Dreams of Absolution – Legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

As we move forward in the gaming industry, one must also look back as well. The Sonic series has had many releases over its thirty-plus-year sprint. But when making the jump to the at-the-time next-generation platforms in 2006, the series took a major black eye. That title was Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

The game promised the world, but due to many factors, it couldn’t realize the vision. Years later, the legacy of this title haunts the Sonic franchise like a specter.

But while the game did damage the brand, it also offered many interesting ideas of its own. Ideas, that future games like Sonic Frontiers, attempted once more.

Origins as a Tech Demo

In the year of 2005, the Sonic franchise was in the middle of celebrating its 15th anniversary. This very year would see the release of Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Rivals, and Sonic Rush but SEGA had a surprise for fans. A peek into the future, so to speak.

TGS 2005 featured a demo for Sonic the Hedgehog. The tech demo demonstrated what Sonic Team had in store for Sonic on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

As seen in the video above, showed Sonic running through a realistic forest, eventually finding himself in a castle. Then after being surrounded by Eggman’s forces, he turns into Super Sonic and dashes through them all, ending the real-time cut-scene. Most impressively, this ran at a stable 60FPS on what looked to be development PCs.

The demo itself also targeted 60FPS but as seen in the footage, whenever the Havok Physics engine kicked in, the frame rate dropped heavily. Also demonstrated in the demo was a day-and-night system, Sonic himself using the physics system to open new paths ahead and collecting rings to build up his speed.

While it may look dated today, seeing this footage cleaned up and restored only highlights the ambitions SEGA and Sonic Team had for Sonic.

The Chaos Factor – Development Woes

Once development fully entered production, the chaos factor kicked in. After the release of the critically mixed Shadow the Hedgehog, expectations of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) rose substantially.

With those mountaineering expectations, among other factors, Yuji Naka and some Sonic Team staff left SEGA. During this process, the development team was split in half.

One half was set to port Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) over to the Nintendo Revolution. But once reality struck on what the now re-branded Wii was capable of, work shifted to making a brand new Sonic game. This was called Sonic Wild Fire, eventually renamed Sonic & The Secret Rings.

So what could the remainder of Sonic Team do? Could they delay the HD project with lessened staff? Nope, SEGA did not give the studio additional time. The expectation was to have a major Sonic release for the series’ 15th Anniversary, so the deadline couldn’t be moved.

The public was completely ignorant of all these woes, however, with the E3 2006 demo going over well with the press. And SEGA even partnered with Microsoft at the time to get a demo out on XBLA before launch.

This demo was quite interesting, as it was using a new build. That meant it wound up playing better than the finished release mere months later. The build many players experienced in November 2006 was an older, but more stable build.

The Flames of Disaster – 2006 Launch

November 14th, 2006.

History was made, with Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released on the Xbox 360, with it released on PlayStation 3 across all regions a few months later. To not repeat what many have said over the years, I will keep this brief.

Despite genuinely interesting ideas being explored, the end product was in such a horrid state, that it would make modern ‘disasters’ look like masterpieces. The amount of glitches and bugs players can come across just by simple play is astounding.

My time with both the PlayStation 3 release and the 360 release was ‘fine’, comparatively speaking, but it was very unpolished. The main issues stem from the unfinished nature bleeding into nearly every sector of the game.

A pillar of Sonic gameplay is how the player character feels. It’s an element I gave much praise to in my Sonic Frontiers review. But here? Every character either felt lacking compared to prior Sonic games or was simply awful to play as.

Despite negative critical reception, the game did sell well for SEGA. Selling nearly 3 million copies, the game ended up getting minor DLC. But unlike the other Sonic titles on Xbox 360, it never got backward compatibility support.

It’s No Use! – Damage to the Sonic Brand

To say this game damaged the Sonic brand is as if one said ‘Man, shooting this shotgun to my foot hurt’. Even as the series had gradually better releases with Sonic Unleashed, the damage was done.

No matter what SEGA or Sonic Team did going forward, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) hung over them like a dark cloud. Many gaming outlets, some to this day even, lampoon the series as lackluster simply because Sonic 06 exists.

And this extends to the overreaching gaming community. The downfall of the SEGA Dreamcast kicked the first domino, with SEGA mismanaging Sonic as a brand only adding fuel to the fire. People genuinely wanted Sonic gone, or at least, that’s what I felt at the time.

Sonic 06 was the silver bullet for many. And for the diehards that had enough, this was the breaking point. If SEGA let this happen to Sonic, future disasters like Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric only make matters worse.

Dashing Across the Waves – Legacy for Future Games

Despite all this negativity from Sonic 06, the title offered great content for the series’ future.

The Music

If one thing can be said about Sonic, the music always is amazing. And in many respects, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) is some of the series’ finest work.

From chill music for the hub world of Soleanna to some genuinely epic tracks like Crisis City, there is something for everyone. My personal favorite has to be Kingdom Valley. This level’s theme sounds like something one would hear in a Zelda-inspired Sonic level.

The mixture of piano, a pinch of techno, drums kicking in at the right times, and emotional chants… The track has such an atmosphere, that it makes running through it a joy. And then the ‘Water’ section kicks in for the final stretch.

Sonic runs on walls of water as he rushes toward the goal ring. The raw emotions of the violin and the male chants create such a somber but grand melody that only adds to the experience.

Level Design

Despite the game’s broken nature implying otherwise, the level design is solid. Similar to games like Sonic Adventure, there are multiple routes for Sonic and friends to explore.

And each one offers rewards, like additional lives or a faster route. In addition, they feel very ‘organic’, with all the level gimmicks bleeding into the artistry. You have vines that act as pullies in Tropical Jungle or the ravaged roads in the dark future of Crisis City creating a sense of logic for the half pipes.

Even the entire idea of using physics to move forward for characters like Silver, who can pick up and throw objects around, can create genuinely fun platforming challenges.

Epic Scale of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Make no mistake, the game in general failed on this front. The narrative, a major element of the ‘epic scale’ just doesn’t add to the experience. But, the grand set-pieces of future Sonic games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Frontiers offered are inspired by this game.

The Super-Speed portions of Sonic’s levels are a great example of this. Even if the control is very lackluster, they were part of the blueprint for Sonic Unleashed’s gameplay. Sonic ran at top speeds through grand moments such as chasing down the Egg Carrier or catching up to a speeding train.

Extended Cast

The base game did not do Sonic and his friends justice, but the idea of playing as the entire crew was interesting. Each character had the same ‘core’ functions; jumping and attacking.

However, everyone had a different role. Knuckles and Rouge could climb walls and collect things to help Sonic or Shadow progress. Tails can fly, hitting switches Sonic himself couldn’t reach. Examples like this were spread throughout the game’s ten action stages.

If the game was a finished product, the variety on offer would have been refreshing and not aggravating depending on the playable character.

Breaking Through It All – Project 06

Fast forward many years later, the Sonic community took it upon themselves to finish what SEGA and Sonic Team started.

ChaosX and some of his friends put together this demo, shown above. It featured two levels from the base release but was re-created in Unity.

The result? A marked improvement across the board. Characters feel better playing, with their entire movesets completed and improved upon. And characters that were utterly broken in the original, like Amy and Knuckles, feel substantially better to play as now.

Even small details, like cut dialog that remained in the retail releases’ files, got restored. Now during specific moments in the stages, Sonic and his friends will react properly to events around them. Some stages even have new openings, adding additional flair to the experience.

As it stands right now, Project 06 is the definitive way to experience Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Currently, the project covers the entire campaigns of Sonic, Silver, and Shadow. The only thing missing currently is the boss fights and the ‘End of the World’ level.

ChaosX even looked at the TGS 2005 demo and using what he learned making Project 06, completely recreated that tech demo.

Closing Thoughts on Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

I’m not going to sit here and say ‘Sonic 06 was always good’. It was not a good game and will always be a black eye in the Blue Blur’s long legacy.

However, the game’s impact has resulted in great changes for the franchise, both in official games and in fan efforts. For official releases, the quality of Sonic titles has only gone up. A simple look at Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Superstars can confirm that. In addition, the brand’s health is the best it has ever been.

The Sonic movie series continues to draw in new audiences to the series and other efforts like Sonic Prime only helped with that. And SEGA is finally acknowledging the lesser elements of the series again, with Sonic X Shadow: Generations core narrative elements being pulled from Shadow the Hedgehog.

As a die-hard fan of Sonic, elements of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) will always stick with me and I’m genuinely happy something like Project 06 exists. If SEGA does not see the value in taking their most maligned product and remaking it, I’m glad the Sonic community took up that challenge themselves.