2D Sonic had an elegance that no matter what path you were on, “forward” was always clear (regardless of which “forward” happens to manifest itself as at the time). With level design this big, it’s often unclear which direction I should be going. You can curb with the bounce bracelet, but it starts to change the dynamic from running at the speed of sound, to being the world’s fastest rubber ball. The jumps are super floaty, but you also maintain all velocity, which means you go zooming past any platform you want to jump on if you don’t slow down. For a character designed for running quickly on the ground, Sonic ends up spending a lot of flying through the air. The draw backs I see with the current design are something that’s going to come up a lot in this article. Any time a 3D Sonic fan attempts momentum, it is a game after my own heart. This is a no-boost, all-momentum take on 3D Sonic, which is a theme you’ll see in these games. Several characters are unlocked through obtaining secrets during play.

This game is big! The levels are large and there is a large amount of content here. It’s all a jumbled-up trail mix of talking hedgehogs running about a z-axis, the good and the not-so good.īUT! Because I love this topic, I can’t wait to talk about it. I’ve got in trouble for this before, because people interpret this as either blind-endorsement or blind-condemnation, but neither is true. Sometimes, those weak spots help me understand why Sonic Team made the decisions they’ve made with 3D Sonic.

As with any experiment, not every variable always holds up during testing. I really think it’s a great, low-pressure way to try out new methods for translating that little blue boy from the Sega Genesis into the modern era. I love that fans are trying alternate takes on 3D Sonic. For these overviews, I’ll be focusing on the core design as Sonic in 3D is no easy feat from that perspective. Some of these games have a lot of bells and whistles and hidden secrets.

We’ve come a long way since 2000! Sonic fan games in the third-dimension are more present then ever at this year’s SAGExpo.

Oldest 3d sonic fan games