Sonic has come a long way from his speedy platform levels that started in Green Hill Zone.

He's had...

5 games in the Classic style (counting Mania and CD)

10 games in Modern 3D style (if you add the Black Knight and Secret of the Rings)

3 spin off games made for their own characters

Tails Sky Patrol

Knuckles Chaotix

Shadow the Hedgehog

A pinball game

4-5 car racing games

A cool fighting game (Sonic Battle)

A board game rpg like Mario Party

A turned based rpg game (Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood)

An education game

A raising game thing (Chao Garden)

3 games in Sonic Boom universe

4 television shows

A cinematic movie

A long running comic book series

And to top it off...

One of the slowest games ever! (Sonic Labyrinth)

It's safe to say Sonic already earned the rank of experienced veteran in the game world.

But compared to his console rival Mario, Sonic and him lack something.

Mario stays consistent, but loses his hype over time with repeated games.

Sonic, on the other hand, is able to keep his hype...but lacks consistency.

What I mean is that Sonic never found something could actually stick.

Sure, it's ok to try something new every once and a while, because companies need diverse ideas to succeed.

But if you don't have a formula that you can fall back to when things go wrong, it's gonna come back to hit you hard.

Sonic and his cast have the personality to keep people coming back...

....but lack something outside Classic gameplay that fans can be attracted to.

Personally, I like Modern games more than Classic.

Sonic Unleashed day levels were among the best speed levels I've played.

And I still come back to game anyways just to feel the rush it gave me.

I find it sad that something like that went downhill so fast.

Thankfully the live action movie has brought the franchise back into the public spotlight.

But now...SEGA hasn't said what the plan is on using that momentum.

They've hit a crossroads and have no idea where to go.

At least we don't know if there's something in the works yet.

With the movie now being accessible online and someday deliverable in the future, this is the perfect moment to strike against the competition.

The only thing around the time of the movie that could hinder their streak is the corona virus, but that can't stop gaming businesses forever.

While SEGA probably won't notice this, I hope they can catch on to something good.

But in the meantime, I'd like to share some ideas on what kind of game styles I would want from the Sonic franchise.

These ideas are made to cover two problems.

1) Give the franchise more room to create instead of using repeated ideas.

2) Give the characters more development instead of leaving them on the sidelines.

If SEGA pulls both of these goals off, then Mario's crown is as good as gone.

Each style is made to categorize the characters in more interesting level.

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1. Boost Formula

I know Sonic Forces was recently lazy with this style of levels, but it can still do more.

Unleashed and Generations gave this formula it's best performance!

You just need to improve a few things.

1) Make every level more free for the player

This was the major problem with Sonic Forces.

Every level felt like it was on autopilot.

Since not much variety was put into what paths to take, the levels just become a dull race against the clock to get that S Rank.

I could make a machine that played the control for me, and it would still get an A or S Rank for completion.

I guess since they're trying to appease little kids so they're not upset about doing horrible in the game.

But that shouldn't stop SEGA and Sonic Team from making every level more engaging.

My solution is....

....make the gameplay on free roam maps.

I know we're used to going from the selection screen or a mini free roam to the level, but why not try this?

My idea is to make the free roam maps give you story missions and side missions on the same map.

For example: One mission would have you on the other side of a city map, while the Goal Ring is on the other side. You have to get there as quickly as possible.

The advantage of having missions take place on a free roam map is that the player can make completely independent choices.

Want to get to goal on the street level or low ground?

Go ahead!

Want to get there on the rooftops or the high ground?

You do you!

Want to stop a random robot attack while taking a break from the story?

Have fun!

All you have to do is make it possible to control Sonic and characters to where they can navigate a large map like that.

2) Give us more than Sonic and Classic for these levels.

I get that people like the Classic games, but come on!

Haven't we grown up already to accept that Sonic's old days are over?

Dragging Classic into Sonic Forces not only felt lazy, but was more like fan service and attempted click bait for the game.

Instead of focusing so much on Sonic and Classic, why not try this idea out?

Give us speedy characters to use besides them!

And don't just make it a few lazy levels with Shadow!

If you want some ideas, take these characters into levels.

-Sonic

-Shadow

-Blaze

-Metal Sonic (if something happens with him)

-Mina Mongoose (if the comic characters are allowed in)

-Avatar (if player chooses this level style)

If you put these in, you might get some fun results with the fans and gamers.

3) Give us fast paced boss battles

Sonic Forces "kind of" accomplished this anyways, but in a few ways.

-Sonic vs Infinite level

-Sonic and Avatar vs Metal Sonic level

-Sonic and Avatar vs Infinite level

-VS Eggman level Phase 3 (Sonic, Classic and Avatar)

Other than that, Modern Sonic's boss battles have mostly been stricken to a bare minimum.

When I played Unleashed, I had a fun time with the first Eggman Boss level

It involved quick stepping to avoid obstacles, quick timing on homing attacks and a good timing on dodging attacks.

If I asked people which boss battle they liked in Generations, it would be between Silver or Shadow.

If I played the game, I would go with Shadow's boss level.

Silver still fights like other boss battles, even though his psychokinesis abilities are awesome in the level!

Shadow's boss fight is actually going against Sonic in a battle of speed and special attacks.

Sonic and Shadow are basically racing towards a Chaos Emerald (I think?) and using it to unleash an attack on each other to cause damage.

Sonic would use an incredible boost

Shadow would launch a freaking barrage of Chaos Spears that you had to dodge!

You don't have to do it it like Shadow's boss fight though.

Just make it something more fast paced and able to keep players on their toes.

And finally...

4) STOP USING THE 2D PERSPECTIVE!!!

It gets annoying when it suddenly changes to that perspective and I have to be more focused on jumping.

It gets lazy and old fast when applied to Modern Sonic games.

Classic Sonic can keep the 2D perspective.

Sonic's 3D perspective feels more fun because it's like I'm actually a speedster.

Yes you can't see Sonic's face, but games are focused on how you play rather than how often you get to promote how your character looks.

2D perspective got old when Mario got repetitive.

You already know what you're supposed to do because it just run and jump.

That's literally all you do in every adaptation of that style!

3D perspective made running through the level more active in it's approach.

Dodge left or right, drifting on the turn and boosting were fun examples of this.

When you have to switch between those two often, you lose the fun in the speed.

Sonic doesn't have to be a platform game to be popular!

If you put these ideas in, the Boost formula could still work miracles.

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2. 3D Platform + Fighting Gameplay

I know I said Sonic doesn't have to be a platform game, but this makes things different.

These are the characters I suggest using in this style.

-Tails

-Amy

-Silver

-Cream

-Knuckles

-Vector

-Avatar (if player chooses this style)

This idea came from playing Unleashed and seeing Sonic Heroes.

While the game was still a speedy platform game, it did make you stop to fight enemies sometimes.

Shadow the Hedgehog also did this, but made use of pickup weapons too.

Now that Sonic has the Boost formula, this style is open for anyone.

You could do things like....

Make fun puzzles for the player to figure out

Have a massive battle of one character versus several Badniks

Or even make crazy stunts or parkour

Each character has their own way of fighting

Each character can be reused in different levels

And each level can be fun in their own ways

The boss battles can also stray away from having an obvious weak spot on them.

The fighting part is to make it more engaging instead of the usual obstacles.

Just don't make this get boring quick.

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3. Barrage Fighting

This style is close to the second one, but focuses less on platforms and more on beating the stuffing out of enemies!

In this, you only have one or two objectives.

1) Get to the end of the level

2) Destroy all enemies

That's it!

Just tons of fun blowing the villains up like it's Vietnam all over again!

(I apologize if any war veterans are reading this. Don't have flashbacks because of me.)

These are the characters I would suggest

-Omega

-Silver (again)

-Gamma (if brought to life)

-Vector (don't ask)

-Tails riding the Tornado (don't judge me!)

-Avatar (if player chooses this style)

Level designers just have to make the places you travel through and the amount of enemies something to make you trigger happy for.

You can literally go nuts in this style!

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4. Investigation

This type of gameplay can be reserved for the Chaotix

Basically you're going around the level finding clues to the case.

Whether it's an object, an imprint left from someone or something being altered

Just don't make it too easy or boring.

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5. Stealth

Only two characters can go to this one.

-Rouge

-Espio

-Avatar (if player chooses this style)

The goals of this can differ on what the mission is.

1) Reach the goal

2) Get item and leave (usually it's intelligence)

3) Capture or take someone out

You could do a lot with this.

Games like Metal Gear and Assassin's Creed made good work of stealth.

Sonic franchise could take it a step further.

With Rouge and Espio, you could use the ceiling as an advantage!

Espio's camouflage ability could be used to get past enemies in plain sight

Rouge's hearing could be used as a way to know where the guards/enemies are.

Espio's shurikens could be perfect long distance takeouts.

Rouge's experience in kickboxing could be good at quickly sneak attacking an opponent.

Basically their advantages are Rouge is a spy and Espio is a ninja.

SEGA get on top of this idea if you have time to add more characters in games.

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And that's all I can think of.

If I missed anything, Bree could mention it in the comments.

I didn't add the Chao Garden because I'm saving it for another page.

I'll be covering all of those styles in detail for the next few pages.

If you want the order, it'll be this

-Roleplay: How to make Avatars fun

-Perfecting the Boost Formula

-3D Platforming Brawl-out

-Barrage: I'm Trigger Happy!

-Surprise!: Introducing Stealth Levels

-Chao Garden's return

After that, I'll be covering what character spin offs they could do.

Have a good day everyone!