Sonic The Hedgehogis Sega’s mascot and a character that the developer has loved and nurtured for many years now. Sonic was once even seen as a genuine rival to Mario, although that rivalry has since become a lot more friendly and is now more or less confined strictly to the pair’s Olympic Games-themed sports title series.
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Sega’s take on the 2D platforming genre was interesting, as speed, as well as precision platforming, played a significant role in the blue hedgehog’s games. However, the decision was eventually made to takeSonicand his friends into the third dimension and the resulting games have been a little hit-and-miss, to say the least.
Where Metacritic ratings aren’t available, ratings from GameRankings will be used instead. In instances where a game has been ported to multiple platforms, the highest rating will be chosen.
Updated July 09, 2025, by Tom Bowen:Since bursting onto the scene more than three decades ago, Sonic’s story has been punctuated by a series of dizzying highs and agonizing lows. The majority of the latter have come since the blue blur made the leap to 3D, with many of his post-2000 titles failing to live up to his 2D glory days and leaving fans both disappointed and angry as a result. That’s not to say that there haven’t been some bright spots here and there though, nor that fans of the blue blur have completely given up hope that they’ll one day see a true and worthy successor to Sonic Adventure 2. Many had hoped that Sonic Frontiers could perhaps be that title, but despite the game’s somewhat impressive review scores, it falls just a little short of the two Dreamcast-era Sonic games. Even so, given how poorly some of the pre-release footage from the 2022 Summer of Gaming Livestream was received by the wider gaming community, some fans may well be pleasantly surprised by the game’s overall quality and its Metacritic rating.
PS3 & Xbox 360
Metacritic Rating
46
Sonic The Hedgehog(2006) is widely regarded as being the worstSonicgame ever made: 2D or 3D. It was released back in January 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and was poorly received due to a number of highly questionable design choices and a considerable amount of ridiculous game-breaking bugs.
The game placesSonic and his friendsin a real-world setting as they attempt to save a human princess who has been kidnapped by the evil doctor Egg-man. The gameplay is hilariously buggy throughout and at times can be nearly unplayable. So much so, in fact, that to some, a score of 43 will perhaps be seen as exceptionally generous.
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Shadow isn’t a bad character by any means, but whether or not he really deservedhis own spin-off titleis definitely a matter for debate. Even the most ardent of Shadow fans will likely agree that the decision to give the character guns inShadow the Hedgehogwas bizarre though, and one that never really felt right.
Not only that, but the game is well known for having terrible controls and an uncooperative camera, which can often make the whole experience very jarring for players. Released in 2005 for the Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, and original Xbox, it is an incredibly unique game, but not in a good way.
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When the Nintendo Wii came out,Sonic Teamwanted to capitalize on the popularity of the console by developing an exclusiveSonicgame for the system. The resulting title wasSonic and the Black Knight, which was released for the Wii back in early 2009. To say that it didn’t make much of an impression would perhaps be a bit of an understatement.
With this exclusive, the developers decided to take Sonic back to the middle ages and a world of Arthurian legends. Naturally, they decided to give the hedgehog a sword and make him a knight in an attempt to make him fit in with the era. Unfortunately, the strange sword-based mechanics didn’t appeal to a lot of existingSonicfans, leading to poor sales and even worse reviews.
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Sonic Forcesis the latest 3DSonictitle and was released back in November 2019 for PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. However, inSonic Forces, players do not play exclusively as Sonic; instead, they create their own playable characters and fight alongside the blue blur and the rest of his crew for large stretches of the game.
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The character creation is actually pretty decent and allows players to choose from a wide array of different creatures, each with its own unique abilities. The game itself adds nothing new to the Sonic formula, however, failing to advance any of the core mechanics introduced in earlier 3DSonicgames by any great degree.
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Sonic: Lost Worldis one of the very few 3DSonicgames that wasn’t developed exclusively by Sonic Team, with Dimps Corporation taking up the reins for the 3DS port. Originally, the game was released exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS in October 2013, but a few years later, ports for the PC and the Wii U were developed and released.
What’s perhaps a little surprising is that the 3DS release is generally considered to be the definitive version despite its counterparts being on more powerful consoles. The controls are frustratingly bad regardless of the system though, which can often lead to an unpleasant experience for players. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.
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Once again, Sonic Team wanted to try something new and different withSonic Unleashed, which was released back in December 2008 for the PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360. They decided to mix the things that everybody loved about Sonic games like speed and precision together with a bizarre werewolf subplot, which ended up really hurting both the title’s narrative and its gameplay.
The daytime stages in which players control regular Sonic are amazingly fast and a lot of fun to complete, but things take a rather drastic turn once the sun goes down. Werehog stages slow the pace down to a crawl and end up feeling like little more than tedious, button-bashing segments. In this case, the contrast really is night and day.
GameRankings Rating
67%
Though nowhere near as revolutionary asSuper Mario 64, Sonic’s first foray into the third dimension was still a fairly successful one.Sonic 3D Blastused an isometric perspective and pre-rendered 3D models converted into sprites to create a solid 3D title that looks great on both the Genesis and the Sega Saturn. Sadly, it would be the only Sonic game released for the latter though due tothe cancellation ofSonic X-Treme.
While it might not look like much when compared to modern standards, it’s worth remembering that 3D video games weren’t all that common back in the mid-nineties. The Genesis version, therefore, sold more than 700,000 copies alone, while the Saturn version was the second best-selling game on the system, with onlyNiGHTSselling more copies.
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Another Wii exclusive,Sonic and the Secret Ringsreleased back in February 2007. Much like inSonic and the Black Knight, the blue blur is transported to another world, this time providing players with a chance to experience the Arabian Nights for themselves. Aesthetically speaking, at least, the developers really did nail that theme, although the game still had its fair share of problems.
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Despite its pleasing visuals and charming world,Sonic and the Secret Ringsonce again failed to deliver on the overallSonicexperience. It also had an incredibly steep learning curve, which could make completing some levels seem like a real grind. This wasn’t at all helped by the poorly implemented camera either, something that many of the 3DSonicgames have struggled to get right.
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Sonic Heroeswas the firstSonictitle to grace the sixth generation of consoles, with Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC releases all coming in early 2004. If nothing else, the title is impressive when it comes to the sheer number of playable protagonists, with 12classicSoniccharactersavailable in four different teams of three.
The graphics and the sound were top-notch for the era, although some felt that the developers may have sacrificed gameplay in their pursuit of these high levels of graphical and audio fidelity. When all’s said and done though,Sonic Heroeswas still a solid platformer, but with a little more tweaking, it could have been an outstanding one.
Sonic Frontiersmay not be the best 3DSonicgame ever made, nor does it come close to being a game of the year contender, butthat’s not to say that it isn’t still a highly enjoyable game. In many ways, it feels like the kind of game that the twoSonic Adventuretitles on the Dreamcast were ultimately racing toward, with the blue hedgehog’s lightning-fast movement speed being incredibly well integrated into a wide array of exciting open-world environments.
Unfortunately, as one might expect from amultiplatform title that’s also available on Switchand last-gen consoles, the graphics aren’t all that impressive and some of the edges are a little rougher than they really should be. The jankiness of the homing attack can at times slow things right down too, completely ruining any momentum that players had been able to build up. Even so, these somewhat minor issues are nowhere near enough to ruin what should otherwise be an incredibly fun title for both casual players and fans of the blue blur alike.
