Sonic Has a Weird Relationship with The Game Awards

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 23, 2024 2 Views 7 Min Read
Sonic Has a Weird Relationship with The Game Awards

Sonic the Hedgehog is currently running better and faster than the franchise has for years. These heights are only growing thanks to the shared spotlight between Sonic and Shadow in current series projects. Not only has Sonic X Shadow Generations been released to positive reviews and praise from fans, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 sees the two famous hedgehog rivals duke it out on the silver screen this December.




2024 was dubbed the Year of Shadow early on, which led to the release of Sonic X Shadow Generations back in October, giving the remastered Sonic Generations a new recent counterpart in the form of Shadow Generations. Shadow’s new solo campaign is the shining jewel of the collection, earning the set an 80% rating on OpenCritic, the second highest on the review aggregator under Sonic Mania. Despite this, somehow the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has only one nomination through the Knuckles TV show at The Game Awards, rather than Sonic X Shadow Generations, which highlights some strange trends for the hedgehog and his friends at the ceremony.

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Sonic’s Game Awards Nomination History and Why It Stands Out


Throughout The Game Awards’ going-on ten-year history, the Sonic franchise has only gotten a proper nomination four times. While the fact that these nominations are more common recently seems to suggest that the series is getting noticed as its newest era is just beginning, the pieces of Sonic multimedia get nominated at The Game Awards are a bit strange when looking at fan and critical reception. Currently, Sonic is regularly found in the Best Family Game and Best Adaptation categories as of 2022, but only once, no matter what projects the franchise had at the time.

Sonic the Hedgehog’s Nominations at The Game Awards

  • Sonic Mania for Best Family Game – 2016
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Best Adaptation – 2022
  • Sonic Superstars for Best Family Game – 2023
  • Paramount Plus’ Knuckles for Best Adaptation – 2024

Fans could argue that Sonic Mania and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 deserve their nominations. However, Sonic Superstars and Knuckles are a bit more questionable when looking at critical and fan reception. Superstars is a great 2D romp with friends, but it arguably wasn’t an installment worth nominating quite like Sonic Mania seven years prior. Superstars sits at a 60% on OpenCritic. Meanwhile, Sonic X Shadow Generations earned higher reviews without getting a single mention from The Game Awards 2024.


This is made even stranger by the fact that Knuckles got nominated, when critics and fans have pointed out that the show hardly focuses on the titular echidna at all. It’s often derisively called “The Wade Whipple Show” by fans, and apart from featuring Pachacamac from Sonic Adventure and The Flames of Disaster and Iblis from Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, it did hardly any proper adaptation of the games to really qualify for the video game adaptation award. That makes the fact that Sonic X Shadow Generations went without a nomination even harder to accept. Knuckles getting recognition for hardly featuring one Sonic character while Shadow’s campaign earns praise as a new gold standard for Sonic rereleases seems like a baffling contrast at first glance.

Sonic X Shadow Generations’ Absence at The Game Awards May Be For a Reason

While it may be easy to feel frustrated at the lack of appreciation thrown Sonic X Shadow Generations‘ way, one could argue that there was no place for it at The Game Awards this year. Sonic may have a place in the Best Family Game category sometimes, but Shadow Generations‘ heavy themes of loss may have firmly kept it out of that category, alongside the fact that the collection is a single player experience.


In terms of the other categories at The Game Awards, it’s hard to say if Sonic X Shadow Generations measures up to other well-received titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or Astro Bot, as 2024 was a great year for plenty of other games than just Sonic and Shadow’s revisited adventure. Fans who wish to see the two hedgehogs gain some recognition should keep their eyes on the Players’ Choice award once again this year, just in case it’s one of the 30 voting options yet to be revealed.

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