A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples shouldn't be added until five years after the era begins. Please also try to avoid Complaining About Shows You Don't Like.
Sonic the Hedgehog has become notorious for having gone through several Audience-Alienating Eras since his debut, both in the games and in other media, particularly after his Genesis days. The factors of which contribute to these eras are numerous, from poorly-executed Video Game 3D Leaps, a history of Troubled Production and games getting Christmas Rushed, poor management, Scrappy Mechanics, questionable design/writing choices, inconsistent tones, and a whole lot more. Overall, the Sonic franchise frequently struggles to achieve quality.
More information about this franchise's many eras is detailed below.
In General:
- A commonly held belief among most of the Sonic fandom (a rarity, considering how fractured it is) is that the Sonic franchise has always struggled with consistency, and the frequently cited reason why these Eras start is that the creators cannot find a consistent direction with the series. A Sonic game is released, may or may not work out, and then the idea is abandoned for a new direction instead of being refined for sequels. Many fans, even the most critical, see great ideas in Sonic games that unfortunately aren't further explored or fleshed out, and believe that many of the series' issues could be resolved by cutting back the reinvention and just being more consistent. It has also been suggested that some of these eras may be at least in part due to Sammy's acquisition of Sega back in 2004, which viewed Sonic as little more than a marketing tool and thus possibly induced heavy Troubled Production over the years as they co-opted the company's resources to further its agenda into the pachislot market.
The games:
- The first one was between 1995 to 1997. The cancellation of Sonic X-treme meant that there would not be a main series Sonic on the Sega Saturn, which only provided fans with Sonic Jam, a port of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island, and Sonic R. Other than that, Sonic was relegated mostly to various spin-offs on the Game Gear. While the early '90s had Sonic more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, Sonic Team reportedly received letters asking who Sonic was shortly after the release of 1996's NiGHTS into Dreams…. Even in the second and third ages where he was at his most infamous, Sonic didn't feel as obscure of a character as he was during that particular timeframe. This Audience-Alienating Era finally ended with the release of Sonic Adventure in 1998.
- The second (and perhaps the most well-known for better or worse) is the one from 2005 to 2007 with the releases of Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis. Some fans tend to dub this period as the "Dark Era", which coincides with the series experimenting with darker, more grandiose plots (often for the worse).
- Shadow's game was a spin-off meant to please Shadow's fans and conclude his amnesia arc, but Sega didn't stop there; they also tried to aim for the Grand Theft Auto crowd using Shadow's Byronic Hero characterization to justify some pretty bizarre choices (namely, lots of guns and some mild swearing) with So Bad, It's Good results, plus the game's slippery controls and repetitive mission-based gameplay.
- Sonic '06 was hyped to be the Blue Blur's big comeback and a "re-imagining" of the series for the seventh-generation consoles; instead it turned out to be a rushed mess that had a messily-written plot, with Sonic in particular receiving a much-maligned Interspecies Romance subplot involving a human princess, which had less overall importance compared to the plots given to his co-stars.
- Lastly, Sonic Riders, Sonic Rivals, and Sonic and the Secret Rings were released around this time, and though not as reviled as '06, they were either seen as So Okay, It's Average at best and/or panned for their controls. Only Sonic Rush was viewed with a mostly positive tone and thus tends to be treated as the exception that proves the rule.
- After this, the fanbase became even more fractured than before, with differing opinions on when the Audience-Alienating Era even started and when (if at all) it ended.
- One possible ending is Sonic Unleashed which was hyped as "Sonic's big comeback" and praised for the daytime Sonic stages that mixed 3D and 2D segments together, but received mixed reviews regarding the Werehog stages.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I was hyped as the much-awaited sequel to the acclaimed Genesis games and "Sonic's big comeback", but was largely criticized by fans as a terrible sequel that missed the point of the original games (though the game's sales and critic reviews were actually decent...at the time, at least).
- Another possible ending (and for a while, it was considered the definitive ending) to Sonic's second Audience-Alienating Era is 2010's Sonic Colors, which improved upon the Daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed and managed to get good reviews with many praising it as "Sonic's big comeback", and 2011's Sonic Generations, which served as a celebration of 20 years of Sonic with copious nods to previous games. While both of these games were widely praised for their gameplay, they have attracted some bile over the increased silliness of the cutscenes, corny dialogue, and general disregard for characters outside of the Sonic/Tails/Eggman trio, all of which would define the third Audience-Alienating Era.
- After the positive release of Sonic Generations in 2011, the series declined to a third era that, like the period between Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure, is defined more by its lack of content as well as its divisive and mediocre titles.
- In terms of mainline Sonic games, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II sold so poorly that any continuation of the series was quietly cancelled. Sonic Lost World divided audiences with attempts to change up the Sonic formula to something more Mario-esque, as well as sticking to the Denser and Wackier style from Colors and Generations to lukewarm results. Sonic Forces only continued the streak of less-than-stellar reception; while it didn't become another 2006 or Rise of Lyric, it became lambasted for its So Okay, It's Average nature, overly cheesy plot in spite of its premise, and bringing back Classic Sonic even though the upcoming Sonic Mania was supposed to be that version's return to form.
- Sonic Team's attempt at getting into the mobile gaming space with Sonic Runners started out promising with its soft launch... only for the game to go offline barely a year later thanks to the poorly received "official" worldwide launch of the game, which took the game's existing issues and made them worse while adding more issues onto the pile.
- Team Sonic Racing was a spin-off game that came and went with little fanfare due to the controversial decision to essentially create a Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing sequel focused solely on the Sonic cast instead of the wider Sega canon.
- Likewise, the controversial Sonic Boom spinoff games were by no means well-received, with Rise of Lyric frequently being named one of the worst Sonic games of all time to the point of being named "the new Sonic '06". Incidentally, fans have received the accompanying animated series a bit more warmly due to its sense of humor, with said series getting somewhat of a cult following. However, it was screwed over by Cartoon Network and thrown onto their less accessible secondary channel Boomerang halfway through its second season, resulting in its cancellation.
- The games also saw a decline in content in general: while Sonic between 1995 and 1997 still had several spin-off titles developed by Sonic Team and other companies, in recent times, Sonic's output diminished significantly, with 2020 not seeing a single new Sonic title at all. After the release of Sonic Mania and Forces, the mainline games essentially went under another hiatus until the announcement of Sonic Frontiers for 2022, with an expansion of Sonic Mania and a remaster of Sonic Colors that had its own issues being the only games released in the meantime.
- However, within this era saw the release of Sonic Mania, a 2D Genesis-style platformer developed by high-profile fans of the community as well as the surprise invigoration of Sonic's multimedia presence with the IDW comics replacing the Archie comics, the surprisingly solid live-action film adaptation and especially its sequel, and Sonic Prime, a cartoon produced by Netflix. Finally, with Frontiers's reveal in 2021 promising a new spin on the formula as well as long-time comics writer Ian Flynn behind the writing for the first time in a mainline gamenote , many fans are anxiously, but cautiously, anticipating a new popular era for the hedgehog.
Other media:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- It's easy to see when their Audience-Alienating Era began — post-issue 50, when Dr. Robotnik was killed off, the comic entered a prolonged case of Post-Script Season and Knuckles the Echidna got his own spin-off comic. As Knuckles had his own spectacular and amazing adventures, Sonic's series plodded on even after an alternate universe version of Robotnik became Dr. Eggman (something quite a few fans felt was somewhat cheap as the comic had made the effort to very definitively kill Robotnik off for real). It got worse when the Knuckles comic got canned and his stories were turned into back-up stories, showcasing the amazing levels of Creator's Pet head writer Ken Penders was showing for Knuckles and his brethren while Sonic... stayed at home, went to school, dealt with aliens with a Freudian Excuse for hating everybody. (The infamous "Titan Tails" issue came out during this time, which should say a lot.) It got to the point where Penders and co-head writer Karl Bollers were at each other's throats, leading them both to bail and forcing new head writer Ian Flynn to fix all of their problems. Flynn overhauled the comic's mythology to bring it more in line with the games, wrote out some contentious characters and plot elements, and pulled a Make Room for the New Plot on the previous bloated and tangled storylines. This effectively ended the Audience-Alienating Era, though a Vocal Minority would continue to insist that it wasn't the case.
- Flynn doesn't get a complete reprieve, though — the Iron Dominion story arc was criticized for lasting way too long (especially because it was prolonged through liberal handling of the Idiot Ball by both the heroes and the villains), even by people willing to overlook some of the story flawsnote .
- What may have ended the Audience-Alienating Era debate is the fact that the lawsuit between Archie and Ken Penders forced a Continuity Reboot for the entire series, though the fanbase is still divided over whether it was truly the end of the Audience-Alienating Era, an extension of it, or even a new Audience-Alienating Era entirely. The comic would end for good, when both the aforementioned ACP v. Penders lawsuit, and later the Scott Fulop lawsuit both resulted in Sega ending their partnership with Archie in 2017 and jumping ship to IDW Publishing, who began with a complete reboot.
