10 Exact Moments You Realised Games Had Wasted Your Money
3. The Loading Screen - Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)
Sonic the Hedgehog was a titan in the gaming business in the early '90s, second only to Super Mario. But during the millennium, it was apparent the popularity of Sega's mascot was on the decline. In 2006, Sega released a Sonic reboot, hoping it would be a return to form for the once unstoppable IP. Instead, Sonic '06 was branded as the worst entry in the franchise.
Players knew the project was doomed, even before they experienced the excessive bugs, atrocious controls, sporadic camera, and the unintentionally hilarious voice-acting. They realised Sega dropped the ball the instant they bared witness to the diabolical loading screen.
The words "NOW LOADING" appear every time Sonic enters a new area, which completely ruins the immersion. It takes so long for each area to load up, you'll be looking at the painfully long loading screen more often than collecting rings or performing loopdaloops.
But that's not all. The screen loads every time Sonic speaks to an NPC. Worse still, this happens twice, since it loads before AND after speaking to them.
To put this into perspective, imagine if the screen loaded every time you spoke to someone in The Legend of Zelda, God Of War, or Final Fantasy. If that was the case, you'd give up long before completing the main campaign, which is exactly what a lot of people did after playing this dumpster fire.