Sonic's Rough Transition To 3D

Stop me if you've heard this before: Sonic has had a rough transition to 3D. It's a phrase that has gotten a ton of baggage because it's simultaneously true and false. Because yeah, when most critics say Sonic had a rocky transition to 3D, they're usually referring to the Adventure games, which are very much good and were well-received at the time. It's an annoying cliche and a close-minded revisionist claim that feels especially dated now that the Adventure games are considered "cool" again.

And yet, it's also not exactly wrong because it took us a long time to get Sonic Adventure, skipping an entire console generation since Sega had so much trouble figuring out how to get 3D Sonic to work on the Sega Saturn, along with struggling to even move the franchise into a new direction in the wake of the climactic Sonic 3 & Knuckles. As a result, we got a number of weird, experimental Sonic titles for Sega's 5th gen consoles that never really ended up catching on, teasing 3D Sonic but never fully delivering. I've always been pretty harsh on these games, so I want to really delve into Sonic's bizarre 5th gen output to see if there is genuinely something to love here, or if they really are all misguided failures.

Knuckles Chaotix: Knuckles Chaotix was Sega's attempt at a big 32X entry in the Sonic series, being a spinoff focused around Knuckles and the newly introduced Chaotix. This is a game that's often met with uninterested apathy, not bad enough to be poked fun at but not competent enough to be respected, and most of that is due to its infamous tether mechanic which has you spend the entire game tied to another character. This tether alone is the main reason why many Sonic fans seem to dislike Knuckles Chaotix and it's not hard to see why, it's quite finicky and jank, and getting some good speed is hard when your partner keeps literally weighing you down. Even if you tried pushing through it, you'll find that the spin dash sucks and the replacement move is a slingshot that takes way too long to use. It all makes a pretty sour first impression, coupled with the randomness that came with the stage and character selects, and I was quickly getting ready to tear this game to absolute shreds.

However, like with most Sonic games, there is a method to Knuckles' Chaotix's madness, and as you take the time to learn the tether mechanics, I found myself kinda liking it. The thing is that you can't play Knuckles' Chaotix like a normal Sonic game. Thinking you can just blindly run straight through each level without considering what the tether is capable of will often cause it to go all finicky, especially on springs where it seems to really bug out. But for every convenience this tether strips of you, it gives you two more. There are a lot of ways to keep your partner in check, from having it immediately warp to your place, to grabbing him and carrying him around, to using the various characters' powerful movement tech, from Knuckles' climb, to Vector's air dash, to Charmy's flight, to Mighty's rapid wall hops. But then, there's Hold. Pressing the B button activates the Hold move which causes your partner to stop in place and bear all the weight of the tether which might seem situational at first, but it opens an entire new world of movement.

Because here's the thing, you can Hold in midair. Not only will this immediately stop any potential air-stalling that the tether causes, but more importantly, you can use it in conjuction with your Throw ability (as in grabbing and tossing your partner). This means that you can toss your partner in any direction, press the Hold button, and watch as both you and your partner will fling yourselves forward at top speeds. This is far more powerful than either the spindash or the slingshot, it's quicker to pull off but still requires some level of skill and mastery, it's super versatile for getting onto pretty much any platform you see, and it speeds up the pacing of Knuckles' Chaotix tenfold. Discovering midair holding, or "tether flying" as it's also called, genuinely makes the game for me. It doesn't fix the underlying, unpredictable layers of jank the tether mechanic has, but it manages to turn what initially seemed like a pace killer to some of the most dumb fun movement I've ever experienced in a 2D Sonic game.

However, don't think this means I think Knuckles' Chaotix is an especially great, or even good, game. While I came around to the tether mechanic, this game still has a separate glaring issue that prevents it from truly standing out, and it's the level design. This game has five major zones each with five major acts. Each act across the entire game has a similarly mazelike, vertical layout meant to accommodate for the tether. While some of the zones generally have their own standout features like Amazing Arena's clock system and Marina Madness's submarines, most of the acts especially within a single zone blend together because they all boast such a similar layout without enough to differentiate them. I feel like the developers tried to remedy this with the random stage select which has you jumping between zones, but even that can't really fix the feeling of repetition throughout the entire game. Ultimately, this is my biggest issue. The level design, while usually not offensive, is so dull, empty, and samey that I honestly feel like I would've gotten so bored if it wasn't for how fun the movement tech was. It's a shame too because the bosses are genuinely really fun and varied, if a bit easy. Most of the bosses utilize some cool 32X-powered visual effects, and there's a decent amount of creativity like Speed Slider's carousel fight, Botanic Base having you fight Eggman while hanging from your tether, and the very fun and chaotix two-phase final boss against Metal Sonic.

Another standout element for me were the bonus stages, which easily rank among my favorites in the franchise now. I've never been huge on bonus stages in Sonic games due to the wide gameplay shifts and how few opportunities you have to beat all of them in a given playthrough, and Knuckles Chaotix fixes both of these issues pretty handily. With six bonus stages and a whopping 26 levels, you have a lot of leeway even if you're struggling with one. And the bonus stages themselves are these fully 3D rendered obstacle courses that you have to run through, meaning that they primarily just make use of your platforming abilities. The earlier bonus stages are these hexagonal pipes reminiscent of the flash game, Run, but later ones sprawl out into these genuine platforming challenges that are a ton of fun to conquer. The difficulty curve is also spot-on, with the later bonus stages posing a decent threat but not too much that they feel especially frustrating. You can make the argument that these bonus stages were one of the first teases players would get to what a 3D Sonic game could feel like, and despite essentially just being an endless runner, they're quite fun.

And then, of course, there's the incredible aesthetics. Even people who don't like Knuckles' Chaotix loves the poppy, Sonic CD-inspired visual style. It looks super bright, clean, colorful, and surreal, really just the classic Sonic aesthetic taken to its greatest extreme. There's also so many cool little touches too, from impressive lighting effects, to an intricate day/night cycle across every level, to the way each zone visually changes across each act. Botanic Base, for example, slowly grows over time until the final act is completely filled with overgrown vines. The many visual shifts do a decent amount of work to help the game stay varied even when the level design remains static. The soundtrack is also predictably fantastic, with its upbeat city pop-inspired style standing out among most others in the series. Door Into Summer, Midnight Greenhouse, Evening Star, and Seascape in particular are all easily some of the best Genesis era Sonic tracks. Even the sound test looks really cool, not only showing an intricate piano display of how each track was assembled, but also cramming in an adorable Amy cameo. 

Overall, Knuckles' Chaotix really surprised me. For the first half hour or so, I was expecting to come away hating the thing, but once you actually learn the tether mechanics, the movement tech you could pull off was the main thing keeping me engaged. It just goes to show how many Sonic games turn out to be deceptively deep once you get past the initial hurdle. Add in the fun boss fights, top-notch bonus stages, and stellar aesthetics, yeah, there is a lot to love here. Visually, it provides a fascinating image of what a 5th Gen Sonic world could feel like, both in 2D and 3D. However, there's no going around that the drab level design really drags this game back for me. With more interesting and varied stage designs, I could easily call Knuckles Chaotix a real underrated gem. But as it is now, it ranks among the many Sonic games that feel like they could've been better.

3/5 Stars

A Brief Detour To Sonic The Fighters: When it comes to the first Sonic game to be fully rendered in 3D, the arcade exclusive Sonic The Fighters actually comes out on top. Sonic The Fighters was never an especially well-loved game, especially when it was eventually rereleased on consoles in the Sonic Gems Collection. People seemed to think the idea of a Sonic fighting game was stupid which was never a criticism I really liked. The implication that Sonic could only ever run fast feels like such an arbitrary limitation, considering that practically every other major game franchise can have a ton of wacky spinoffs and no one complains.

Being developed by the legendary Sega AM2 arcade team, Sonic The Fighters is at its core a Fighting Vipers game, which means it's got all the same endearing physics-based juggling chaos and fluid gameplay that makes its older brother so much fun. It feels great to play, it's a ton of fun to mess around with the character movesets, and it has a lot of cool mechanics like the breakable barriers and walled arenas that keep fights feeling dynamic. The one valid criticism I see about STF is that it can be too button-mashy, but honestly I think that's more down to how easy the COM is. Each character does have a lot of combos and moves that you can use more strategically if you want, but you'll probably have to play in a multiplayer setting to get the most out of them. Thankfully, people seem to have been coming around on STF since it seems to be garnering quite the competitive scene that have taken notice of a lot of its interesting mechanics and nuances, but I also don't feel like a fighting game needs to have a deep competitive scene to have its existence justified. Sonic The Fighters isn't the most balanced or fleshed-out 3D fighter out there, but it's pure, unadulterated, joyous fun and that's all I could really ask for.

That being said, the true shining element about Sonic The Fighters for me are the visuals and overall aesthetic. As I said, this is the first Sonic game with full 3D visuals and it goes for a stretchy, bright, simplistic, and extremely cartoony low-poly artstyle that still looks absolutely gorgeous to this day. Each character is super expressive and well-animated, and the abundance of squash-and-stretch and physics-based recoil gives each attack a real impact to them. I'm honestly shocked that the visuals here didn't get more praise at the time, they're easily some of Sega AM2's best, and to this day, I'd say Sonic The Fighters still has the definitive 3D Classic Sonic artstyle. It says a lot that some of the later games in this retrospective will take after it visually.

Sonic The Fighters is a genuinely great fighting game in my opinion. It's fluid, responsive, super kinetic and chaotic, and offers a ton of cool mechanics and systems for those willing to push past its seemingly button-mashy surface. Most of all, it managed to nail the look of a 3D Sonic right off the bat with its gorgeous, cartoony visual presentation. It's Sega AM2 in peak form and it's an actual crime that it wasn't even given the time of day. Out of any of the games I talk about here, Sonic The Fighters is the one I'd recommend you play or even rediscover if you've played it before. It's probably the one "unpopular Sonic game" that I can wholeheartedly say didn't deserve the hate it got.

4/5 Stars

Sonic 3D Blast: One thing that I find pretty cool about the Sonic fandom is that they're not afraid to go into the more disliked games and work to improve them. We're currently see that with Sonic 06 and Secret Rings, but probably the most fascinating instance of this is with Sonic 3D Blast since its improvement patch was done by the original programmer, Jon Burton. I can't really talk about 3D Blast without talking about the Director's Cut because it managed to fix pretty much every single issue I had with the original game and turned one of my least favorite Sonic games into one I genuinely enjoy playing. As a result, I basically have three versions to talk about. I want to talk about the original Genesis version and what I think it does well and poorly, then talk about the Saturn version's changes, and then get into why the Director's Cut managed to genuinely redeem this charming but meek experiment.

Genesis

So, the jury is out on whether or not Sonic 3D Blast even counts as a "3D game". It's a product of this weird in-between time for gaming where the success of Donkey Kong Country forced developers to try and prove their 16 bit consoles could pull off 3D visuals. I'm not sure it worked though, Sonic 3D Blast is isometric through and through. As I said in my Light Crusader, I'm not against a good isometric game, but so many of them make the same frustrating mistakes. Base Sonic 3D Blast actually does a decent job in this area, as it doesn't have the directional issues of games like Landstalker. Instead, it suffers from trying to translate a fast-paced, momentum-based character like Sonic to this isometric perspective. Sonic has this real start-and-stop element to his movement, constantly accelerating and decelerate at a moment's notice. His traction is fairly low too, though this can generally be mitigated by repeatedly jumping, so the biggest issue for me ends up being how inconsistent his momentum is. It feels almost unfinished, in a way, like the developers didn't have to fully polish his movement. It just doesn't feel especially great to play, not completely unmanageable, but once you've played the Director's Cut, it's really hard to go back.

In terms of its main gameplay loop, Sonic 3D Blast is basically a collectathon. Each level tosses you into a wide open area to explore, and you need to find the five lost Flickies scattered around. This is a fairly controversial decision among fans since it means you can't just run straight to the goal, but it's honestly not that bad. Most of the Flickies are fairly easy to find since they're trapped in pretty large and obvious enemies, and it serves as a good way to get the player to fully learn and explore the stage rather than skip past everything in a blitz to the goal. The problem, however, is just how punishing the Flicky system is. If you get hit while carrying Flickies, you will lose all of them. The Flickies will start aimlessly flying around the stage and searching for them turns to reasonably fun to an absolute pain thanks to how small they are. It's so easy to take a 2-3 minute stage and cause its playtime to balloon in length by losing all your Flickies and having to painstakingly look for a needle in these massive haystacks. And coupled with the unwieldy controls, yeah, it's really not that fun.

Otherwise, the level design is pretty alright. Each zone has their own unique gimmicks and vibe that helps them stand out from each other, from fans to bumpers to conveyors to lava to breakable columns. Most stages have fairly wide open layouts ripe for exploring, and loads of secrets tucked away everywhere. The only part where the level design kinda dips in quality is when it makes you do platforming, and even that depends. Volcano Valley actually has pretty fun platforming since you're just hopping across lava and all the platforms are on the same plain, but when the platforms are floating or you're doing vertical platforming, the depth perception really starts to kick in. Thankfully, 3D Blast is a pretty forgiving game. Pitfalls are kept to a minimum so failing platforming is more just a brief waste of time than anything especially egregious. The boss fights are all pretty standard Eggman fare, I don't have too much to say about them, they do their job. Sonic 3D Blast also has bonus stages, but the ones in the Genesis version are pretty mediocre. You have to run along a long, thin bridge grabbing rings and dodging spikes, but the spikes are so easy to dodge and the amount of rings are so plentiful that it's genuinely difficult to not beat all of them on your first try.

I actually really like how Sonic 3D Blast looks, though. There is a charm to its clean prerendered models and isometric world design, everything looks like a cute little diorama, and the bright colors and surreal scenery help everything pop. It's all super well-optimized too, as you'd expect from the folks at Traveler's Tales, who were always pushing the hardware at the time. That being said, the Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails sprites do admittedly look a bit rough around the edges. Sonic's weird, serious expression feels especially uncanny. That being said, overall, I still think this is my favorite isometric game on the Genesis purely in terms of the visuals. Though, easily my favorite thing about the Genesis version of this game is the soundtrack. Genesis 3D Blast actually has one of my favorite Sonic soundtracks of all time, and it might even surpass 3&K for me. It's got a nice blend of catchy, uplifting Jun Senoue pieces (Green Grove, Spring Stadium, Panic Puppet) and moodier, more complex pieces by Tatsuyuki Maeda (Rusty Ruin, Diamond Dust, Volcano Valley, Gene Gadget) making for an overall OST where every single track is not only a banger but thematically resonant for whichever point in the game it plays. And yeah, the fact that several of its tracks got reused for Sonic Adventure certainly helps.

Saturn

That same year, Sega decided to rerelease 3D Blast for the Saturn to buy time until the real 3D Sonic game came out, and obviously it didn't work. However, many fans still seem to think of the Saturn version of 3D Blast as the better of the two, but upon direct comparison, I'm not too sure. For starters, the load times are pretty awful, it's nowhere near as quick and snappy as the Genesis version. Then, there's the controls and I'm honestly really split on them. So, it seems most people seem to agree that 3D Blast for the Saturn controls identically to the Genesis version. Jon Burton himself even claims he took great measure to make the controls feel exactly the same. And yet, playing both versions back to back, I can't help but feel like the Saturn version plays way worse. Sonic just feels a lot more slippery in this version, with a higher top speed but a much lower traction. On one hand, Sonic also feels more consistent, but on the other hand, actually aiming your jumps feels so much harder here, I feel like I'm just sliding all over the place. I mean, am I crazy? Is it just me? 

That being said, there are a few cool things about the Saturn version. The visuals are obviously a lot cleaner and more detailed, with the character models in particularly getting quite a few upgrades. I'm not sure which look I prefer though, as the Saturn version also feels quite a bit more muted in its color palette. Similarly, this version also got a CD quality soundtrack by Sonic R's Richard Jacques and it's really good, though pretty disjointed. This OST is completely jumping over the place in terms of genre. We got some inspiring 90s dance music (Green Grove, You're My Hero, Special Stage) and bopping techno music (Gene Gadget, Panic Puppet, Invincibility), along with some fairly generic orchestral pieces (Spring Stadium, Volcano Valley, Boss Themes) that don't quite do it for me as much. This soundtrack has higher highs, but I think I prefer the Genesis OST for its consistency and stronger melodies.

One thing that is handily better though are the bonus stages. Saturn 3D Blast has entirely new bonus stages, a fully 3D rendered homage to the halfpipes from Sonic 2 that expand on the formula in every imaginable. Tight controls, smooth framerate, more diverse path design, a perfect difficulty curve, and absolutely banging music that keeps up the momentum with a groovy bassline, catchy melody, and frenetic drums. Everything comes together so perfectly to turn what should be a basic endless runner into a stylish, rhythmically satisfying work of art, possibly my favorite piece of Sonic goodness from the entire generation. These easily rank alongside Rush as my favorite bonus stages of all time, and the fact that such a 10/10 minigame shows up in such an otherwise 5/10 port just kills me. Thankfully, there's a patch that lets you play only the special stages, and it shockingly works really well as its own little arcade game.

Director's Cut

It's hard to really emphasize just how much the Director's Cut fixes Sonic 3D Blast on pretty much every level, but let's start with the core gameplay. Movement feels a lot tighter and more consistent in this version, you can turn and brake on a dime, and making precise jumps feels a lot easier. It's harder to lose all your momentum when hitting a wall, the camera is more active and shows more of what's in front of you, and hitting an enemy will only make you lose a single Flicky rather than all of them. On top of that, there's now a radar showing you where your lost Flickies are so retrieving them if you get hit is a piece of cake. All of these changes not only make Sonic 3D Blast feel better to play, aiming Sonic to go where he needs to go feels incredibly seamless and easy now, but it also speeds up the pace of exploration. Levels don't take nearly as long when getting hit doesn't set you back so much, and it's a wonder how much more enjoyable this game is with better moment-to-moment gameplay, really showing that there's a solid game at its core. On top of that, you can now turn into Super Sonic once you get all the Chaos Emeralds, though you now can only get one Chaos Emerald per zone. This is a bit of a divisive change for people, but honestly, I'm totally fine with it. I never really liked being able to get Super Sonic so early on in a game, with Sonic 2 in particular being really annoying because of how easy it is to accidentally turn into him.

Sonic 3D Blast is also a game that felt really lacking in content. Outside of the main campaign and getting the Chaos Emeralds, there really wasn't anything else to keep you playing like a Time Attack, Competition Mode, or multiple characters. In contrast, Director's Cut is absolutely littered with content. The Sonic Medals that previously only gave you Continues are now main collectibles, and the game keeps track of how many you collect in each level, encouraging you to explore more. Each level now has a Time Challenge to beat that has you race to the end of each level without looking for Flickies. There's a level editor! It's not exactly easy to use but hey, it's here! And there's even a dedicated world map with a completion percentage that allows you to replay levels, a rarity in most Sonic games of the time. On top of that, if you really don't like some of the changes the Director's Cut made, it comes with the original version of the game bundled in with it making this easily the definitive way to play Sonic 3D Blast. Sure, you may prefer how the Saturn version looks or sounds, but the smoother gameplay and added content in the Director's Cut trump graphical improvements any day for me.

I don't hate Sonic 3D Blast, I actually really liked this game as a kid, even in its original form. As someone who likes more explorative games, its collectathon structure very much appeals to me, and the charming presentation and strong music only help with that. Even if the original versions aren't especially refined, we're so lucky to have something like the Director's Cut that manages to fully realize 3D Blast's potential. That being said, Sonic 3D Blast is not, and was never going to be, a proper replacement for 3D Sonic. It isn't now, and it definitely wasn't back in 1996. Sega wasn't fooling anyone, and rushing out an unfinished isometric platforming game for the Saturn wasn't going to scratch the 3D Sonic itch people were hoping for.

Genesis: 3/5 Stars

Saturn: 2.5/5 Stars

Director's Cut: 4/5 Stars

Saturn Special Stages Patch: 4/5 Stars

A Brief Detour To Christmas Nights Into Dreams: Nights Into Dreams is a game I have raved about a lot on this blog, so I'm not going to go into it too much here, but it is an important touchstone when it comes to talking about Sonic's transition to 3D. First off, Nights Into Dreams is the first 3D game to be developed by Sonic Team, so while it may not be a Sonic game, it does mark the point where the team behind Sonic learned the tech and figured out how to make an engaging 3D experience on fairly limited hardware. But more importantly, the Christmas Nights demo disc came bundled with a mode that let you run around the level as Sonic making this the first time Sonic has had full, proper 3D movement. It's honestly not too great, you can tell Sonic just had the same on-land controls as Claris and Elliot but sped up a lot, meaning he feels very stiff and awkward, but it is a cool novelty and easter egg for what it is. Considering Sonic X-Treme had just gotten canceled, I can't say this would've fully made up for it, but it probably softened the blow a tad.

Sonic Jam: As Sega continued to find ways to stall until Sonic actually got a proper, full 3D entry, one game in particular stood out quite a lot. Sonic Jam, for the most part, is a decent collection of the Genesis trilogy that packs in a lot of cool features like a Time Trial mode for each game, lock-on support, and multiple difficulties that weren't in the originals. The emulation itself isn't the great especially by today's standards, but for 1997, this was definitely up there with the likes of Super Mario All-Stars as one of the more ambitious compilations of the time. I actually reviewed Sonic Jam when I was exploring the Saturn's library for the first time, and most of my thoughts are the same so I'll just jump to the really interesting part.

Bundled with Sonic Jam's ports was a sidemode called Sonic World, a vessel for the player to visit the game's various museums which house concept art, videos, and character info. This could've just been a menu, but Sonic Team decided to go the extra mile and pretty much create an small 3D overworld where you can run around as Sonic. And compared to Christmas Nights, it actually plays quite well. Sonic's control is a lot smoother and more fluid, and the overworld itself has more things to do like collecting rings, bouncing on springs, and doing a variety of basic missions. The visuals are also very impressive for the Saturn, looking quite clean and sharp while also running really smoothly, and Sonic gets a more simplified version of his Sonic The Fighters look which is just adorable. But could this groundwork have actually supported a full-on 3D Sonic game on the Saturn? Ehh, not really. While the movement is fun for what it is, you don't run especially fast and move at a set speed, and doing platforming doesn't feel as precise as it could be. The camera also isn't that great, mostly operating from a top-down perspective that doesn't really let you see much in front of you. While fun and definitely more fleshed out than the previous 3D Sonic demo, Sonic World is ultimately still a tech-demo that can be completed in 15-20 minutes. While it showed off that Sonic Team was capable of making the transition, it still wasn't good enough.

But still, Sonic Jam is definitely one of the better Sonic games released at this time, obviously. It's a collection of some Genesis classics, and you can make the argument that it's pretty sad that arguably the best 5th gen Sonic game was just a porting job. However, I do appreciate that Sonic Team went the extra mile to add a lot of features, quality of life fixes, and of course Sonic World to help it feel like more than just a simple port.

4/5 Stars

Sonic R: Sonic R is the last Sonic game for the Sega Saturn, and it's also arguably the most polarizing. Made by Traveler's Tales just like Sonic 3D Blast, this is a fully 3D rendered foot-racing game that tries to blend arcade racing with 3D platforming, and the results are pretty mixed. I actually already reviewed Sonic R, during which I said I hated the gameplay and loved the presentation. However, after actually trying to go all the way and beat every track, I actually realized it's honestly not as bad as I remembered it being. It's not great, but there is a lot of potential here and I can see why out of all the 5th gen Sonic games, this is the one that seems to have stuck with people the most.

So let's get the obvious out of the way. From a presentation standpoint, Sonic R is arguably the peak of the Saturn Sonic aesthetic. The team at Traveler's Tales were wizards at pushing hardware, and Sonic R easily ranks as one of the most visually-impressive 3D Saturn games, boasting clean environments, reflections, lighting effects, and charming animations for these cutesy low-poly versions of the cast. It also goes without mentioning that the eurodance soundtrack by Richard Jacques and TJ Davis is incredible and one of the best in the franchise, but I've raved about it enough so I won't go too much into here. As always, Sonic R knocks it out of the front with its audio and visuals but that's par for the course for all these games. What I'm really interested in is the gameplay.

As I mentioned, Sonic R tries to fuse both arcade racing and platforming, and I'd say it gets one of these two things right. As a racing game, Sonic R is quite fun. Once you stop trying to control Sonic like a platforming character and instead steer him like a car, using the drift buttons as much as possible, I found myself managing to avoid bumping into walls and even pull off some extremely tight turns. The ability to use rings to unlock shortcuts or use a booster adds some nice strategy, and the way the characters can bump each other around feels tailor made for multiplayer chaos. The track design is easily the star of the show here, though, as despite there only being five courses, they're each filled with a ton of branching paths and shortcuts to make replaying them over and over again still feel fresh (the one exception being Radiant Emerald which suffers as a result). While I do wish Sonic R had a bit more content, by the standards of other arcade racers of the time like Ridge Racer and Daytona, this is somewhat excusable? And that's not to say Sonic R is on the level of those games, the character balance is pretty horrible as half the characters play terribly and once you unlock Super Sonic, he's just objectively the best, but I think overall this is a fairly fun racing game.

Despite the minimal tracks, Sonic R actually has a lot of side content. VS Modes, multiple types of Time Attacks, course records, multiple difficulties, all the stuff you'd expect from one of Sega's arcade racers. Most importantly, there's also a variety of collectibles and unlockables to encourage you to keep replaying tracks. Getting 1st on every track unlocks the final track, Radiant Emerald, and getting 1st in that unlocks Dr Eggman. This is a solid reward, and I like how Dr Eggman is the only unlockable character to not be silhouetted, showing that unlocking him is your primary goal. There's also a bunch of Chaos Emeralds scattered around each track that you need a certain amount of rings to access, and getting all of them unlocks Super Sonic. This is also a fun task since the Chaos Emeralds are big enough that you won't miss them and trying to take efficient lines that net you a ton of rings is a fun challenge. 

But then, there's the tokens. Each of the first four tracks has five tokens to find. You need to get all of them in one go, win the race in 1st place, and then beat one of the unlockable characters in a super hard challenge race to be able to unlock them. This, I think, is where Sonic R falls apart. Actually getting all the tokens in one go is tough and requries a level of platforming precision that I think Sonic R is kind of lacking in. It's so easy to overshoot and undershoot one of the tokens, and most of the tokens are out of the way and on slower routes so you need to play pretty much flawlessly to get them all. I appreciate the concept of trying to come up with the perfect route to get all the tokens in theory, but in execution, actually pulling off those perfect routes just feels too unreliable. The challenge races were also kinda hard at times but I think that's more because of the inconsistent AI/character stats, the really OP characters like Metal Sonic and Mecha Knuckles are a bitch to race against but the weaker ones like Egg Robo and Tails Doll were a piece of cake.

I think the concept of a on-foot Sonic racing game is pretty damn clever and Sonic R comes quite close to realizing that potential. When you're actually focused on the racing, learning the controls, finding all the shortcuts, taking in the beautiful low-poly visuals, and vibing to that soundtrack, I can truly see the vision. However, there are just too many issues like the poor character balancing, frustrating collectibles systems, and lack of tracks that hold Sonic R back from being something truly special. Like all of Sonic's other 3D outings of the time, Sonic R lays the groundwork for something special but it just isn't a full enough experience:

3/5 Stars

Conclusion

Overall, I do think Sonic's fifth generation output isn't quite as bad as it's made out to be. Games like Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic R, and especially Sonic The Fighters can actually be really fun if you take the time to learn them and play them in good faith. However, what can't be denied is that none of these were good substitutes for a 3D Sonic game. It really felt like Sega was stalling for time, offering showcases of what a Sonic game could be in 3D but never quite managing to deliver a satisfying package. For all intents and purposes, I'd say this was a rough transition for Sonic.

But now that we know it would all lead to the great Sonic Adventure games, I feel like it's easier to see these games for what they are. Maybe not an outright dark age for the franchise, but a strange, experimental time that offered experiences unlike anything else in the series.