I’d like to share how I discovered Sonic and my personal take on SEGA as a gamer from China.
In China, Sonic was once a much bigger name. But today, many younger players may not even recognize him. Twenty years ago, most of us couldn’t afford original SEGA hardware. Instead, we played MD/Genesis games through a VCD player called “Xin Tian Li.” Here’s the interesting part: the machine actually had a legitimate license from SEGA—but it was licensed as a VCD player, not a game console. The company behind it then flooded the market with pirated MD game discs, and quietly turned a blind eye to users running them on the machine. Most players at the time had no idea about any of this—they just knew they could play Sonic on this weird VCD player, and that was enough.
That’s how an entire generation of Chinese gamers got their first taste of Sonic—through a gray-area loophole that we didn’t even know was a loophole.
Pirated or not, those memories are precious to me. Sonic felt completely different from anything else—high-speed side-scrolling action was mind-blowing at the time. Later, when I grew up and learned about the development stories behind those classics, I gained even more respect for the creativity and craft of the original teams. To this day, I’ve purchased over a dozen officially licensed Sonic games.
So why isn’t Sonic as big in China? I think one major reason is that SEGA deliberately positioned Sonic as Mario’s edgy rival—“Mario is for kids, Sonic is for older players.” That marketing worked in some regions, but in China, the post-MD era left a gap. Most players never got hands-on with later Sonic titles, and over time, they gravitated toward other franchises. For example, Persona 5 Royal has a huge meme status here—“P5R is the greatest JRPG ever” is practically gospel among fans.
That said, I’m still grateful to Sonic. He gave me a new perspective on gaming: face your fears, keep running forward, and never look back.
A friend of mine once put it this way: “SEGA always starts with a brilliant, sky-high concept, but the execution often falls just short of greatness. It’s not that the games are bad—they’re always missing that little extra something.”
One small regret: I ordered a limited-edition artist-collaboration plush toy—the “SEGA Sonic × Kosuke Kawamura” collectible. But it hasn’t arrived yet. Seeing the promo images just makes me want it even more!
Happy 35th, Sonic. Keep running.
You must log in or register to comment.
I find the fact that this franchise has persisted in spite of so many colossal fuckups, both from games and management at SEGA, morbidly inspiring.
You’d think that putting the devs of Sonic X-Treme through hell and back (fuck Yuji Naka btw, hope he rots in prison) only to cancel the game and miss the Saturn launch window would’ve been the nail in the coffin, but nope, the series still kept going.
You’d think Sega declaring bankruptcy and bowing out of the console race to become third-party would’ve capped off the Sonic series, but no, it still kept going.
Then you look at the dark age: Sonic Heroes being a launch third-party title with Iizuka nearly putting himself in the hospital a la Sakurai with Melee. And then Shadow the Hedgehog AKA “Sonic with guns”. Then Sonic the Hedgehog GBA being a shit-tier port that was so bad it catapulted Taxman into relevancy.
All culminating in what is still considered the worst Sonic game to date: Sonic 06, the game that was so fucking atrociously put together with half the team (the other half working on Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii just because they couldn’t get 06 running on the Wii) that it caused Yuki Naka to leave Sega, spawned various memes and was the start of many people getting into Youtuber game reviews, and solidified in the general conscious that, to quote IGN: “Sonic was never good”. I personally think this is the lowest point of the series, being rivaled only by the WiiU era, which I’ll get to.
But miraculously, that damn blue hedgehog just. kept. GOING!
And I think here is where the series started to see a turnaround, objectively, despite some additional issues:
Sonic Unleashed released, and though many reviewers dogged on the Werehog gameplay, many of those same reviewers praised the high-octane gameplay of the daytime stages, and I think to this day, Sonic Unleashed is the best a Sonic game has ever looked in terms of presentation. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more excited seeing Sonic gameplay than waking up that one morning to see the Abadat trailer for Unleashed: The music was upbeat, the gameplay shown was energetic, the visuals were gorgeous and bright. Unleashed was the first game I watched a Let’s Play of from beginning to end (thanks, Antdude!).
And that hedgehog kept going, and for once I felt somewhat positive about it.
Side note: Sonic Chronicles released, and while I did enjoy my first playthrough of it appreciating all the fan-service, I think this was the culmination of Sega not giving a shit about writing in external Sonic media that led to them enforcing the infamous mandates after being sued by fucKen Penders. I was really sad to learn that his lawsuit, and additional lawsuits by other Archie writers, Sega and Archie’s corporate Incompetence notwithstanding, effectively killed any further potential in telling Sonic stories with deep and personal themes. I genuinely don’t think we’ll see a Sonic RPG (on the level of Chronicles) ever again, nor will we see any Sonic comic that matches the depth and emotion of the post issue 160 era of the Archie comics (yes, that includes IDW and its lost potential, more on that later).
Sonic Colors was the return to form I think the series was in dire need of for the past decade, despite what time and the updated crapjob port might argue: A simpler story, a more varied environment through Eggman’a Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park, and gameplay that, while was mostly 2D, incorporated the Color Powers in ways that we haven’t seen since that made levels explorable.
Sonic Generations perfected the boost formula and mixture of 2D/3D gameplay both in modern Sonic’s levels and Classic Sonic’s levels, despite Classic not having 1:1 physics with the Genesis games (can you imagine how much cooler Gens could’ve been with Taxman working the 2D levels?!). I wish it was Ian Flynn working on the story originally, but hey, we eventually got our monkey’s paw wish with Sonic x Shadow Gens, with its awkward redubbing and writing on the Sonic side.
And then the hedgehog fucking stumbled yet again.
First off, fuck Nintendo and Sega for that stupid-ass WiiU exclusivity deal. Just Nintendo hooking a ball on Sega and chaining them to their failed console, and Sega just being their usual Sega self:
Mario and Sonic Olympic games fell off after London on the Wii. Sonic Lost World was fucking stupid (and the technical basis for the boost games moving forward as Forces, Frontiers, and Shadow Gens are essentially retooled Lost World physics masquerading as boost gameplay). I hate the gameplay, I hate the story, I hate that this game effectively spawned the Koopali-I mean the Deadly Six and their one-note personalities that wouldn’t show any semblance of potential until IDW and Crossworlds, and even then that’s not saying much. Literally the only good thing in this game is the Zelda DLC.
And then came Sonic Boom…the second biggest failure right behind Sonic 06. Fuck Sega and their meddling with Big Red Button and forcing them to put CryEngine on the WiiU and forcing BRB to change the story because Sega was too jingoist to allow the SPINOFF SERIES to invent a new backstory for Sonic and co. Thank god BRB made it out okay in the end, and the TV show had a decent second season before being unceremoniously cancelled.
And then sigh came Sonic Forces. A wet fart of a Sonic Generations clone with a wet fart of a story and paid Super Sonic DLC (no I don’t care if Sega made it free later, this was them getting greedy). At least Iam Flynn got to write the prequel comics that never fucking mattered in the first place.
Obviously this is where I would sing the high praises of Mania. But I’ll just say I will forever be scratching my head that Sega and Evening Star had a sequel planned and in development only the partnership to fall through. Fuck, man, that screenshot they released still hurts to look at because of all the lost potential. I still think to this day, Sega was jealous that someone outside of Japan made a better classic Sonic game than they did (fuck Sonic 4 btw).
The hedgehog kept going, into mobile and back into comics. I haven’t played all the mobile Sonic games, I’ve only played Sonic Runners before Sega ruined that game, and a bit of Sonic Jump. I’m not gonna waste more time on mobile.
IDW Sonic started out REALLY strong. I loved the Metal Overlord saga and the Metal Virus arc. My issue is that the mandates started to rear their ugly head, and these arcs should’ve come at the end of the comic’s run, because now, the comic sucks frankly. I hate how the mandates effectively killed the planned Shadow miniseries, I hate how the mandates prevent Shadow from being Bakugo 2.0/Vegeta Jr. I hate how the mandates prevent characters from being as deep as they were in the (post-160) Archie comics. I hate the mandate that prevents the Classic characters like the Hooligans, Honey, Mighty and Ray from showing up in the modern issues. I hate how the world was never really built for those early arcs to make it feel really lived in. I hate how the story arcs were cut from multiple issues to just three issues so they could be easily packaged into volumetric releases. And the pacing in these later arcs is atrocious: a nice intro issue, exciting middle issue, and then a wet fart of an ending. I started waiting until every third issue released to catch up with the series, and I’ve promised myself that if 100 is a dud, I’m dropping the series altogether. I think the only IDW comics that I’ve enjoyed from Sonic are the Classic Anniversary specials. Seasons of Chaos felt like Ian Flynn making up for not being able to finish the Mega Drive series from Archie (god, that was my favorite series from Archie). The other Anniversary specials are fine I guess, with Knuckles’ being the weakest (Superstars ruining everything once again). I hate the Fang miniseries.
Then, the hedgehog went into open-zone gameplay.
Sonic Frontiers is a game I have a love-hate relationship with. I LOVE the open zone gameplay and the potential it created for future Sonic titles. The Action Chain challenge is my gold standard for how future Sonic open-zone titles should function: run around the world, perform tricks and stunts in an alloted time to earn points and get a high rank. That degree of freedom is perfect for Sonic!
I hate everything else about the game. According to a translated tweet, Kishimoto essentially said the game was a $60 global playtest, and BOY does it feel like one. The physics are atrocious even with the updates, the Final Horizon DLC is the worst Sonic thing I’ve personally played, the story is a melodramatic nothingburger. The cyberspace levels are hot doodoo water, the puzzles are just…not puzzles, I want to personally shoot to death the person who made that fucking pinball level, I want to castrate the person who made Chaos Island, and I think this game made me hate Kishimoto personally. I wish I didn’t spend the full $60 dollars on it, because it frankly doesn’t feel worth more than $10. Damn good boss vocal themes tho.
But oddly enough, the hedgehog didn’t decide to dump everything for a new formula. In fact, the blue bastard actually took something woth potential and gasp IMPROVED ON IT?!
Yeah, Sonic x Shadow is nearly peak. Nearly because what the fuck were those rewrites on the Sonic side?! And what the fuck is up with Kishimoto not explaining crucial gameplay functions, like with Shadow’s Doom Morph and how you have to time the swinging on orbs to swing just when Shadow is directly under the orbs?! Literally killed any enjoyment I had with Chaos Island and the final boss.
But damn, Shadow’s story, while limited in scope, is what I hoped to see with Ian Flynn at the helm. Tis a great story and cinematography with subtle callbacks that aren’t so in your face like they were in Frontiers.
And the hedgehog is still going strong! Sonic Dream Team, though I can’t play it due to me not sacrificing my soul for an Apple product, looks incredible. Sonic Racing Crossworlds feels corporate as hell, but I can’t lie, the arcadey gameplay of kart racing here feels way better than $80 Kart World.
I still can’t believe Sonic also has a successful movie franchise as well! Sonic 1 felt like a good first step if you ignore the dogshit initial design reveal that once again made Sonic the ire of the general public not seen since 06. Sonic 2 improved on incorporating game aspects while admittedly doubling down on the worst aspects from the first movie to the point where I thought it was out of spite (fuck the wedding scene forever and always). The Knuckles series was the worst of this, and about what people expected the first movie to be. Then the third movie came along, trimmed the fat, and delivered a high-octane story that I always find myself wanting to revisit. I can’t wait for 4! And yes, these movies are better than Illumination’s 90-minute Mario commercials.
Overall, I feel the franchise is in the best spot culturally in and outside the gaming sphere. Sonic feels like a household name again. Kind of like an addict who finally decided that enough was enough, decided to turn their lives around with some relapses, setbacks, and stumbles along the way, but they genuinely wanted to improve, and with enough support from people in their lives who kept reminding them of the potential they once had, were able to get back on the saddle and stay on for longer than expected. While there are points where Sonic as a brand feels a bit corporate and uptight, somewhere deep down is the same radical spirit that fueled their initial successes. Here’s to 35 more years where that hedgehog still keeps going.
meh… it’s aaaa slop now from a company that’s trying to milk a dead horse.
I grew up playing the Sonic Rush series and Sonic Classic Collection on my DS constantly growing up. The fact the classic games were as difficult as they were meant they were ever more satisfying to beat. I later had the original Sonic Adventure on my Xbox 360, and remember begging my parents to let me upgrade to the Director’s Cut because I wanted to unlock Metal Sonic. The Sonic series was a huge part of my childhood, which only made it sadder for me that the series ended up constantly putting out mediocre garbage after Adventure 2 and didn’t improve until Mania, which wasn’t even truly a Sega game. Thanks Ken Pontaff and Warren Graff (Pontaff, if you will) for the awful writing in most 3D Sonic games!
*Ken Pontac
Sonic holds a special place in my heart, but the genesis couldnt reliably handle the “blistering speed” and the fast ball sections its famous for were choppy and nauseating.
I’ll never forget the joy of having my little brother playing Tails though. Or the heart-pounding terror of that drowning music while you desperately try and get that bubble.
- Always cool to gear his Sonic is seen in other countries and to hear about the history of the franchise from another country outside of EU countries, US, and Japan.
- Sonic has been one of my longest autistic interests throughout my life, so you can imagine how much I love the franchise.
I literally played my first Sonic game in a child’s dentist waiting room. It was Sonic Adventure 2 on gamecube. The next game I played was literally the Sonic Mega Collection for same console because my grandpa thought me and my brothers would love it. Yeah, I was the only one to fall in love with it. So, growing up, I had Sonic Rush on DS, Riders Zero Gravity and Sonic 4 episode 1 on wii, Secret Rings, Sonic The Hedgehog ( Sonic '06 ), Sonic Generations on xbox360, Unleashed on PS2 and xbox360 marketplace, Sonic Adventure DX on xbox marketplace, and Sega Superstar Tennis if you wanna include that game that came with the original family xbox360 we had.
Nowadays I don’t have all of those titles anymore, but my collection is more impressive. I got a Sega Genesis with Sonic 1-3 with lock-on Knuckled adaptor and Sonic Spinball. I also have a Dreamcast and a Japanese copy of Sonic Adventure ( which breaks my personal rule of not buying imported games if possible ). Got Sonic Heroes on PS2. I also broke down at one point and bought Sonic Frontiers for my switch. The rest of the games I have that aren’t physical copies are Sonic Generations ( before I even knew they were making x Shadow ), Origins, Mania, Sonic 4 episodes 1+2, and Sonic Lost World on Steam. Other than the games listed in this paragraph, I don’t legally own any other Sonic titles currently, besides Sonic on GameGear ( no console to play it currently ).
Sonic has been a constant throughout my whole life, so I owe a lot of childhood memories to that franchise. The anime/cartoons, too. Found out about the anime around the early 2010s and really liked it. Then when netflix got the two DIC 90s cartoons, I eventually found out about them and love both of them to this day. I knew of a Sonic cartoon because of old school youtube poop videos, but I was too young and dumb to figure out where to find them online back then because I was still a dumb kid. We don’t talk about Sonic Underground. It is fine, but simultaneously a disappointment, IMO.
Currently, I have zero official Sonic merch or any physical merch outside a hang up thing my brother got me for Christmas a year or two ago. Pretty sure it might use some genAI art because one hand that looks atrociously like the graphic designer didn’t have a clue what a hand looks like and has a weird, seemingly impossible pose I’d expect to see from a clanker. Would get rid of it, but it’s a gift from my brother. Absolutely waiting to see if in the future I can get a specific vintage Tails plushie that I cannot remember the exact one right now.
Speaking of characters, I am an absolute sucker for the DIC brown furred 4 year old Tails, either show and either Tails. The Tails who gets in the way more because he isn’t a kid genius Tails. The absolute most innocent Tails. As much as I dislike kids, I would sacrifice myself for that Tails. That specific Tails is by a very wide margin my absolute favorite character. Followed by regular Tails being my favorite, with Blaze ( purely for design and heavy Sonic Rush bias ) as a very close third.
Despite how bad a lot of Sonic games are, I still find myself loving almost all the games I play. The one Sonic Boom game I played on 3DS thanks to hShop and that one infinite runner mobile game from a decade ago not included because they suck. Same thing applies specifically to the Sonic Lost World special stages on 3DS. I also have played the one Sonic car racer on wii, but I don’t like the car racer spin-off games when compared to the Riders spin-offs ( Free Riders excluded because I have never played and probably never will because I couldn’t justify kinect for a single game ).
So, needless to say, the series has become a symbol of comfort and security for me. Probably to a somewhat unhealthy degree. It’s more than just a game franchise made by a company that would absolutely bankrupt itself if given infinite money. It’s more than just a blue hedgehog running from adventure to adventure. It’s more than just a colourful cast of characters. It’s kinda become this very key part of my identity and who I am as a whole.
That time keeps rolling on and am disintegrating with each passing day.
I have a Sonic plushie that a friend got me for Autism Day. I bring him around on trips with my girlfriend and we take pictures with him like he’s our baby
I think the franchise peaked with Sonic and Knuckles. They never really managed the transition to 3d like Nintendo did with Mario and Zelda. It’s probably been over 30 years since it’s really been relevant to me.
Sonic is cool, but I have been awful at Sonic games for all of those 35 years.
Even the developers have been awful at Sonic games for most of those years sadly. :(
As a kid, Sonic and his friends were my favorite video game characters. I had all the Genesis games, and Sonic CD, and I collected merch and read the comics and watched the TV shows and drew bad fanart. (I didn’t have an OC, I just made Sonic cross over with other characters I liked, like Mega Man.)
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for Gamecube was the last official Sonic game that I thought was really good all the way up until Mania released, which was a LONG drought. I have a complicated relationship with mascot characters these days because I resent that they’re owned by corporations and primarily exist to weaponize my nostalgia, but the honest truth is that it works. I can’t help but still love Sonic and his friends, even though I’m acutely aware that they mostly exist to sell me stuff I don’t need.
Wasn’t knuckles canonically 35 when he came out? Is home boy 70 now?
“Official canon says he’s forever 15, but Chinese players tend to do the math differently—we go by his actual birth year. And uh… that puts him at almost 70 now .I’ll take both versions though—canonically he’s my childhood hero, chronologically he’s my old buddy at this point.”
Sonic was my first ever video game at Christmas when I was around 4 or 5 and I loved that shit. Loved all of the sonic games on the mega drive and have always thought Mario is fucking dog shit in comparison.
Then the Saturn came along and the only sonic game really worth playing was sonic R seen as the 3D sonic we were promised only materialised as that sort of tech demo that came with Sonic Jam.
After that it was steady downhill for me. I think Adventure 1 and 2 are massively over rated and I never really enjoyed them except for having a Chao on my VMU.
I was still a sonic fan though and ended up getting a sonic half sleeve tattoo for whatever reason.
As time goes on I have realised that every new sonic game that comes out is just not interesting to me. I really liked the demo of 06 and thought it was going to be great but then they had the were hedgehog things that was utter dog shit and ruined the whole thing for me. I have now moved on and don’t really have any interest in anything they produce with sonic in but it was still my first ever video game.
Fast forward to now and I wouldn’t even try a new sonic game and just presume it’ll be crap. I’m blacking out and covering up that old tattoo and Mario is still over rated trash.
I’ve come to make an announcement: Shadow the Hedgehog’s a bitch-ass motherfucker, he pissed on my fucking wife. That’s right, he took his hedgehog-fuckin’ quilly dick out and he pissed on my fucking wife, and he said his dick was “this big,” and I said “that’s disgusting,” so I’m making a callout post on my Twitter .com: Shadow the Hedgehog, you’ve got a small dick, It’s the size of this walnut except WAY smaller. And guess what? Here’s what my dong looks like: that’s right baby, all points, no quills, no pillows-- look at that, it looks like two balls and a bong. He fucked my wife, so guess what, I’m gonna fuck the EARTH. That’s right, this is what you get: MY SUPER LASER PISS!! Except I’m not gonna piss on the Earth, I’m gonna go higher; I’m pissing ON THE MOON! How do you like that, Obama? I PISSED ON THE MOON, YOU IDIOT! You have twenty-three hours before the piss drrrrroplllllllets hit the fucking Earth, now get outta my fucking sight, before I piss on you too!
The franchise will always mean to me weird obscure internet meme culture.
"WHO POSTED MY NUDES ON TWITTER DOT COM?! Oh, no! OH, NO! They put it all the way on the fucking islands! Now everyone’s gonna know about my secret egg dick!"
It’s a travesty that Tamers’ “Sonic The Hedgehog Gets Stuck in a Hole Because He’s Fat” was removed from YouTube.
This unlocked a hidden memory of this old flash game I played as a kid. It was like classic Sonic, but you were this random human guy who had to collect healthy foods throughout the level while avoiding unhealthy ones, and if you collected unhealthy ones your character instantly became obese and couldn’t run or jump very fast making the levels impossible to beat. You had to do push-ups over and over to go back to normal which was tedious.
My family had an Atari, then a Sega Genesis (and maybe even one of the earlier Sega consoles? But I’m not sure, I was really little) but we never had a Nintendo before the 64, which my little brother saved up for and bought with his own money. He and I played a lot of Sonic together, 2-player, usually with him playing Tails but not always. We fought a lot as kids but when we played Sonic together, we didn’t fight. I think it was one of our only true bonding activities and I’m so thankful for it because we are friends as adults.
