Top 5 Sonic Games Go

top 5 sonic games go

warning: i am inviting you to poke a hornet's nest and i am the hornet

oh i am very aware of your Unique sonic opinions...

by contrast my opinions are gonna be more on the basic side! i'm a simple gal, i like going fast and letting the wind take me down routes i've never seen before. getting to explore big, open levels is one of the series biggest strong suits!

this is a hard list to narrow down, partly because the sonic series is so diverse and there's so much to love... but mostly because i haven't gotten to play a whole lot of sonic recently? i'm slowly trying to change that, like i just finished sonic battle last week and sonic origins the other day. to keep it easy, we're gonna stick to the main series only – i'd probably explode if i had to rank the spinoffs...

all told, that means my two biggest ranking factors here are Level Design and Nostalgia, so i doubt this list is particularly set in stone. as i replay more of the games, my top 5 will probably change – but for now, here's my best attempt at:

My Top 5 Sonic Games

5. Sonic Advance 2

the Rush games are stylish, fluid, and set the blueprint for modern sonic as we know it – but the granddaddy of them all was Sonic Advance 2, and i can confidently say that i've sunk more time into this one than any of its successors.

honestly, advance 2 is one of my most replayed games of all time! it's so easy to jump in from the beginning and let the game carry you through to the end in one sitting. i always think of the other sonic games as more of a commitment, something i have to plan around playing... not so with this one, i can blast through it in an hour or two and love it the whole way through.

i'd say this game's biggest strength is its level themes – this is peak modern sonic aesthetic, with some really unique level tropes and some of the most gorgeous pixel art on the gba. i know the gba's sound chip isn't for everyone, but i think advance 2 makes great use of it!

i know this game has a LOT of flaws – the chaos emeralds are a pain in the ass to acquire, and so many of the game's best features are locked behind getting the emeralds with every single character??? but i'm not thinking about the meta-game when i choose to blast through the levels in one sitting, and i've played it so much that i know where all the bottomless pits are and how to avoid them.

all told, sonic advance 2 is my most comfy sonic, so it deserves a spot on the list.

4. Sonic Adventure 2

if you read the story behind my least favorite game, then you probably saw this coming – adventure 2 is the game i played most with friends, long ago when i had my dreamcast. of course i still have a soft spot for it!

what i didn't mention in that post is how much mileage i got out of the chao garden, but that's because i put in most of those hours on the gamecube. i was obsessed with boosting my chao's stats with the little critters i found on my adventures 💙 so one of my favorite comfy ways to spend a saturday morning was to go collect animals for my chao...

...in the hunting stages. i actually love the hunting stages! and i really like the mech stages too! this isn't just nostalgia for sonic and shadow – i genuinely love playing the whole game, through and through.

thinking about it now, i sunk SO MANY HOURS into this game... that i got a little tired of it and stopped playing it for years. even when i picked it up on pc as an adult, i had no desire to actually replay it – why would i, when i have the whole game memorized? but maybe it's time to revisit this for a casual playthrough sometime soon...

3. Sonic Generations

i will freely admit that this one's cheating: half of the reason i love this game is because of the Unleashed Project mod. i haven't yet played unleashed, but one thing this mod taught me is that the level design is immaculate – infinitely replayable, highly rewarding to get good at, and a feeling of speed unlike any other sonic game.

but it's also kinda hard for most casual players! this is where the original generations comes in: it has less punishing low routes, and as a result, it was my gateway to modern sonic in 3d.

my pipeline was simple: i loved the hell out of my first playthrough of generations, so i replayed it enough to learn the stages and routes. by the time unleashed project released, i was good enough at modern sonic to not fail endlessly – so i loved my first playthough of unleashed project, and replayed that a ton to learn the (more advanced) stages and routes. a perfect pairing!

...but don't sleep on classic sonic either! i genuinely enjoy the classic sonic stages in generations, and i think it's a crying shame that people love to hate on them these days. it makes me think less "classic sonic" and more "sonic advance 4" in a way that makes my nostalgia happy 💙

1. Sonic Mania

no, that's not a typo, and i didn't skip one: my top 2 sonic games are tied for first place. i can't choose which one i love better!

what is there to say about mania that hasn't already been said? it's classic sonic perfected for the modern era, with gorgeous pixel art and the best level designs in the series. if you've never played a sonic game, start here and you'll fall in love.

sonic fans sometimes rag on the fact that mania leans so heavily on reused zones and nostalgia, with only a handful of new zones. that's a fair criticism, but let me flip that on its head:

i love that they revisited these old zones, not for nostalgia's sake... but because they could revisit some of the old games' biggest flaws, and smooth those over. then, in act 2, they expanded each one with new mechanics and flavors, remixing the nostalgia into a new experience that's more than the sum of its parts.

that is the impossible dream for a sonic game! that's never happened before! and it may never happen again. but at least they caught lightning in a bottle once, and it'll be with us forever, just like the memories of old.

1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

shocker: sonic fan likes the popular game, more at 11

no, see, i grew up with sonic 2. and to be honest, i'm a little sad i didn't get to fit it on this list for nostalgic reasons. sonic 3k is everything i love about sonic 2, but bigger.

i just got through replaying this in sonic origins, and the game is just as magical now as it was when i was a kid. possibly moreso now that i know how to get past that damn barrel! let's be honest, the original games had some mean level design, and my recent playthrough wasn't 100% smooth... but nostalgia wins the day.

this game defined my childhood – even when it kicked my ass – because i had the power of a long lost art in video games: cheat codes. i got my mileage out of exploring this game simply by picking whichever zones i wanted to play in the level select and going ham! even the game's debug mode turned each zone into a playground where i could spend hours just experimenting and exploring.

then, one day, i got good enough at the game to beat it legit, with all the emeralds... fulfilling a journey that lasted so many formative years of my childhood. this is a special game to me for so many more reasons than i could list in one post, but i hope i summarized it well.

...oh, and even with all the debug mode as a kid, i still found new routes in this game last playthrough lmfao

What Your Favorite Cheese Says About You

with apologies to the classic xkcd comic, What Your Favorite Map Projection Says About You

mild cheddar: you're not really into cheese.

american: all cheeses are good, how could you pick just one? you settled on american because it reminds you of the comfy grilled cheese sandwiches of your childhood. you still sleep with stuffed animals. cringe is dead, live free.

shredded mozzarella: you know just enough about cheese to know that you like white cheeses better than yellow cheeses. you've always wanted to try more, but you've never really had the opportunity. maybe because all the other cheeses are so expensive. maybe because your parents don't get the other cheeses. (because they're all so expensive.)

swiss: swiss cheese from the store is just okay, but you're still chasing the high of that one time you had authentic swiss gruyere. you frequently remind all your high school buddies of that one time you scored the winning kick. these are surely unrelated.

sharp cheddar: you like pairing things, which is why you get deep into shipping and fanfictions (not a hard read, considering you're reading this on tumblr dot com). you make charcuterie boards for every holiday and birthday that you possibly can.

pepper jack: variety is the spice of life, which is why you always get pepper jack for that extra kick. you add more seasoning to all of your takeout because it tastes better that way. one time you stole a candy bar just to feel something.

gouda: you are SO sick of all the puns.

muenster: fuck that guy who likes american, you know how to make a REAL grilled cheese. you tell other drivers on the road how they should be driving. you got into king gizz before they were cool.

provolone: you have a mountain of sandwich ingredients at home that you use to make mile-high sandwiches for lunch. you are rarely hungry for dinner, but you are very excited about tomorrow's sandwich.

fresh mozzarella: your favorite pizza is margherita style, and you only get pizza from places that are authentic enough to serve it. you got very mad at the other mozzarella listing because clearly the author hasn't tried REAL mozzarella. don't worry, you can quit clutching your mozzarella pearls now.

brie: you treat cheese like others treat chocolate – savoring the richness of every bite as it melts in your mouth. you have a collection of antique china that you don't ever use because that would make it lose its value.

parmesan: you hate that everyone thinks of those canisters of grated cheese when they think of parmesan. you wish you could show everyone what real parmesan tastes like, but you can barely afford it yourself. you should go start that restaraunt of yours already.

velveeta: is something wrong with you?

kirby forgotten land extra modes stream will most likely be friday! that's the most free i'll be until sunday evening, when i'm hoping to have a special stream sharing a holiday tradition... please look forward to it 💖

have to cancel this... i shut down HARD about an hour after posting it, and i have not recovered enough to stream. sorry for the double rug pull!

still no stream tomorrow since i won't have time, so we'll find some other time during the week to fit it in. maybe the evening of the 26th?

i won't have time to stream kirby tomorrow... so we're doing it tonight instead! plan is to finish the extra modes in one big sweep and clear out the rest of the game

as usual, the vod will go up tomorrow morning for anyone who can't make it 💙

new pre-stream archive! in which i talk about the holidays and reflecting on the rest of the year, as the music takes us on a journey through discussing various Mario games 💙

2023 Resolutions In Review

it's new year's resolution season, and for me, that means looking back as much as looking forward. yesterday i wrote about all that i accomplished this year, and today, i want to look at the resolutions i wrote for 2023. i got so much done that, surely, i knocked those out of the park… right?

so as the year draws to a close, i’m not making any resolutions about what i’ll accomplish online, because i know that i’ll be drawn to it no matter what happens. no, my resolution for 2023 is to improve my IRL, so that this year is not as miserable as the past two have been.

uh. Shit

okay, so… i definitely neglected my IRL this year, in favor of creativity. i'll freely admit that some of it was escapism, throwing myself into the act of creation so that i could get away from how i felt about my life. but other parts of it were to get something off my plate, so that i could handle my IRL with more grace and less stress. so it wasn't all bad!

but this quote especially hits like a truck:

then, once i’ve bolstered my IRL with stronger foundations, more joy, new inspirations, less stress… online stuff will naturally follow. i will always want to create. resolutions are for putting in the work.

the sad truth is that i did not get the stronger foundations that i wanted; most of my year was spent in survival mode until i could get home and create again. i want to create out of joy, not escapism! to be clear, there's nothing wrong with the latter – but only i have the tools to get out of survival mode, and i did not accomplish that this year.

i did, however, put a dent in the mountain of stress. here's some things i tackled IRL:

my partner and i put a LOT of effort into improving her mental and physical health this year, getting her to new appointments and treatment and professional help that she did not have last year. i consider this our biggest IRL accomplishment of 2023!

with good budgeting, my partner and i were able to upgrade our computers, phones, and consoles. every single device i just listed was 5-10 years old and falling apart at the seams, so these were very necessary upgrades! all of them have contributed to us getting more creative work done this year, like my upgraded computer allowing me to stream more often – as well as getting more rest.

we also got out of the house more, picking random nights to go shopping, go to the park, or just get food. it's nice to be able to do that again, after the pandemic locked us in the house for so long… but we're just natural couch potatoes anyway lol

i have a psychiatrist and a therapist now! i don't get to see them often due to my health insurance, but it's a good start and something i may be able to invest more into in 2024.

speaking of which, i got to try ADHD meds this year. they didn't work out… but i did try, and it was worth the effort of trying. i would like to try again next year, though i am not making it a resolution.

i wouldn't call this an accomplishment… but we lost two cats this year, and while we'll miss them dearly, it does mean a lot less cleaning and chores to take care of our remaining two cats. having four cats was a commitment we did not choose in the first place, and it was a sore spot for many reasons – but we did our best to care for them anyway.

it's a lot for one year! and i did accomplish my goal of being less miserable than last year… it's just not everything i hoped for, resolved for. i've allegorically polished up my house, but the house itself is still built on shaky ground.

i would say something like, "oh well, there's always next year!" and in truth, there are a lot of opportunities on the horizon that could very well bring the stronger foundations i'm looking for. but i am not going to make the same resolution again… because, quite frankly, i don't know what it takes to get out of survival mode! and i can't possibly predict how a year will go, or what the whims of my ADHD will decide to focus on. i'd rather play it by ear, and just… try to be cognizant of how much i'm leaning on escapism.

so here ends this resolution… but 2024 brings new possibilities, and maybe they'll lead me to where i was already headed.