Sonic Forces: Run Fast to Win Battles
When talking about platform running games, the ones that immediately come to mind are Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and even some of the latest mobile ones like Temple Run. Another extremely popular platform game is Sonic the Hedgehog. It is also arguably a classic. Platform games are classified as action games since they involve a lot of moving and good reaction time from players. Platform running games in particular obviously involves a lot of running, dashing, jumping, and even double jumping to achieve a particular goal. In the map, there are also often rewards or power-ups.
The Sonic franchise has been going strong for more than 25 years. For a series of games to being as popular as it is even after decades, it must have been doing something right. Each Sonic game that was ever released had their own distinct features, which made every Sonic the Hedgehog game recognizable and loveable. Sonic Forces, one of the newest releases of the franchise, also has its own oddities that make it stand out above the rest. Unlike its sibling games, Sonic Forces has a rather dark backdrop which is unlike other Sonic games that are usually bright and fantastical.
When looking at the reviews of the game, it spans from incredible to rather indifferent or sometimes downright nasty. A big reason for this is because of the bad publicity that the game garnered. Every single fan probably had unrealistic expectations for the game which translated into crushed hopes. When the game had very minor flaws, everyone inevitably blew up. However, when one assesses Sonic Forces, each component of the game is faithful to the franchise and the overall gameplay is a fantastic and more modern rendition. The publicity might also be bad, bad the turnout and actual responses are good. During its debut, it immediately became one of the chart toppers among all genres. On both the App Store and Play Store, Sonic Forces has an average of 4.4 stars and hundreds of thousands of reviews. Even on Amazon, it is an in demand game that is fifth overall in the Action genre.
Sonic Forces is a great example of the difference between expectations and reality. It might not be what the fan base expected, but it is certainly more than what they bargained for.