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Proof that even shit can have defenders
  # comments: 12
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So Bad It's Memorable
Some people say this game could have been average. Be honest, did you want another average game? No, you want great games.

Graphics are not important (as long as you can see where you're going). Sound is not important. Story is not important. You can squint through all of that. Judge those things LATER, and if they're good, they are the icing on the cake.

Ultimately there are three things that matter in a game. Controls, levels and AI.

And Sonic 2006 failed on them. The mach speed sections, the thing that Sonic fans called for the most and would have drooled over the best, failed, when they should have been considered the most important part of the game to get right. The controls for it are so horribly twitchy. Instead, it looks like Sonic Team put all their effort into the Hub world, when Sonic isn't a hub-based game. And the graphics are great on the whole - but they didn't think about the graphics style. Never mind Elise and Sonic; Eggman just looks weird. And the sound is great but I already told you that was icing.

And the story - crazy, yes, but somebody put a lot of thought into that.

So the game's all icing, but the cake is poison. Icing is delicious, but it's not really satisfying.
  # comments: 1
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Actually Kind of Enjoyable (Kind of)
Three days ago, my friend, brother and I bought and played through this game. I was inspired to do a playthrough by the SA crew that LP'd the game, but decided to do it over the course of two days in multiple sittings. My brother left a level into Silver's story, which we started right after completing Sonic's, so my friend and I were left with the bulk of the game.

I was honestly surprised how much fun I had with this game. It definitely has it's bad points, yes. The mach speed sections are tough to control, but even so I had little trouble with them (I was given every mach speed section but the first, and only died twice somehow.) This is of course non-indicative of the average player's experience, but it's proof that it can be done, especially if you know what you're getting into. The story is a convoluted mess with uninteresting characters and poor voice acting, but Sonic games before the Adventure series rarely relied on story. The physics engine is oddly implemented and leads to unfair deaths. Some levels last entirely too long for a Sonic game, and the same can be said for some bosses. The camera will attempt to murder you at every corner.

However, the game has some genuinely redeeming factors. The soundtrack is great (even though you might not be able to hear it sometimes.) If you get used to the engine, the game offers some fun sections. The best reason to play this game is the unintentional hilarity, though. Between narmy lines ("That alone is insufficient!", Shadow's scream of "PERFECT!" upon S-ranking something, etc,) unexplained plot problems (Why is the Egg Carrier randomly crashing? Where'd that Chaos Emerald go?) and some of those cruel deaths mentioned earlier, the game is great for those who love the So Bad Its Good stuff.

Overall, it's worth a playthrough, especially for the price. It's extremely cheap on Ebay and only around 15$ elsewhere. Grab a few friends to play it with. If you go into the experience keeping in mind it's far, far, FAR from perfect, it can be pretty fun.
  # comments: 4
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Glitches aside, how good is this game on its own merits?
I'd heard a lot about Sonic 2006, so I bought it out of curiosity recently. While the glitches do drag down the game and seriously hurt it at some points, I see what Sega was going for, and I've concluded that this could have possibly been the next Sonic Adventure 1, albeit with plot holes and even more Narm. Let's take a look:

  • It's clear they were aiming for a Western audience that would presumably want something "cool". That explains the realistic graphics (including realistic looking humans), moody music, and dramatic story. I think the effort is admirable, and I like it. I don't want all Sonic games to be like this, but if they try both light-hearted games and more melodramatic games like this one, then I'd be happy with the variety.

  • The towns are much large than Station Square in Sonic Adventure, with dozens of citizens walking about, making it feel more alive. You can even run along the rooftops, and are encouraged to explore. I like that.

  • Each of the 9 characters has distinctly different abilities, and none of them are clones of others. I like Blaze the Cat in particular.

  • There's WAYYY too much emphasis on combat. Lots of "defeat enemies to move on" areas. Possibly a result of aiming for a "cool" audience (may also explain the enemy radar). Slows the game down a lot.

  • The levels are very long. This is both good and bad, as failure can be frustrating if you run out of lives, and long levels can be boring if you don't like the particular level. But it's good to see a fun level like Crisis City or Kingdom Valley be a lot longer than levels in other Sonic games.

  • Sonic himself is noticeably slower than in the 3D Sonic games preceding this one. A real disappointment.

  • You can homing attack grind rails now, which makes them easier to use. A welcome addition.

It's clear that this game turned out so bad because it was rushed and released before being finished. Signs of the rush job such as missing special effects, mislabeled townspeople, lack of transitions, and the broken and glitchy gameplay hide what, at its core, is a game that has a lot of potential. It's broken in all kinds of ways, and I believe the hate is perfectly warranted, but I'm actually able to find enjoyment in this game.
  # comments: 3
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You can't polish shit.

It does. This is a truly awful game.



  # comments: 0
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It's so sad
It's so sad that all the worst aspects of this game have tiny little sparkles of goodness that you might just be able to spot if you squint your eyes and turn your head. For example, the mach speed sections could've mirrored the awesome breakneck speed trips in Unleashed, if not for the fact that every single control was broken. Am I exagerrating? No. The jump button locks Sonic in place, unable to move right or left or even control his forward trajectory. The control stick sends him flying off the edge of the screen at the slightest touch. The light dash button (not mentioned in-game, ever) randomly chooses whether to work or not, and half the time a line of rings will lead you straight into an obstacle. Worse, absolutely every object that isn't flat ground (and sometimes that, too) will instantly cause a loss of rings if touched.

Sonic 06 is an obvious beta. A very obvious beta. Unless it's an alpha. If it had been finished before being rushed to stores, we might've found something good, or at least passably mediocre. As it is, it's exactly as bad as others have claimed.

Bile fascination and narm might just push this product into so bad it's good territory, though, so it might be worth a rental, if only to see for yourself just how bad it is.

Score: |blank|
  # comments: 3
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