This was probably one of the smartest moves that Sega made during that console generation. Shortly after Sonic Adventure 2: Battle debuted on GameCube, Sega followed it with Sonic Mega Collection, packaging seven of Sonic’s Genesis games in one neat $20 collection. Then Sonic Adventure brought Sonic back in a big way as the bestselling game on the Dreamcast, but with the PlayStation 2 effectively killing the Dreamcast and Sega exiting the hardware business, where could Sonic go without a console to call home?Īnd those new fans like me wanted more of him. The Sega Saturn clearly suffered when a new mainline Sonic game never arrived. Altogether, the original Sonic games on Genesis generated tens of millions of sales. Sonic defined Sega as a company, and it’s what propelled the Sega Genesis to stardom. Even compared to the Sega Genesis games, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle might be the most important game in the history of the franchise.

But there was a time when Sonic games were an event to be excited about, and I believe that enthusiasm culminated in 2002 with the release of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle in the West. Where Sonic games were once the cool alternative to Super Mario, now they are the butt of jokes from gamers. The current version of strange involves the fact that, while Sonic has enjoyed two recent film blockbusters and a budding cinematic universe, the game franchise has been hammered since the mid-2000s with entries that vary wildly in quality. It’s always a strange time to be a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog.

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