Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), also known as Sonic 06, is known as one of the worst games ever made. I’ve only heard bad stuff before playing this game—bad controls, bad story, about what you would expect. But I decided to play this game out of sheer curiosity, and it was an experience, that’s for sure. 

The story of the game is an interesting one. The story is seen through 3 different characters' perspectives: Sonic the Hedgehog, who is trying to save and protect princess Elise from Dr Eggman, who has an unknown motivation for this game. Shadow the Hedgehog is trying to find and stop a threat he had accidentally unleashed on the world named Mephiles. Silver the Hedgehog is a time traveler from the future attempting to prevent a being known as Iblis from awakening to save his world.

As predicted, I’ve never played a game with worse controls and physics than this one. The full-speed sections as Sonic are annoying as you move too fast to go where the game wants you to go in a smooth way, you have no control in the air which makes these already annoying sections even more annoying. Aerial movement is constant so it’s hard to land on specific places when needed as you're always moving forward. 

A big problem for one of the secondary characters is their method of attack. For Tails (another playable character in Sonic's story) he throws boxes of rings, that look identical to your life source by the way, at enemies. The problem with this is that it leaves behind fake rings that serve NO purpose other than to confuse you if they're real or not if you drop some. 

The game also tries to have certain segments where it takes away control and makes the character run through something on their own while giving you a cool camera angle; these segments would be a good addition if they always worked. Sometimes it doesn’t actually take your controls away and you can stop moving when you aren’t supposed to. If timed right, you can stand upside down on the top of a loop without falling. Or sometimes the game will put you in a weird position where if you didn’t start the running sequence right, it’ll just throw you off the stage.

But some sections of the game were actually fun; they usually involved linear stages that weren’t confusing and had a clear goal. One of the only sections where this is partially seen is in Crisis City. While the gimmick of the stage is annoying, the linear and clear path makes the stage more bearable than most of the others. When you can just navigate through a stage normally without guessing where you have to go and not having to worry about any stage gimmicks, it’s fun. I can have a good time during these segments where I don’t have to worry about flying into space or into the wall because I landed weirdly. 

You’d think the music, just like the game, is terrible. But surprisingly, no, the soundtrack of this game is actually really good. The music almost always fits the setting, whether it be fast and intense during full speed sections or slow and casual when running around the beach. One of my favorite instances of the music fitting the setting is during a boss battle against Mephiles. Before the battle, a creepy cutscene plays where Mephiles summons demented clones of himself before having them attack you. During the fight, you cannot hurt Mephiles as he’s taken the position of your shadow, leaving you with the clones. The clones move like puppets, coming at you in groups. And as you're fighting your way through them, confused on how to hurt the boss, this terrifying music begins playing in the background. It’s full of eeriness. It embodies helplessness. you feel like you’re just desperately clawing at a brick wall, hoping to get through it alive. I still find it amazing how well the game conveys helplessness through just music.

Throughout the game, you can also hear motifs from Sonic's theme, which is called His World during the tile screen, results screen, and the final boss fight. During the fight, this song just exudes power. You can tell that you’re nearing the end of your journey from just the music alone. The fight starts with you trying to figure out how to hurt the boss as he keeps blocking attacks, once you finally get around that and do enough damage, the song kicks in and the fight ramps up, it feels like a battle between an unstoppable force and an unmovable object. Constantly throwing attacks at each other until one of you finally falls. So in the end, I think the music of Sonic 06 is probably the best part of the game.

So, how did I feel about the game at the end? I hated it—but in a good way. I can fully recognize that this is not in almost any regards, a good game. But it has so much potential to be a good game. Does this game deserve to be called one of the worst? No, definitely not. Compare this game to CDI games and you’ll see what I mean. Overall, I give this game a 5/10. I was still able to have fun and be engaged in the story, but I had to fight with the game over control a good portion of the time.