Sonic The Hedgehog: Every Main Game, Ranked

Sonic the Hedgehog celebrated his 30 year anniversary in 2021; a tremendous accomplishment. For over three decades, the spiky rodent with attitude has spindashed his way across a multitude of games, films, comics, and cartoons – and in doing so, cemented himself in gamers’ hearts. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t have some childhood memory or other of this unique franchise.

Even so, the actual quality of Sonic’s mainline games has, shall we say, varied. Some are bonafide classics, while others are perhaps best left in the Blue Blur bargain bin. Want to know which of his many, many adventures are worth a spin? Let’s find out!

Updated November 4, 2024 by Bobby Mills: The Year of Shadow or the Year of Luigi – who wore it better? Whichever side you come down on, 2024 has been a banner year for our beloved gun-toting ultimate life form. The celebrations have peaked with the release of Shadow Generations, and it’s a good ‘un; so we thought we’d slot it into our list. Enjoy!

As is practically tradition by now with our Sonic rankings, when we say ‘mainline’ we’re referring solely to home console platformers that were developed either entirely, or in large part, by Sonic Team. This excludes spinoffs like Team Sonic Racing and handheld titles like the Rush duology.

One exception, though: we’ll be covering Sonic 4, despite that being a Dimps project, since it’s a numbered sequel.

21

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)

Well, What Else Did You Expect?

Yep, it was inevitable. Sonic 2006, or ’06 as it’s most commonly known, represents the nadir of the Sonic timeline. An ambitious project intended to breathe new life into the ailing IP via the wonders of high-definition, it crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.

It would be quicker to number ’06’s positives than its laundry list of faults. Its immovable Christmas deadline did it no favours – the narrative is incomprehensible, it’s riddled with bugs and interminable loading screens, and it drops more frames than a clumsy art dealer.

20

Sonic And The Secret Rings

Arabian Blights

Part one of the Sonic Storybook Series – which made it to a grand total of two entries before being canned – Secret Rings entered development only because ’06 couldn’t be ported to the Wii. A motion control-centric experience, it’s a grueling nightmare to suffer through.

Tilting the Wiimote to steer Sonic across deserts and evil foundries is as imprecise as imprecision gets, not helped by the floaty jumping and half-baked RPG elements. Aladdin never had to deal with this.

19

Shadow The Hedgehog

Edge Was The 2000s Formula

Given his ongoing popularity with fans after his post-SA2 resurrection, it was no surprise that Shadow the Hedgehog was given a standalone game. What was surprising, however, was that it took the form of a clunky third-person shooter.

The Ultimate Life Form runs, guns, and (mildly) cusses his way through an assortment of colourless environments in his quest to thwart the Black Arms invasion. You’ll die to misaligned homing attacks more often than to the enemies, and the ‘morality system’ quests are dull as dishwater.

18

Sonic The Hedgehog 4

Fourquels Always Suck

Sonic 4 began life as a mobile title, ‘Sonic Portable,’ before Sega execs decided it’d make more dough on consoles masquerading as a Genesis sequel. Lethargic and creatively derivative, it was a colossal disappointment.

Released episodically, we would see two chapters before the project was axed. Episode 1’s physics don’t bear thinking about; Episode 2 sands off a few of the rougher edges, but it’s not enough to salvage something that’s this dead inside.

17

Sonic Forces

Sonic Forces You To Rethink Your Life

Riding a tidal wave of hype, spurred on by cannily-edited teaser trailers and convention appearances, Sonic Forces sold itself on a strong premise: Dr. Eggman has won. Sadly, the final offering failed to hit any of the necessary benchmarks to pull off such a high concept.

Eggman does indeed conquer the globe, but it’s told to us via a black screen with text – an omen of the cheapness that pervades the game. You spend more time playing as an awkward OC that you create to bail Sonic out of prison than the Blue Blur himself, and the writing smacks of subpar fanfiction.

16

Sonic The Hedgehog

The Original, But Far From The Best

It may seem like heresy to have the inaugural game this low in the ranking – but most fans tend to concede that Sonic 2 was the true beginning, and Sonic 1 was just the flashy tech demo to move hardware. It’s astonishingly brief, rocking a meager six zones, and often has a pace akin to molasses.

With no spindash at your disposal, much of Sonic 1 is spent doing sluggish, single-block platforming. Four out of the six worlds are duds (can anyone in good conscience defend Marble or Labyrinth?) and even the Chaos Emeralds serve no significant purpose.

15

Sonic Lost World

Sonic Goes The Way Of The Plumber

As part of a Wii U exclusivity deal signed in the 2010s, Nintendo assisted with the development of Sonic Lost World. The result was a confused package that borrows more than a few pages from Mario’s playbook, from the cylindrical Galaxy-esque planetoids to the generic world themes.

Sing along, now: grasslands, desert, beach, forest, ice world, fire world, boss. Things aren’t exactly buoyed by a complicated parkour system, which in fairness is quite satisfying to utilise, but takes far more patience to get to grips with than most players are likely to possess.

14

Sonic Heroes

Four Times The Length Means Four Times The Fun, Surely?

Heroes is, at its core, a perfectly acceptable endeavour. The controls are workable, the soundtrack slaps, and there’s no extra fluff or hubs between stages. You simply pick your preferred team, and you’re off to enjoy that high-octane Sonic action.

But then it dawns on you: in order to reach the Last Story, you’ve got to play the entire damn game four separate times. Once as Team Sonic, then again, with little variation, as Teams Dark, Rose, and Chaotix. Suddenly, the fun begins to melt away, and what should have been a brisk four-hour classic bloats into a 15-hour letdown.

13

Sonic And The Black Knight

Whoso Waggleth This Sword Shall Be King

Black Knight closes out the Storybook duology with a smidge more competence than the atrocities of Secret Rings, but it remains uneven. Here, Sonic’s dragged, chili dogs and all, into the pages of the Arthurian legend, where he’s got to help young Merlina dethrone a ghoulish King Arthur.

Assisting you in this knightly task is Caliburn, a talkative sword that you can swipe at enemies (with impressive inconsistency) via the Wiimote. Skyward Sword this ain’t – but there is mirth to be had seeing Sonic’s friends cosplay as various medieval figures for the occasion.

12

Sonic Colors

Wii’re Gonna Reach For The Stars

We’re now at the point in our ranking where the remaining entries are all solid to great. Colors kicked off a kind of Sonic-naissance; hot on the heels of the maligned ’06 and Black Knight, all it took was this Wii outing to rekindle public faith in the little guy’s games.

After Eggman constructs a (graphically stunning) Interstellar Amusement Park in space as a front to enslave the alien Wisps, Sonic and Tails are on the case. Colors builds on the firm foundation of Unleashed’s boost formula to crowd-pleasing effect, but it’s marred by an overreliance on floaty 2D portions.

11

Sonic Superstars

Sega Goes For The NSMB Pie

When Sonic Superstars hit shelves in late 2023, platforming fans found themselves faced with a quandary they hadn’t had since the 90s: a mainline Sonic game and a Mario one releasing at the same time. Did you go for Superstars or Mario Wonder? Choices, choices… but both offered four-player co-op.

Picking from Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, or newcomer Trip, you and up to three chums can take on this 2.5D speedfest together. It’s as if a Genesis title was dipped in a coat of contemporary sheen – the visuals are top-notch, but the gameplay’s purposely archaic. Hiccups with the co-op mechanics aside, Superstars is a hoot.

10

Sonic CD

If You Try, You Can Do Anything!

Developed for the Sega CD – an add-on for the Genesis that enabled it to play disc-based games – Sonic CD gets a lot right. It introduces fan favourites Metal Sonic and Amy Rose to the cast, and boasts some sublime anime cutscenes that pushed the technical boundaries of the day.

Alas, it’s scuppered by scattershot, overly-vertical level layouts that feel as if a Mario Maker “designer” were turned loose with Sonic Team’s dev kit. A general inability to get out of its own way, all in service of a loose time travel mechanic, weighs CD down further.

9

Sonic Adventure

It Is, Indeed, Happening

After the failure of the Saturn, Sega needed their golden (blue?) goose to explode onto the 3D scene with style to ensure the Dreamcast’s success. Though not without its imperfections, especially when appraised by modern standards, Sonic Adventure achieves what it sets out to do with panache.

Picking from a meaty six campaigns – Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, or Gamma – you’ll witness the birth of numerous series mainstays. The homing attack, the Chao Garden, the infectious buttrock; it’s all here, and no amount of jank can keep Adventure’s earnest charm down.

8

Sonic Frontiers

Hey, It Worked For Link

Sega is nothing if not a company of trend-chasers, so it came as a surprise to pretty much no-one that their next grand idea for Sonic was an open-world game. Frontiers spent half a decade in the oven (a notably long development period for one of these titles) and the result ain’t perfect, but it sure is a Power Sneaker-sized step in the right direction.

When Eggman attempts to steal the technology of the ancient Starfall Islands, he and his new AI companion Sage fall afoul of its surviving security systems. It’s up to Sonic and his entourage to round up the Chaos Emeralds and splatter the resident Titans. Frontiers balances blasting across vast fields with the typical reaction-based boost formula, and it’s the hedgehog’s strongest effort in some time.

7

Sonic Adventure 2

Rolling Around At The Speed Of Sound

It’s very, very tough to look at Sonic Adventure 2 from an objective standpoint. So laden is this sequel with nostalgia, and so ingrained into gamer culture are its dialogue, music, and stage lineup, that removing the rose-tinted glasses becomes a Herculean chore.

Granted, Sonic and Shadow’s top-tier level design totally eclipses the tedious treasure hunting of Rouge and Knuckles (and the clunky mechs of Tails and Eggman, at that). And sure, Mad Space, Crazy Gadget, and Cannon’s Core are hell on wheels. But come on – when you hear those opening riffs of City Escape, you’re home.

6

Sonic Unleashed

True Art Always Goes Unappreciated In Its Time

Known colloquially as ‘That One Where Sonic Becomes A Werehog,’ Unleashed has nonetheless enjoyed a full 180-degree revision of opinion from the Sonic fanbase. What was once considered a further blight on the hedgehog’s reputation, a one-two punch in the wake of ’06, is now hailed as one of his finest 3D titles.

Unleashed’s Pixar-esque environs are so gorgeous, and so ahead of their time, that hardware has only recently caught up with them; just check out gameplay of it on Xbox Series X. The sheer adrenaline of the day stages is complemented marvelously by the exploratory, action-oriented night stages. If you can get over the inherent silliness of the Werehog’s design, you’re in for a treat.

5

Sonic Mania

They’re Gonna Take You Back To The Past

In the mid-2010s, Sonic was in a rough spot. The attempted Boom relabel had faceplanted, Lost World had failed to make waves, and it seemed unlikely Forces would right the ship. Then, along came Christian Whitehead, who turned what started as a fangame into the most warmly-received Sonic release in a decade.

Mania makes its pixelated thesis statement abundantly clear from the outset: it’s a comforting hug from the 90s, presenting a mix of retro Genesis zones and a smattering of new locales, all wrapped up in an irresistible chiptune soundtrack. Sonic Team were right to collab on this one.

4

Sonic Generations

When Past And Present Collide

When Eggmans of the past and future begin tinkering with Sonic’s timeline via the primordial Time Eater, Classic Sonic and his Modern counterpart are thrust together. Generations is an unashamed love letter to the entire franchise, and drips with love, detail, and care.

Each zone (all pulled from prior installments, even ’06) can be tackled in 3D as Modern Sonic, or in 2D as his pudgier Classic cousin. So tight is the level design that Generations continues to be the de facto base for the series’ modding community; topped off with a generous helping of side content, it’s an unqualified winner.

In 2024, Sonic Generations received a remaster as one half of a package named ‘Sonic x Shadow Generations.’ We… advise you to exercise caution when Googling that title.

This port smooths out the jagged graphics, adds a Chao Rescue mode, and allows you to utilise Sonic Mania’s drop dash ability.

3

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Super Sonic, Super Game

If Sonic 1 was a vehicle for the Genesis’ ‘blast processing,’ Sonic 2 was, y’know, the actual game. This is a confident, full-fat followup that takes everything that worked about the original and expands upon it – while chucking its warts into a mincer.

Sonic and Tails can now hurtle at full pelt through the iconic zones, as opposed to pushing blocks or hanging around waiting for air bubbles. The movement feels as smooth as butter, and the difficulty curve is perfectly pitched. It’s little wonder that Sonic 2 is a fave for so many.

2

Shadow Generations

The Edgy Hedgie’s Second Spotlight

The other half of Sonic x Shadow Generations, this represents an epilogue of sorts to Shadow’s complex, traumatic backstory that spanned through Adventure 2, Heroes, his own game, and ’06. It occurs concurrently with Sonic’s campaign, and sees Shadow’s progenitor, Black Doom, being revived by Eggman’s Time Eater. In the process, Maria’s brought back too, which reopens a lot of old wounds for poor Shadow.

We don’t say this lightly: Shadow Generations is the best 3D Sonic in well over a decade. Sonic Team evidently learned from the feedback Frontiers and Forces garnered and applied it to phenomenal effect. Whether you’re barrelling through white-knuckle renditions of such stages as Kingdom Valley and the Space Colony ARK, or exploring the sizable physics-based hub world, it’s deserving of its high review scores and record-breaking sales figures.