Sonic the Hedgehog would be a truly great franchise if not for the games

polygon.com:

How blessed we are to have Sonic the Hedgehog. Not for his games, mind you, which have ranged from awful to occasionally decent over the past three decades. For the culture. Sonic the Hedgehog, as a video game series, I would happily give up forever — but not at the cost of its enduring impact.

In broad, sweeping terms, I love everything about Sonic the Hedgehog: his character design (courtesy of Naoto Ohshima); his blue-sky worlds bursting with primary colors, checkerboard landscapes, and pinball parts; his reticence to show feet; and every piece of clumsy, earnest fan art that Sonic fans have composed in MS Paint. That includes every fetishized Sonic, Tails, and Amy atrocity lurking in the depths of DeviantArt.

But Sonic the Hedgehog’s games? With very few exceptions, I believe we’d be better off without them.

I didn’t always think this way. I was a Sonic fan from the very beginning. I may have even committed some light thievery to get my hands on the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis. As a desperate and unscrupulous young teen completely fascinated by Sonic, I “borrowed” my mom’s credit card to acquire a brand-new copy of Sonic the Hedgehog for $49.99 — that’s $115 in 2024 dollars. I had no idea how I’d eventually pay it back, and I didn’t care. I had to experience the magic of Blast Processing and the edgy attitude of a blue hedgehog for myself.

I was dazzled by Sonic the Hedgehog’s graphics and catchy music. Sonic’s attitude underscored just how devoid of personality his game-mascot rivals were. But shortly after slamming that cartridge into my Genesis, I realized: I hated the way that Sonic the Hedgehog played. Sonic’s floaty jumps, overemphasis on speed, and rings-based health system are anathema to me, a player raised on the tight platforming of Super Mario Bros.

Over the following decades, generation to generation, this cycle of disappointment repeated itself. I felt optimistic about Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Adventure, the 2006 Sonic the