Top 10 Best 3D Sonic Games

People say Sonic sucks in 3D, but in retrospect he's actually had more good 3D games than a lot of franchises that fell hard when making the jump from 2D to 3D. Here are the 10 best 3D Sonic games in the main series (some are only here by default as there are bad ones).
The Top Ten
1 Sonic Generations

Described by IGN as "A love letter to the Blue Blur", which combines the best of the old and the new, with both classic and modern Sonic. This game features some of the best designed and fleshed out levels ever seen in a Sonic game.
If only the game wasn't so short. Oh well, maybe the upcoming Project Sonic 2017 will deliver on this game's shortcomings.

A very great game. Sadly howeve,r it started off super amazing with the classic stages and then the first few modern stages. The you get to the post dreamcast stages and a few aspects of the game fell apart, but still remained sort of fun.

I love this game! I'v only played the 3ds version witch is only 2d even with modern sonic but there are some parts that make it act like it's 3d. But any one who hates this game is pieces of crap. And It only had sonic s and tails.

2 Sonic Adventure 2

Refining most of the better aspects of the first Adventure game and removing some of that game's weaker aspects this game manages to be one of the most fun and fast paced outings in the whole Sonic series.
It was the first game to introduce Shadow the Hedgehog, the plot felt very cinematic, the A ranks offered a great challenge that was really addictive, and who doesn't love the Chao Garden? Not only do I love the Sonic/Shadow stages but I also like the Shooting and Treasure Hunting stages (for the most part).

I have no qualms in saying that this is one of my favourite games of all time, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

A great game and a great sequel. It takes all the best parts of Sonic Adventure and improves upon it. It even has a pretty engaging story that you get to see from both side's perspectives. This is where Sonic peaked.

This game has the best 3D gameplay for Sonic in my opinion! Colors and Generations are awesome but they're too linear for me. I just want to see a new Sonic game that doesn't ride on nostalgia (like this one)!

3 Sonic Colours

After 3 bad Sonic games on the Wii Sonic Colours just hits the bullseye. The game feels like the daytime levels of Sonic Unleashed but with greater platforming and the addition of the alien wisp power-ups. It works well in expanding the level design and variety and it's one of the series best executed gimmicks. The game's setting is very original and the story had me laughing on several occasions.
Do not miss out on this one.

I hated most of the boss battles. HOWEVER, I absolutely positively loved and adored everything else. This is such an amazing and fun game. It is seriously not even fnny. it is in fact my third favorite sonic he hedgehog video game of all time. Only the two sonic adventure titles have it bea tin my eyes. in my opinion.

Finally we beat Sonic Adventure 2, thank you all! I think there isn't any game in history that deserves a sequel more than this one! Why? Well, no matter how awesome Generations and Forces are, the only way to beat Colors/Colours as the BEST SONIC GAME EVER is with SONIC COLOURS 2.
I don't care what will be the explanation of a new interstellar park, but do it. Do it.

4 Sonic Unleashed

More specifically the HD version. This version first introduced the boost mechanic to the 3D games and was the blueprint on which the Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations levels were designed around. Those stages are great, but I must admit the night time stages with the Werehog are a lot better than people make them out to be. It's a shame picky fans weren't even willing to give them a chance and hated them on concept rather than execution.
Even though completing the game is tedious and there's not much lasting appeal it's still a good game.

This game gives what a sonic 3D game should give to its players. A sense of speed. The feeling that sonic is really fast, and combine these with great level design and you have the best 3D sonic game, in my opinion. I think the only thing that drags this game down is the boring werehog levels.

This needs to replace Colors. Colors does not deserve that #1 spot, it had terrible writing and voice acting, too much 2D and too short.

It's like the fanbase and EVEN SEGA forgot Sonic Unleashed existed.

5 Sonic Adventure

Pac-Man fell a lot less harder than Mega Man when they jumped form 2D to 3D. I was fine with Mega Man in 2D gameplay, but Capcom ran out of ideas. Namco didn't! Sonic's transition from 2D to 3D was smooth. Direction-wise, the Sonic franchise got partially ruined in Sonic Adventure by how the Modern/Dreamcast Era aspects are rather inferior to how they used to be in the Classic Era of Sonic, but Sonic Adventure proves that Sonic can sustain its might in 3D. Mario had a very smooth jump from 2D to 3D, but Classic Mario is mainly better than Modern Mario. Bubsy's jump from 2D to 3D was PATHETIC! Don't you love to make fun of this wannabe? Metal Gear's jump from 2D to 3D was also very smooth.

Sonic's first 3D outing may be a bit dated now, but in other areas it's still an enjoyable game. It's obvious the most effort went into the Sonic and Tails stages, and thankfully they still hold up, as do the Knuckles stages. It's the other 3 characters who come across as filler content.
Also if you thought Sonic Adventure 2 was too linear then this game will probably suit you better.

6 Sonic Heroes

Ah, Sonic Heroes what can I say about you. I really love the choices of four teams (my personal favorite is Team Chaotix) and the boss fights. But sometimes the controls get very slippery and the special stages can be hard, but I don't necessarily think they're bad. You just have to get used to them. Overall, I think this is a good game, nowhere near SA2 and Generations, but I would say it was as good as Colors. I don't care what you think, it's MY opinion. Thank you.

A very mixed opinion game in the series, this game was a disappointment following on from Sonic Adventure 2. I do like the team gameplay and how the levels have a lot of variety to them. What I don't like though is the fidgety controls, repeating the exact same levels 4 times to unlock the last story, and those awful special stages. Another thing I love in this game is the music.
Give it a chance, you may or may not like it.

This games was very popular when it was released. Too bad Sonic 06's disaster made everyone forgetting about every good 3D Sonic games outside Adventure 1 and 2 (And later Colors and Generations) that keep the spotlight. And that's too bad because there is still some good 3D sonic games. Sonic Heroes is a perfect example.

7 Sonic Lost World

An ambitious game to say the least. This game went for weird, Super Mario Galaxy-esque level design. It's as if we're finally playing Sonic X-Treme. The game does some things right, you can now control your speed using a shoulder button, the levels are well fleshed out and Sonic has some cool new moves. Other aspects though feel either gimmicky (like the wisps that aren't as well utilised as they were in Sonic Colours), or in the case of the parkour mechanic feel a bit wonky.
An overall mixed bag, but there is some fun to be had here and there.

Extremely underrated. Do not listen to the critics. YOU are the critic of this game, whether you liked it or not.
The only things I would say about this game that bring it down are the terrible writing, the story, the villains, and useless characters (Knuckles and Amy do nothing in this game, hell why tf were they even there in the first place).
Also this game is NOT a ripoff of the Mario Galaxy games! Sheesh, why are people so dumb sometimes...
Also also great soundtrack.

8 Shadow the Hedgehog

I know this game gets a lot of hate, but to me it's a great game. It's so much fun blasting stuff with guns and the varied story routes make it so playing through the game multiple times is never too repetitive. The controls hardly take any time to get used to and the game just gives you that feel of power and superiority that's just to satisfying.
If the aesthetics were better and some of the vehicles were more useful it could've easily been my favourite game. But I attest to the fact that more people need to give this game a fair chance and not just follow what everyone else says.

I love the gameplay mechanics, the music, and then also and the story. What I hated:

Tons upon tons of levels revolve around you constantly taking laps around stages killing people or looking for things. It gets old and teious to have to do that to complete a level.

The whole entire "Choose Your Very Own path" Story driven mechanic was not utilized to its full potential.

Some of the endings did not provide closure. For example, we see Shadow killing eggman in one of the endings, but as a whole, it doesn't really seem like a true ending of the game. the black arms and the humans are both still fighting.

9 Sonic and the Black Knight

Yes, the control were kinda sketchy, but everything else was fine. I liked the dialogue, the music, and the story was very well written. superior to secret rings.

Also, Merlina is way better than Shahra

The sword controls can be frusturating sometimes, it often feels like it should not have been way to linear, a few of the boss battles were terrible. But when I did have fun witht he game, I had a lot of fun. In the end, it was an okay game for me.

The last Sonic game with a good story and good writing.
After that we got games with trash stories, trash writing, and trash voice acting starting with Colors.

10 Sonic Forces

Ah, Sonic Forces. Even though we all think it is a disappointing game, I really want to play it since I'm so into it. The music, the custom hero, and the wispons that the avatar uses.

Sonic Forces. This game was so great!

Yet another guilty pleasure for me and I actually replay it a lot

The Contenders
11 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

I've only played the gamecube port. Its multiplayer is amazing.

Better than dreamcast. I'm sorry.

12 Sonic Adventure DX

Dreamcast was better. I'm sorry, but the improved graphics just take away that nostalgic feel you get after playing dreamcast.

I think this version is better than the DreamCast version, except for the camera.

13 Sonic 3D Blast

Why is this game so low? I liked my experience with this game, my only complaints are the slightly slippery controls and the game is too short, thank you GameHut for making a version that really fixes the controls!

Before you ask "what, this is 2d," no, it isn't. I'm unable to describe this masterpiece, okay?

14 Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

Yeah, I didn't put the Riders games on my original list as I was going for main series games and I consider these games spinoffs, otherwise I would've put this game in the top 10.
But hey, I ain't gonna be some cannon Nazi, if you guys want to include these games on your lists go right ahead, especially if you don't want to put Sonic 06 in the list.

15 Sonic Riders

Riders is my favourite riders game, as it's the one with NiGHTS, Aiai, and Ulala as playable characters.

16 Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Oh, I can hear you all fuming in rage right now.
There's no beating about the bush, this game isn't good, as the result of a rushed development there are a lot of glitches, an un-co-operative camera and bad framerate drops. However the game is not the complete disaster people make it out to be, I'd say it's 60/40 a bad game.
The game has great level design, the music is some of the best in the series, Silver was a great character, and powering through the biggest of enemies with ease using Shadow and OMEGA was very fun.
Fair enough if you don't like it, but if you think it's the worst game ever have some ' perspective.

The plot: confusing.
The gameplay: bad
The graphics: terrible
The characters: Silver was great but a certain princess just ruined everything
The music: awesome, and that's all that matters to me.

An underrated masterpiece, the best Sonic game so far and one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life. Screw the reviews and complaints it gets. This game rules. The stages are fun, the graphics are amazing, the soundtrack is awesome! I'm recommending anyone to play this game, even if you're not a Sonic fan.

17 Sonic 3 & Knuckles
18 Sonic 3D Blast DX

Fixes everything wrong with the original and then some.

19 SegaSonic the Hedgehog

This is extremely criminally underrated indeed. Well, so-rry I defend (Classic) Sonic/Mighty/Ray (in this game) for their spherical middles and unique capabilities! >8(

20 Sonic the Hedgehog
21 Sonic R
22 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

People look at Sonic games as Sonic games. I look at them as any game in the world. Slow, why should I care? I never cared about the speed. I love how this game encourages exploration. It's only my 2nd favorite in the franchise, but If no one in here will defend it, then I will.

I don't get why this game gets so much hate. It feels polished, has a refined story, and perfectly transferred Sonic into the third dimension. Now if only there was an Ouya port...

The worst sonic game that I have ever played in terms of characters, music, and gameplay. Shadow is a stupid retarded jerk. the story is stupid, The gameplay is boring and repettive and doesn't make any sense. Makes sonic 06 look like ana rtistic masterpiece of video gaming development by comparison. terrible game.

23 Sonic Rivals
24 Sonic & the Secret Rings

It's debatable which is better/worse out of the two storybook games, as they both suck. In the end though I feel Secret Rings kept more true to Sonic's roots. There is speed, but it's hampered by awkward motion controls which feel twitchy and at times unresponsive. Also the level designs are the equivalent of train tracks, and as the game always forces you to go forwards it can feel like the game is playing itself.
Unlike Sonic & the Black Knight however this game at least didn't give me as bad wrist ache. This is the only one on the list which I simply don't recommend.

This was worse than Lost World. I thought Black Knight was better than this too, but your opinion is still respected.

25 Sonic Free Riders

This game would have been awesome. If the controls worked.

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