The Death of Sonic The Hedgehog

I will say it now, Sonic Forces is an underwhelming game. But its worse than that honestly. I would argue that Sonic Forces may spell the death of the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise. Sonic Forces removes elements from Unleashed and Generations that made the gameplay better, such as drifting. Instead, you are awkwardly left to deal with a frustratingly nerfed max speed, poor controls with the removal of the Light Speed Dash and boost centric gameplay.

The character creator means little to nothing if the game controls like garbage. Ironically, Sonic can often run too fast, causing you to miss platforms entirely. The story of Dr.Robotnik winning would have been excellent if there was any sense of urgency, but its handled so poorly that you will stop giving a shit. Sonic dies within the first fifteen minutes, only to come back to life inexplicably a few missions later.

There is little zone variety. 3 out of 7 levels are just remakes from far better designed Genesis levels. Everything feels profoundly underwhelming, and I'm not surprised. Even worse, Classic Sonic gets a downgrade from generations, his max speed has actually been downgraded, to where you must spam the drop dash or face a tedious slog through every monotonous level. This franchise is on its last legs and as good as Sonic Mania was it's not enough. When every 3D Sonic game has consistently underperformed one proper release now and then is a spit in the face! Sonic Team needs to either go back to the drawing board or sell this poor, abused and battered franchise to Nintendo who knows how to make excellent 3D games.