Music: Check Out Sonic Forces' Opening Theme, Featuring Hoobastank's Douglas Robb

Shakin' Stevens. The Sweet. Showaddywaddy.
Can we all get an invite to the Nintendolife Xmas party? It sounds awesome!

Wow. That...that is a special kind of awful. And I had no idea Hoobastank still existed...first heard them when I was probably 15/16 when they released 'Crawling in the Dark' and figured they just disappeared after that.

Anyway. Once again, thank goodness for Sonic Mania.

Music is one of the things sonic games usually get right. This isn't helping my decision to get this game though.

I mean, it's not terrible but they almost always have decent music and I don't play sonic games for the music.

When Mario Odyssey started belting out Jump Up Superstar...I cringed hard...but quickly loved it. Total opposite here. Loved the start...very disappointed when the bloke stated singing.

"Into each other we put our trust"...

Oh dear.

@GrailUK Yeah - weirdly I didn't think that I'd like Jump Up Superstar either, but came to realise that it really embraces everything that Mario is about while having that kind of New Orleans swing that fits in the with idea of New Donk City.

This is just... meh.

The killer question is: Which one will you find yourself humming when you're not playing the game?

I remember back in the 90s when Sonic was considered the cool alternative to Mario. Now it's just cringe.

@JohnSReid wow, you did well to remember that lyric long enough to get it into a comment. I closed the video 2 minutes ago and the song has already evaporated from my memory.

Forces is just another money making pointless waste of time, as @SegaBlueSky says THANK GOD FOR SONIC MANIA as this game is going to be awful

@JohnSReid "Grab coins with me, jump high with me..." vs "let's see what we can do" To me it sounds like the lyrics were written by someone with zero interest in Sonic.

The problem 3D Sonic has is something I feel some franchises could have learnt from. And that is sometimes a 3D/2D version of a 2D/3D game just doesn't work. Not every franchise should make the jump between that extra plane. Sometimes the gameplay they have which we all know and love only works because it has or hasn't got that extra Z-plane.

Sure we had some success with 3D Sonic but they are outnumbered by the sheer amount of bad ones. And yet the 2D Sonic this year has positive acclaim already before we even touch reviews.

Maybe Sonic is not cut out to be 3D? Maybe the reason he succeeded all those years ago is because of the lack of a Z-plane. Like how Mega Man truly works wonders on 2D but the number of 3D games that were good are few. It does happen vice versa. Spyro and Crash worked much better in 3D than 2D.

Sometimes it is not meant to be.

I'm good with this as the theme. Not everyone's cup of tea, and certainly doesn't lend any credibility to SEGA saying this game is a step forward, but it's very Sonic for sure.

It's interesting that Sonic Mania is the game that seems forward thinking, while Sonic Forces is the one that seems like it's trapped in the 2000s. But I'm not a super critical Sonic fan. I like the look of both (Mania moreso, but it's not like I'm leaving Forces on the shelf).

With every new piece of information for this game, I find myself wondering..
"Am I too old for Sonic?"

.. then I remember Sonic Mania, and all the worries are gone.

@Jayenkai Never too old for games.

Read the headline and prepared myself for the worst, but actually really enjoyed that. Honestly a bit surprised that puts me in the minority.

This... Is weird.

I hated it at first, but the more I listen to it, the more I start to like it... I really like the end part in particular.

But I still like the instrumental version a lot more.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the soundtrack. I'm also looking forward to the game itself, but I'm not nearly as excited for it as I am for Mania.

@KamenRiderClive If you look outside the NintendoLife bubble, the general reception to this song has been positive, so you aren't really in the minority.

@Grandpa_Pixel I agree that this studio should probably stop trying. But at it's core, it's just a 3D platformer... there's not really a reason it can't be good. They've been around for 20+ years. But still, perhaps this is a franchise that should stick to 2D, or at least bring in an outside team to take a stab at it.

@NL: Surely you heard Hoobastank's "Crawling in the Dark" years ago (?!?) It was a bit of a pop-rock anthem here (US) in the early 2001s. Still a guilty pleasure. Not sure "Fist Bump" matches it, but at least Sega trying to polish Sonic Forces....

@Grandpa_Pixel Yeah, and now that they don't need to worry about moving consoles by being cutting edge and keeping up with Nintendo/Mario, I can't help but think it's a fruitless effort to try to force something to work that simply won't. Looking at the comments section on the YouTube video Alex posted about his Sonic Forces preview, however, it's pretty clear that there's a legion of people with such a fierce devotion to Sonic, even when he's empirically at his worst, that voices of reason don't seem to matter. He's like the Transformers of gaming; no matter how poorly critically received his games are, no matter how mechanically broken they are, clearly enough people throw money at it to keep making them and learn nothing new.

"Feasturing" in the title?

It ain't Crush 40 and that's a problem.

I like it! Looking forward to hearing the rest of the soundtrack, as well as more about the game!

Hurrah, all the old bad rock-music is back!

I was already excited for the game, and this song just made me even more excited. It sounds great!

@Grandpa_Pixel This has been my feeling exactly for quite a while now. Keep Sonic 2D and look at other IP for 3D games. Bring back Billy Hatcher or even take a step into the wayback machine and see if one of Sega's previous attempts at mascots works in 3D.

It was pretty good... And then the lyrics started. It went downhill from there.

@Kid_Sickarus I think the problem is Sonic was made to be 90's cool but never went past that. If I look at Sonic Forces the way 90's me would have it'd be the most amazing thing ever but for me now it falls flat. Mario was (unintentionally probably let's be honest) given a timelessness that has worked well in his favor over all these years and should carry him well into the future.

@DonSerrot I think you've hit the nail on the head there, Don

I enjoyed it...not sure why you guys seem to hate it, when the rest of the Internet doesn't even seem to hate it too badly. I would be interested to hear what a non-vocal version would sound like, though...

NL, I'm sorry, but I think you're being unnecessarily unfair to Sonic Forces. I'll proceed to ignore all articles on it, and make my own judgement when it's released.

Woooooooooow!! Reminds me A LOT HELLOWEEN , specially the Master Michael Kiske Chamelleon era!! Can't wait to play SONIC listening to HELLOWEEN!! #HailToTheKing #Shalom #Namastê 🙏 🔯 🌟 🎮🌟🔯🙏

It's a poor man's Crush 40

...I take that back, cause that would insult Crush 40

But it could be worse--it's better than the bubblegum electropop song from Colors, for example.

Please save us, based Crush 40.

I think Sonic Forces will be fun, especially since the title is drawing more inspiration from Sonic Colors and Generations, and less so Unleashed and Lost World.

Perhaps this puts me in the minority (which is not uncommon in my life it seems, lol), but I actually really enjoyed Lost World, so I am looking forward to Forces. This looks really cool. Will likely be picking up Mania too, so perhaps I am not the best judge for Sonic games.

Eh not the best but not the worst vocal music in the Sonic series (Sonic Heroes).
I'm not too concerned about Forces if the Classic Sonic and Modern sonic sections are anything like Generations. The demo levels at E3 weren't too flashy or unique so hopefully the real game will be well fleshed out. I just hope the OC character doesn't weigh the game down like so many other gimmicks have done in 3D Sonic games (fishing, werehog, 3 characters at once, all of 06).