8) Sonic the Hedgehog – 2006
Back at 2005, SEGA’s legendary programmer Yuji Naka made a big announcement at E3. There was to be a new, cross-platform Sonic game released as part of the franchise’s 15th anniversary. Everyone was delighted, and there was dancing in the streets. Then, a few months after this, Yuji Naka made a second announcement. He was resigning from the development team. Everyone was fearful, and there was riots on the streets.
Well, maybe not riots on the streets, but there was definitely soon to be some on the forums. Sonic ’06, as it was dubbed, became a programming race against time after various developmental disasters, and what we were left with was a game so chock full of bugs that it basically resembled an Amazonian tribesman’s dinner plate.
Glitching through scenery, disappearing characters, animation issues, a completely useless camera – Sonic ’06 was a library of sloppy design. It was reported at the time that due to time constraints when making the game, the developers began to flat out ignore the (increasingly large) bug reports of the various testers.
There’s a lesson to be learned here somewhere. Something about SEGA insisting on still making Sonic games, probably.
