Happy 20th Birthday to the game that killed the Sonic franchise….

[Frickinfrik]

God I hate this game. This was Sega’s attempt at copying Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter (Yes, Iizuka said in a interview that the gameplay was inspired by R&C and J&D). Except that they forgot to make a good game when ripping those two franchises off. Worst attempt at trying to make a game “dark and edgy”. Others may think 06 started the downfall, however I think this game did. Also this game didn’t need to happen at all. Only exists just because fans begged Sega to have Shadow have his own game. Doesn’t even have an overall impact on the series timeline. Also Shadow is such an overrated character, he’s also poorly written, especially in this game. But yeah, since it’s the game’s 20th birthday, I made it a cake:

And now my reputation is going to be ruined and a bunch of angry fans are going to yell at me. My score for this game is 2/10 Terrible. This is my opinion, I’m only sharing it. I don’t want any trouble.

 

[iisoide]

How do I downvote a post

 

[skramz]

jarvis, initiate a ragebaiting post on rgt.

 

[Ephemera1_]

You know whats funny? When i was a kid I loved this game. I had my mom rent this for me on my xbox like every other week, eventually when i got a ps2 instead of renting shadow she eventually bought it for me. I still have that copy to this very day. I haven't played it in over a decade definitely and this post is making me want to pop it in and see how my opinion has changed after all these years.

OH and the thing is that i mentioned earlier about being funny is, I like the first Jak and Daxter game, quite a bit actually but u can tell it took from the Second game and not the first. I've played SOME of the first game but not enough to tell you in great detail what i feel about it. As far as Rachet and Clank goes, this has been my one I guess you would say "hot take", never cared for it. I admittedly was introduced poorly with "R&C all 4 one" but i DID go back and play the original games. They're not bad games in the slightest, just never cared for them.

Until today i didnt know that Jak & Daxter/Rachet and Clank were inspirations for this game being made. Which is so ironic because as i just explained, as a child i loved this game, but ive never actually been a fan of what it was inspired by .

 

[Neb Lleb]

And of course, Shadow the Hedgehog stans have raided these comments.
There's nothing wrong with liking a game most despise, but you shouldn't be going to war with people who hate it to prove that it's objectively good and the haters are wrong. I myself like Silent Hill Homecoming, and guess what? I know I'm in a minority for doing so and I don't insult people for hating it.

Shadow fanboys? Accept you're in the minority and move on with your lives.

 

[ThunderBoy]

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Shadow the Hedgehog killed the franchise Sonic ‘06 buried it.

 

[petran79]

Sonic downfall started with Dreamcast downfall basically as every platform owners (sans PC which is mascot agnostic) would put their own mascots first over Sonic

 

[Frickinfrik]

jarvis, initiate a ragebaiting post on rgt.

How is saying an opinion ragebiat?

Photograph of me about to be executed by Shadow for talking shit about his game. - 2025 Colorized

 

[Donte]

 

[dropsmegamega]

at least it gave us good memes

 

[Clippy]

 

[MrChester]

View attachment 127585
God I hate this game. This was Sega’s attempt at copying Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter (Yes, Iizuka said in a interview that the gameplay was inspired by R&C and J&D). Except that they forgot to make a good game when ripping those two franchises off. Worst attempt at trying to make a game “dark and edgy”. Others may think 06 started the downfall, however I think this game did. Also this game didn’t need to happen at all. Only exists just because fans begged Sega to have Shadow have his own game. Doesn’t even have an overall impact on the series timeline. Also Shadow is such an overrated character, he’s also poorly written, especially in this game. But yeah, since it’s the game’s 20th birthday, I made it a cake:
View attachment 127587
And now my reputation is going to be ruined and a bunch of angry fans are going to yell at me. My score for this game is 2/10 Terrible. This is my opinion, I’m only sharing it. I don’t want any trouble.

Man, you're speaking directly to me.
I enjoy sonic games to the point of having month long marathons so I can accurately rank them on a tier list, and I thought this game fucking sucked ass, and everyone tells me it's not that bad, but I swear those people have never honestly played it. I played it, I experienced it, it sucks. The gameplay has a couple of good moments but it is overall bad, and I don't even care about most stories in games, even less sonic games, and it's still bad. Hell is open, go get em shadow...
I'll say it, after SA2, Shadow is such a nothing character - he's literally just the embodiment of the surface level assumptions you can make by looking at his design.
I don't even hate this game - I'll probably play it again for my next sonic game marathon - but when people tell me that it's "good" - no asterisk - I secretly stop respecting all of their opinions on media; they are lying to themselves

 

[PacGuy]

"Sonic is dropping off in America, what do we do bossu? How do we reach them?"

 

[DunkeyKong]

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

that killed the Sonic franchise

It was so much killed that it still produced games even two decades after:

 

[UnDubious]

Meanwhile the franchise is still alive

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Shadow the Hedgehog killed the franchise Sonic ‘06 buried it.

So let me guess: this game was actually a fever dream we all had?

And this one too?

 

[Neb Lleb]

Man, you're speaking directly to me.
I enjoy sonic games to the point of having month long marathons so I can accurately rank them on a tier list, and I thought this game fucking sucked ass, and everyone tells me it's not that bad, but I swear those people have never honestly played it. I played it, I experienced it, it sucks. The gameplay has a couple of good moments but it is overall bad, and I don't even care about most stories in games, even less sonic games, and it's still bad. Hell is open, go get em shadow...
I'll say it, after SA2, Shadow is such a nothing character - he's literally just the embodiment of the surface level assumptions you can make by looking at his design.
I don't even hate this game - I'll probably play it again for my next sonic game marathon - but when people tell me that it's "good" - no asterisk - I secretly stop respecting all of their opinions on media; they are lying to themselves

Replace "Shadow the Hedgehog" with "Resident Evil 6" and you have me in a nutshell. Like, it's an edgy hedgie packing heat! What more do I need to say? It doesn't even have fun with itself like the game it's trying to rip-off (Ratchet & Clank).

It's basically the Stargate Universe of platformers where the old guard of 2D and 3D platformers get super jealous that the new guard is getting all the attention and so they decide to prove they can do teen-geared platformers too and try so hard to appeal to the new demographic that they forget why their franchise, let alone the franchises they were trying to copy, were popular in the first place.

Post automatically merged: 37 minutes ago

So let me guess: this game was actually a fever dream we all had?
View attachment 127616

And this one too?
View attachment 127617

Yeah, thing about long-running franchises is that they do undergo rehab periods whenever they stink it up. Resident Evil being a perfect example of this for grown-up game franchises.

 

[PrismRed]

It's trying to be an action shooter and a Sonic game at the same time, and fail at both.
But it's jank, so 7/10.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Replace "Shadow the Hedgehog" with "Resident Evil 6" and you have me in a nutshell. Like, it's an edgy hedgie packing heat! What more do I need to say? It doesn't even have fun with itself like the game it's trying to rip-off (Ratchet & Clank).

RE5 was already a action TPS game with horror elements. The pure survival horror left the series post-Code Veronica/Zero.

RE7 and 8 came back to form.

Yeah, thing about long-running franchises is that they do undergo rehab periods whenever they stink it up. Resident Evil being a perfect example of this for grown-up game franchises.

Resident Evil Revelation and 7/8 managed to go back. Also outside of that dark age of Shadow and 2006 they didn't have too many terrible games.

It's trying to be an action shooter and a Sonic game at the same time, and fail at both.
But it's jank, so 7/10.

7 is generous but I gotta say that ironically they already managed to do that with E-102 Gamma's gameplay in Sonic Adventure as far back as 1998 so they didn't have any excuse.

 

[Rocket2049]

i really enjoyed shadow the hedgehog, no joke like really... i was playing it recently too
definitely not as bad as sonic 06, that literally almost killed sonic as a series.
But THE WORST sonic game has to be this one:

turn based sloppy combat design with annoying minigames during combat, and its SLOW despite being a SONIC GAME!? yeah biggest flop in sonic franchise

 

[Neb Lleb]

RE5 was already a action TPS game with horror elements. The pure survival horror left the series post-Code Veronica/Zero.

RE7 and 8 came back to form.

On this unrelated note, I do see where you're coming from, as 4 was very actionised in terms of gameplay and 5 was further actionised with the signature atmosphere and deliberate scares ditched for mid-2000s shock horror.
However, I strongly believe that 6 goes too far with the action and is not only very much a bloated anime-inspired Gears of War knockoff with nothing to do with the rest of the franchise (barring Jake being Wesker's son, Sherry's presence revealing what scenario order from 2 was canon, and the guy who ordered the nuke on Raccoon City being a bioterrorist) but is also genuinely bad on its own merits. That is why I find the game's devoted fanbase to be one of the worst ever, and why I also coined the moniker "The Church of Jake Wesker".

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

On this unrelated note, I do see where you're coming from, as 4 was very actionised in terms of gameplay and 5 was further actionised with the signature atmosphere and deliberate scares ditched for mid-2000s shock horror.

I think RE4 has had at least some horror and survival kept in its design.

Yeah, the series had to evolve from fixed camera to real time 3D camera but I think Capcom took the wrong cues about RE4's success. Even Zombie movies from the 00's left out the slow ones for fast running infected.

However, I strongly believe that 6 goes too far with the action and is not only very much a bloated anime-inspired Gears of War knockoff with nothing to do with the rest of the franchise (barring Jake being Wesker's son, Sherry's presence revealing what scenario order from 2 was canon, and the guy who ordered the nuke on Raccoon City being a bioterrorist) but is also genuinely bad on its own merits. That is why I find the game's devoted fanbase to be one of the worst ever, and why I also coined the moniker "The Church of Jake Wesker".

RE6 had the issues of having too many characters with intertwined plots I agree. It should've been Chris/Jill and Leon/Jake as two stories than trying to make things complicated for the sake of it.

This is why sometimes less is more.

 

[MrChester]

RE5 was already a action TPS game with horror elements. The pure survival horror left the series post-Code Veronica/Zero.

RE7 and 8 came back to form.


Resident Evil Revelation and 7/8 managed to go back. Also outside of that dark age of Shadow and 2006 they didn't have too many terrible games.



7 is generous but I gotta say that ironically they already managed to do that with E-102 Gamma's gameplay in Sonic Adventure as far back as 1998 so they didn't have any excuse.

Firstly, a moment of silence for Gamma style gameplay in the Sonic games... RIP taken from us too soon - that final gamma boss fight was pretty rad.

But on the Resident Evil stuff. Maybe this is just me, but RE7 didn't "return to form", it copied Outlast. It's a good game with it's own qualities that set it aside from outlast, but it is neither an expansion, nor a reinvention of Resident Evil - it's Outlast with some gun play. RE5, though it drops the fear factor, and survival elements (odd choice for a survival horror franchise ngl), is still very recognisable as a Resident Evil game in a way that 7 and 8 only muddied. On paper, RE5 doesn't sound very Resident Evil, but just calling it an action TPS game with horror elements seems wrong - that's how I'd describe the sad, soulless mess that is RE6