparison of how it plays on PS2, and it was MUCH worse on PS2....given that most people seemed to always get the PS2 version of anything back then, it's almost no wonder they're disappointed with the game.  Otherwise, Shadow does suck for its Ark-Colony levels(which required you to destroy or save certain things in what was basically a HUUUUGE maze and that one item left you could just never find easily), and also for the fact that it does NOT explain anything new, and even seems to forget some of the others(like Maria possibly being the president's secretary....never mentioned at all, just implies that she's dead).  The ending and last-boss also suck, and it's a chore to unlock the last-boss since you have to get something like 14 different endings.  But you know what....it's actually still a fun game, as long as you go into it without the hive-mind idea that it sucks.

And finally the Wii game, Secret Rings or whatever.  Y'know, they did do a good job on it, both gameplay and graphics wise, the music is pretty good overall, and it's a decent game overall.  But it's a little harder to get into.....part of it is presentation.  Level and mission select menus are awful.  Even the menu for selecting your Ring Powers is awful, and takes too long to Save/Load.  If the menus and game progression played a little more intuitive like in SA2, it would almost be a superior game....barring the slight 'on-rails' factor, which isn't too much difference from the original 2D games, but still without enough secondary paths.

And like I said, I haven't played the 360/PS3 version at all, so I can only say that I know the story sucks because I read it/watched it, and it made me cringe ... very very much.


Anyway, the new upcoming game looks good, sans werewolf-crap(he's a "fur" already, why does he need to become a different one?), but I'll agree that I don't think Sonic games have come anywhere near the quality that S3&K had/HAS, which is still the most favorite game in the series for me.  I DO think that the media has developed a massive hive-mind against Sonic lately, and like Pokemon(but worse since there aren't as many backers left), it's just become 'cool to hate'.  Hopefully the new game will clear things up, but I have a feeling it'll be a mediocre fan-game at best(good for fans, "decent" to everyone else), and that'll just make the haters rake on any flaws it has.

Sonic adventure 2 battle was by far the best sonic game. where is sonic adventure 3 battle?!

Sorry, just voicing  my opinion.
SA1>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SA2.

They added angst, and that's a bad thing. The day we should take Sonic games seriously is the day Nintendo will make a Mario GTA.

Well, what I liked about the original is that you didn't have to deal with certain characters stages if you didn't like that kind of stage or like the character, but other than that, I thought that the gameplay was improved upon greatly.