2006: "Oh my God....it's Sonic the Hedgehog....."

That my friends is a perfect analogy of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. SEGA's blue mascot is one that defined a whole console generation and one that single handedly spawned countless imitators like Bubsy the Bobcat and Awesome Possum. He was the first real contender to Nintendo's monopoly that was Mario. He gave Nintendo a run for their money, and kept doing that until SEGA's decline and fall out of the console business. He gave SEGA life and what did they do to him in return?

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They abused him like a Ragdoll. 

They (SEGA) kept doing things to him that strayed too far from what made Sonic great. 2006- his 15th anniversary might I add- was the bottom of the barrel. Two really poorly crafted games and one pretty mediocre racing game, Sonic up until 2010 was just not what he used to be. He used to be the hip cool guy in town, now he's just another video game character. Anyways, this article of sorts is one that gives you my experience with the Sonic games, from when I started playing until today. This is my honest look, at Sonic the Hedgehog.

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I didn't start on the classic games. I didn't even start on Adventure one or two. I started on Sonic Heroes for the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox. I used to go to my Dad's a lot and he had a PS2. He had Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Grand Theft Auto III and Sonic Heroes. And Sonic Heroes just seemed magical to me. It was the best thing ever to me at the time. I didn't care about the games "flaws" I just cared about running around Seaside Hill like an idiot with Team Sonic. I thought it was really fun and thought that nothing could possibly top it.

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I never got Shadow the Hedgehog until very recently, but it was a game I played when it came out. I thought it was fun-ish in the fact that at least Shadow got his own game and stuff. I didn't think the swearing fitted the game's world though. I thought the guns were really fun at the time, but later on in life they sort of weared off on me. Nowadays they just blend in with the crowd of other mediocre Third person Shooter-esque games on the market.

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I skipped over '06 because at the time I didn't have a 360 or PS3, and I didn't get a Wii until 2008 so I skipped over Secret Rings when it came out. So the first "Modern" Sonic game I got was Sonic Unleashed for the Wii. And I loved it. The daytime stages were intoxicatingly good and addicting. Sure, I was never skilled enough to get an S-Rank as such, but I Loved it. The Werehog was just there to me, and I thought it was hard but I never hated it. Sure it annoyed me sometimes but I liked it all the same. I also liked the control a lot.

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On December 26th of 2008 (One day after I got Unleashed) we headed to my uncles house. He had a Wii, 360 and a PS3 that had GeoHoltz mod thing on it. Being a massive Nintendo Nerd, I went for his Wii first, and to my surprise, he had Virtual Console games. I asked which one should I play and He said "Try Streets of Rage". I hated it. But then, at the corner of my eye I saw it. Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Mega Drive. We got all the way to Spring Yard Zone by dinner and by Nights End, we beat Dr. Ivo Robotnik in his infernal Scrap Brain. It's one of the best gaming memory's I have. I haven't been able to beat it since but I felt so good after that. The next day, I decided to play his 360 and saw another game simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog. I Played it for an hour and I loved the graphics and the Music. Everything else was HORRIBLE. It's the worst 360 game I've ever played. I needed time to cool off, so I went to a site called Nintendo8.com to play some NES Games. I also saw SEGA Master System games and the number 2 most played game there was Sonic. It was okay. Not as good as the other one for the Mega Drive

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Again, I did not get Sonic and the Black Knight until a few months ago so I missed out on it's March 2009 launch. It was about then that I heard about "Project Needlemouse" later renamed to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I. It was an okay game I thought and it was nothing special, although I was unaware that the fanbase was destroying the Internet at the time. So then I got Sonic Colours for Christmas of 2010. I loved it. It made me a true Sonic fan boy. To be fair, it's probably the best Sonic game since 3 & Knuckles. I got bored of Sonic though  for a little bit after that until Generations came out and I got the 3DS Version. I LOVED IT. I honestly thought that I would never play a Sonic game as good as this or Colours and then....

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I got Sonic 3 off of the Wii Shop Channel. I thought it was okay until I hit Ice Cap Zone. Words cannot describe the Awesomeness of the Music there. And then I downloaded Sonic & Knuckles. I thought it was even better. The two combined is my favourite Sonic game of all time. The music, graphics everything is just better than Sonic 1 and 2 combined.

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Over the past 21 years, Sonic has had his ups and DEFINETLY had his downs, but the past is all behind us now, and we don't know what SEGA will do with our favourite Blue Hedgehog. Sonic 4 Episode III? Let's hope so.

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Here's to the future, Sonic fans, Sonic Team, SEGA and all of Vizzed. Let's hope Sonic can go as far as fifty

Sonic Generations and Colors were really fun. After playing crappy ones, like 06 and Black Knight,
it felt great to see Sonic getting back on track.