• Everything Wrong With Sonic 06
• Everything Wrong With Sonic Unleashed Movie
• Everything Wrong With Sonic Unleashed Movie

'Sup gamers, CTA here. Guess what? More Sonic content! Forces came out a few days ago, its release made me play a marathon, making want to just keep talking about Sonic. If it's not obvious, I love Sonic. It's my favorite franchise of all time. Even though he's had a few slip ups, I will continue to support him until his last game, which I hope will not happen. People often debate on which games are the best, often the: original trilogy, adventure 1 & 2, or the modern trilogy. I fall into the modern trilogy category. Unleashed, Generations, and Colors are some of my favorite games of all time, and it's time to put them up against each other, and seeing how Forces compares to them. I will specifically be comparing Unleashed on the PS3, Colors on the Wii, Generations on the PS3, and Forces on the Switch. It's a four game battle royale! Be warned, this is an extremely long post. And oh boy, I have a LOT of work ahead of me.

Warning

Where do I begin? Unleashed is probably the best form of gameplay Sonic has ever had. Unleashed not only invented the modern formula, it almost perfected it. The stages are so insanely fun to play. Seriously, I can't say specifically why I enjoy Unleashed levels more than Generations, there's just something about them that is more fun.

Spoilers ahead! I will be talking about the story, every level, and every boss in extreme detail! There's nothing to spoil for Colors and Generations, but this warning is definitely for Unleashed and Forces. You have been warned!

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Table of contents:

Story/cutscenes

Graphics

Music

Gameplay & controls

Gimmicks

Level design & stage design

Length & difficulty

Bosses

Extra content

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Story/cutscenes

Unleashed

Unleashed has hands down one of the best stories in the series. The game begins with probably one of the best openings I've seen. You start off facing Eggman's armada on the edge of space, mowing down robots and avoiding gunfire. You face Eggman in a mech as he's literally shooting at you with bullets and rockets, and then he grabs Sonic. As he has Sonic in his grips, Sonic has all 7 emeralds at the start off the game and goes Super, tearing through his armada. Eggman escapes to this tower-like station and begs Sonic for mercy. He than tricks and traps Sonic into a stasis field, then drains the chaos emeralds of their power. Using that power, he then fires a laser cannon at the planet, and literally shatters the planet, awakening Dark Gaia who is sealed within the core. The Dark Gaia energy transforms Sonic into the Werehog, giving him lots of strength plus stretch arms (which doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's still cool) Eggman then sends Sonic plummeting to his doom along with the Emeralds. Dark Gaia however cannot not sustain his own weight due to a premature awakening. This is all one single cutscene! Sonic survives of course (Sonic has a habit of surviving impossible falls). He then meets a new companion, Chip, who lost his memory, and restore the planet. So now Sonic has to get the 7 Emeralds to each of the Gaia temples across the globe to restore their power, and return the planet back to its original form. But seriously, the opening cutscene is extremely epic and probably my favorite opening to a game ever.

The story is great, the voice acting is great (I think the got Sonic's voice perfect in this game), and the cutscenes are also great. As much as I hate to admit, most of the Sonic series has terrible and cringy cutscenes. Unleashed is one of the few games that has good cutscenes. I absolutely love Chip. He's a goofy, funny companion with cartoony moments that make things funny, while still having the cutscenes being serious. When most of the games try to be funny, it's either forced, cringy, or just not funny. Unleashed does it perfectly by staying serious, but say have Chip just floating there in the background while literal cartoon sound effects play. I'm very upset that we'll probably never see Chip again.

Colors

Ugh, let's just start off with the story itself. It's MUCH more simplistic. Almost Mario simplistic. Eggman builds a huge theme park called 'Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park' that connects five planets; and that may or may not be involved with any evil plans or premeditated misdeeds (it definitely is). So Sonic discovers that Eggman captured the five planets to steal the energizing aliens that live on them, called Wisps, and started stealing them for energy to power a mind control machine. So with the help of a wisp named Yacker and Tails' nonfunctional translator, you have to go to each planet and release the grips Eggman has on them and free the aliens. That's it. It's simplistic, but there's really nothing wrong with the story.

The cutscenes on the other hand, the cutscenes are so bad. The writers of Colors had never played a Sonic game, so they literally went on YouTube and looked up past cutscenes to write the script. They are so cringy! All of the lines and jokes just fall flat, and you just cringe about every moment. The only redeemable part of the cutscenes are Orbot and Cubot.

Generations

Generations is also a bit simplistic on the story side. Sonic's friends throw him a surprise birthday party, but as the party starts, a time monster, called the Time Eater, drags everyone into portals, even Sonic. Sonic wakes up in this empty white dimension, off in the distance he's sees a familiar place, but it's empty and without color. After blazing through the area, Sonic restores life and color to that area while also restoring Tails. However, unknown to them, Sonic's younger self (or Sonic from another dimension, depends if the one from Forces is the same one) is also doing the same thing. Sonic eventually runs into his past self plus past Tails, so together they need to figure out what Eggman's up to, figure out what that monster is, get the 7 chaos emeralds, and restore time to all the areas while also saving their friends.

The story is not the focus of the game, and it works really well. The game is focused entirely on gameplay and remade levels from previous games, and has a story to accomplish this while still focusing on the gameplay. I have a problem though, with Silver. Sonic '06 is not-canon, so the events that happen in that game are irrelevant. So what is Silver doing here? What is his origin in the main series timeline? How does he know Sonic? What is Crisis city doing there? How does Silver even know Blaze, who's not even from the same dimension as Sonic?! The general story Silver has in every iteration is he lives 200 years into a ruined future, but what is his story in the main series? And I'm pretty sure Rivals is not canon. I need answers Sega, and for you to stop neglecting your coolest character! Also, Sonic continuity is a bit of a problem. Eggman and Robotnik get trapped within the empty white realm at the end of the game, with no idea of how to escape; but there he is alive and kicking in future games with no explanation as to how he got out.

Forces

The story is probably the best part about Forces. The game starts off with Sonic heading to face Eggman. When Sonic confronts Eggman, Sonic gets ambushed by past villains, Zavok, Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Chaos, and Eggman reveals his ultimate creation, Infinite. Infinite absolutely annihilates Sonic and kills him!! Okay not really, but that's what everyone, especially Tails, thinks. Eggman then proceeds to conquer 99.9% of the world, and it's up to the Resistance to save the world even though Sonic is 'dead', and there's no hope. A rookie (the avatar) joins the resistance, and you find out Sonic is alive, but has been tortured by Eggman this whole time just so he can show Sonic what he's done to world before he banishes him into space. It's kind of dark and I love it. So you know the rest of it, Sonic escapes joins the Resistance, now they must take back the world, and stop Eggman and Infinite. Classic Sonic also joins at some point for some reason.

The story is very well done. Instead of the standard 'stop bad guy from taking over the world' story, it's a 'bad guy has taken over the world and you have to take it back' story. It's one of the best stories in Sonic, and the cutscenes are pretty well made and voiced. There are a few moments that are meant to be funny, but just come off as slight cringe, but nothing like any previous games. In fact, most of the story is done through the characters talking from these text bar things (I can't figure out how to describe them. It's basically just like Star Fox). But my favorite part of the story is Infinite. Infinite is probably the coolest villain in Sonic's history. His design is awesome, he's powerful, foreboding, and actually threatening (something previous villains like the Deadly Six did not achieve), and his digital powers are just insanely awesome. It's kind of cool how they connect Mania to Forces with Infinite's power being the phantom ruby (spoilers, I guess? Is it even a spoiler if it's incredibly obvious?)

There are a few disappointments to it though. It's very upsetting seeing these 3 villains and Shadow return on Eggman's side, only to find out they are mere projections of the phantom ruby. You don't even fight Shadow and absolutely nothing happens with Chaos. It's very disappointing. Second, it does not explain why Silver is there in the slightest. Yes, there is a supposedly comic that explains the game's story prior and I'm positive Silver is in that, but it still goes with my point of Sega has really yet to give Silver an origin. Everyone knows who he is and that he's from the future, so Sega thinks that's good enough. I'm extremely glad they're including him in things again, but he needs a proper origin. Unless there's some significance of Silver being there in the comics, Silver contributes almost nothing. While I'm on it, Sega has severely undershowed what Silver is capable of. Silver is easily the most powerful heroes, and one of the most powerful characters in the series, but they've yet to show properly the extent of his powers. Alright, I've gone on long enough. Third, Silver being there may seem pointless, but Classic Sonic is even worse. He is so unnecessary and pointless in both the story and gameplay. Classic Sonic literally effects nothing, and his inclusion is only to connect it to Mania and give people Classic Sonic. There are other flaws with the story, but I'm done now.

The story is great. The voice acting is great (except for Omega, they ruined him). I honestly can't decide if this is better than Unleashed's story. I think Unleashed might have it slightly topped, mostly do to the better cutscenes.

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In the story category: Unleashed not only has the best story and cutscenes, it also has great voice acting and Chip. Colors has a simplistic story, which in of itself wouldn't be that bad, but the cutscenes are so terrible and cringy. Generations also has a simplistic story, but it works well with gameplay focused game. Forces also has a great story. It's not perfect, but I'd still call it 2nd best in this series.

Story/cutscenes:

4. Colors

3. Generations

2. Forces

1. Unleashed

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Graphics

This category is actually simple and short. Colors obviously has the worst graphics since it's on the Wii, Generations and Forces both have good graphics, and I don't see one as significantly better than the other. It could be because I have Forces on the switch, so if I had the PS4 version that differences would significant, but I'm just going to say they're tied. Now, I really need to emphasize this point. Unleashed not only has the best graphics of the four, it has the best graphics in the series. I can't stress how beautiful Unleashed looks. Well, that was a short category.

However real quickly, there's something I have to talk about and didn't know where to fit it. That is certain animations of Sonic. Both Unleashed and Generations basically nailed the animations of Sonic's jump and his boost aura. This is what all most modern Sonic boosts should like like. Colors' jump animation is good, but it's boost animation is the worst of the four. Instead of a blue aura surrounding Sonic, it's basic just two rainbow lines on the side of him. Sonic Forces animations are what I really wanted to talk about. First off, his jump. There is just something wrong with his jump animation. It kind of reminds me of his Lego dimensions animation. And his boost animation is also worse, I think it's better than Colors', but worse than the others. In fact, even Infinite and Silver have the same animations in cutscenes too.

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Graphics:

3. Colors

2. Forces

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

Animations

3. Forces

2. Colors

1. Unleashed

1. Generations

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Music

Sonic has the best soundtracks in gaming hands down. Whether a game is good or bad, you can guarantee the music will be amazing (except for Boom; that game had no redeeming qualities). And these four games are no exceptions. I will have 4 different posts than contain some of the best music from each game.

First Unleashed. Unleashed has a phenomenal soundtrack. Not only is every song just simply good, they go absolutely perfect with the game. Every location Unleashed is meant to be a different culture and country, and does it amazing; but even the music fits every location exactly! It's quite impressive for every track to sound like the country it's associated with. Sonic Unleashed music

Colors has a unique sound to its soundtrack that I can't quite explain, but it's really good. Most songs are really catchy, Aquarium park being my favorite, and Reach for the stars is fantastic. I'd just simply call the entire soundtrack good and catchy. Sonic Colors music

Generations has the best soundtrack of them all for a few reasons. One, it's all remixes of past songs; and I'd say 95% of them are better than the original. Second, and this is one of my favorite things about Generations, it's that it has are some of the best songs from previous games. Not just simply having them, you can select the stage music! I love this so much about Generations! Aside from the remixes, there are 3 songs from each main game, and one from the spin-offs. Yeah, there are a few tracks I feel are missing, or some track I wish they would have chosen instead; but seriously this is amazing, and I want this feature to return in as many games as possible. Sonic Generations music

Now as Forces, there's some complications. I loved almost all of the OST's released pre-release were very awesome. I've listened to Fist bump and Infinite's theme more than I care to admit, Sunset heights and Park avenue are awesome, and the remix of white jungle is amazing. But when I played the game, I was disappointed with the soundtrack. Almost none of the songs were memorable to me in my first play through, but now that I've turned off the dialogue so I can hear it better, and really listened to it, I've really appreciated it more. Modern Sonic has this electronic-techno sound that is unique I'll give them that, but it makes everything sound mostly the same and is a big reason why certain themes didn't stand out on my first play through. The Custom hero has a techno theme with vocals in its songs. Some are pretty good, I don't have too much wrong with this one. Classic Sonic on the other hand, I did not like any of classic Sonic's music. They tried making it sound retro, but it just sounds terrible. Despite what is wrong with the soundtrack, I still liked a good bit of it. I love Fist bump, Infinite's is equally amazing, the Infinite remix of his fight in metropolis is pretty awesome, and the 3rd phase of the final boss (while disappointing that it's not a remix of Fist bump) is one of the best boss fight themes there's been. Forces is the kind of soundtrack you either love or hate. Sonic Forces music

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So in conclusion, Unleashed has a great soundtrack that goes absolutely perfectly with the game's presentation. Colors has a great soundtrack that is very catchy. Generations has an amazing soundtrack because it's entirely remixes, and some of the greatest songs from previous game. Plus you can select which music you set for each level, which is just absolutely amazing. Forces may not have the perfect soundtrack, but it still has some great songs in nonetheless.

Main theme:

4. Generations

3. Unleashed

2. Colors

1. Forces

Soundtrack:

3. Forces

2. Unleashed

2. Colors

1. Generations

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Gameplay & controls

Wow, we're very far into this and I'm just now talking about the gameplay. Probably the most important category. This category is purely modern Sonic, I will get too other gameplays later.

Unleashed

Where do I begin? Unleashed is probably the best form of gameplay Sonic has ever had. Unleashed not only invented the modern formula, it almost perfected it. The stages are so insanely fun to play. Seriously, I can't say specifically why I enjoy Unleashed levels more than Generations, there's just something about them that is more fun. The game is insanely fast paced, and speedrunning is literally the only way to describe it. One of the biggest reasons I've preferred Unleashed to Generations is this, it is too easy to get an S rank in Generations. All you have to do is get a somewhat decent time and not die. But in order to get an S rank in Unleashed, you have to do it almost perfectly. You can't take damage, or waste a single second. When you get an S rank in Unleashed, you feel like you earned it. What almost makes Unleashed so amazing is simply speedrunning the levels trying to break your records. There is nothing like not wasting a single millisecond and doing everything perfectly as you attempt to break your record. Unleashed's day stages are simply phenomenal.

Unleashed's controls for the most part are some of the best of the four games, but with one major flaw. First, Unleashed is very responsive. It's drift is the best of the four, and it has the best lightspeed dash. However the second jump/homing attack is the worst of the four and is my biggest complaint about the game. First, my biggest problem, the homing attack is set to the boost button. Why did they do this? Literally every other Sonic game has it set to the jump button, so why is Unleashed different? Second, the dash sends you very far. In some circumstances it can be useful, but it makes precise platforming very difficult; because if you didn't get it right from the first jump, the second jump will likely not help you. Lastly, about halfway through the game you replace your air dash with a full blown air boost, essentially getting rid of your second jump altogether and making platforming even worse. Are any of these deal breaking? Absolutely not, you can get used to odd homing attack, and there is very little platforming to begin with. Platforming isn't as precise and the game knows that, and is designed around its controls. Besides that, all the other controls are almost perfect.

Colors

Colors is a special case. Colors focused less on the speedrunning gameplay of Unleashed, and instead mimicked it a way, but focused more on platforming. I don't like as much. For starters, the boost is much worse. Not only is it worse, it's fueled by white wisps instead of rings, which probably my biggest problem with the game. There's also way to much 2D and platforming for my taste. Now I don't want it to sound like I dislike Colors, quite the opposite in fact. I love Colors, but it's gameplay and level design (which I will get to later) just aren't as good. In fact (though this is just preference), I never felt the incentive to speedrun the game.

Now as for the Colors. Again, it doesn't play as well as Unleashed, however it does platforming much better than Unleashed. The second jump instead of the air dash is definitely the better option of the two. However the boost is much worse (but I already covered that). However the biggest flaw with Colors is that it's on the Wii. Meaning you have to play the game with either the Wiimote or Wiimote + nunchuck, and it doesn't work well. And because of the horrible Wii controls, sidestep parts having you moving forward automatically while you move the stick (or D-pad) side to side. The drifting parts are specific areas that turn your boost into a drift just for that section. Yeah, they accommodate the Wii's controls pretty well for those parts, but that still just emphasizes my point about it being on the Wii.

Generations

Generations plays extremely similarly to Unleashed. I mean seriously, these games basically play exactly the same, just with slight control differences and of course different levels. Modern Sonic is an absolute blast to play. The same thrill of going for your record without mistake applies here too.

Generations improves the homing attack by having it set to jump, and the shorer air dash has much more control than Unleashed. However, the air dash is worse than Colors' second jump, the drifting is better in Unleashed, wall jumping can only be used on a extremely specific walls, and the lightspeed dash is so unresponsive. The controls are still great though.

Forces

Where do I begin for Forces? Well for starters, the game is very automatic at times. I'd say probably Lost valley is the biggest example of this. The game assists you in so many areas. Plus there are these cinematic moments that look cool, but nothing really more than that. Such as Egg hate when you jump on the drone, Luminous forest when you fight the snake, and the double boost. The double boost looks really cool, but you don't really do anything. However, I still really enjoy playing Forces, despite it being linear and automatic at times. Again, I think I enjoy Forces more than Colors; but I will go into the level designs later.

Now as Forces controls, in a way there's something wrong about and sometimes great about them. First the bad. There's something wrong with Sonic's aerial momentum, specifically changing directions. Boosts are fueled by wisps again, which was something I thought I was going to hate, but unlike Colors, every capsules fills the entire meter, and so does every enemy, so it doesn't bother me that rings don't fuel the boost anymore. I don't want wisps to fuel the boost ever again, but it works fine for Forces. There's also no drift, but it makes sense because of the tag team stages. Now I felt the did a lot great with the controls in Forces. Sonic has the better second jump instead of the air dash; but what makes Forces double jump so great is the air boost. When you boost in the air, you rise a little bit, making for some really smooth platforming. Not only can you jump then boost you can still homing after the boost, something the other games don't do. It is very satisfying boost jumping air boosting then homing attack to skip platforms. There are things wron the controls but they also did a lot great.

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Unleashed and Generations has the absolute best form of gameplay Sonic has ever had. I have never had more fun in a Sonic game. Unleashed has an odd homing attack, and no second jump, only air boost. Generations improves the homing attack, but it has worse wall jumping, drifting, and lightspeed dash, plus a worse a air dash than Colors' second jump. Colors is less focused on the boosting speedrunning aspect than Generations and instead focuses more on platforming, however I don't like that as much. Colors has way to much platforming and 2D. I still love Colors though. Forces does a lot of things questionably, it's way too short and it's very automatic at times, however I still really enjoy Forces. While not perfect, the controls and physics are really good and could have been some of the best controls of the four if the gameplay and level design was better.

Gameplay:

4. Colors

3. Forces

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

Second jump/mid-air dash:

4. Unleashed

3. Colors

2. Generations

1. Forces

Boost:

3. Colors

2. Forces

1. Generations

1. Unleashed

Overall controls:

4. Colors

3. Forces

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

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Gimmicks

Unleashed

Unleashed's main gimmick is the Werehog. A lot of people seem to hate on Unleashed because of the Werehog. Sure, it's slower paced and can sometimes drag on for longer than necessary, but it's there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Instead of the fast speedrunning nature of the day stages, the night stages are slower paced beat-em-ups with platforming. The combos (reminiscent of Hyrule warriors just toned down a lot) are actually really awesome and fun to perform. The grapple hook like mechanics, while not logical, are actually pretty cool. Yes, the Werehog is a little out of place for a Sonic game, but from a gameplay perspective, there's nothing wrong with them. I can guarantee you if it was in a non-Sonic game, people would not hate it. During my last play through I not only found myself not just simply tolerating the levels, I genuinely enjoyed playing them. The biggest problem is simply that they last a little too long sometimes.

Colors

Sonic Colors gimmick is not some additional gameplay style, but the Wisps. Colors introduced them, and now there basically a series standard now, like the power ups in Mario. The wisps are very awesome, and each do different things. There are 7 different wisps (if you don't count the white wisps): cyan laser, yellow drill, orange rocket, blue cube, green hover, pink spike, and purple (Nega) frenzy. Laser is still and will probably always be one of my favorites. You dash forward at lightspeed bouncing off every object you hit. Drill allows you to drill into the ground, as well as vastly improve movement in water. Rocket launches you straight up. Cube transforms all blue rings into solid cubes, and vice versa. Hover allows you to float in the air and perform lightspeed dashes. Spike allows you to roll across any surface. And another one of my favorites, Frenzy transforms you into a monster that eats every thing in your path while also growing larger. The color powers add a lot to the game without it being an additional gameplay that may or not be good. This is the kind of thing Sega needs to be doing, building upon modern Sonic instead of extra gameplays. It's a series standard and I'm glad it is.

Generations

Generations big gimmick was (well besides everything being a throwback) Classic Sonic. I'll be honest, I used to hate Classic Sonic. It's all 2D, he has no second just or homing attack (without skills equipped at least), and he has a weird weight and physics. However, after my recent play through of the game, he's not that bad. I'm still not a huge fan, nor do I think I will go back and play the classic stages, but he wasn't that bad.

Forces

Again, Forces is bit of a special case. There 3 main gimmicks to Forces.

First, I'm just going to get Classic Sonic out of the way. I enjoyed Mania, and Classic Sonic is not that bad in Generations, but I hated him in Forces. Classic Sonic was not enjoyable to play. He is so completely unnecessary! He serves no purpose whatsoever beyond marketing. There is no reason for him to be in this game. He serves literally no significance to the story in any way, and he is just simply..there. This is where I have a problem with Sega. When you split your gameplay, you have half the time, effort, and work on that gameplay because you split it up. Sega needs to stop doing this. Focus on perfecting the gameplay instead of adding multiple styles. Keep classic and modern Sonic separate, they do not need to be in the same game ever again!

Now for the custom hero. I actually really enjoyed the custom hero. First, the customization itself. The customization was actually really cool, and I managed to create a pretty cool character; however, it's not perfect. There are a lot of bad options, the headgear has basically no interesting options, and I feel like the basic character models could be improved. Take the hedgehog for example, the spines are way to small, and it looks like his head is simply round from the front. Despite the fact that it could be better, the customization is still pretty good. And as for the gameplay, I really enjoyed it. He plays very similarly to modern Sonic, except you have a grapple hook and instead of a boost, you have a wisp weapon called a Wispon. They are honestly overpowered not just for taking out enemies, but with the right wisp, you can essentially skip over entire parts of the stage. There are 7 Wispons. Burst, which shoots a stream of fire and is ridiculously overpowered and the wisp allows you to essentially perform infinite jumps. Lightning, which is a giant whip and the wisp allows you to lightspeed dash through rings as well as enemies. Drill, which after charging, lunges you forward obliterating all in your path (do not use it on platforms, trust me) and the wisps makes you slide across the ground and even up walls while also destroying everything. Cube, which turns every enemy near into a cube, except it's really slow, and the wisp allows you to create instant platforms. Hover, which shoots blasts of air and the wisp that allows you to float. Asteroid, which shoots..things..and is also overpowered and the wisp makes you invincible at the price of not being able to fire. And finally Void, which shoots a black hole that sucks in enemies and a wisps that will teleport you to the first object in your path. I really liked the avatar and wouldn't mind if he returned.

There are (very few) stages that call for both Modern Sonic and the Avatar called Tag team stages. These are honestly my favorite parts of the game, since you get both the boost and the wispon at the same time, and I really wouldn't mind an entire game around this concept. Unfortunately there's only 3 tag teams, and only 2 of them are actual stages and the other one is a terminal velocity clone. It's very disappointing that the best gameplay has the least stages.

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While out of place and sometimes outstayed its welcome, the Werehog is not bad and actually pretty fun. The wisp are an awesome addition to the series and I doubt we've seen the last of them. Classic Sonic in Generations is alright. Classic Sonic is not fun at all in Forces, however. He's completely unnecessary and not even fun at all. The custom hero is fun to play and customize, the customization could just use a few improvements. And the tag team stages are a blast and should have been focused on instead of Classic Sonic.

Gimmicks:

6. Forces (Classic Sonic)

5. Unleashed

4. Generations

3. Forces (Custom hero)

2. Colors

1. Forces (Tag team)

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Level design & stage design

Unleashed

Unleashed has 9 stages: Windmill isle, Savannah citadel, Cool edge, Dragon road, Rooftop run, Arid sands, Skyscraper scamper, Jungle joyride, and Crimson carnival/Eggmanland. The level design is amazing. I can't put it into words why I prefer Unleashed's stages to Generations, they are just simply more fun to play. As for the stage design, instead of a mystical location from another world like Sonic usually has, the game tried to make each level reflect some culture and country. From a Greek like windmill cliff, to the African savannas, from an oriental Chinese temple, to the rooftops of a European city. The game's presentation is done absolutely perfectly, it truly feels like a world adventure. I don't feel like going on an Eggmanland rant again, so just go read my Sonic Unleashed review to know my thoughts on that absurd level.

Colors

In some areas, Colors has great level design, and then not that great in other areas. There 6 stages (not including Terminal velocity): Tropical resort, Sweet mountain, Starlight carnival, Planet wisp, Aquarium park, and Asteroid coaster, each with 6 acts, meaning there are 36 levels in total. However quantity does not equal quality. I did the math, and I like 11 levels, 6 of them are okay, and dislike 19. Yes, those 11 I do like are awesom, usually the first act 1 is always the longest and best; but I do not like 19 of them. I'd say the good stages do outweigh the bad ones, but this point will be important when I talk about Forces.

Generations

Generations has amazing level and stage design just like Unleashed. Generations main gimmick is that every level is a remastered level from a previous game. There are 9 levels: Green hill, Chemical plant, Sky sanctuary, Speed highway, City escape, Seaside hill, Crisis city, Rooftop run, and Planet wisp. The level design is great. I see it on equal grounds with Unleashed, however like I said, I don't know why, but I've always just found Unleashed more fun. However, the stage designs are phenomenal and beat Unleashed in that category. Chemical plant is awesome, Sky sanctuary is my favorite level of all time, and the rest of the levels are great. The only level I dislike is Planet wisp.

Forces

Forces definitely has some complications with its level design. Forces is very linear and automatic at times. However, I still very much enjoyed the game. In fact, I actually prefer Forces for the most part. As I said previously, a liked 11 levels, 6 were okay, and disliked 19 in Colors; but in Forces, I disliked 6 (all Classic Sonic), thought 4 were okay, and I liked 15 levels! My favorite level was Null space, it had the best stage design, there were several different routes, fist bump playing in the background, if every level was as good as this one, that game could have been amazing. As for the stage designs, there are 7 levels: Green hill, Chemical plant, City (real creative name there Sega), Death Egg, Mystic jungle, Metropolis, and Eggman Empire fortress. While not as good as the other 3 games, the stage design is good. However, I don't ever want to see Green hill ever again; but at least they made Green hill and Chemical plant look different.

------------------------------------

Unleashed and Generations' level design are almost on equal grounds to me. However, Unleashed is just simply slightly more fun. While the stage design in Unleashed go absolutely perfect with the game, Generations stages just look cooler. Colors does have some great level design, but some levels aren't fun to play. It has great stage design though. Forces does a lot of things questionably, it's too short, too linear, too automatic, but I still enjoy Forces. It's clear Forces was inspired by Colors more than Generations, and I personally like Forces' levels to Colors' (except for each Act 1. Those levels are better).

Level design:

4. Colors

3. Forces

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

Stage design:

4. Forces

3. Colors

2. Unleashed

1. Generations

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Length and difficulty

Unleashed is an incredibly long game. Every day level is decently long, and the night stages can range from 10-20 minutes long. Plus HUB worlds to travel across, and medals to collect. Eggmanland alone takes over 40 minutes to beat! The game is one of Sonic's longest games, and I'd guess it takes 10 hours to beat it. The other games are way too short, but Unleashed has so much content and it's awesome. However, the night stages are too long, and don't even get me started on Eggmanland. Unleashed is also one of the most difficult games, in a good way and a bad way. As I mentioned before, I love the difficulty to get an S rank in Unleashed. It requires almost perfection and you truly feel like you earn it. It is one of the reasons I've always preferred Unleashed. However the night stages can sometimes be too difficult. Examples include Skyscraper scamper, with its extremely narrow ledges that you can't make a mistake on and the giant Dark Gaia minion that will knock you off the building in a single hit. And Eggmanland is absurdly difficult. I'm all for challenging levels, but Eggmanland is ridiculous.

Colors is a little too short. I can beat the game in less than 3 hours. Some of the levels are a really good length, 2-4 minutes in some cases. However, some levels are way too short, even shorter than Forces: under 2 minutes, 1 minute, and sometimes even 30 seconds! As for the difficulty, its balanced. It's not hard, and it's not too easy.

Generations can be completed very quickly, probably even faster than Colors and Forces. There's only 18 levels and 7 bosses. However, the levels lengths are basically perfect and is the basis on how long a Sonic level should in future games. As I mentioned, I find it too easy to get an S rank. All you have to do is get a fairly decent time and not die. However it's still done better than Colors and Forces S rank, but it's still one of the reasons I prefer Unleashed. The difficulty of the levels is also balanced, nothing hard, nothing easy. The game may be short, but like almost all Sonic games, the majority of the time comes from replaying the game over and over trying to beat your record by every second you possibly can. This is why I love Unleashed and Generations so much.

Forces on the other hand, is too short and way too easy. Each level ranges from 1-2 minutes, both longer and shorter than Colors levels. The levels are way too short. The game can be beaten in about 3 1/2 hours. It's also ridiculously easy. Seriously, this game is too easy, and I'm playing on quote on quote 'hard mode'. S ranks are practically given to you. You should not be able to die and get an S rank! I've even died 4 times before and still got the S rank!

-------------------------------------

Unleashed is a very long game with good level length (even though some are way too long), and it's pretty difficult, in a good way. You truly feel like you earn an S rank. Colors is very short, with some levels being a good length and others very short, but the game itself can be completed in less than 3 hours. Generations game length is probably even shorter than Colors, but the level lengths are perfect.

Level length (from shortest to longest):

4. Forces

3. Colors

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

Game length (from shortest to longest):

4. Generations

3. Colors

2. Forces

1. Unleashed

Difficulty (from easiest to hardest):

4. Forces

3. Colors

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

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Bosses

Unleashed

Unleashed bosses are awesome. There are 8 bosses, 4 Eggman mechs and 4 Dark Gaia bosses: Egg beetle, Dark Gaia phoenix, Egg devil ray, Dark moray, Dark guardian, Egg lance, Egg dragoon, and Dark Gaia. Egg beetle is a fun and very good first boss. The Dark Gaia phoenix is a pretty cool fight having to put its fire and then literally grab it's head and flip it over hulk style. Egg devil ray is similar to Egg beetle except it shoots laser beams. Dark moray is actually pretty difficult. You have hit it with freezing capsules so you can attack its weak spots, however the last one on his head is insanely difficult. Dark guardian is the worst boss, it revolves around beating up a tiny Dark guardian and pushing block. I explained this fight in much more detail in my Sonic Unleashed review. Egg lancer combines both elements from a Egg beetle and Egg devil ray. Egg dragoon is actually quite an epic fight. You're falling down a huge shaft as the Werehog. You land on and fight the Egg dragoon on top of rumble while falling towards the center of the earth. It is done so well and it's very satisfying yanking Eggman's egg mobile from the mech and tossing it into the stratosphere! (Ok not really, he's still in the core). The final fight against Dark Gaia is good but it's disappointing. I explained it as well in my Sonic unleashed review

Colors

Colors has 7 bosses. However, it's really 4 bosses and 3 of them are recycled; and only 1 is a good boss. The bosses are: Rotatatron, Captain jelly, Frigate Orcan, Refreshinator, Admiral jelly, Frigate skullian, and Nega wisp armor. Rotatatron and Refreshinator are the worst, most boring, and easiest bosses in the game. Captain and Admiral jelly revolve around you stop their ships and beating them up after. Frigate Orcan and Skullian are kind of fun fights, but they're still just this double-blimp-like spaceship. However, the Nega wisp armor is one of my favorite final bosses. The design is very awesome and the fight itself is fun.

Generations

Generations has some great bosses. Every boss is a returning boss. There are 7 bosses (4 bosses, 3 rival fights): Death Egg robot, Metal Sonic, Perfect Chaos, Shadow, Egg dragoon, Silver, and the Time eater. Death egg robot and Metal Sonic are alright for Classic Sonic fights. There's only so much you can do for him. Perfect chaos is awesome, except I have a problem that we can beat him without the Chaos emeralds, he's the God of destruction, you shouldn't be able to beat him normally. The Shadow fight is awesome and is SO much better than the original one from SA2. The Egg dragoon is quite the awesome reimagining of an already epic fight. The Silver fight has to be my favorite boss fight ever. Sega shows of just a little more of what he's capable of (even though technically Sonic wouldn't stand a chance), and it is insanely awesome. The Time eater fight is fun, but there's just something off about the fight. For starters you don't take any damage, meaning every attack is just an annoyance. Second, there's something about the boost that doesn't work quite right. Regardless, the boss at least looks insanely awesome.

Forces

Forces also has some good bosses. There are 7: Zavok, Infinite (S), Egg dragoon, Infinite (CH), Metal Sonic, Infinite (TT), and the really creatively named..Death Egg robot. Zavok is an okay fight, I guess. You dodge and destroy insect robots and wait for his mech to slam into the ground to launch you up so you can attack him. Infinite (Modern Sonic) is probably my favorite boss in Forces. You chase him down on a very Lost world inspired snake while dodging his attacks. I absolutely love how that infinite fights work. Instead of his digital attacks harming you, they instead distort reality to have things like spike balls and cannons that will harm you. The Egg dragoon is okay for a Classic fight. It starts off like the original boss, Eggman in his Egg mobile with something swinging from a chain. Halfway he gets into the Egg dragoon and now you simply have bounce boulders back at him. It's okay for a Classic fight, but it pales in comparison to the previous 2 Egg dragoon boss fights. Infinite against the Custom Hero is entirely 2D and is okay, but the music that plays is awesome. Metal Sonic is a tag team boss, that involves dodging his attacks, boosting up to him, destroying his robot shield and homing attacking him or attacking with the Wispon. However, the last Infinite fight is very lazy, it's basically exactly the same as Metal Sonic, with maybe a slight difference, and the music is the worst off the three. The final boss with the stupid name is actually awesome. At first I was disappointed with it, it wasn't bad, but I'd seen better final bosses. The first phase with Classic Sonic is basically exactly the same as the Egg dragoon fight, just on a more treacherous platform. The 2nd phase with the Custom hero is on a platform while dodging missiles and shockwaves caused by the slamming hand. You can either attack the hand, or go for the core for tons of destruction. Just beware, about 2/3 through the phase he will destroy a large portion of the ground. Like I said I was a little disappointed with the first two phases, but then the tried phase happened. It is clearly heavily inspired by Color's final boss, and it looks awesome, it's a fun fight, and the music is really awesome. I really like the final boss despite its stupid name.

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Unleashed has some great day bosses, good night bosses, and 2 epic last bosses. Colors has very lame bosses that are also recycled, but it's final boss is awesome. Generations has great bosses and rival fights. And Forces has some good bosses, even if you never even fight Shadow or Chaos.

Bosses:

4. Colors

3. Forces

2. Unleashed

1. Generations

Final boss:

4. Generations

3. Unleashed

2. Forces

1. Colors

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Menu/level select

This category was kind of hard to explain, but after reading it, it will make sense.

Unleashed

Unleashed's main menu is a world map. You can spin the globe to each location and select a country. One of my (many) favorite aspects of Unleashed is its HUB worlds. That's right Unleashed has 9 different mini HUB worlds! Within each of those HUB worlds, you have another small stage select HUB. Once, you've beaten the game, you don't really go back to this places, and instead you can select directly from the world map. You can easily navigate which level you want.

Colors has this very Mario-esque level select. You can move the course to each location, but when you click on it, you enter a map with 7 circles and lines connecting them. Sonic will walk to each of the circles in a very Mario fashion. The levels are very easy to navigate.

Now Generations has this sort of 2D semi-HUB world. In reality, it's a fancy level select you can run around in it. It's the white realm the game is set in, and you simply run up to the location to go into the level. It's easy to navigate, except the final boss has unnecessary platforming.

Now, Forces is a big reason why I wanted to do this category. It's a mess. It has a world map, but every level is scattered across. It's not like Unleashed where you have, say Apotos, and from there you can select the Day or Night stage. Instead, the Modern one will be in one location, and the Classic and Avatar one will be in far off. Not to mention, it's not like there's a clear what stage is what until you click on it. There's even a simple menu that has all of the levels listed, except it's in the order they appeared, not by location, meaning Green hill for Classic could be 7 levels ahead of Modern, and Avatar 5 ahead of Classic. And there's no image of the level until you click on it making it even more confusing. It's just very poorly done.

---------------------------------------

Level select:

4. Forces

3. Colors

2. Generations

1. Unleashed

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Extra content

By the way, I will not rank this category.

Unleashed

As for collectibles, Unleashed has TONS of Sun and Medals scattered throughout each level and village, plus music discs, movies, artwork, and food and souvenirs you can buy at each city. There are so many collectibles in the game. However, something I forgot about until my recent play through is the requirement to continue. You need a certain amount of medals in order to continue. This didn't really bother me, because I either had the right amount or I was very close. However, when I got to Adabat, that was a different story. I had about 82 sun medals, but I needed 120! So I had to go back and play several levels to search for the ridiculously hidden medals. It is absurd.

I've already mentioned the HUB worlds, but they are not just empty areas to get from one point to another. There are several citizens in each you can talk to, each with their own personalities. Another thing I love about Unleashed is: there's actual side quests! I love this about Unleashed, an already large game has even more things to do after beating it. Plus there are extra bonus levels as well! They usually revolve around a gimmick, such as an entirely 2D platforming level, a level that's nothing but grind rails, a level that's entirely the section where you avoid robots, etc. And there's even DLC stages! There the same kind of concept as the previously mentioned ones, however it also includes the first Act, but with several twists and turns added, usually lots of spikes and mines. Meaning you can't rely on the level you thought you knew and you have to adapt to it.

Unleashed also has these 2 Tornado stages, where you fly around and shoot at enemies via quicktime. They're not that enjoyable, but there's only 2 of them and they don't last that long, so they're not that big a deal. However, this brings into my next point and a problem I have with the game. There are too many quicktime events!

Unleashed also has a leveling system. You gain XP from defeating enemies, you can then spend that XP to level up Sonic. These include increasing Sonic's speed and ring energy, or the Werehog's combos, strength, life, shield, Unleashed meter. Luckily, you get too choose exactly what the XP goes to, meaning there's a lot of strategy to what you focus it into. The only complaint I have with it is it takes too long to max out everything.

Colors

Colors first introduced what is now a series standard: Red star rings. There are 5 red stars rings within each level, and a total of 140 rings to collect. Collecting them unlocks the Arcade planet (or whatever it's called), which is a digital planet that can be played co-op that is basically just a ton of platforming challenges. I haven't played it in forever, but I remember these being much harder than the actual levels. There's also some challenge where you play every single level as fast as possible, by I never did it.

Generations

Generations also has the red star rings from Colors, plus lots of music and art you can unlock from the dozens of mini challenges. Each of this either revolve around a gimmick or one of Sonic's friends assisting you. Something else I love about Generations is its skill equips. You can purchase skills from the skill shop, them organize into a set. Each skill is worth a certain amount say 10, 20, 50 points etc., and you can only hold a maximum of 100 points. These include skills that make you faster, start boost, regenerate boost, get full boost after dying, time break, Super Sonic, and much more. Classic Sonic also has element shields, homing attack, and Super Sonic, etc. In fact, Generations is one of the very few games I have have 100 percented.

Forces

Forces has red stars rings as well, plus these rings you have to collect in order (like Lost world) after you've gotten all the red star rings. Plus something called Silver moon medals..I think. I haven't quite done that yet. Besides red star rings, you will also collect a ton of gear for the Avatar. You get it for either completing a level for the first time, getting an S rank on that level for the first time, completing one of the daily challenges (which are incredibly easy), or completing an SOS mission. SOS missions are missions where you have to use the avatar they give you, or just simply complete the level without dying. There are also bonus levels that revolve around a gimmick, such as fire cannons or lasers. From what I've done, they're all 2D, but I haven't done all of them.

Forces also has a Shadow DLC, where you play three levels as Shadow and learn a little bit about Infinite's origins. Shadow plays exactly like modern Sonic. His stages a slightly harder Sunset heights, Aqua road, but for Shadow, and virtual reality, the entirely 2D green hill that is at least completely unique. My favorite part is being able to play as Shadow in the modern Sonic stages though. This is what Sega needs to be doing, not creating new gameplay styles, but adding multiple characters to the same gameplay. I just demand Silver DLC now! I would even pay money for it Sega, just make it happen!

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Everything Wrong With Sonic 06

Conclusion

Unleashed

-----------------------------------------

+ absolutely phenomenal day stages

+ extremely smooth and fast day controls

+ great story

+ great music

+ HUB worlds

+ optional side quests, collectibles, and even extra levels

+ a leveling system

+ it's very lengthy

+ there are 2 locations not in the other version

+ there's also DLC stages

+ really fun and awesome Werehog combos

+ this game is absolutely gorgeous and has the best graphics in the series

- homing attack is set to the boost button

- there are way too many quicktime events

- the night stages can sometimes be too long, and can just slow down the pace of the game

- Eggmanland

- having to get 120 Sun medals to beat the game is ridiculous

- maxing out all the stats will take absolutely forever

- you will never 100% this game

Final statement: A phenomenal underrated gem

Finals score: 9.6/10

-----------------------------------------

Colors

-----------------------------------------

+ very fun game

+ great stage design

+ good level design in some levels

+ great music

+ amazing wisp power ups

+ amazing final boss

- it's only on the Wii, and Wiimotes are not good controllers for Sonic.

- the cutscenes and dialogue are SO bad

- there is way too much 2D and platforming

- there are lots of levels that are not fun

- most of the bosses are lame

- boost is fueled by white wisps

- the game is too short

Final statement: A blast of fun

Finally score: 9.2/10

-----------------------------------------

Generations

-----------------------------------------

+ phenomenal modern stages

+ great level design

+ great stage design

+ amazing soundtrack

+ being able to set the music for each level

+ good bosses

+ Classic Sonic is alright, I guess

- the game is too short

- Classic Sonic is not as good as Modern

- it's too easy to get an S rank

Final statement: An amazing modernized blast from the past

Final score: 9.5/10

-----------------------------------------

Forces

-----------------------------------------

+ great story

+ Infinite is a really awesome character

+ really good Modern stages if you compare it to Colors

+ while a little off, Modern Sonic controls pretty well

+ Custom hero

+ Custom hero is also fun to play with awesome gadgets

+ the tag team stages are awesome and I wouldn't mind an entire game around this idea

+ good bosses

+ some really awesome music

+ playable Shadow

+ cool stage design

+ really awesome controller skins with the bonus edition

- Classic Sonic is not only unnecessary, he's not even fun

- the levels are too short

- the game is too short

- the game is WAY too easy. S ranks are practically handed to you

- the levels feel too linear and automatic sometimes

- the custom hero has some really lame items sometimes

- there's something just off about the physics

Final statement: Sonic's return to glory? Maybe?

Everything Wrong With Sonic Unleashed Movie

Final score: 9.3/10

Everything Wrong With Sonic Unleashed Movie