sonicmenu | TOP 5 GENRES THAT SHOULD HAVE A SONIC GAME

I am not a Sonic person. I'm old, I didn't care for edgy adult fare as a kid, I wasn’t about level memorisation or time trial chasing, I never liked real sports (or at least video games’ interpretation of them in the 90s) and I valued my hearing. I ended up leaning towards the Nintendo side of the console wars and stuck there for most of my life. This doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to enjoy Sonic, just that my exposure to the series is limited and I know that I'm not the only one, not that my personal reasons are the same for everybody else. Sega could take some steps to attract more gamers, and the answer may be found in the competition.

In the decades through the console wars of yore and beyond, there have been many a back-and-forth between Nintendo and Sega. In the current year of 2025, it's clear that one of the many attributes Mario has been able to hold over Sonic is the adaptability of the brand to other genres with great results. From golf and tennis to RPGs to puzzles, The Red Plumber has had very few flops when he’s ventured into genres outside the traditional platformer, while the non-mainline releases from the blue blur are… mixed at best, from what I've heard and read about over the years. The goal here, though, is not to directly emulate the same strategy and make a Sonic-themed typing tutor or creative art program for consoles. Expanding the Sonic oeuvre requires a more distinct collection of genres to expand into. Let's look at what I believe are a handful of some of the best options available.

1. MUSIC/RHYTHM

Over the past 35 years, Sonic has developed quite a large catalogue of beloved (allegedly) music - from the butt-rock-coded Crush 40 in the mod-ren era, to the smattering of Richard Jaques gold in the early 3D days,  to that one Michael Jackson boogie from one of the 16-bit titles that probably is - unlicensable nowadays. Regardless of anyone's opinions on the quality of the tunes, there's no arguing that the sheer quantity would prove a bountiful trove of ditties to finagle some rhythmic gameplay at light speed and call it a day. Perhaps a runner-type dodging game similar to Muse Dash or Bit.trip Runner would be the closest approximation to the original Genesis feel, where it didn't need an up arrow or more than one action button. Whether the controls require tapping to a beat or dodging timed obstacles doesn't matter, both are equally musical.

2. SEARCH ACTION

Imagine: Starting as Princess Sally Acorn, you combat and jump your way through a large 2D map, winding your way past batteries and ledges you have no means of accessing. A large room appears ahead on the map, complete with a blinking exclamation point leading the way. As she enters, she spots a cage with an iconic yellow plunger on top and an unconscious red echidna inside. BAM! The wall collapses behind her, as a mechanised bulldozer with a bushy mustache changes from above! It's yet another flight against Dr Eggman, the guy just never quits! After a strenuous fight of jumping on his head three times, the vehicle explodes and Knuckles can now be freed! Now the player can tag away from Sally to Knux, climbing rock walls and floating across small gaps, expanding the pathways that can be explored further. More and more teammates are found and rescued as the world around the characters expand; Rouge, Vector, Bunnie Rabbot, Big the Cat, Shinobu from Shinobu, and Tails, all join the squad to hot-swap with each other and explore the world… Culminating in the last confrontation with the mad Doctor, where at last the titular Hedgehog is freed! Eggman makes a mad dash in a rocket ship, but there they are: the Chaos Emeralds! Sonic grasps then, becoming Super Sonic! And chases after his eternal enemy backtracking through the entire landscape making areas that were a struggle to navigate in the beginning hours a breeze in this madcap chase right back to the starting area as Sonic catches Dr. Eggman before he can escape! What a rush!

This should have happened a long time ago. Someone at Sega should have said “Castlevania crossed with Sonic Heroes by way of the Donkey Kong 64 hot-swap mod” years ago and it should have materialised in their hand in an instant. It could still happen today! There are literally a hundred small independent groups making literally a hundred of these games a year and would give their literal firstborn away for a chance to make this literal game. Just say the word. Talk to Lunar Ray Games, makers of Timespinner. Or go see Adglobe and Live Wire, the co-developers of Ender Lilies. Or speak with the creator of Dust: An Elysian Tale, Dean Dodrill, and treat him better than Microsoft did in 2011. These are just a smattering of the incredible options available to flourish with this project.

Or you know what? If you're looking to spend the big bucks on a project like this, bring back Christian Whitehead and pair them together with Vanillaware. Yeah, do that. That could work miracles.

3. STEALTH HORROR

A good portion of Mario’s adaptability is the willingness for Nintendo to threaten its internal developer teams to create their own unique properties lest Miyamoto-san shunt his darling moustachioed man into the leading role. Compare the vibrant and wacky world of Splatoon against the blandest cast of toads in Paper Mario Color Splash. This is a strategy that could be worked to Sega’s favour and would be a fascinating creative exercise at worst. Sonic is always about going fast, so what happens when he needs to go slow?

Sega has shown an aptitude for this kind of game  over a decade ago in working with Creative Assemble for Alien: Isolation. As EA swears off Star Wars, Activision turns down further Marvel games, and WB Games melts down all the handcrafted gold jewellery it's collected into ingots to bury in the ground for a decade or three, it makes sense for Sega to follow suit and to stick with its most well-known internal properties. Sega currently is pushing an initiative to revive the old catalogue; make sure those dev teams know the consequences. Is the Golden Axe team struggling to get a decent art style? Give them the veiled implication of becoming Chao bait and watch that team soar like Icarus towards the sun! Or plummet to the cragged shores below! Either way will be worth watching a Let's Play because who has the time to play any of this shit anyway.

4. DATING SIM

Let’s face it: the current generation of kids are not into the Sonic games. Their version of Sonic exists in theatres and on Paramount+ on their phones, not on the Xbox One that’s been sitting unused for years (ever since Netflix clamped down on account sharing with your parents). There's little need for Sega to continue struggling to maintain the same outdated notions of lily-livered pansy-pants dandelion wine family friendliness of the late 90’s. Sonic is supposed to be the radical edgy alternative. Sega needs to get over its own skittishness and go full OC Otome.

One of the most praised aspects of Sonic Forces was the customisable protagonist that allowed the deviants of the Internet to level up their designs in 3D. Additionally, The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog proved that a talented team of writers could squeeze some magical interactions out between this well-established cast. Mix the two together! The dedicated fans of the games deserve the chance for their canon furry self-inserts to mack on Rouge. Give the older gamers what I know they've been asking for years: a chance for your spiky blue ball to go full open-face against some Knuckles. Let the adults you’ve courted since the Genesis read Shadow saying the word “fuck,” officially. The grown-ups want to cream the rabbit, charm the bee, and swallow the wave with their otherspin personas, and I say that it's in Sega’s financial interests to simply do so.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: PLEASE CHECK THE SONIC WIKI FOR THESE CHARACTERS’ CANON AGES]

Excuse me, I've just gotten word that I have made a gross miscalculation in the age appropriateness of most characters, as well as news that Sonic has already squished lips with an actual live human once. Um, ok. One sec, lemme think of something else…

4a. MMORPG

This is actually a bad idea but it’s probably the closest pick that could get Richard Jaques to come back for the music. Sincerely, the extent of my Sonic knowledge starts and ends with the PC version of Sonic 3D Blast and god damn do I love the soundtrack. Just pile on all the masters of theme and variations together and I'll boot it up just to chill to the music. Richard Jaques, Grant Kirkhope, Toby Fox, Junichi Masuda. Get a track from Yanni for some extra street cred, the guy was basically Nobou Uematsu playing on the radio long before Final Fantasy existed.

5. PLATFORMER

I know this will be maddening to hear. “Sonic goes left to right! He jumps! There are enemies sometimes! It's always been a platformer!” Fair, fair. Mainline Sonic games have generally fallen under the category of “platformer,” This isn’t me just being a snug pedant or a genre snob, though. There are questions that need to be addressed with a critical level of scrutiny because the term “platformer” is too nebulous. Super Mario World, Super Mario Odyssey, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Mega Man X, Fez, Crash Bandicoot, Animal Well, all classify as the same genre but are wildly different games from one another, let alone against Sonic's focus on blistering speed.

And that's the thing: don't make Just Another Sonic-Style Game. Let's branch away from the low-skill, choose-your-own-hallway, pseudo-auto-runner speed running tricks that have been core to the franchise's identity. I can't objectively say it's not that great a style, but it certainly limits its appeal to a niche audience.

And now the complaints re-emerge. “There's branching paths and a lot of aerial movement! Dodging takes skill! Twitch action is cromulent!” Hey, I get it. Again, I'm not here to yuck other people's yum. This isn't an attack, merely observations. When Sonic goes through a loop-de-loop or a corkscrew, what actions are generally required from the player to traverse it? When grinding a rail or three in a single path forward, where is the meaningful difference between that and a corridor aside from the bottomless pit? Or a line of hovering enemies to homing attack upwards to an open clearing, even? How many routine power-ups let Sonic do something (throw ice cubes, wall jump, izuna drop a chao) rather than be something (extra fast, magnetic to rings, impervious to flame)? What strategic utility is there in not spin-dashing eternally? Answering these questions honestly should demonstrate one thing: the series has a habit of limiting itself within the definition of a “platformer.” And it's worth expanding from that constrained identity and staying true to the genre, for how wide a net that genre casts.

I am aware that Sega has tried many, many times to expand its mechanical tastes over the years, usually to middling success at best. Sonic God of War, Sonic Breath of the Wild, Sonic Dirge of Cerberus. All of them are GIMMICKS. Failures of platformers by warped attempts to shunt the constructs of other genres against the simpler dash-and-slide flavour of platformer. Character action, open world, third-person shooter, THAT'S NOT WHAT’S NEEDED TO SUCCEED! It only leads to a hodgepodge of gameplay that waffles between styles, not knowing which one to be and struggling to do either competently. It astounds me to hear that this has apparently been the strategy with Sega’s golden goose for the entire mainline series. It’s unnecessary. There’s so much space under the banner of “platformer” to explore and still maintain a classic “Sonic feeling” that should have been attempted long before the level of overextension that exists was ever reached. Supposedly it’s been done before with that Super Mario Galaxy knockoff… Lost Worlds? Do that more.

And don’t try to trick me with Sonic Boom. It astonishes me as well why there never was a tie-in game made alongside the cartoon.