Long wait, longest video on my channel, today I will be talking about the phrase "Sonic had a rough transition to 3D", oh and also somewhere in there I go on a rant about big the cat or something idk hope you guys enjoy.

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Hey guys, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, Sonic has had a rough transition to 3D. This single statement follows the Sonic Franchise everywhere it goes. It’s a statement that’s considered gaming fact at this point, alongside phrases like “Valve can’t count three”, or “Bethesda games are buggy am I right”, or even that “EA is just the worst”.

And to be entirely honest, it’s not like this statement came out of nowhere. If you bought Sonic Adventure today to play on any modern console or computer, you’d probably agree with me if I said this game doesn’t look like it’s aged well. I think almost everyone can agree that Sonic Adventure 2 is a good game, and holds up well for the most part. But beginning with Sonic Heroes, and continuing through games like Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and the Black Knight, there’s a pattern here of releases that weren’t exactly well received..

However as we’ve moved away from the mid-late 2000’s and a new wave of Sonic fans have come to dominate the discourse surrounding the franchise, a pretty common thing I’ve seen said is now, is that the phrase, “Sonic has had a rough transition to 3D”, is just completely false. A sort of revisionist tale that’s come about because of inaccurate journalism and Sonic’s reputation as a franchise throughout the mid-late 2000’s. I can understand people coming to this conclusion, it’s no secret that the Sonic Fanbase and Video Game Reviewers don’t really see eye to eye on the general opinion of games in the franchise.

So which story is accurate? Were the reviewers, and companies like IGN or Gamespot accurate about “Sonic having a rough transition to 3d”, or were they wrong? Are Sonic fans correct in saying that critics have spun a revisionist tale to discredit sonic as a franchise? That’s what I’ve decided to answer with this video, by making Sonic’s transition to 3D myself. I’ve played Sonic 1-3 & knuckles, and Sonic adventure 1 and 2 to give my own definitive opinion.
So let’s set the stage. To understand “the phrase” (i’m already tired of saying it), we need to understand the conditions behind not only how this phrase possibly could have come into being, but also how it could’ve spread around and become so prolific.
So let’s try to make this quick, towards the tail end of the 8-bit era of video games, Nintendo had safely positioned themselves as the king of that era. It’s not like Nintendo developed or published every banger, but Super Mario bros. 1-3, The legend of Zelda, Metroid, Punch-out, that’s already a pretty stacked line up. Then, when you take into account the fact that Nintendo, made the NES, and you look at all the other amazing games that were sold exclusively on that console, a pretty good picture is painted for just how much Nintendo dominated this era.

As the video game industry moved forward, and the 16-bit era of gaming began, Sega released titles on their new console, The Genesis, (also known as the “mega drive” for anyone not in the US) and carved out their own slice of the gaming market in providing an arcade experience on a home console, as their slogan suggested, “We bring the arcade experience home”. This, wasn’t good enough for Sega, they didn’t just want to carve out their slice of the gaming market, they wanted to dominate. Sega was convinced that they had the best product on the market, and they wanted to make sure everyone knew it.
So Sega went to the drawing board, and decided that to dominate this era like Nintendo had done previously, they needed not only a solid platformer on their console, but a mascot, a character that could be pointed to and directly associated with their company. This character needed to not only be the perfect fit for Sega’s plans for a platform game with a strong identity, high speed scrolling, and uneven terrain, but he also needed to embody Sega’s values as a company. This character needed to be cool, up for a challenge, and full of spirit, and this character would be Sonic the Hedgehog.