Well, here it is! At long last, we have come to the end of the yearly long marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants. I don’t think there was a more fitting way for me to celebrate 25 years of SpongeBob SquarePants by going back to experience all the highs, lows, and nautical nonsense that this show has provided over the course of 15 seasons and 4 movies! While there were plenty of bumps along the way, I can’t deny that this has been an incredibly fun and nostalgic ride that I do not regret taking whatsoever! To wrap up the year of SpongeBob SquarePants, it’s time to check into how the show is doing now with Season 14 and what we have gotten so far with Season 15.
If you saw my Seasons 12 and 13 perspective, you would know I believe that was a sign that the show was really starting to run on fumes. After Seasons 9-11 gave hope that a potential SpongeBob renaissance was on the way, these two seasons basically squandered it, giving the impression that the creative team have really started to run out of ideas on the show. It also didn’t help that Nickelodeon was still forcing multiple SpongeBob spin-off shows and movies that no one asked for. Despite SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Bash acting as a worthy celebration of 20 years of SpongeBob and a logical endpoint for the series, Nick kept the show going after that because the brand still seems to be going strong in terms of sales and merchandise. Because of that, we now have Seasons 14 and 15.
These are two seasons that basically acted as the beginning of the post-Stephen Hillenburg era of SpongeBob SquarePants. While the previous two seasons still had the remains of the late great Hillenburg attached to it, these seasons likely did not have that same fortune. Because of that, Nick and the other creators attached to this current era of SpongeBob SquarePants are officially on their own when it comes to what remains of this show. Even if this new era manages to work out, it will always miss that special spark that Stephen brought to the show from the beginning.
For what we have right now with these two seasons, it’s……better I guess. Unlike the past couple of seasons, there at least seems to be a bit of restraint when it comes to how wacky and over-the-top the animation and gags are, the plots are more easy to follow, and it’s still able to keep that solid lighthearted spirit that SpongeBob has always been known for. However, it still can’t escape that sense of familiarity with the majority of the premises for these episodes and does show that Mr. Hillenburg no longer has any creative involvement in it. Even then, for a show that’s been going on for over 25 years now and it’s currently on it’s 15th season, this is probably as good as it’s going to get for the remainder of the show’s run.
Season 14:
The big thing I noticed about Season 14 as it seems to act as bit of a reaction to the responses that the previous seasons has got. The animation is much more restrained, only being as wacky and over-the-top when the plot or gags actually demand for it. The plots for each episode feel much better thought out with a certain end goal in mind and not just a bunch of random nonsense and bits to pad the runtime. There is even a bit more care given to the characterization of the characters along with finding justifiable reasons for bringing back previously well known supporting characters.
The main problem relies in the sense of familiarity and fatigue. The majority of the premises behind the majority of the episodes has already been covered or contains traditional SpongeBob beats that you know by heart at this point. This is likely because of the fact that the show has gone on for over two and a half decades now. Because of that, they have squeezed nearly every single idea they could possibly come up with out and they now basically have no choice but to inherit old ones while doing them in new and different ways.
That’s not to say it does the majority of them bad. If anything, I was quite surprised how I was able to get in to each episode and find some genuine enjoyment out of it. I enjoyed seeing another superhero based episode where the gang had to stop the Dirty Bubble and seeing Mr. Krabs trying to impress Mrs. Puffs and seeing SpongeBob and Plankton try to become close friends (or in this case, brothers). The problem is that I’ve already seen these ideas being presented in other episodes. The repackage food might still tasted good but it’s still the same repackage food regardless.
There also seems to be a bigger emphasis on connecting the main show to certain spin-offs. This is mainly the case with the episodes Kreepaway Kamp and Sandy’s Country Christmas. Kreepaway Kamp ties to the controversial Kamp Koral spin-off, which sees the SpongeBob characters returning to Kamp Koral for a reunion. Sandy’s Country Christmas ties into the controversial Sandy Cheeks movie that came out this year, with Sandy’s family playing a role in saving Christmas for their daughter. For as much as I despised the spin-offs they are based on, they did surprisingly work quite well for me as individual half-hour specials. It makes me wish those spin-offs were even half as enjoyable as those two episodes were. I just hate how Nickelodeon is using this business method as a means to try to create an incredibly forced SpongeBob cinematic universe because…….of course.
Oh, and there was even a special of SpongeBob’s take on Snow White, titled Snow Yellow and the Seven Jellies. (*insert joke about how this is a better Snow White remake than the actual Snow White remake coming next year*).
If my overview of Season 14 is coming across as more negative than it deserves, it mostly because there’s not much here that hasn’t been done in many other SpongeBob medium. It does fix certain issues that folks had with the previous few seasons, the episodes themselves are enjoyable to watch, and they do at least seems to have a hit a comfort zone that works for Nickelodeon and the overall brand of SpongeBob. However, it’s service level quality for the season and the sense of familiarity really makes this season lack the re-watch value that the better SpongeBob seasons had. Because of that, it makes you wonder how exactly SpongeBob can evolve on it’s own with it’s creator no longer there to guide him.
Season 15:
It’s really hard to talk much about Season 15 because it only got started this year and has only consisted of FIVE (!) episodes thus far. However, it has been confirmed that this was originally meant to be part of Season 14 but got split into a 15th season to keep the number of episodes per season on a consistent base without making a new season feel too bloated. In a way, Season 15 basically acts as Season 14 2.0.
For the most part, I see this keeping up on that same consistent path but with a few hints of what a new era of SpongeBob could be like. It mostly consists of a solid mix between the classic SpongeBob from Seasons 1-3, to the middle age SpongeBob of Seasons 4-5, and the “reassurance” age SpongeBob from Seasons 9-11. With each new episode, I see it’s trying to walk that incredibly tight line in the hopes that it’s able to strike a balance while finding room for it’s own identity. Will it work? I don’t know. But like the last “awkward” era of SpongeBob, I see the seasonings for a much broader plant to grow.
Aside from that, there’s not much to talk about with Season 15 that I haven’t already said with Season 14. Again, it’s too early and is currently not even halfway through the season. But if I were to predicted the outcome for the rest of the season, I imagine it will be like Season 14 but a tad more creative.
Although, please less Sammy Suckerfish in the near future please! Don’t pull a Bubble Bass or Rube Goldfish with him!
In Conclusion:
Similar to Seasons 4 and 5, SpongeBob SquarePants now finds himself in yet another awkward era. An era that likely acts as another transition from one era of SpongeBob to the next. While there are definitely improvements from the prior seasons and does show the seasonings for another potential resurrection run for the yellow sponge, it’s quite difficult to get as optimistic as last time due to Stephen Hillenburg no longer being able to play a part for the show’s future. But once again, this is a series that has gone on for over two decades now and is now on it’s 15th (!) season and just passed 300 episodes total (That’s not even counting the segments!). When putting those factors in mind, the fact this show continues to be watchable and even enjoyable is about as much of a miracle as it comes.
Even so, after 25 years later, SpongeBob SquarePants continues to thrive and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. It still stands as one of the most beloved and evolving animated shows that has ever been made, successfully growing from generation to generation among children and millennials. Regardless of one era you fall in with the show that may you get into it, there has always seems to be something special with this yellow sponge and his friends that has just resonated with so many people over the years.
Regardless of what the future may hold for Nickelodeon as a whole now that Paramount doesn’t see them as a high priority anymore, I have no doubt that SpongeBob will continue on with plenty of new content with 2025 and beyond. After all, we got the remainder of Season 15, a new movie that is subtitled The Search for SquarePants which is set to come out in December 2025 along with a new SpongeBob game developed by THQ Nordotic, the studio behind Battle for Bikini Bottom- Rehydrated and The Cosmic Shake. Even if this year long retrospective/perspective is over, there will still be plenty more of SpongeBob yet to come.
Final Words
But, yeah! That officially does it for the SpongeBob SquarePants marathon! I once again give a special thanks to everyone that joined me along this incredible ride! SpongeBob has already held a special place in my heart since I was a child and he’s a character that is incredibly important to me. This is a series that has taught us all about the importance of being positive, optimistic, and finding a sense of reliability in ourselves and the ones we care about. Even after now becoming an adult, this character will always be one I look up to and strive to be like.
No matter what the future holds for the yellow sponge, I do hope for the very best!
Once again, thank you to everyone that joined me for this marathon!
With this weekend’s release of Sonic The Hedgehog 3, now is a good time to talk about what I consider to be the best video game movies ever made. Despite all the constant negative reputation surrounding films that acts as adaption of well-known gaming franchises, I think most would agree that there has been an enormous quality leap for those in recent years. While I still believe there was always a solid video game movie flick every now and then, it was sometime between the late 2010s and early 2020s which saw much better and more faithful video game adaptions in movie forms. Perhaps it has to do with more cast and crew involved with these projects nowadays that actually have a knowledge and respect towards the property it’s based on but, it’s definitely nice and refreshing to see better video game flicks come out as of late, especially after several years of folks claiming that video game just can’t work in movie form whatsoever.
Now that another video game movie in Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is now out in theaters, I’m gonna talk about 15 video game films that I believe are legit good and are worthy of their source material. A friendly reminder that I am only referring to movies that are STRICTLY adaption of video games and not just ones that have video game elements to them. That’s why you won’t see movies such as Wreck-It Ralph and Free Guy on here. Now, let’s talk about video games films that actually got it right!
15.) The Angry Birds Movie 2
As someone who found the 2016’s Angry Birds to be aggressively mediocre and forgettable, I was thoroughly surprised how much better The Angry Birds Movie 2 was in about every way. It’s able to deliver more heart and humor than the original with beautiful animation, some decent character moments, and a voice cast that seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves the whole way through. Director Thurop Van Orman is able to bring the amount of energy and creativity he provided with his other work in animation to make an enjoyable Angry Birds movie this time around. It’s certainly by no means great but better than it has any right to be.
14.) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
This is one that gets a ton of flack from fans but it’s much better than it’s haters would want you to believe. While this is certainly a departure from the games themselves with a setting that takes place on Earth in the year 2065, it still succeeds on it’s own merits of telling a new and original story. Instead of trying to awkwardly cram an entire plot of a RPG game into a single film with all of the famous fantasy elements of the game shoehorned in, it puts more on an emphasis on blending the sci-fi and fantasy genre together with a more straightforward and different plot that can stand on it’s own merits. Yeah, the CGI animation hasn’t aged particularly well (especially with eerie eyes of the characters) and those that were expecting a complete “easter egg” fest will be disappointed, but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is still a fairly interesting adaption overall from the creator of Final Fantasy himself.
13.) Tomb Raider (2018)
While I always had soft spot for the two prior Tomb Raider movies with Angelina Jolie, the 2018 film with Alicia Vikander is still the best and most faithful film adaption of Lara Croft to date. Borrowing heavily from the recent rebooted video game series by Crystal Dynamics, we get to see the origin of Lara Croft’s early adventures where she’s much younger, less experienced, and more reckless. Alicia Vikander is great in the role and does a good job on portraying the version of Lara that is confident but still having to constantly question herself. It certainly does acquire a certain suspension of disbelief, kinda like with the games, and there are times where there’s a bit too much fan service for it’s own good, but for what’s it worth, it’s still an enjoyable time and I would certainly be open for a sequel with Vikander’s return.
12.) Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
This is another one that gets a lot of hate from both critics and fans. While I can somewhat understand critics not digging it, I don’t understand the reasons for fans rejecting it. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is about the biggest love letter to the Resident Evil franchise that has been on film to date. Many of the references and call-backs to the games are very well utilized here with a cast that are very comfortable in their roles, kills that are gruesome and effective, and has the same kind of tone, style, and feel that the games provided. The plot is overstuffed with an attempt to combine the plot of the first two games into one movie and there definitely are changes to the material that are presented here but that shouldn’t be enough to dismiss this one entirely, especially for longtime fans of the series. If you were someone that was deeply infuriated by the Resident Evil films from Paul W.S. Anderson, Johannes Roberts’s Welcome to Raccoon City might just give you the Resident Evil movie fix you’ve been waiting for.
11.) Professor Layton & The Eternal Diva
If you want a video game flick that can provided an intriguing mystery and a puzzle that you won’t be able to solve in a heartbeat, look no further than Professor Layton and the Enteral Diva. For a gaming franchise where puzzles are it’s main point, this adaption is one that has more than enough brain teasers to satisfy longtime fans and even get more newcomers interest in it. You also have some well-done animation, an art style that fits very well with the games it’s based on, a talented voice cast, and a story about memory and mortality that stands well on it’s own. To say any more will be spoiling but there’s plenty to like here from both fans of the series and those that enjoy a good mystery thriller.
10.) Detective Pikachu
A Pokémon movie had all the potential to work as a feature film, especially since there had already been several straight-to-dvd films that had come before this. However, there had never been a well-known live-action Pokémon movie until 2019’s Detective Pikachu. Thankfully, it is able to deliver a good time that fully embraces the world that Pokémon is established in while maintaining a good sense of humor throughout. Ryan Reynolds works very well as Pikachu and has good chemistry with Justice Smith’s Tim, forming the perfect kind of bond ship I imagine players always saw themselves with their own fellow Pokémon from their favorite installments in the series. It doesn’t break any new ground but Detective Pikachu has plenty of heart, laughs, and amusing set pieces that will likely leave any die hard Pokémon fan with a smile on their face after watching it.
9.) Rampage
It’s a monster movie with The Rock! What else could you possibly want?! Rampage acts as an adaptation of a very popular arcade game that was also released on the original Nintendo Entertainment System back in the ’90s. The results is basically a feature film that plays like a straight up monster movie where monsters attack the city and the main character has to attempt to save the city. Does it follow every trope for these kind of movies to a t? Sure, but it’s still a lot of fun for those that have a fondness for these kind of movies and of course, have a fondness for the Rock kicking serious butt. And it might just be even better than the majority of the current Monsterverse films.
8.) Sonic The Hedgehog
This was a film that everyone and their mother was determined to hate the moment the very first trailer dropped with the fugly Sonic design. But then, the film was delayed to change up the design and things looked more promising. Then we all saw it and it was pretty damn good. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the very few films to take the whole “cartoon characters in the real world” gimmick and actually make it work. Even if it didn’t film didn’t act as a proper adaption for Sonic, it works very well as a story about a young kid that’s trying to find his place in the world. Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic and plays off of James Marsden very well but it’s Jim Carrey that steals the show as Robotnik as everyone expected. It certainly does hit plenty of the notes that these “family movies but for kids” flicks do but for what it’s worth, Sonic the Hedgehog got something for everyone to enjoy.
7.) Gran Turismo
The newest video game movie directed by Neil Blomkamp is much better than it had any right to be. Gran Turismo follows the (shockingly) true story of an expert gamer turning into a full-time racer. Despite the actual story being something you can see coming a mile away with the inclusions of many of the typical cliches for sport movies, it’s able to overcome all of that thanks to superb directing, incredibly tense and well-done racing sequences, sound design that’s off the charts, and having a surprising amount of heart throughout. At it’s core, it’s basically a story of someone being able to make their dreams come true once they are able to get their one shot at it. And of course, David Harbour is always welcome in anything! Keep your expectations in check and you might be find yourself surprised at how much of a fun and moving ride this is!
6.) Silent Hill
Back then, the best kind of video game movies weren’t so much the ones that felt the most faithful to the games but more of the ones that’s able to fully embrace the subgenre that the games were a part off and build a stand alone story out of that. 2006’s Silent Hill was able to deliver exactly that by going into full horror and thriller mode with the exact kind of mood and atmosphere that the games themselves embraced. The monsters themselves are great, the tension and suspense is felt completely throughout, and it’s somehow able to bring the sleepy town of “Silent Hill” to life. Despite initially getting panned by critics at the time of it’s release, fans of Silent Hill have come to love and appreciate this film adaption. Just skip the sequel entirely!
5.) Mortal Kombat
Despite this being the Mortal Kombat movie with the PG-13 rating with practically no gore to speak off, the 1995 version is still the best MK movie release to date. It’s able to capture all the fun, camp, action, and over-the-top-ness that the game series provided. It’s able to provide the entire cast of characters with their own arcs and personal moments to shine along with a plot that’s surprisingly very functional with no useless filler to speak of. Even if it does strip itself from the gore and certain elements from the games, it’s still able to work incredibly well as an adaption by fully capturing the spirit of the 90s and the central essence that the franchise has embraced since the beginning. While this has been surpassed in recent years as being the best video game movie ever made, it’s still stands comfortably as one of the very best.
4.) The Super Mario Bros. Movie
To be honest, if we are going by video games in terms of straight up faithfulness to the games themselves, this would likely be #1 easily. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the one video game movie that feels like it was 100% ripped straight from the games in terms of it’s animation, style, world building, and amount of fan service throughout. It even works quite well as a simple story of a complete zero turning into a complete hero along with the importance of brotherhood. It’s just so much fun seeing characters such as Mario, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, and Toad kicking butt together on the big screen for the first time ever. Not even the tropes from Illumination Animation that brought down their prior movies such as an obvious celebrity heavy voice cast and awkwardly inserted song tracks are able to bring this one down. If only Luigi didn’t get done dirty and Yoshi played any role whatsoever that this could have been ranked higher. And yes, Chris Pratt was just fine as Mario and Jack Black was as perfect as Bowser as you would expected. I’m gonna go listen to Peaches again.
3.) Werewolves Within
Here’s one that very few people know is actually a video game movie or even are aware of it’s existence. That needs to change ASAP because Werewolves Within is an absolute slam dunk of a motion picture and is one of the very best video games films ever made. Despite making significant changes to the source material, it’s able to remaining very true to the entire point of the game, which of course is guessing who is suppose to be the werewolf among a certain group. At the end of the day, all that matters is getting the core appeal of the series you are adapting along with crafting a film that can stand well on it’s own two feet. It’s very well made, the characters are very entertaining, everyone from the cast and crew is clearly having a blast, and the mystery of the werewolf will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat until the very end. Just like with Professor Layton and the Enteral Diva, it works greatly as a mystery thriller for fans of the source material and for newcomers as well.
2.) Sonic The Hedgehog 2
While there’s certainly an argument to be made about The Super Mario Bros. Movie being a more faithful adaption and Werewolves Within being an objectively better movie overall, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is able to find that perfect balance of being faithful to the source material while also staying strong as it’s own film. It’s able to expand on the themes of the first film very well with Sonic wanting to come into his own as a hero along with learning to accept Tom as a father figure. You also have more elements from the source material thrown in here that work wonderfully here. Tails is cuter than a bag of kittens and a complete fanboy for Sonic, Jim Carrey is back and better than ever as Robotnik, and Knuckles whose played perfectly by Idris Elba, has never been cooler and more badass than he has been here. Not to mention, the final 30 minutes is everything that any Sonic fan could possibly dream off seeing in a Sonic movie. Even if you don’t care for the wedding subplot (which I actually liked and found it pretty funny), there is plenty for anyone to enjoy here. If you are a fan of Sonic, someone who enjoyed the first movie, or just want to have a good and fun time overall, then Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a video game movie for you!
1.) Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Just when you thought it couldn’t get better than Sonic 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is able to sweep in and take the crown as not just the best Sonic movie to date but also the very best video game movie to date! This is just about every Sonic’s fans dream come true! The Sonic characters themselves are at the absolute forefront with more focus than ever, the action and set pieces are all exhilarating and fun, the CGI is a treat for the eyes, there is more fan service and easter eggs than before, it’s able to adapt the storylines from Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog near perfectly, and Keanu Reeves predictably kills it as Shadow, as the character gives more depth and development than he arguably has in any other Sonic medium! It’s also nice to see how Sonic himself has grown through out the trilogy and seeing Jim Carrey bounce off well…..himself is an absolute laugh riot! This is just a series of films that keeps getting better with each installment and if the post credit scenes for this one is anything to go by, the next one could be even better! Is it high art? Probably not! But does it understand the assignment? Hell yeah, it does! Whether you are a longtime fan or a newcomer that has recently got into the series or someone that enjoys a good time, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is an absolute triumph and is my personal favorite video game movie to date!
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to hit theaters very soon and it’s perhaps the most anticipated movie for the rest of 2024. In what has been a very chaotic year, what better way to cap it all off than with our favorite blue hedgehog squaring off against our favorite lion baddie in Mufasa just days before Christmas. We’ll see if the box office race ends up being closer to Barbieheimer from July of last year or Memorial Day Weekend 2011 where Kung Fu Panda 2 got dominated by The Hangover Part II (I will still never forgive the world for that!).
Even so, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that it has been a really exciting time to be a Sonic fan as of late. Since the 2020s rolled around, Sonic fans have been getting a lot of new and exciting content to enjoy. You got some new quality games such as Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog,Sonic Dream Team, and Sonic X Shadow Generations, you got some new tv/streaming series with Sonic Prime and Knuckles, and of course, you got the two new Sonic movies with the third one coming out very soon with an insane amount of hype from Sonic fans and even common moviegoers alike. That’s not to say that ALL of the content I’ve mentioned have been successful or critically acclaimed (Sonic Superstars suffered from abysmal boss fights, Knuckles turned into the Wade Whipple Show once the actual plot got going, and just imagine how much of a drop in quality Sonic Prime would have suffered from if Shadow was NOT in it) but for the most part, there has been more good to come from Sonic than bad for the majority of the 2020s.
It’s all of this and more as to why I believe that Sonic is about to achieve a new level of peak with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The kind of peak that this franchise was able to achieve during the Genesis and Dreamcast days. The kind of peak that would put Sonic on the roadmap as an IP that demands to be taken seriously in any form of media. The kind of peak that I thought we were getting with the franchise in the early 2010s after Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. Lastly, the kind of peak that will see the 2020s as being a new renaissance of Sonic the Hedgehog and make the Blue Blur more popular than ever.
This all started with the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie back in 2020. It was a movie that was met with initial controversy due to many fans not taken too kindly to Sonic’s movie design. About a week after the backlash against the movie ensued, director Jeff Fowler announced that they would go back and fix the design of Sonic into a brand new one that would look more faithful to the character. Although this caused the movie to be delayed three months from it’s original release slate of November 2019, it all turned out to be for the better as the movie turned out to be a solid hit at the box office and the casual audience alike. Although it likely would’ve done better in theaters had it not come out before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it was still enough of a success to greenlight a sequel. It was from that moment where the Sonic brand would transform himself into a multimedia movie franchise.
This led to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which was considered to be even better than it’s predecessor and the most successful video game movie that does NOT involve a certain plumber with a red hat. It received praised from fans for incorporating many elements from the video games such as the addition of Tails and Knuckles, the Master Emerald, more set pieces that mirror levels from the games, and who could forget the birth of SUPER SONIC!!!! Perhaps the big cherry on top included a post-credit scene that teased the next movie would be focused on introducing the fan-favorite character known as Shadow the Hedgehog, set to be played by the legendary Keanu Reeves.
When it comes to the games themselves, the two main ones that have come out this decade include Sonic Frontiers and this year’s Sonic X Shadow Generations. With Sonic Frontiers, while the initial critical reviews were quite mixed, the fan response was much more positive. The majority of the praise went into the open zones, giving Sonic more freedom to control than ever, the boss fights, the soundtrack, and containing some of the best writing that this series has had in ages, particularly involving the characterization of the main cast of characters we’ve all come to known and love over the past few decades. It definitely had it’s flaws, particularly the unpolished cyberspace levels and a handful of unnecessary elements added to the gameplay (*cough* Pinball level *cough*), but even the more mixed reviews agreed that it was a step in the right direction compared to the last few main Sonic games and set the future of Sonic with a really solid foundation to build upon with upcoming games.
With Sonic X Shadow Generations, it made for perhaps the most well received Sonic game that the series has had in a very LONG time. It gained a reception that it has perhaps not been seen since the days of Sonic Adventure or the Gameboy/DS adventures with Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush. Not even the original Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations got this amount of praise attached to it at the time which both games came out. A 2024 remaster of Sonic Generations updated to modern consoles/PC would have been satisfying enough to longtime fans of the series but what makes this one stand out stronger than most is it’s inclusion to a brand new story mode involving fan-favorite Shadow the Hedgehog. It’s able to do Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury even better than the actual Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. With incredibly unique level designs, crazy and out-of-this-world set pieces, masterfully done remixes, a gameplay style that manages to combine the best elements of Generations and Frontiers respectively, and even quite a touching story about Shadow and the two people he cares about the most in Maria and Gerald Robotnik. This even manages to make Black Doom less lame. That’s how good this game is!
When it comes to the other games that have come out in the past four years, they were mostly a mixed bag but nothing that indicated a complete and total failure. Sonic Superstars could have been a solid and newly original 2D Sonic game but suffered big time from the inclusion of it’s new mechanics and horrible boss fights, Sonic Dream Team made for an enjoyable mobile game but could have fared much better as an actual console game, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is about as good of an April Fools Joke as one could hope and made for one unique love letter to the fans. Even so, there has yet to be a single Sonic game to come out in this decade that gained as much of a universally negative reaction on the levels of Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. If that alone is not a step up from the past two decades, then I don’t know what is.
And now we are about to have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 arrive worldwide in theaters! Not only is this meant to cap off to what SEGA originally dubber 2024 as the “Year of Shadow”, but it might just be the thing that expand Sonic’s popularity even further than ever before. Just imagine the numerous amounts of possibilities that can come from the Sonic franchise if Sonic 3 is a hit!
We’ll have more film installments and tv/streaming series that could expand upon the cinematic universe of Sonic even further, we’ll have upcoming that will receive more hype and anticipation than before because of newer fans that will be getting into the series, and we’ll see a new appreciation for Sonic that we perhaps have not seen throughout the entire 21st century. If Sonic 3 delivers, I would not be surprised if any if not all of these outcomes are possible.
Even so, there is more reason to be optimistic about the future of Sonic the Hedgehog than ever before. And I imagine that optimism will only grow once Sonic 3 is released to the general public and we get updated on what future Sonic games, movies, and shows is set for the future.
Adam's Blog 