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?

From the beginning to the end of the 4th generation. I would say Sonic 1-3, CD, & Knuckles are the best ones. I can't choose a best one out of those, however.

Sonic stopped being great after Sonic Adventure 2. I liked SA2 the best as well. The Genesis games are good too tho

Sonic 2. I loved Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles too, since there were a few mild improvements, but it has essentially been downhill ever since. Most of the Advance games were fun, and I loved raising Chaos in Sonic Adventure 2, but almost every game since is a huge clunky mess.

Sonic 1 is rather simple by comparison, but it was my first portable game on the Game Gear so I've got a soft spot for it. :)

But yes, that run on the Genesis and Sega CD were, in my mind, what Sonic SHOULD be. While I enjoyed the two Adventure games, Sonic just plays better as a 2D platformer in my mind... They ought to consider giving that another try today, platformers are increasingly popular again due to the indie scene these days.

BasilZero said: Rain2 said: Sonic stopped being great after Sonic Adventure 2. I liked SA2 the best as well. The Genesis games are good too tho   Generations was fantastic though.   The Advance series was okay. Sonic 4 was fine but not that great.   The rest were hot tier garbage....specifically the Wii games....

Woah there buddy, it seems you forgot about Colors. That one was really good, albeit short and a little childish, but good nonetheless.

Yeah I really don't think Sonic translates to 3D all that well. Even in Adventure they largely had to rely on linear design and automatic homing attacks to make it feasible. Fun, but limiting.

It's hard to both have Sonic be incredibly fast and have it be a 3D platformer... we're just not fast enough as humans to pull it off lol

I'm gonna say Sonic 3 since it's in the middle of the time where he used to be consistently good.

The combo of Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles together was their peak. The two together featured a MASSIVE main game content, hyper Sonic/Knuckles/Tails (SSJ2 anyone?), and just played the best overall.

It was the game that truly made me a Sonic fanboy...then Sonic Adventure 2 ruined it...it ruined it and I left...

In relevance, the series began to decline after the original. It was promoted as the anti-Mario, and drew in many new gamers. But after DKC launched, and later after PlayStation launched, the relevance of a "mascot platformer" declined.

In terms of gameplay, I liked Sonic 2 the best, although it lacked the freshness of the original.