Sonic 06 was the Sonic game I was most interested in completing due to hearing conflicting opinions about it. I remember a couple of friends from long ago telling me that Sonic 06 wasn't that bad but when I looked up reviews for it, I saw that it was critically panned for reasons that I would eventually realize when playing the game. After beating Sonic 06, I think both sides of what I heard are kind of right. Don't get me wrong, Sonic 06 is a buggy piece of shit, but if Sega actually took the time to polish it, I think it would be just as good as the Sonic Adventure games.

I'll start off with what I think Sonic 06 does right. The music kicks ass. His World is one of the best songs in the whole series. If you can't get hyped listening to it, I don't know what would. Just like in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, the Sonic & Shadow levels are still entertaining. It will never not be enjoyable running around as Sonic or/and Shadow kicking bots and taking names.......when it works. Silver while not as fun to use as the former two is a nice change of pace compared to them and at least somewhat enjoyable to use. From what I remember Silver's story was the most tolerable one when it comes to glitches. Mephiles was a villain who was not only interesting but also managed to be very intimidating in contrast to Eggman who I don't think really fills that role anymore.

Now onto the bad parts of Sonic 06 that everyone is very familiar with, the glitches. I hear the Xbox 360 version is the better version which explains why I didn't encounter as many bugs as I thought I would, but when they happen they are VERY annoying. A few at the top of my head I can think of are the numerous tries it will take to beat Silver anytime you fight him due to him grabbing you repeatedly, losing control of my character when using a boost pad or just in general, and just the lack of polish the game has in general. There were times when I felt the game was running on a string especially when the camera would shake around occasionally. All of these bugs made it a rage-inducing experience to go through, especially if it was a lengthy level. You don't just play as the big 3, but also most of the important characters like Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Blaze, Omega, and Amy Rose. While adding more characters to the roster seems like a positive, most of them were either average or just plain unfun, especially when you encounter glitches. The hub world looks and feels like Sonic Adventure 1's but bloated and uglier. In Sonic Adventure 1, it was quick to get to wherever you needed to go in the hub world, in Sonic 06 it doesn't feel nearly as fast and is way bigger than it needs to be. Running around in the forest as anyone but Sonic is as slow as molasses which is ironic since you're playing a game about a speedy, blue hedgehog. The last thing I think is worth mentioning is that Sonic 06 gave us this abomination of a cutscene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk6cgp7RcL8.

While I haven't played Sonic Heroes due to being either incredibly lucky or unlucky that the one disc I ordered came super scratched, but the impression that I have gotten is that every 3d Sonic game after Adventure 2 has had something holding it back whether it be time constraints or a mechanic that overstays its welcome. Even though Sonic 06 is widely regarded as one of the worst games ever made, it had a lot of potential to be special had Sega taken the time to ensure it wasn't a buggy mess.

Reviewed on Aug 30, 2023


1 Comment


8 months ago

My biggest gaming shame is that I got all 1000 achievement points in this game back then...