10 Disastrous Redesigns That Ruined Iconic Video Game Characters

Sonic Boom – released in 2014 – is a notoriously terrible game, panned almost universally. For one thing, the game barely functioned, allowing players the opportunity of escaping the confines of the environment, skipping significant portions of the game.

Besides that, it was generally repetitive and uninteresting, brought down by a substandard combat system, monotonous action sequences, and an over-emphasis on generic platforming, rather than speed.

Despite its best efforts to the contrary, the game was a substantial failure – critically and commercially – yet, it was hardly the first disappointment to permeate the series. Sonic has always had a troubled history, but the franchise has maintained a certain mainstream appeal, meaning even the worst instalments have achieved a degree of success.

By contrast, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was the lowest selling game in franchise history.

Why? It was released exclusively on Wii U, a console which no one seems to own, and it revised the most iconic aspects of the series such as the characters themselves, which had remained virtually untouched since the early nineties. They turned Sonic into a gangly, neckerchief-wearing adventurer, inexplicably covered in bandages. Besides that, the redesigns of the other characters weren’t much better, Knuckles in particular.