How Sonic Forces Ruined the Concept of Hype 

I want to stress that this video is NOT a review for the game. This video is purely reminding the community as to why Sonic Forces was a disappointment to many fans, because I think a lot of people nowadays forget what made this game so disappointing

Most people consider Colors and Lost World the poster-children of the "meta era" when its really Forces because if you think about it the game comes off as a parody of the series itself. They marketed as return to the edgy dark story-telling, with its post-war setting, return of "fan favorite characters like Chaos and Shadow only for them to be executed or hand-waved in 1 minute cutscene, but ensure that you fight ZAVOK of all of them an overly edgy new villian that rivals Cold-Steel that talks a big gime while being absolute fodder, on-top of letting you self insert your fan-character for Sonic to treat like the special kid at the lunch table, culminating in this insulting wet fart of mediocre game called Sonic Forces, its the straw that broke the camels back for a lot of fans which is why there is so much distrust within the fanbase itself nowadays.

So interesting thing about two worlds: The word used for world, Sekai, is actually pretty generic. It doesn't strictly mean planet. It can mean something as big as a universe or as small as a society. This is what Iizuka was basically saying. The human world and the animal world as in the human society and the animal society. But the translator (who to be fair, was translating him live at an event) said world, and that was enough to set the Sonic fanbase ablaze. As for Classic Sonic, in a lot of Japanese fiction involving time travel, they tend to use sekai to refer to different time periods as well (in Japanese 06, he always refers to the future as miraisekai - future world, not just the future). The Sonic series itself uses this in Silver's games as well. "He's responsible for destroying my world!" - Silver "I have to save your world, or mine will be destroyed, too!" - Silver "No, I should be thanking you. You helped to save our world, too." - Espio The Forces one is less forgivable, since they had way more than 10 seconds to translate it, but for whatever reason, they settled on dimension. So yeah...we have a fanbase angry at choices by Sega....because of bad translation and literal thinking

When they lower the price to $40 before launch that’s a dead giveaway of a games quality

I would consider a game that makes you feel literally nothing bad. The reason there are no glitches in Forces is because there's barely any game to break. Beyond that, nothing about Forces screams "polish."

8:34 - 8:45 For clarification, Eggman doesn't specifically say "I disbanded G.U.N." he only says he "put them in their place." Which can easily just mean he kept any G.U.N. resistance at bay. Not to mention recent stuff has pointed to the fact that it's still around.

2:09 this song bro 😮‍💨

One would think that we'd learn that hyping up games is a bad idea since ET for Atari, along with countless of other disappointing examples from there until present time. But no, people are as of this moment still hyping up games like Generations remaster to high levels, as if nothing was learned.

This is for real though, I was super excited for this game, I pre-ordered it and 100%ed it in like a week or so, but it felt wrong, since then I have not pre-ordered any game ever

9:05 The two worlds thing could’ve worked if they just established that after Gens, a split timeline was created. Which also allows more Classic Sonic games and stories to be made without them conflicting with the Modern titles.

I'm sorry, the light of hope hilariously bad? Na that song is a masterpiece. It makes playing through the boring ass game worth it. It so full of emotion and so powerful.

I remember recording this game day 1 and just glazing my ah off to make this game seem intresting. My ex believed my glazing and got the game herself... What have I done

6:28 i thought it was just me, like classic sonic is heavy asf

Still getting all the chaos emeralds in lost world

Mhm, yep, all this seems to be in orde- 2:52 I’ll fight you.

This game was one of the first games I remember being extremely hyped for, along with games like pokemon sun and moon. I was into sonic and i played the adventure games, generations, wathced outside content. but it was the first time I was around for the games release and was SO excited. then it came out and i felt exactly the same as you, empty. It sucked, one of trhe first games ive ever been dissapointed by

I can say this. Bubsy the Woolies Strike Back is a better game than Sonic Forces. Sure, it may not be groundbreaking, let alone temptingly fun, but at least the game doesn't set up expectations that could not be so easy to mess up. In a way, a mediocre Bubsy game is a lot better than a mediocre Sonic game. If you want Sonic Forces done as right as possible, then go play Kirby Star Allies. It knows what it's trying to be, while bringing back as much things from the past as possible. Pon and Con from Star Allies stood for everything Chaos should've been in Sonic Frontiers. There are dream friends that represents returning rosters. And the subtly added lore is the icing on top. Kirby Star Allies could've been an insignificant title that we could easily gloss over. But it did right in the time when games like Sonic Forces, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle did wrong. Though it does say something when Star Allies won just by giving fans stuff for free. In a world where Forces, Battlefront 2, and Cross Tag Battle do the same thing, Star Allies would've been a joke. Not to mention, there's also Super Mario Odyssey. Love it or hate it, it's way superior than Forces despite the lack of explicit fanservice.

Am I the only one who knows how to boost around that corner kn Metropolitan Highway...? I honestly blame Sonic Team for taking away the drift.

You know if Shadow Gens was Sonic forces then A. The fucking level wouldnt have lasted five-six minutes (since pros like Fadel and Choctopus played it) and B. The level would have ended after Shadow punched and kicked that missile

0:40 bruh. I was just 12. Am I really that young in this fandom?

didn't you like...make a tweet about this?

Polished but to the point it isnt worth playing really as most of the game plays itself. Its really not a good game. 5 out of 10

Silver’s last notable gameplay was actually the Rivals series.

I am the tallest of mountains

Clearly you weren't around during Sonic 4 🗿

Ok after watching the video I have some thoughs Like for example cybershell was fucking right again And I was VERY excited for forces because it was the first sonic game I'm here for the build and and release and since then I'll be very VERY cautious about getting hyped for any sonic game (maybe any game in general?) unless it's a remaster or a remake of an already good game and it's 90% good hype (ehm sonic colors ultimate)

What I'm trying to understand is why y'all fans still complaining about this trash game when sonic has been doing good recently from frontiers and the Sonic movies. Y'all keep bringing up his down fall when recently way after forces he's been doing good. Come on bro plus overclocked made sonic do even better than what Sega did for sonic forces. So why keep talking about forces when the hedgehog has been doing good recently? No offense I'm just curious.🤔

The worst part about Forces for me is that, its full of really great ideas. But it wasted all of them, and we will probably never see them again. At this point, i dont even hate the game, it just makes me sad. Its the 06 of this era, and unless Shadow generations doesnt end up being great (which i do believe it will), its shadow will be haunting the series for a long time.

Honestly if it was just a bad game people would’ve still liked it somewhat, but it was just… so painfully mid and short. The gameplay was so automated, the story was laughably bad, and it was just overall missed potential. I remember I was like… finishing up middle school when this crap was about to come out and I was never more hyped but it was just a disappointment unfortunately

I rather play Frontiers then this.

It's crazy how you and I were around the same age when this game got announced. I was actually rooting for this game. But instead I feel nothing but resentment for this title. It didn't help that I paid the full 40 dollars on release too. Felt liked I got ripped off in a way.

Sonic Forces = DeviantArt Simulator 😂

2:50 What bad song at the credits? All I hear is peak. 11:43 Ah, I see.

Forces taught me to not be hype about Sonic until I've seen enough because of awful quality control this series has. I still get hyped for other stuff but now i actually have to be weary about other series now, especially with the disappointment of Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok, 2 games with studios that pretty much always created Peak. And ESPECIALLY from The Last of Us Part 2 but i managed to read the leaks to avoid getting to the point of "THIS IS GONNA BE PEAK FICTION"

The game that killed the trust of EVERYBODY.

My interest dropped to 0 as soon as I saw it was a Boost game IE an AutoRunner 👎🏼🚮

J reviews wannabe lol

Sonic Forces me to abandon my sense of hype. This was a great video!

Imma say this, 06 is better than force because at the very least 06 tried to do something great even though it crashed and broke its neck. Forces on the other hand is mis as fuck. Its not funny bad like shadow or 06, its just empty bad.

Cybershell casually predicting future advice.

Sonic fans when they walk down an alleyway

Sonic Forces honestly taught me to tamper my expectations towards games I'm excited for and not just blindly be hype

A bit if a hot take here but sonic prime did a much better job at showing a world taken over by egg man and had a better war scene than forces did

tbh i didn't really see the problem with forces when it first came out, but as i got older i kinda saw where all the criticism came from, the game had a good concept it was just executed kinda poorly

Forces is such a polished game because it scarcely lets itself BE a video game. It's difficult to have glitches when the player doesn't get to control the characters.

i cant believe you started to talk about beyblade burst god in a sonic video-

I definitely think that we shouldn’t let the hype we get for products get carried away. For a lot of stuff now, I go in with low expectations for anything, even if I’m excited for it. Like, when Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was coming out, everyone was super excited, and after the game came out, the excitement stayed for about a week or two, and now I just see a lot of people hating on the game (not everyone, of course). Like, I get that some people will be disappointed, and some of the complaints I do get, but some of them I just don’t. While I am excited for Sonic X Shadow Generations, I’m keeping my expectations low. Good video.

I’ve never played it, but from what I’ve seen from the gaming and advertising, it’s pretty clear it wanted to be tried the next big thing at the same level like Mario odyssey or other recent big Videogames that are meant to celebrate their legacy. But the end product just feels so Underwhelming, which is a shame, cause I can see what it could have been. But it seems poor direction took over, and all mixed with a lower budget really doesn’t help either

Anyone who says sonic forces is one of the worst games of all time or the worst game they've ever played..... You have never played a truly bad game. EVER! Sonic forces is the definition of mediocre. It warrants no praise nor malice.

2:53 whats wrong with light of hope? you could say it doesn't fit, but its a great song, reminds me of you're my hero and sonic r songs tbh.

It's okay to be excited for a upcoming video game or a movie! Just be sure to stay a bit optimistic. Or you will be disappointed when it finally comes out.

Okay.... Sonic Forces was my first Sonic game ever, and I loved it.

Sonic Forces to Me was a Lesson, To Control My Hype For Any Game, Especially after the First Trailer.

The game is polished and well made, but so dreadfully boring and short, that i honestly prefere sonic 06 to forces, i at least had fun with it, and u could tell they tried, however forces it felt like they just through out there once everything looked good.

7:10 You actually only fight half of the characters. You never fight Shadow either, he's also dispatched in a cutscene. 12:40 Mood. I was so delusional for the weeks or months after Forces came out and I played it.

i liked forces for what it is

Didn’t really ruin the hype for me though. I was 10 going on 11 in 2017 when the Forces release cycle was happening and despite what everyone had been saying at the time, I was still more hyped for Forces than I was for Mania. In fact it was one of my first Switch games when I got it for Christmas in 2017. And despite the fact that I managed to beat the game in one sitting, I still enjoyed what I played and it’s actually one of my most played games on my Switch. And even all these years later I don’t really hate or even dislike Forces all that much. It’s a fine Sonic game imo.

Ybh, the level design in the classic levels was pretty good, it's just you couldn't enjoy them bc of how bad classic sonic controlled.

Heh~ we both came up with the same headcanon for classic going from past to dimentional. Heheh... heh... Help.

i cant play forces, when i first got it it was fine, but after beating generations multiple times and playing a ton of unleashed, the controls throw me off so bad

Dude, just wanna say, great video. 14:15 I love how you’ve mentioned the hype surrounding the games here. I definitely think that it’s good to be excited about a game while staying discipline and having an open mind instead of having too much expectation, I’ll always have that mindset when approaching a new game reveal.

hey, hey, hey do NOT insult light of hope like that, it's not a bad song it is, however, a song that would play in high school musical

9:08 nuh uh they’re translation errors (i think)

Sonic X Shadow Generations is something I AM hyped for. And people will probably call me an idiot for saying that I trust SEGA this time. If Shadow Gens is only 6 levels long and 2 acts each that are as long as the gameplay we saw, Im all for it.

I played trough the entire game multiple times and owned multiple copies and am not such a big hater as everyone else. music is banging, levels are fun(for the most part) andf I like he visuals, customization and SANIC. :D OFC there are some bad parts about it. But I sure as heck do not hate it as much as other people do. Everyone outside of Beyblade Metal Fusion is garbage tho. I like Sonic SUperstars nearly worse than Forces. YOU DIE LITERALLY EVRYWHERE due to insta deaths and I had many glitches and annoying levels. And the bosses are complete trash. Sonic Superstars is not really good.

The only evidence we got that Eggman took over the world was a progress bar, and we just undid that. Unleashed alr kinda did this plot too except in that game the fucking world broke apart and we got to put it all back together.

Was it bad that this was my first 3D Sonic game? I grew up playing S1, 2, 3, and K until I got a Switch in 2018 then got Forces a few months later. I liked it at first because I didn't understand how much worse it was from some of the other 3D Sonic games. Now coming back to this game after playing Frontiers and Generations, now I can see where the hate for this game came from.

You sound exactly like Matpat

sonic forces me to never get excited over sonic games ever again also hey, finally someone who has the same viewpoint on this game. it truly was everything critics back in the 2000s thought sonic games were in that era. boost to win, useless friends, milktoast story, aggressively mediocre etc. etc.

Forces was below mid, not terrible, just dog water bad, I guess our standards as Sonic fans were so low that anything "not horrendous" felt at least "average"

Em, the 2 world thing was about there being a world with animal like creatures(sonic forces) and a world with humans (Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Unleashed). It has nothing to do with classic sonic and modern sonic.

I am strangely happy that this game was a disappointment. why you ask? Well because I would have taken a break from this series and discover my love for fighting games and art etc I also would have not made my fighting game group socialize and know a bunch of great people…so thank you sonic forces for disappointing me so much for me to become the person I am today

1:37 2017 was so stacked

15:01 just like sonic mania like people just see this game overrated at some point like they don't think the game is peak or special anymore.

9:40 He IS Sonic from alt dimension, cause Time Eater messing up with the time just created another timeline.

I remember buying this game because I was and still am a big sonic fan but I lost the chip to this game and now I’m glad I lost it don’t wanna play slop

Sonic forces is my favorite sonic game 🙂

I got sonic forces for free and I couldn't even finish it because of literal game breaking glitches (in 2021 mind you)

5:28 nope it’s easy the boost moves you forward so you can steer fully to the left and it works every time

Nice to see a video saying sonic forces is just medicore not the next spawn of sonic boom

9:45 i think you meant it takes place before sonic adventure

Bro that shit is pure facts I remember it like it was yesterday I got more hype from the trailer than I did the actual game. I was extremely excited when the trailer first came out cuz we finally had a sonic game after years then when the game got fully released it was such a disappointment..

Brilliant video! You nailed my feelings down exactly. The game was so painfully average that you walk away feeling nothing after completion, no sense or achievement at all. So unfortunate they fumbled what could have been an amazing finale and powerful reoccurring villain. Regardless it was enough for Sega to realize change was necessary. Can't wait to see what you have in store next!

Bro u sure this isnt a review cuz it sure feels like it. 90% of the vid is just talking about forces instead of how it ruined sonic hype 😭

3:32 Ehh the controls are terrible, I highly doubt the game would be polished if they couldn't even get the controls right

Beyblade Burst God, good times.

Man you going through the bullet points for this game literally brought back how mad I was when I bought n played this lol. I personally think this is worse than 06 in my opinion

Really great video, but Silver did do stuff in games after S06.

Great video. Actual good criticism. 👍

Sonic Forces Kingdom Hearts III Cyberpunk 2077 Starfield *The hypest games that ended up mid starter pack*

"everyone except chaos" what about shadow?

i cant remember any songs from forces say for fistbump infinites even got replaced with catacuacemun (i most certainly misspelled that)

I have beef with the avatar creator in Sonic Forces because apparently they cut out dragons from the species list in favour of bears 😔

honestly the dread of the reveal information just made me lose more and more hope until i finally got the game and, felt nothing playing it, i did try for some of the red ring stages in hopes they'd be fun extra challenges like other unlockable levels are in games but they honestly had even worse gameplay, the loss in momentum from the double jump became blatantly obvious, such a weak jump made it not even give much vertical so using it was basically suicide. even during the main campaign, during the duo missions i would always use the wispon attack to get the oc in front because sonics turning is so ass. i admittedly never played the shadow dlc because i brought the american version because the switch was region free, turns out it's only semi region free you cannot download dlc or redeem codes from other regions which is a bit of a piss take, missed out on my preorder bonus. but yeah forces has semented my cautious approach, going into fronteirs i stayed entirely blind, i didn't even know about the other open zones so when i thought the game was over after the first super fight, i was pleasantly surprised by 5 islands in total, even if one of them is basically clickbait lol. superstars i was a bit more excited for but i'll be honest bit burnt out on the classic style, i've played advance, the original 4, mania, generations so i've had my fare share of the playstyle nowadays. but even then fuck the bosses drag. i played all the way up to the final boss in trips campaign and after suffering the final boss once, i didn't wanna deal with a second one especially with the knowledge of the 8 minute slog in the final story. but that said i was content with superstars as a whole, the levels were fine and it had a substantial amount of content which is all i really needed to have a fun time.

Yeah i do believe sonic forces is under the category of "trainwreck" The game is not really polished, with really clunky movement, the reason the game feels "polished" is because the game does everything in its power to just not have you play it, because it just has no level design. The game was just a big nothingburger.

Light of hope is one of the best songs in the franchise, what are you talking about? 😫

8:36 WHEN WAS THIS ESTABLISHED! Eggman taking down G.U.N since when I don’t remember this

Damn dude. Purely just playing the switch isn’t the best idea.. You’re getting the worse versions of each non Nintendo game you purchase. Explore other IPs in gaming on other systems. I can guarantee your switch will turn into a paper weight.

5:18 the transiction

This is an amazing analysis. I subscribe