Originally Posted by Miru
Okay, so let's start with a bit of an introduction. After Sonic Unleashed and it's infamous Werehog, people regarded Sonic as a prime laughing stock. He was often made fun of, due to the poor and jarring alternate gameplay, hideously convoluted plots, garish character designs, and poor acting. However, many people still held some degree of hope; hope that Sonic would make a small comeback in retro style, supported by revivals of series such as Mega Man, Contra, and Bionic Commando. SEGA continued with their next game, Sonic and the Black Knight, but then they revealed "Project Needlemouse."
"Project Needlemouse" was gradually hyped over time, with several hints and alleged leaks of the game's content. Things came to a head with the character countdown, which "eliminated" several modern characters from the game. Ultimately, the game was revealed as the fabled Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and upon the first trailer, people were excited. However, with later trailers, the game ceased to lift up to the admittedly simple expectations.
The graphics looked incredibly plastic. The animation felt oddly wooden and lifeless. There were far too many gameplay gimmicks. The levels were poorly done. And worst of all, the physics were horrendous. When the game was finally released, many people were incredibly dissapointed with the final product. Not because of "green eyes" or "long legs", but because the game failed to live up to the admittedly simple standards set by the likes of Mega Man 9 and original games like Cave Story. There didn't seem to be any real story, the levels were horrendous, the music was poorly-orchestrated, and the game was very short.
And with that, the gaming public had enough of Sonic. If he couldn't do a retro revival, he definitely couldn't keep up with today's big games, and he faded away as even a laughingstock, only referenced in a retro context as if he was dead. Everything since has followed that statement, by being nothing more than simple, formulaic children's games not much different from the later Crash Bandicoot games or Bubsy. The stories especially feel like standard kids game plots, with inept villains, lots of dumb jokes, and no real characterization. Even the gameplay became overall shorter and often more gimmicky and generic.
Luckily, there is hope. There is hope in the form of not only spiritual successors to the olden days such as Freedom Planet and Spark the Electric Jester, but also many excellent fan-games such as Sonic World, LakeFeperd's trilogy of work (Before the Sequel, After the Sequel, and Chrono Adventure), SEGA Brawlers Megamix, Sonic: Edge of Darkness, and many more, along with several decent fanfiction works, such as Jarredspekter's "Sonic: Freedom Fighters" scripts. And also, Boom's storyline seems to be looking better than those of games such as Colors, with more and better character interaction, but the gameplay leaves much to be desired.
