Castro, Juan (November 7, 2006). "Sonic: HD Tour". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on January 28, 2016 . Retrieved May 26, 2017. Full Year Results" (PDF). Sega Sammy Holdings. May 14, 2007. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 29, 2016 . Retrieved June 11, 2017.

a b GamesRadar US (April 23, 2008). "The absolute worst Sonic moments". GamesRadar. Future Publishing. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016 . Retrieved March 22, 2017. This ... is a mess from top to bottom", wrote GameSpot, that "only the most blindly reverent Sonic the Hedgehog fan could possibly squeeze any enjoyment out of". [3] IGN said that the game had some redeeming qualities, with brief segments of gameplay that demonstrated how a next-generation Sonic game could work, but found it "rips them away as soon as it shows them" and concluded that the game failed to reinvent the series. [7] Eurogamer believed that Sonic the Hedgehog 's mistakes would have been noticed even if the game had been released in 1996. [9] GameSpy:Sonic the Hedgehog Review". GameSpy. IGN. Archived from the original on September 20, 2008 . Retrieved July 20, 2008.Anderson, Sage (May 9, 2019). "Voice actors overdubbed the worst 'Sonic' game to make it the best 'Sonic' game". Mashable . Retrieved January 10, 2023. a b c d e "10 Videogame Franchies that Lost their Way". GamesTM. Imagine Publishing (90): 156–7. November 2009. a b c d e Torres, Ricardo (May 8, 2006). "E3 06: Sonic the Hedgehog Preshow Report: Sonic Goes Next-Gen". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015 . Retrieved March 20, 2017.

For the first next-gen outing of Sega's most famous mascot character, Sonic Team have chosen to return to the name of the first game in the whole franchise. Using the name Sonic the Hedgehog, the title of the glorious 16-bit debut of the character which came to define two generations of console battles, might initially imply that the team intends for this to be a much-needed reboot of the series; boiling it down to the absolute basics of what made it good and fun in the first place, stripping away the accumulated weight of years and finding the key elements that drove the franchise forward in the first place. Rather than fleshing the game out, the supporting cast often just annoys. a b c d Fahey, Mike (November 15, 2016). "Ten Years Ago Sonic The Hedgehog Was At Its Worst". Kotaku Australia. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016 . Retrieved March 18, 2017.One common criticism of recent Sonic games is that they're not really about Sonic at all - in fact, the amount of time you'll spend playing as the speedy blue critter has been cut down more and more as a vast and largely incomprehensible cast of supporting characters has been added to the game. Far from rectifying this problem, Sonic the Hedgehog compounds it; while you do start the game off playing as Sonic, you rapidly discover that two thirds of the game are devoted to segments where Shadow and new character Silver are the main characters. Not only that, but when playing as one of the central hedgehog characters, you'll end up switching over to other members of the supporting cast for no apparent reason and will be forced to play as them for a few minutes. A good example is in the ice-themed zone, where playing as Sonic, you'll suddenly see Tails pop up and announce "I'll take over from here!" - which is the cue for five minutes of interminably boring flapping around with Tails' imprecise controls and braindead combat mechanisms, while all the time, Sonic runs along behind you. So why not let you play as Sonic? Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome Mastrapa, Gus (February 12, 2007). "Sonic the Hedgehog". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013 . Retrieved October 27, 2013. As if developed by another team that didn’t want to make a Sonic game at all, the night stages are slow, action focused, combo based, God of Warstyle gauntlets with RPG leveling elements. If that doesn’t sound like the type of thing you’d be doing in a series with the tagline “gotta go fast,” then you’re right. These stages just don’t work. Even if you liked that style of gameplay, it just isn’t satisfying in Unleashed, nor does it run well. The framerate just can’t handle these sections, snatching away what little hope this style of gameplay had of at least being passable. In the end, we got half a good-to-great Sonic game and half a monstrosity.