10 Video Game Franchises That Drastically Reinvented Themselves
5. Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog has been reinvented on countless occasions, most of those attempts failing in horrendous fashion. A product of his time, the character has endured throughout the 2000s, which is pretty impressive for an anthropomorphic hedgehog born of the previous century.
Regardless, the character - a quintessential mascot of the 1990s - has been reinvented a number of times. Sonic Colours introduced power-ups (called Wisps); Sonic: The Lost World implemented a tubular level design, reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy; Sonic Generations took the franchise back to its roots, reintroducing 2D gameplay; Sonic Unleashed did away with speed entirely, turning the game into a more conventional platformer, and don't even get me started on the travesty that was Sonic Boom.
At this point, it would be impossible to identify a single core concept, the formula adapting every couple of years into something completely different.
Honestly, it's hard to keep up.
Did they work?
Sonic has been struggling for years, the fundamental experience evolving constantly, never standing still.
As such, some have been tremendously successful - Sonic Colours, Sonic Generations - and others have been disastrous - Sonic '06, Sonic Boom. The franchise is constantly trying to stay ahead of the times, but it only seems to succeed on a handful of occasions, usually falling flat on its face.
Here's to Sonic Mania!