At this point, Sonic's popularity should be assumed to be dead in the water. With the poor release that was Sonic Boom last year and a recent history of sullying the blue blur's reputation with dismal games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic '06, recalling the good old days of the 16-bit Mega Drive brings tears to your eyes. Watching Sonic go from being a mascot as respected and well-known as Mario to teetering on the edge of eternal derision is a hard pill for any fan of the series to swallow, and with Sonic's fortune not looking like it will improve any time soon, it may be time to put the lightning-fast hog on the back-burner and give him a holiday, god knows he needs it. In doing so, it might actually give Sega the kick up the behind they need to revisit their often neglected back catalogue of gems that deserve some TLC. While the younger gamers out there will see Sega's name as synonymous with Sonic's, everyone does them a disservice by not recognising some of the truly great games that the Japanese giant has turned out over the years. From mould-breaking MMORPGS to graffiti-spraying skaters and everything between, Sega's library is one of the most eclectic and respectable in the entire game's industry, and their reluctance to take a gamble with reviving some of their past classics is really rather disappointing. If, by some miracle, Sega decide tomorrow that they want to try releasing something new, then picking any entry from this list would be a stellar start.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
