6. Sonic Colors
When Sonic Colors launched in 2010, it was practically a complete rebrand for the franchise. The Wii-exclusive fully moved away from the darker learnings of the Adventure era, Sonic was once again the sole playable character (without a werehog gimmick), and Sega even delisted old Sonic games that had lower Metacritic scores because they wanted it to be a fresh start. It was considered a return to form for a franchise that had lost its way, and beautifully merged the 2D and 3D formats into a colorful, adrenaline-pumping platformer that got to the heart of what some fans wanted. The ensemble cast’s absence was felt, and it only now feels like the franchise is getting back to including characters who aren’t Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. But Colors was a perfectly distilled version of what Sonic needed to be after years of not knowing what it meant to be a Sonic game.
