Welcome back to Franchise Festival, where we explore and discuss noteworthy video game series from the last four decades. Older entries can be found here. Please be sure to check out Franchise Festival #85: Sonic the Hedgehog (1991-1996) for a history of Sega and the character up to this point.

This week we’re going search for the damn Chaos Emeralds throughout Sonic the Hedgehog‘s troubled middle years. Cover art is from Sonic Retro except where otherwise noted. Bandwidth-permitting, I recommend turning up the embedded music playlist above each section’s cover art (all by YouTube hero DeoxysPrime) to get the full Sonic experience.

Where two years are present, the first is Japan and the second is North America. I have tried to use the North American version of game and console titles after first identifying international variants – consequently, Genesis will stand in for Mega Drive and Sega CD will stand in for Mega-CD; writing both simply became too messy after a while.

Specific sources will be cited as they pertain below, but three key general sources inform much of the following text:

• Sonic Retro
• Blake J. Harris – Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation (2014)
• Alex Wiltshire and John Szczepaniak – Japansoft: An Oral History (2020)

Table of Contents

Sonic Adventure (1998/1999)
Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)
Sonic Advance (2001/2002)
Sonic Advance 2 (2002/2003)
Sonic Heroes (2003)
Sonic Advance 3 (2004)
Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)
Sonic Rush (2005)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Sonic Rush Adventure (2007)

Sonic Adventure (1998/1999)

Thanks to two major interviews separated by twenty years – a conversation conducted with Yuji Naka by Japan’s Sega Saturn Magazine in 1998 and another with Takashi Iizuka and Kazuyuki Hoshino by the United Kingdom’s Retro Gamer in 2018 – fans and historians have an uncharacteristically clear window into the creation of Sonic’s first truly three-dimensional adventure. Sonic Team began development on a Sega Saturn prototype of Sonic Adventure in July 1997 following the cancellation of Sonic X-Treme (see Franchise Festival #85) but moved to Sega’s next home console when the Saturn’s notoriously low power hampered the realization of their vision. Sonic Team leader Yuji Naka had provided direct input during the production of the sixth-generation Dreamcast, so he was uniquely well-prepared to exploit its comparatively expansive processing power. Since the two were in development at the same time, the needs of Sonic Adventure would actually influence the design of the final Dreamcast model.

The team swelled from 20 to 60 during Sonic Adventure’s ten month production cycle. Director Takashi Iizuka was particularly interested in re-imagining the character from the ground up, as he had become concerned that conservatism was threatening to derail the studio’s once-subversive mascot. While Sonic titles had become known for a consistent level of quality during the early 1990s, no sequel had meaningfully upended the character’s basic appearance or mechanics.

Sonic Adventure art director Kazuyuki Hoshino worked with lead character designer and Sega newcomer Yuji Uekawa to establish a new look and identity for the series in its Dreamcast debut. Key influences included the work of Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame), Susumu Matsushita, and 20th Century American animation juggernauts Disney and Warner Bros. Sega’s marketing team requested a more mature look to avoid the character becoming associated with children’s fashion, offering examples of successful market trends, so Uekawa also incorporated elements of western street culture. Technical considerations were equally important: Sonic’s proportions were altered to make his body more visible from a behind-the-back perspective and elements which had previously been roughly sketched using the limited lines of 16-bit pixel animation were filled in with detail.

Fired by a desire to make the game look more realistic than earlier series entries, Sonic Team opted to use real-world locations as reference points. Iizuka and other core developers visited Central and South America to take digital photographs which would then be used as in-game textures. Mesoamerican art and architecture – including the Chichen Itza, San Gervasio, Tikal, Machu Picchu, and Nazca Lines – likewise provided the basic template for the game’s ancient ruins.

While Sonic Team’s approach to art design represented a new chapter in the series’ evolution, one of the greatest challenges facing Sonic Adventure was an extension of an issue that had beset its 16-bit predecessors. Producing stages which are large-scale enough to let Sonic make use of his trademark speed places a significant burden on both technology and staff resources. Level designers addressed the first of these constraints by breaking stages into discrete chunks which would seamlessly load and disappear as Sonic moved through them while making use of slower alternate characters to pad out the game’s runtime. If Sonic Adventure has fewer individual stages than any earlier home console entry, the ability to replay most of them with unique objectives and movement mechanics mitigates against a potentially reduced sense of scale.

The game was published in Japan on December 23, 1998, only one month after the Dreamcast’s launch. Technical issues plaguing this original release forced a delay outside of Japan as Sonic Team worked with Sega of America to produce a refined international version. The resulting localization, which also features extensive English language voiceovers for the first time in the series’ history, launched alongside the Dreamcast in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe shortly before the Dreamcast’s October 14, 1999 debut. Naoto Ohshima left Sega to form his independent studio Artoon after soon production wrapped, making this game the last franchise entry to have input from Sonic’s creator.

Sonic Adventure’s cutscene-heavy story instantly sets it apart from earlier titles. Sonic is introduced battling the game’s central villain, a powerful shapeshifting blob called Chaos, in the hub city of Station Square. Chaos escapes, leading Sonic and Tails to investigate and discover that Eggman (finally renamed from Robotnik in the Western localization) has released the creature from its imprisonment in the Master Emerald. Four other characters simultaneously embark on their own intersecting quests: Knuckles seeks to restore the shattered Master Emerald by gathering its shards, EggRobo E-102 Gamma is tasked by Eggman with tracking down a Chaos Emerald, Big the Cat pursues his erstwhile fishing buddy Froggy, and Amy Rose works to protect a Flicky who bears a Chaos Emerald. All eventually become playable as they are caught up in Sonic’s journey to prevent Eggman from transforming Chaos into an oversized monster through the acquisition and use of seven Chaos Emeralds.

In keeping with its bombastic 3D graphics and live-recorded rock soundtrack, Sonic Adventure’s gameplay gets off to a showy start. Following a rudimentary introductory boss fight that familliarizes the player with Sonic’s new attack – an airborne homing strike designed to resolve early 3D platformers’ perennial problem of accurately targeting enemies through traditional jump commands – Sonic explores an expansive coastal setting. This first stage grows visually impressive through a chase sequence featuring a massive killer whale, though the tension between Sonic’s speed and the game’s camera rapidly becomes apparent; while the player can sometimes rotate their viewing angle left and right using the Dreamcast controller’s trigger buttons, stages more often makes use of a pre-programmed shifting camera designed to focus the player’s attention on the upcoming play space. Gameplay slows down dramatically once Sonic reaches the end of Emerald Coast, as the player is dropped into Station Square and engages with human non-player characters (NPCs) to ascertain the location of their next objective and stage; hub areas called Adventure Fields expand access to additional stages over the course of the game as new abilities are acquired in the style of The Legend of Zelda. Focus occasionally shifts to other playable characters, who can then be selected from an in-game menu to continue their independent storylines.

Small, hapless creatures called Chaos can also be found in Chao Gardens hidden throughout the world. While these friendly sprites will interact with Sonic and his friends, their most noteworthy feature is a Tamagotchi-like functionality designed to emphasize the Dreamcast’s visual memory unit (VMU) controller peripheral. VMUs, which serve primarily as memory cards but also include small monochromatic screens, can be used to download an in-game Chao and improve its skills on the go. The Chao can then be loaded back into Sonic Adventure and take part in races. Like its simple kart racing minigame or new characters Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma, who respectively added fishing and shoot ‘em up mechanics to the Sonic experience, Sonic Adventure’s Chaos broaden the appeal of the Sonic IP beyond its traditional platformer fan community.

Sonic Adventure was spectacularly popular. Critics drew attention to its superlative presentation, including detailed water graphics and a rock-infused soundtrack by Jun Senoue, as well as its expansive world. Copious technical issues and less-beloved side elements like the aforementioned fishing minigame failed to detract from the game’s scale and core mechanics. Re-releases incorporating additional features and more polished visuals were subsequently published on the Nintendo Gamecube, Windows PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 over the following twelve years. The sale of 2,500,000 units established Sonic Adventure as the Dreamcast’s most commercially successful title and exposed Sega’s mascot to an entire new generation of fans. This last point would be critical for the decade ahead, as the console war which had defined Sonic’s identity in the 1990s would soon reach an unexpected conclusion.

Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)

1999 and 2000 were tough years for Sega. The Dreamcast’s development had been fraught, with the long-simmering tension between Sega of America and Sega of Japan coming to a head in a competitive R&D battle to produce the hardware’s final design. Sega of Japan won out, but not before provoking an expensive legal battle and out-of-court settlement with Sega of America partner 3dfx when its sudden loss of the Dreamcast contract caused its stock to drop by 43%. This fiasco, along with the high-profile commercial flops of the Sega CD (Mega-CD), 32X, and Saturn, put Sega in a precarious financial position at the turn of the century.

The studio still managed to get out ahead of its home console competitors with the Dreamcast’s 1998 launch in Japan and subsequent 1999 launches in North America and Europe. In spite of a strong software library and bold design choices, including an integrated modem to allow online play, the Dreamcast would flounder following Sony’s announcement of its upcoming PlayStation 2. Consumer faith in Sega was low following the company’s lack of support for the Saturn and – once the PlayStation 2’s 2000 release was within view – developer support and sales for the Dreamcast rapidly evaporated.

Sonic Adventure 2 had simultaneously been in development since 1999 under Sonic Team USA and producer Yuji Naka. This San Francisco-based Sonic Team division was headed by Takashi Iizuka and was originally established in 1998 to produce the English-language localization of Sonic Adventure. The studio’s location played a significant role in the design of their first original piece of software, the Bay Area and Yosemite National Park heavily influenced Sonic Adventure 2’s setting. Iizuka and his staff likewise tried to even out the amount of time spent playing as each character rather than featuring briefer campaigns for Sonic’s allies as they had done in the preceding title.

The story is more extensive than the series’ 2D roots while still retaining more forward momentum than its direct 3D predecessor. Players choose one of two campaigns – Hero or Dark – and play through a linear sequence of stages depicting the overall plot from that perspective. The Hero side includes Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, while the Dark side instead highlights Eggman alongside newcomers Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog. The former is a femme fetale who acts as a rival to Knuckles, while the latter plays a pivotal role in the game’s central plot. Eggman breaks Shadow, a mysterious so-called “Ultimate Life Form” with his own mission of vengeance, out of a facility run by military organization G.U.N. and allies with the sinister hedgehog in an attempt to conquer the world. The Dark and Hero characters’ paths cross as they work to secure Chaos Emeralds and respectively weaponize or forestall the weaponization of an abandoned space colony called the ARK.

Basic gameplay is similar to Sonic Adventure, as each of the game’s six characters plays slightly differently and 3D platforming mechanics anchor the experience. Its crucial difference is in its structure, as hub areas are omitted and the player can no longer complete the game as Sonic alone. Instead, he or she is required to alternate between each of either campaign’s three characters during sequential stages. Sonic/Shadow stages are speed-oriented platforming sequences, Tails/Eggman stages are third-person shooters, and Knuckles/Rouge stages require the player character to methodically explore an enclosed environment as they seek Chaos Emerald shards. Stages are unique to and shared between each pair of characters.

Like the broader gameplay structure, the Chao minigame has undergone a major update between Sonic’s first and second 3D outings. A key to the game’s Chao World can now be found in each stage. Once a key is recovered, the player gains access to a central lobby and can then visit one of three Chao Gardens unlocked as the game goes on. Players raise Chaos from eggs, nurturing them by feeding them and carrying them around within the Garden. The creation of a Hero Chao opens up a Hero Garden while the creation of a Dark Chao opens up a Dark Garden. Chao Racing is expanded, while VMU functionality is retained and includes more minigames than before.

Lest three different core gameplay styles and an extensive Tamagotchi-style virtual pet mode somehow seem like too little content, multiplayer is available here for the first time in a 3D Sonic game. Two players can take part either in an expanded version of Sonic Adventure’s kart racing minigame or engage in one of three challenges based on the single-player campaign: players race against one another in platforming gauntlets as Sonic and Shadow, duel one another as Tails and Eggman, or compete in a scavenger hunt as Knuckles and Rouge. Bonus unlockable characters who round out the multiplayer roster include Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Chao, Big the Cat, Chaos, and Tikal (an echidna supporting character from Sonic Adventure).

Sonic Adventure 2 was positively received at the time of its release, though the series’ lingering camera issues and amateurish sound mixing came under greater scrutiny than they had two years earlier. Its audio-visual presentation is a noticeable improvement, however, as the game stands out among its contemporaries with an extensive draw distance and solid 60 frames-per-second performance while replay value is enhanced through the inclusion of 180 in-game missions to complete. Unfortunately, its sales were negatively impacted by Sega’s announcement that Dreamcast support was being discontinued shortly before the game’s June 2001 worldwide release. Sonic Adventure 2 would have the bittersweet distinction of being the last Sonic title published for a dedicated piece of Sega hardware.

Sega exited the home console market before the end of the year. Beginning in late 2001, it would focus its efforts entirely on the development of software for others’ devices. Sony, rather than longtime rival Nintendo, had sealed the Dreamcast’s fate.

Like its direct predecessor, Sonic Adventure 2 would have an extensive re-release cycle. A 2001/2002 Gamecube version called Sonic Adventure 2 Battle integrates the original game’s limited downloadable content (DLC) and significantly expands multiplayer options. Graphics are likewise enhanced in the Gamecube port, while Big the Cat’s cameo appearances in single-player and role as an unlockable character in multiplayer are mysteriously absent; he has been replaced in the latter scenario by a Dark Chao. A downloadable high-definition (HD) port of the expanded edition to Windows PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in 2012 is the game’s most recent release at the time of writing in April 2020.

Sonic Advance (2001/2002)

While Sega would refocus its efforts on producing 3D Sonic games during the late 1990s, the series finally returned to its 2D roots on the Game Boy Advance (GBA) through a collaboration between Sonic Team and Dimps. The latter had been founded in 2000 by former employees of Capcom and SNK, including Street Fighter co-creators Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, who had previously worked on the Neo Geo Pocket Color (home of Sonic Pocket Adventure). In addition to being Dimps’ debut release, Sonic Advance’s December 20, 2001 Japanese publication marked the first appearance of a new Sonic the Hedgehog game on a device produced by former rival Nintendo. It was then published in North America by THQ and in Europe by Infogrames.

Sonic Advance maintains the general presentation and speed of the series’ 16-bit entries but, as in Knuckles Chaotix before it, offers major mechanical updates to Sonic’s formula. Each playable character features a distinctive moveset that alters how players interact with the game’s nine zones. Sonic can spin dash, somersault, boost forward in mid-air, and backflip; Tails can fly and weaponize his tails; Knuckles can glide, climb walls, float in water, and punch enemies; and Amy Rose can attack using her oversized hammer or perform a high jump. Additional context-specific actions, like grinding on rails, can be performed by all characters.

As suggested by the ability to grind on rails, Sonic Advance’s visual design is closer to recent 3D titles than the series’ 2D origins. All character art and sprites feature the highly stylized graffiti aesthetic of Sonic Adventure. The plot, on the other hand, is a throwback to the franchise’s earliest titles. Sonic and his friends return to Sonic the Hedgehog’s South Island and Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s Angel Island as they collect Chaos Emeralds from special stages in an attempt to halt a rocket launch by Eggman.

Competitive multiplayer is retained from the later 16-bit titles through the use of the Game Boy Advance’s standard link cable, but a Tiny Chao Garden mode is entirely new to the series. Players with a Nintendo GameCube – Game Boy Advance cable can import cute Chao creatures rescued in the Gamecube ports of Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2 into their copy of Sonic Advance. Once a Chao has been transferred, the player can feed or play with it in the Tiny Chao Garden.

Most of the locales themselves are comprised of two acts culminating in a boss fight against Eggman; the final two zones and an alternate ending are only accessible if all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. Like its boss fights, Sonic Advance’s large-scale environmental features and enemies are inspired by its 16-bit predecessors rather than the series’ 8-bit titles. Thanks to the advanced processing power of the Game Boy Advance, no concessions needed to be made when translating home console entries’ speed or complex stage design to portable hardware.

Sonic Advance was the character’s most popular portable outing to date, selling a staggering 1,241,000 million copies in North America alone. It was similarly lauded by critics, with some contemporary reviews claiming that it looked and played better than any Mega Drive/Genesis Sonic title. Badly compromised versions for the Nokia N-Gage, released under the name Sonic N in 2003, and Android mobile devices failed to negatively impact the game’s overall reputation. Dimps’ success working under the oversight of Yuji Naka and Sonic Team had definitively established the studio as the franchise’s new 2D steward in the 2000s.

Sonic Advance 2 (2002/2003)

The Game Boy Advance’s Sonic Advance 2 was developed by a staff nearly identical to that which had worked on its predecessor. It was published by Sega in Japan, THQ in North America, and Infogrames in Europe. The little that is known about Sonic Advance 2’s development period comes from an interview with Sonic Team for the game’s strategy guide, and primarily concerns iterations upon the foundation established in Sonic Advance. The engine is enhanced to run more quickly, permitting faster character movement, and stages have consequently been expanded to six times the size of those in Dimps’ first Sonic game. Exploration is de-emphasized in favor of speed.

All four avatars from Sonic Advance return, and are joined by new playable character Cream. This pleasant rabbit and her Chao partner Cheese were originally created for 2003 3D series entry Sonic Heroes by Yuji Naka but make their debut appearance here due to a release date delay during Sonic Heroes’ development cycle. Cream can fly, like Tails, while using powerful offensive and defensive techniques involving her Chao. All other characters play similarly to their previous appearance in the Sonic Advance sub-series, though their moves are augmented through the addition of Boost Mode and trick actions. The former sees characters break the sound barrier and gain access to more powerful attacks if they move unimpeded for a long enough distance; the latter, activated by tapping the Game Boy Advance’s shoulder button after bouncing off of a spring, is a flashy offensive technique unique to each character.

Sonic Advance 2’s plot concerns Eggman’s attempts to kidnap Cream and Tails with the aid of Knuckles, who has been duped by the evil scientist once again. Unlike the first game, additional characters are not available at the start and are instead unlocked by beating zone bosses as Sonic. Bosses are likewise updated, as they now require the player character to chase them while engaged in combat. The player must collect seven Chaos Emeralds in special stages and complete the story mode using at least four characters to unlock Sonic Advance 2’s good ending and a climactic one-act zone called True Area 53. The series’ newest special stage articulates as a quasi-3D arena in which the player character must gather 300 rings in less than two minutes while avoiding a patrolling robot guard named ZERO.

The Tiny Chao Garden makes its return from Sonic Advance, but includes a new minigame. While the first sub-series entry had offered the ability to play a Rock Paper Scissors-esque minigame called Janken, Sonic Advance 2 replaces this with a more action-oriented experience called Chao Bounce. Both titles also include a memory card game.

Though its sales fell short of Sonic Advance, the critical reception to Sonic Advance 2 was more positive than its predecessor. It deepened an already engaging experience with more complex mechanics and unlockable characters while also bringing the sub-series’ speed even closer to its console forebears. No mobile ports were produced for Sonic Advance 2, but it was made available on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in 2016; it has not been re-released for other platforms internationally at the time of writing.

Sonic Heroes (2003)

Sonic Team USA would return to the franchise for its first multi-platform release in 2003. Takashi Iizuka again led development, as he had on Sonic Adventure 2, though a handful of changes in conditions produced a very different development process and final game. The first major update to Sonic Team’s approach to the IP was the de-emphasizing of narrative; this made the game more approachable for new fans who might lack familiarity with earlier Sega console exclusives while also opening up the potential for less grounded stage design. The developers also abandoned proprietary game engines for the first time in the series’ history, instead employing middleware RenderWare to facilitate ports across all three contemporary home consoles.

In spite of this thoughtful approach to planning, Sonic Heroes’ production remained fraught with difficulties. Responsibilities for the project were split between two groups of staff, one in the United States and one in Japan, while a poorly managed crunch period saw Iizuka lose 22 pounds as he single-handedly designed most of the game’s levels. Iizuka has reflected that this truncated development process is responsible for Sonic Heroes’ technical issues, which are especially prominent in the PlayStation 2 version. Following a late-production delay, the final game was released on Gamecube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 only two years after Sonic’s last adventure.

The plot is threadbare when compared to the franchise’s last two home console outings. Sonic sets out with Knuckles and Tails to stop Eggman’s attempt to destroy the world while three other teams embark on their own related quests: Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega (a replacement for Sonic Adventure’s E-102 Gamma) seek revenge on the evil doctor; Amy Rose, Cream, and Big the Cat pursue Sonic and his friends; and Chaotix Detective Team members Vector, Charmy, and Espio try to solve a mystery. The latter group’s inclusion is particularly noteworthy, as these characters had never featured in a game by Sonic Team – their prior appearance in 1995’s Knuckles Chaotix was overseen by an unrelated staff at Sega Technical Institute – and all have undergone personality and appearance redesigns.

All four campaigns begin with a brief pre-rendered cutscene and a tutorial by Sonic Adventure 2‘s helpful Omochao. Each team plays through the same 14 stages, though their objectives sometimes differ. All stages include sections which should be tackled by one of the team’s three members, who can be switched to a leader position on the fly. Members are classified as Speed Type, Flying Type, or Power Type, respectively representing quicker movement, vertical exploration abilities, or combat strength. Sonic’s team features the most traditional gameplay and difficulty, Shadow’s team encounters greater challenges, Amy’s team is intended for series newcomers, and the Chaotix Detective Agency highlights more idiosyncratic mission-based gameplay. Each team can execute a visually impressive Team Blast ability to destroy all on-screen opponents once they have filled an associated gauge by collecting rings and defeating enemies.

For the first time in a home console Sonic game since Sonic 3D Blast (1996), the only way to confront the game’s hidden final boss and see its true ending is through collecting Chaos Emeralds. To acquire these, the player must complete all four teams’ campaigns while accessing special stages through the use of keys hidden in regular stages. This dramatically lengthens the game’s runtime, forcing players to engage with the same 14 stages at least four times to see the ending.

Multiplayer minigames make their reappearance following the popularity of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Seven different modes are included, though only Action Race is available at the start; this sees two players competing to reach the end goal of three stages before their rival. The remaining six minigames – Battle, Special Stage Race, Ring Race, Bobsled Race, Quick Race, and Expert Race modes – are unlocked through the accumulation of emblems scattered throughout the game’s four single-player campaigns.

Sonic Heroes’ Gamecube and Xbox versions were mostly successful, garnering praise for their presentation and varied gameplay. Few mourned the scaling back of earlier 3D entries’ narrative elements. At the same time, inconsistent camera design continued to undermine effective implementation of the 2D series’ speed in a three-dimensional environment. Technical problems, including a significantly reduced framerate and graphical glitches, marred the PlayStation 2 version. Still, the decision to take the series multiplatform resulted in exceptionally strong sales: over 2,000,000 units had been sold by 2007. Aside from a digital re-release of the PlayStation 2 port for PlayStation 3, the game remains out of print nearly two decades after its initial publication.

Sonic Advance 3 (2004)

Though he remained at Dimps, Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 2 producer Hiroshi Matsumoto did not return for a third Sonic title. He was replaced as the project leader by former line producer Koichi Sakita. Most other staff, including the planners, designers, sound team, and Sonic Team support, remained consistent between releases. Sega published the game in Japan, THQ published it in North America, and the two studios together co-published Sonic Advance 3 in Europe following the 2003 collapse and restructuring of Infogrames.

Sonic Team’s Yuji Naka, though not closely involved in the project, conceived of Sonic Advance 3’s most noteworthy addition to its predecessors’ formula. In an echo of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the player character can now be joined by a partner controlled either by AI or a second player via the Game Boy Advance link cable. Partners can be picked up by the primary character to enable tag actions; each partner’s tag actions are oriented around one of three types – speed, power, or flying – which respectively confer enhanced movement, offensive techniques, or access to otherwise out-of-reach platforms. Only Sonic and Tails can be selected at the game’s start, but Knuckles, Amy, and Cream become available to control as they are saved from boss enemies.

According to the instruction manual, Eggman has built a robotic assistant named G-merl based on an ancient mechanoid from isometric fighter spinoff Sonic Battle (2003/2004) and subsequently split the world into seven parts through Chaos Control. This vaguely-explained concept, which had previously appeared as a supernatural ability of Sonic’s rival Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and the aforementioned Sonic Battle, involves manipulation of Chaos Emerald energy. To restore the world to its former state, Sonic and his friends must once again recover the seven Chaos Emeralds.

Unlike earlier games, accessing special stages to collect Chaos Emeralds now hinges on finding hidden Chaos throughout the first three acts of the game’s seven initial four-act zones. Each act hides ten Chaos who, if collected, confer a Special Key on the player character. The Special Key can be used to access Sonic Advance 3’s new 3D special stages from a hub area called the Sonic Factory. Each special stage, associated with one of the game’s zones, can be replayed if the player fails to complete it by acquiring another Special Key. The player becomes unable to collect all Chaos Emeralds and see the game’s good ending if they fail special stages more than 14 times. If all Chaos Emeralds are collected, Sonic teams up with Eggman to fight G-merl in a climactic space battle.

Sonic Advance 3 reviewed well in spite of its replacement of the Tiny Chao Garden with a less mechanically-substantial Chao Playground. This area largely serves to track how many Chaos the player has collected in each area. Happily, the competitive multiplayer of Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 2 makes a return with a scavenger hunt for Chaos in a stage of the players choosing. Sadly, like its immediate predecessor, Sonic Advance 3 has only been re-released on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console since going out of print in the 2000s.

Note: Cover art sourced from MobyGames

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

Sonic Team USA rebranded as Sega Studios USA following its work on Sonic Heroes. It quickly began its next home console Sonic game, which was intended to target older audiences and focus on Sonic’s rival Shadow. This would be the second time in the series’ history that a core franchise entry did not feature Sonic as a playable character (the first was 1995’s Knuckles Chaotix). Violent films like Terminator, Underworld, and Constantine were used by director Takashi Iizuka as key reference points in the development of Shadow the Hedgehog. Certain early design choices still proved controversial enough to be cut during development, however, including red blood spewing from aliens when attacked by the player character.

The game debuted on Gamecube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 in late 2005. Unlike Sonic Heroes, all versions are more or less identical. Gameplay foregrounds the use of weaponry – as Shadow can collect firearms and melee tools – while also emphasizing a moral choice system that impacts how Shadow’s abilities improve. Shadow can opt to side with alternate factions in each stage, determining his objectives and which of several potential subsequent stages he moves to next. 326 total paths through the game’s 22 stages are possible.

In spite of its uncharacteristically gritty tone, including mild vulgarity during cutscenes, Shadow the Hedgehog otherwise plays in a style reminiscent of Sonic Adventure. Shadow’s movement is very similar to Sonic’s behavior, as he can run at high speeds and perform airborne homing attacks when not making use of a weapon. No alternate characters are playable, as it was believed that these would dilute the game’s distinctive plot and gameplay, but Sonic and many other supporting characters temporarily accompany Shadow on his adventure.

Shadow the Hedgehog’s narrative is much more prominent than that of its direct home console predecessor. Shadow is still plagued by the amnesia he suffered during Sonic Heroes following his apparent death at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and seeks, through the acquisition of Chaos Emeralds, to learn about his true origins. He is opposed by military organization G.U.N. and his creator Eggman, opting to side with one or the other – or neither – as he explores his past. Ten unique endings reflect the path that the player took through the game.

Reception to Shadow the Hedgehog was almost uniformly negative upon its release, and has somehow only become more negative with time. Contemporary critics mocked Shadow’s edgy “Clint Eastwood rasp” and the game’s loose controls while more recent assessments suggest that Shadow the Hedgehog was a turning point in the franchise losing its identity during the 2000s. It may be a blessing for the series’ ongoing reputation that Shadow the Hedgehog has not been re-released on any subsequent platform.

Sonic Rush (2005)

Kouichi Sakita and his staff collaborated with Sonic Team on Dimps’ fourth portable installment of the 2000s. While bearing more than a few mechanical similarities to its three Game Boy Advance predecessors, Sonic Rush’s status as the series’ Nintendo DS debut ensures that its presentation represents a substantial step forward. Non-boss acts remain sprite-based but characters, bosses, and boss stages are now composed of fully textured 3D polygonal models. For the first time in a 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game, the plot is conveyed through lightly animated cutscenes using in-game models between stages rather than through an instruction manual. For better or worse, this allows greater character and narrative development than in any earlier 2D series entry.

The story concerns interdimensional traveler Blaze the Cat and her Sol Emeralds, powerful stones pilfered by Eggman shortly before the game begins. Sonic, naturally, is quickly pulled into Blaze’s quest to retrieve the Emeralds from Eggman and new antagonist Eggman Nega. Sega’s mascot is aided directly by Tails during stages and through the assistance of NPCs Knuckles and Amy in cameo roles. Alternately, players can choose to control Blaze following the first boss encounter. Blaze’s adventure features a unique story, distinct movement techniques, and sidekick Cream.

Sonic Rush’s most noteworthy updates to the series’ traditional side-scrolling gameplay is spreading its play area across two screens and iterating on Sonic Advance’s trick system. With regard to the former, the DS’ top and bottom screens depict a significantly taller space than had been possible in earlier Sonic the Hedgehog titles. When Sonic or Blaze moves particularly high or low in a stage’s vertical space, they switch between the two screens. With regard to the trick system, Sonic and Blaze can now build up tension by performing flashy moves while grinding on rails or bouncing off of springs. This tension fills a gauge which allows the player to activate a Super Boost.

Special stages, accessed by locating special generators hidden around each act, are effectively enhanced versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s linear half-pipes. Sonic must avoid obstacles and enemies while collecting coins in order to acquire one of the game’s seven Sol Emeralds. Unlike Sonic the Hedgehog 2, though, this version of the half-pipe special stage is controlled entirely by using the DS’ stylus and touchscreen. Tricks can also be performed if Sonic is launched into the air by a spring. Surprisingly, Blaze simply receives Sol Emeralds by defeating bosses rather than by completing special stages.

Sonic Rush was met with a positive critical response, though its highly traditional gameplay led some to lament that the series had not yet found ways to mitigate against issues which had negatively impacted it for the last 14 years; Sonic’s speed is, as ever, in tension with the obstacles placed in his path even as the play field’s vertical expansion improves opportunities for exploration. At the time of writing, Sonic Rush remains sadly out of print and as-of-yet unreleased on any other platform.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Following Shadow the Hedgehog, Takashi Iizuka temporarily stepped away from the core franchise to supervise the development of several Sonic the Hedgehog spinoffs. Longtime series producer and Sonic Team co-founder Yuji Naka likewise departed Sega to form his own independent studio in March 2006. Sega would entrust its mascot’s next title, promoted as a milestone event to celebrate Sonic’s 15th anniversary, to a Sonic Team staff led by project director Shun Nakamura. Nakamura had contributed to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, but 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog (more often known as Sonic ‘06) would be his first directorial role on Sega’s flagship property.

A heavily rushed development period began in 2005. Despite challenges associated with producing the game for an entirely new generation of home consoles, Sega mandated that the game’s release coincide with Christmas 2006. In contrast with its ostensible purpose of going “back to basics,” Sonic ‘06 would be a distinctly non-traditional series entry. Sonic Team made use of the Havok game engine, a highly flexible physics simulator which powered many action titles of the mid-2000s, rather than create its own underlying technology. This allowed the staff to produce one of the best-looking Sonic games to date but also introduced a level of uncertainty into the production. The team had only worked with Havok once before, on Astro Boy (2004), so it struggled to adapt the third-party engine to its own well-established Sonic gameplay systems in an unreasonably short time period. While realistic lighting and physics would make it into the final product alongside redesigned character models, experiments with making Sonic’s fur more realistic were happily abandoned early in the project.

Sonic ‘06’s most significant addition is a new character named Silver. Born out of the desire to have a telekinetic avatar who could exploit the physics engine, Silver went through 50 different concept designs (including an orange mink) before Sonic Team concluded that he would be the series’ fourth hedgehog protagonist. The games’ two other playable characters – Sonic and Shadow – are respectively oriented around speedy platforming and the use of vehicles.

The overall narrative of Sonic ‘06 pivots between these three avatars’ intersecting adventures. Sonic, aided by Tails and Knuckles, is on a mission to save Princess Elise of Soleanna before Eggman harnesses her supernatural Flames of Disaster for his sinister purposes. Shadow and Rouge unleash an evil spirit and are transported into a post-apocalyptic future. Silver, joined by Sonic Rush’s Blaze, is manipulated into hunting down Sonic by the spirit released by Shadow in order to prevent this troubled future. All three main playable characters travel between multiple timelines as they clash before eventually becoming allies.

Level design is linear, though nine primary Action Stages are joined by three Adventure Field hubs featuring NPCs for the first time since Sonic Adventure. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver encounter the same Action Stages, though all proceed in unique ways through them due to their distinct abilities. A tenth Action Stage sees the player control seven different characters – including Tails, E-123 Gamma, Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy – as they acquire Chaos Emeralds from transformed versions of earlier environments. Once the Emeralds are collected, Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver simultaneously take on final boss Solaris as the player switches between them at will.

Early impressions of poor quality control at the game’s Tokyo Games Show 2005 preview event were prescient, as Sonic ‘06 was panned as the worst entry in series history at the time of its launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Game-breaking bugs and inconsistent controls plague every moment of the game and undermine the navigation of even the simplest environments. Notwithstanding brave attempts by fans to remake it, Sonic ‘06 is no longer available without purchasing a long out-of-print physical edition. Rather than serve as a celebratory milestone marking fifteen years since Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic ‘06 reminded fans of just how far the series had fallen since its glory days.

Note: Cover art sourced from MobyGames

Sonic Rush Adventure (2007)

While Sonic Team still supported Dimps in its fifth series release, Yuji Naka was absent from a 2D Sonic the Hedgehog title for the first time since 1996’s Sonic Blast. This is likely a non-issue, though, since Sonic Rush Adventure is just a second helping of Sonic Rush. In contrast to the bold if unsuccessful experimentation of the series’ 3D titles during this time period, its 2D portable releases had only grown increasingly conservative.

Sonic and Tails begin the game shipwrecked on Southern Island, a landmass located in Blaze’s Sol Dimension. They are joined by Marine the Raccoon, an island local who aids them in their quest to recover an artifact called the Jeweled Scepter from the sinister Captain Whiskers. Blaze returns as an alternate player character who is now selected from a menu before each stage rather than having her own separate campaign.

Zones are replaced here by islands accessed using a nautical chart in a style startlingly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007). Players select their destination from the DS’ touchscreen and then navigate there through an on-rails sailing minigame controlled via stylus. More distant islands are made available as the player character accumulates materials from stages and gives them to Tails in the interstitial Southern Island hub area, after which Tails constructs new seafaring vessels.

Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds are acquired from Captain Whiskers’ robotic lieutenant Johnny if Sonic or Blaze win races which become available while traveling from island to island. Once all Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds are collected, Sonic and Blaze can team up to take on hidden masterminds Eggman and Eggman Nega in a final confrontation. Rather than allow the player to run short on opportunities to collect these macguffins, as had been the case in earlier adventures, Sonic or Blaze can repeatedly travel to islands around the sea in order to trigger races.

Though Sonic Rush Adventure does not meaningfully expand on Sonic Rush’s fundamental side-scrolling gameplay, its non-linear stage progression and sea travel minigame are interesting if slim additions to the franchise’s mechanical palette. The introduction of increasingly prominent 3D elements during boss fights likewise makes it the more interesting of Dimps’ two core DS Sonic the Hedgehog titles. The 2007 release’s sales lagged dramatically behind those of its predecessor, however, and Sega would step back to reevaluate its flagship franchise in the years ahead.

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What do you think about this era of Sonic the Hedgehog? Which is your favorite or least favorite entry? How about your favorite playable character? Do you think Sega tried too hard to experiment or not hard enough? How glitchy is too glitchy? Let’s discuss below.

Next week we’ll be covering the franchise’s revival from 2008 to 2017. Be sure to return with your thoughts on those series entries! Here is a tentative list of upcoming articles:

• #87: Sonic the Hedgehog, 2008-2017 – April 17
• #88: Sonic the Hedgehog Spinoffs – April 24
• #89: The Witcher – May 1
• #90: Mortal Kombat – May 8
• #91: Masters of Orion – May 15