Main ListPrevious Listbold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.
106.
Sonic Rivals (PSP)
I sort of expected for me to Riders 2 next, but on my list the next racer games were Rivals 1 and 2, so I hopped back into Rivals. When I first played this game, I legitimately could not beat the very first level, just absolutely getting demolished constantly. So I read some guides and stuff for the game like I did for Riders and once I figured it out the game wasn't so bad. It still has the rubber banding issues, so if the bot is ahead of you, you aren't catching up, but if they mess up and you get far ahead of them, they will rubber band snap at you so fast. And it's not just that, I had a race where I was ahead by a bit and right at the end, the bot literally threw 6 items at me at once, something that should not be fucking possible, I still won, but like holy fuck there were 2 fireballs, 3 lightning clouds, and an ice block that all hovered on me after I crossed the finish line, had I been a second slower he would've won because I would've been stuck dead for like 30 seconds from all of those power ups.
Rating: Hard pass
107.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (XBLA)
Started this one up and beat it pretty quick. It's a pretty short game and very by the numbers Sonic... except the game seems to take a lot of inspiration from Mega Man, it's got a lot of bullshit instant death mechanics towards the back half of the game, a lot of bullshit sections where you've got to remember things in order to get through (trial and error) and the game ends with the Mega Man trope of fighting every boss you've already fought before fighting the final boss. There are reasons folks didn't enjoy this game aside from the weird graphics
Rating: Hard pass.
108.
Turnip boy commits tax evasion (X1)
Didn't even realize that I already beat this game once this year (on Switch), but I have been trying to earn achievements daily, so this is a great game to earn achievements daily because of how quick the game is and how short time is between achievements. I finally reached the point where I got the achievement for beating the game and the credits rolling. I've still got a handful of achievements left to get for this game, including the title update they released after I had beaten the game earlier this year, so I'll be doing the train stuff real soon.
Rating: Soft recommendation
109.
Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP)
I thought about the first one that it was a pretty good representation of what a competitive Sonic game would be like, but this game is so much more, it does the races better, it adds in combat levels, and even levels that are just about collecting the most coins. I will say the CPU is much more aggressive in this game to the point that sometimes the bots aren't even worrying about winning so much as just kicking your ass. Not sure how I feel about them bringing back the individual story modes, as I won't be taking part, I'm just doing Sonic and calling it a day I think. The game is much harder than the first one and I'm not planning on playing more than I have to even though this game is solid and quite acceptable. Better than the first but still not quite worth playing.
Rating: Hard pass
110.
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2)
I really wasn't looking forward to this one after the first game, and again I started it up, tried to play and realized that they completely changed things up so I had to re-learn another game. That said, this game is so much better than the first, and the systems in place aren't a huge burden to overcome. I managed to have no issue with this game and quite enjoyed my time with it. It does things differently than your average arcade racer, so it's different and fresh, but it's also not impossible and frustrating to overcome. Honestly a breath of fresh air in terms of arcade racers. I still don't imagine it's really worth anyone's time, but it wasn't bad and honestly I'd consider coming back to it one day. I could also go on a little side rant about how much of an ordeal it was to get this running on my PS3, but I won't.
Rating: Soft pass
111.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (360)
Had to go dig out a 360 and hook that up to play this. Part way through playing my 360 froze, probably due to poor ventilation, but who knows. Anyway, standard arcade kart racing kinda stuff. I've played too many different Sonic racers lately so they are all melding in my mind so I don't really know that I have much to write about this one. It's okay, but I'm expecting Transformed to live up better. The Sega miles stuff is interesting to buy stuff and I played mission mode for a bit, and honestly, if I felt inclined I'd maybe go further in and do more, but gots stuff to do. The inclusion of Banjo and Kazooie is really interesting and the sole reason I insisted on the 360 version over steam, really for no good reason. It's not like Banjo and Kazooie are really special in the game, they do have their own car and special move, which is neat that they put in the time for that, but it is the Nuts and Bolts version which is sad.
Rating: Soft pass
112.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (XBLA)
This one seems to do a lot to fix the things they did wrong in the first episode, the bosses aren't by the numbers old Sonic bosses, the levels are inspired by previous sonic games but a mish mash of multiple zones to give it a fresh feeling... however it still is keeping with the Mega Man inspiration as I'm sure I'm not even halfway through the game and I am already hitting Mega Man bullshit trial and error instant death stuff. It's been a few days so I don't really remember, but I don't recall much in the way of issues with this game except right at the end, the final boss fight, if you lose, you have to go through 40 seconds of cutscene stuff every single time since you can't skip. It makes it obnoxious. This is one of those unforgivable things that I hate with games.
Rating: Hard pass
113.
Sonic Colors: Ultimate (X1)
I started up this game on Wii a year or so back, but my disc was so fucked that I couldn't get through maybe half of the game overall and through a level or two without the game freezing up to disc read errors, so I straight up abandoned my run until Ultimate came out, got my copy, and still waited a year to get around to playing it. Overall a great game, it plays well, it controls much better than previous 3D sonic games and I feel like this is the game that really started the 2D/3D hybrid stuff, but I might be wrong. I need to see if I can find which game introduced the hybrid stuff... looks like maybe Unleashed introduced it. Game was good and fun until the Aquarium Park zone, one of the levels in there fucked me up hard. I reached a point where I couldn't progress without ring dash, well I don't know how to ring dash. I google for the better part of an hour, can't find shit, can't find control info, can't find an explanation, can't find a video showing how to get past it folks either skip the section somehow or they fucking ring dash, using a powerup I don't have. Every time I die, tails just drops me back to where I fell. So I keep trying with every permutation of input until I run out of lives and go back to the checkpoint... 10 feet back... where there is a powerup I need to ring dash. So I wasted like all 50 lives I had built up, because a) it didn't just spawn me at the checkpoint a few feet back like it's done on other levels saving me lives, b) let me fucking know how to ring dash in the first place, and c)give me some other fucking option. Whatever, I finally did it. Rest of the game is relatively fine until Terminal Velocity Act 1... You have to beat the entire level in one go, no checkpoints, no tails. At this point I don't even know if I beat the level or if the level said fuck it and just let me by. I ended the level with a score of 0. What. the. fuck. Apparently, even though I start the entire level over again, the time still keeps going, so it took me an hour to beat the level that actually took like 5 minutes to beat in entirety. Final boss fight was fine though, it had frustrating aspects, but like perfectly acceptable toughness, well balanced, only took a couple of tries. Not wasting my lives and maybe giving me a hint... plus some fucking checkpoints on Terminal Velocity Act 1 and I'd be willing to call this the first soft recommendation, but with those two fuck ups, I still can't. It honestly ruined the game for me.
Rating: Soft pass
114.
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (NDS)
I thought about skipping this one and coming back to it, but I decided to just go ahead with it and start it anyway. Again, I always have issues with forced gimmick controls, like touchscreen stuff just because it's available. Just because it's available doesn't mean it's the best thing to be done. I'd be pretty ecstatic for this game to get re-released without the touch controls, this game really didn't need it. I get it, I do, but I hate that all of the special moves in this game revolve around what is essentially a rhythm minigame without music to go along with it, it plays music sure, but the music isn't in sync so like fuck. I think without the annoying touch controls, I might've been more willing to do more of the side content, but also the game doesn't have a traditional fast travel system, so even moving between zones is kind of a pain that would also preclude me from doing some of the side content. Combat was mostly fine, but I didn't really understand the elements system and once it got to the point that enemies did a shield thing that auto countered attacks and healed themselves, the game got real annoying. The last area of the game changed up the encounters on the map, because in all other areas enemies went about a pre-defined route so you could skip battles pretty easily if you wanted, but in the last area the enemies had AI so they would chase you down. There were also a lot of instances of getting attacked, but the enemy immediately running away which seemed kind of counter productive. I didn't want to battle, you don't want to battle, then why did you chase after me? Overall not a terrible game, but the ending was an obvious cliffhanger that was supposed to setup a sequel that never happened, so I've got to knock it points for that as well because games should never do that, you should always expect that there won't be a sequel, leave some little things sure, but don't flat out make the ending a cliffhanger. I was going to soft pass the game, but the ending being a cliff hanger really solidifies that this game isn't worth the time.
Rating: Hard pass
115.
Sonic Generations (360)
I went into this one with lowered expectations after Unleashed, but honestly I was pleasantly surprised by this game. The 2D classic sections were pretty good and I can't decided if I liked not having the 3D homing for the 2D sections or not because sometimes the homing is useful and other times it's really annoying... honestly just makes me wish there was B for jump and A for homing jump type of thing so I can choose when to leverage homing. 3D sections improved on what Colors did, which Colors was already a wild improvement over Unleashed, and Unleashed was an improvement over the Adventure/Heroes games. It has the 2D sections in the 3D sections still and the 3D sections in the 3D sections are pretty smooth and don't have much issues whatsoever, honestly this game is the best 3D Sonic game to date by far. I'd argue this game is worth playing, I won't go so far as to call it a solid recommendation, but I'd definitely recommend it. That said, if you are playing on XS at least, the OG Sonic game built in doesn't work, so don't waste the 7,777 points on the purchase in the in-game shop. I will also say, it bums me out that classic Sonic doesn't talk, if classic Tails also didn't talk I could be fine, but he talks, so why doesn't classic Sonic, it would have blown my mind if they had gotten Jaleel White to voice classic Sonic, like I'd be willing to push this game into solid recommendation had they done that, but they didn't and it makes me sad, but by no means a deal breaker.
Rating: Soft recommendation
116.
Sonic Jump (Android)
I really hadn't intended on playing any of the mobile games because a) they are mobile games, b) they are probably not available, and c) they probably aren't really beatable. I had google credit built up that was expiring soon so I spent it on Sonic Jump Pro, because why not. Well to my surprise the game, being a paid game, actually has a story mode and it's beatable. So I started up the game and played through it. It's not very Sonic to be honest in that it's just upward jumping, but it plays well. The story is quite non-existent and honestly not worth playing. The game is also relatively short with little to no replay value, so honestly, really wish I hadn't wasted my time, but I didn't really waste money as I was just going to let that money expire. Interestingly, the game has a little ad in the top corner suggesting you to play the sequel Sonic Jump Fever, but the game was delisted years ago and isn't available, because the game is terrible, has no story mode, and isn't worth playing probably.
Rating: Hard pass
117.
Sonic Dash (Android)
I went into this expecting it to be normal mobile trash and boy was I right. The game has no story mode, it's really just the one endless runner with no real end goal. Plus the game has the normal mobile trash of being slammed with ads constantly. I get a popup when I lose that says hey, watch and ad and you can keep playing. I say no I'm good, I don't want to watch an ad, so it plays an ad and sends me back to the home screen. What. The. Fuck. I thought that was weird, I'll chalk it up to something goofy. Nope. It does it every single time. Fuck that noise. I'm marking it as beat though because there is no end game.
Rating: Hardest of passes
118.
Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom (Android)
Knowing how bad the last one was, I really didn't want to play this one either, but I figured in for a pound in for a pounding. So I launched this one, it plays better, but it's worse than the previous game. The previous one at least had a thing where you freed animals and built stuff, this one you literally level up to level up and unlock more characters, that is it. Nothing else. Plus it does the same ad bullshit.
Rating: HArdest of passes
119.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360)
Honestly, I can't believe I went this long without writing up updates. This game was much more enjoyable than the previous Racing game.. however, I did the grand prix in this one thinking it would roll the credits like the first game, but this one, mission modes rolls the credits not grand prix. So I did grand prix
and mission mode for this game. Honestly, didn't even make me that upset as this was a genuinely good game that I enjoyed playing. Mission mode is broken into different little paths where you pick different types of races to complete and attempt to get 3-4 stars on them, stars unlock content and further races. Mostly everything is good, but there are a few race types that sucked. The transform mechanic is very interesting. I'd honestly say that this game, if it had a little open world to explore for a story mode, plays like how I would expect a successor to Diddy Kong Racing to be, this game is great, but it could've been better. The more BS challenges and the fact that you don't even unlock the ability to get a 4th star on events until after you beat the game was the only thing that precluded me from unlocking all of the stars, because I really had no interest in essentially playing through everything all over again, especially when there were a few races that were an absolute pain just to get 1 or 2 stars. I do consider going back to this though, I probably won't, but I consider it.
Rating: Soft pass
120.
Sonic: Lost World (Wii U)
Some up front complaints about this game... forced wii U game pad, no ability to do pro controller; Some levels required the TV for some reason; I throughout the majority of the playthrough couldn't figure out how to get sonic to actually move fast... I'm watching a video right now and I never managed to move as fast as these folks, so maybe something I missed. That said, this game also seems to take huge steps back to some of the older 3D Sonic games unfortunately and it also seems like Sega was trying to copy Super Mario Galaxy's concepts with a lot of stuff and it just doesn't apply well to Sonic. The inclusion of the need to free so many animals to unlock further levels was annoying, but they do provide you with some levels to farm animals real quick, but you have to collect red coins I think to unlock them, I'm really not sure because I collected some in earlier areas and the levels are still locked even though I had collected 5 or so across multiple levels in the zone. Game is relatively short though, so it wasn't the worst experience, but it was definitely a struggle to push myself through it... though iirc the last two zones were a real slog to get through with a lot of instant death mechanics.
Rating: Hard pass
121.
Team Sonic Racing (PS4)
I had higher expectations for this game after Transformed, but this game is honestly a huge disappointment in comparison. Gone are straight forward pickups and special moves, in their place is non descript pickups based on Sonic Colors Wisps and the game heavily relies on slipstream mechanics that only work with teammates and essentially never using pickups yourself and giving them to the AI so you can do your team boost thing. Game has a story mode though with what feels like a semi legitimate story. The story mode itself follows the same paradigm as the Transformed mission mode, there are several maps with paths that branch with races that have different requirements, but either they are bullshit or they are basic races, not nearly as special as transformed was. In general this game just isn't nearly as fun as the previous racing game.
Rating: Hard pass.
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