Posted on 10/20/2016 at 11:28 AM
| Filed Under Feature
I enjoyed the Genesis Sonic games more than the 16-bit Mario games, to be honest, and I was a SNES owner. My big gripe with Sonic is that for all the emphasis on speed, there are too many levels that don't let you charge through at top speed or you'll get killed. That was always a bit of a contradiction of design for Sonic.
One of Sega's biggest failings with Sonic was putting him on the back burner for the Saturn and throwing all of its resources behind Virtua Fighter instead. Don't get me wrong, VF is my favorite fighting franchise, and Sega emphasized Virtua Fighter because that was what was popular in Japan. But had Sega worked more on Sonic during the Saturn era, he might have had better fortunes, and the Saturn might have done a bit better in a three-way rivalry with Mario and Crash Bandicoot. That said, Sega saturated the Genesis with Sonic (Sonic 1-3, Sonic and Knuckles, plus spinoffs), so Sonic may not have been enough to overcome all of the Saturn's other issues. One thing that keeps Nintendo's properties high-value is that Nintendo usually (not always, though) spaces them out and leaves folks wanting more.
Sonic is ultimately a relic of a time when Sega was a console maker. He was the "face" of the Genesis and the Dreamcast. Now Sega doesn't make consoles anymore and hasn't offered Sonic as a mascot for either the PlayStation or the Xbox to keep up a rivalry with Mario, so Sonic has a bit of a hard time finding his place in the gaming market. This reflects in the many directions Sega has tried to take him that didn't pan out. However, he is still Sega's most successful and recognizable property. Sega needs to find one direction with Sonic that works, and stick with it.