I'm not going to lie to you.
Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360.
The story itself is a long one. Pull up a chair, and I will tell you it.
I'm a hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fan. Or at least, I was a hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fan. Ask me anything about the franchise or it's production and chances are I will have an answer for you in some format. Anything from the games, the TV shows, and comic books - chances are I'll know what you're talking about or know where you can find out. Who was Sonic's voice actor in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (aka: Sonic the Hedgehog OVA)? That would be Martin Burke. Who was the director and level designer in Sonic 1? Hirokazu Yasuhara. He quit Sonicteam in 1994 after Sonic & Knuckles was finished, apparently over creative differences with Yuji Naka. He left Sega altogether sometime in 2002, following Mark Cerny (I believe) to Naughty Dog, where he worked on the Jak & Daxter games. When Yasuhara left Sega, Yuji Naka publically went on record to actually call Yasuhara "useless". The man Yasuhara was training as his apprentice, Takashi Iizuka, went on to birth the Sonic Adventure franchise and most of the 3D Sonic games.
So yeah. I know a lot about Sonic.
Me and my friends were cautious about Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 (hereby referred to as "Sonic 2k6" for the remainder of this story), and arguably so. After Shadow the Hedgehog, the Sonic games seemed to be reaching the bottom of the barrel. But word from Yuji Naka himself, personally, indicated that Sonic 2k6 would be a rebirth for the franchise - he practically suggested it would be a reimagining of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Interviews also held tasty morsels from the development staff who said they were "very interested" in making sure camera control and the like was improved for this next-gen outing. And though many preview videos coming out of E3 and beyond seemed to look like crap, these were easily explained as "The game still has like six months to go! I'm sure they'll fix it."
The demo dropped not long afterwards, and most impressions for it were not favorable. However, adding to the confusion, a select few people who had been at E3 were saying the demo was actually a very old build of the game and was not representative of the final retail product. For the remainder of the time me and my friends spent waiting for the game, we foolishly accepted this as the case. Surely they would fix it before release. It's Sonic's 15th Anniversary! It's the rebirth of the franchise! They wouldn't dare release another Shadow the Hedgehog caliber game, would they?
Problem was, I didn't have an Xbox 360. How was I going to play the game?
I seem to be a rather lucky person. Whenever I really, truly want something, when I want something so bad I can taste it, some how the stars align and a holy light shines down from the heavens - almost as if by magic, the dice roll in my favor and I get what I want. Now, I try not to rely on this "ability" (if you want to call it that) too much, because as always, the minute I start to count on my luck getting me through a rough spot, that's exactly when it fails.
In July, Gametrailers.com announces a video contest - the grand prize is $1000 in EB Games gift cards. Why, that's enough to buy an Xbox 360, Sonic 2k6, and beyond! Can you see where this is going? After 4 weeks of writing, storyboarding, and animating, I won with my short movie, "The Third Mario Brother". In early August, I recieved a package containing two EB Games gift cards, each worth $500. With them, I bought a PS2, a DS Lite, a stack of games for each... and most importantly...
An Xbox 360. Sonic 2k6 would not be out for another two months. It was the first game I ever pre-ordered, and probably my last.
On Launch day, I had to hitch a ride up to an EB Games - with the Gamestop merger, EBs were closing out all over the state, making them increasingly difficult to find, and no Gamestop would take my EB gift cards. The nearest EB was over 30 miles from where I lived. I sat, all day, as my friends, one-by-one, got the game and began posting impressions. I watched for reviews like a hawk, and the earliest ones were all over the map - PLAY Magazine gave it their now legendary 9/10, other places were giving it 5's and 6's... it was hard to tell who to trust. For a brief moment I considered the fact that I could still cancel my pre-order, get my money back, and buy a better game - Gears of War, or Oblivion or something. It didn't have to be this way. I dodged the bullet that was Shadow the Hedgehog! I could... I..
No. I was a Sonic fan. Though there were other Xbox 360 games I was definitely interested in and planned on buying, like an idiot, I bought my 360 for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega had me - hook, line, and sinker. There was no going back.
When I got the game home and in to my 360, I was mortified. How? How did a game like this make it past quality control? Was there any quality control to speak of at all? It was like Sega made half a game and then went on vacation for 9 months, only to come back two weeks before deadline before realizing "OH CRAP! WE FORGOT TO FINISH THE GAME! QUICK, WRAP IT UP AS BEST YOU CAN AND SHOVE IT OUT THE DOOR!" It was a sharp, $60 kick to the balls, and to my faith in the franchise. It was so disappointingly horrendous it almost retroactively ruined the entire Sonic legacy for me - even the good games.
"They'll patch it, right? This is the Xbox 360. They can release a patch to fix the controls and the slowdown and the clipping. Surely, they have to."
No, they don't. A game that needed another six months in development was pushed out for the Christmas season and it bombed hard - and I was at ground zero. Rest assured, it's not going to happen ever again.
Adding insult to injury, a week after I bought Sonic, my Xbox 360 red ringed. When I sent my system to the repair center, they lost it. I didn't get a new Xbox 360 until February of 2007 (roughly three months after I sent it in for repair); thankfully, with a complimentary game (PGR3) for their mistake. To date, Sonic and PGR3 are the only real Xbox 360 games I own (been spending most of my money building up my PS2 and DS Library).