*boost to win, classic sonic, 2D sections, green hill zone and crap writing intensifies*

Colors was unique. I'll give it that much. The Boom games were ambitious, they were just terribly rushed.

While I do prefer the more darker stories and more serious writing from the older Sonic games (SA2, Shadow, Unleashed, S06, etc.), I do think that the simple and humorous approach was acceptable enough in Sonic Colors, Free Riders, Generations and Lost World. The platformers just needed more playable characters and Generations needed more levels.

Sonic Forces, on the other hand, was majorly hurt by the simple formula. Sonic has been childish for 7 years at that point, so they really should've went back to the darker and serious tone the Sonic games use to have.

The worst part is, Sonic Forces had a lot of good setup and ideas that they failed to execute properly. Personally, If I were to rewrite Sonic Forces, I would remove Classic Sonic, remove the Rookie (not a bad feature, but doesn't fit the concept I'm going for), remove the old zones (Green Hill and Chemical Plant), add in a bunch of new locations, make Infinite an actual threatening and well written villain instead of a Walmart Mephiles, make the game using the "adventure" formula and many other changes.

In my opinion, Sonic Forces should've had 6 playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Silver. Each one would have their own story which concludes to a final story where the heroes battle Infinite in a Phantom form. Instead of bringing back old villains, Infinite would use the Phantom Ruby to summon armies of unique Phantom enemies and bosses.

Going back to the "Adventure" style would've allowed them to explore the story more in depth and develop the characters way better. For example, Tails fighting back and staying strong even without Sonic. But instead, we got Sonic Forces; the worst Sonic game ever.

The problem is, the lighter, childish approach destroyed the characters. Sonic is just a giant, pompous jerk, Tails is sitting on the sidelines, Knuckles is a completely oblivious idiot, Shadow is an edgelord who thinks friends are cringe, Amy is a giant simp who has no sense of self sufficiency whatsoever, Eggman is portrayed as a stupid, unimposing, clumsy villain-kind of ironic considering that his intelligence is obviously implied, etc.

Sonic Heroes is a lighthearted story done right-it's cheerful and somewhat childish, but not at the expense of character development (other than Tails). Heck, Colors DS did a better job then the mainline console version at doing the characters well.

Meanwhile, Sonic Lost World...hoo boy. The writing is a dumpster fire in that one-and mainly because it has an identity crisis with being serious or being fun. Like, Tails gets captured and roboticized but this has no effect on him whatsoever-no new complications with being turned into a cyborg. Like, after the Eggman boss fight, not only does he have the cyborg stuff just gone from him, he also acts like a jerk, saying he knew that Eggman would betray them and crap. Meanwhile, Eggman makes all these big threats about killing the Deadly Six's families in front of them, the big, purple lanky one threatens to skin Sonic alive, for crying out loud, but they then just act like a bunch of utter idiots. And Eggman supposedly dies, but that scene has such an identity crisis with itself it's turned into a meme. Oh, and remember when Eggman talked about killing everyone's families in front of them? In that exact same cutscene, seconds later, Sonic just makes a crummy pun in front of everyone about being cool cause this is an Ice zone. So, no, Lost World does not work with the cheerful style, since, well, it has an identity crisis with itself. None of the 2010's games work with the cheerful style-instead, they just insult your intelligence with dad jokes that would put boomers to shame, crap writing, character slandering, etc.

You make a lot of really good points, andI agree with you, but I do have some problems with the story to Sonic Heroes. For one, Shadow just came back from the dead. Sonic’s reaction? “Talk about being stubborn and full of surprises.” I feel like at least SOME reaction would have been nice. Also, your problem with Amy being a shallow sonic simp in the 2010’s games, is FAR worse in heroes, where her only goal is to find Sonic and force him to marry her. Rouge also implied at the end of SA2 that she would be putting her life as a jewel thief behind her, which was completely dropped in Heroes. And Heroes is also the first game where Knuckles just… doesn’t guard the Master Emerald?

Forces had so many really sick concepts, but delivered on none of it. Infinite had so much potential… All for nothing. We still hardly know who Infinite is. Sonic is captured and tortured as a POW for half a year? Woah I wonder how he’d react to that. He is literally no different. Just as unserious yet unfunny as he was before. Eggman conquers the world, and all Sonic’s friends sit on their butts and talk about doing something, but they do nothing! Forces tried to be serious, but it also tried to be lighthearted, and it failed miserably at both.

I mean, yeah, Heroes isn't perfect, but at least resetting some character development is better then slandering the whole character.

Fair. I would argue that Amy‘s character was completely butchered by Heroes, but otherwise it’s only minor issues. There’s a lot I love about heroes, especially team dark.

Looking back at what I said, Yeah, I agree. Going for a lighthearted, humor focused and simplistic style was a terrible idea to begin with! They pretty much ruined every single character at this point (aside from Silver and Blaze, who get little to no screentime). And the stories, if you can even call them stories, are some of the worst stories written in all of fiction!

I am 15 years old and I could write a better and more mature story! Video games shouldn't just be about gameplay, but also story and character development. Good examples being Sonic 06 and Secret Rings, which have bad gameplay, but they also include dark and well written stories, character development and banger music.

Also, damn the "Only Sonic is playable" trope! It was fine in Secret Rings, Unleashed and Black Knight because A) It was still not overused and B) those games exploded Sonic's character more in depthly. Sonic Mania Plus proved that more playable characters equals more gameplay variety, so why can't Sonic Team learn from this? Why aren't at least Tails, Knuckles and Amy playable?

It's not a bad idea, but the simplistic part definitely ruined a lot of aspects that could have worked in a lighthearted story. And second, basically anyone could write a better story than Pontac and Graff.