After the new, quite possibly fake, screenshots for Sonic Unleashed were, well, unleashed, I got to thinking about Sonic the Hedgehog and his past, present and future. Every time a new Sonic game is announced, a small collective of retro-goggled loyalists hold their breath and hope for the best, but when it comes down to it, Sonic isn’t worth much in today’s world. We haven’t had a truly terrific Sonic game since Sonic Advance, and that was over six years ago.

It seems that Sonic Team misses far more than it hits, and while repeated attempts to revitalize the ailing hedgehog have brought with them plenty of potential and hope, each game has fallen flat on its face, or at the very least, done very little to untarnish the troubled mascot’s increasingly damaged reputation.

Let’s be honest here — Sonic’s over the hill. He’s clapped out, worn out and ready to be thrown out. As someone who adored the speedy woodland creature as a child, it’s horrible to have to say that, but it’s true. He was introduced as the cool and sassy alternative to a reserved and “boring” Mario, but looking at the two characters today, it’s easy to see which is going strong and which has aged very, very badly. It’s a bitter irony, but that attitude-drenched hedgehog of yore is now a desperate, increasingly irrelevant relic.

He needs to be saved. I think he can be saved. I have to believe he can be saved, damn it! I’m going to try and help. While some of these points will be fairly obvious, hopefully I can also make a few that haven’t been discussed much. Regardless, Sonic Team needs to know them. This is my humble guide to the salvation of our beloved hedgehog.
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I whole heartedly agree with what this person has to say. Sonic was whipping Mario’s ass for a while there. I loved playing all those Sonic games on the Genesis. I never had the SEGA CD or Dreamcast, so my Sonic-ness stops with Sonic & Knuckles. I recall the series going downhill after the dreamcast died. And I am also a firm believer that a Sonic game should NEVER, I repeat, NEVER be on a Nintendo system. If the great console war of the 90’s taught me anything, it was this: You cannot have signature series characters cross platforms & appear on the rival system. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is just a freak of nature game that should never have come into existance. Notice how they put Mario’s name first. I know it’s his system & all, but that shit is just a small psychological jab @ all us Sonic fans.