Sega's iconic Blue Blur is one of few surviving remnants of the studio's console years. This can easily be seen today, albeit not in a positive way: Sonic is a geezer. The jump to 3D was neither kind nor easy. The satisfying flow of the original 2D titles is lost in the awkward controls and level design of such wet blankets as Sonic '06 and Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors proved to be an uphill turn, but only when viewed through the condescending lens of "good for a modern Sonic game" - which is a slightly more impressive quality than "consumer-conscious for an EA game." Sonic Boom and its tangent properties may very well revitalise the series, but several years of stagnation say Sonic will stay in his rut. At least Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - a retro 2D platformer, coincidentally - was fun, right?