I thought it would be fun (mostly for me lol) to start up a new semi-regular series of threads, so I thought I'd start asking, one franchise at a time, when people believe said franchise peaked. That is to say, when was it at its height as opposed to when did it cease to be good. Just for fun, I'll be keeping track of the votes.
First, and this is one I've debated with friends myself, is Sonic the Hedgehog. For this I'm asking that we focus on the main sonic titles (no Olympics/All Stars Racing etc) made for consoles. Also, the Knuckles expansion and those Collections of Sonic games are excluded. I'll include poll but, given there's so many of them, feel free to write in your own.
Personally, I feel the game peaked with Sonic the Hedgehog 3. To me Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was that perfect combination of refined gameplay, his full set of skills (such as the ground spin attack), new shields, cool bonus levels, and fun features like the racing/time trials and still having a second player play as Tails from the previous game. Granted, the second player would spend most of the game off screen as Sonic sped away, but it was still fun lol
As a bonus, it was also compatible with one of console-gaming's earlier expansions, the Knuckles and Sonic version. Overall, it just seems to have everything Sonic 2 had, just with a little more added to it.
Otherwise, I really liked Sonic CD and Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, but I feel both fell short of the masterpiece that was Sonic 3. With CD, for instance, it just rarely felt like you actually got going very fast, and that sense of speed is rather crucial for a Sonic game. With Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, meanwhile, they were both very fun in their time but, if you go back and play them again now, I don't feel they've aged as well... the gameplay is rather simple and some of the levels are downright boring. I'd still like it of course, but as is often the case I find the best 2d platformers tend to age better than early 3D games.
So, what's your favorite?
