The new Sonic game is titled simply Sonic the Hedgehog, as the next-gen game is supposed to take the series back to its roots and remind us what was so good about it 15 years ago. So why does the 360 demo make me question why I ever liked the series?

The old Sonic games were good, right? Sonics 1 through 3 were pretty fantastic. Weren’t they? Shit, I’m going to have to dust off my Genesis and make sure I’m not lying to myself.

Even Sonic Adventure, despite its wonky camera and odd fetch quests, was a great Dreamcast launch game, wasn’t it? I certainly played the hell out of it, even doing Time Attack mode over and over to best my scores. Did I just like it because it was a launch game and there was little else to play?

Regardless, I could barely play through the short demo of the new Sonic. It’s everything horrible that Sonic Team has done to the once-mighty franchise distilled into its purest, most wretched state. Horrible camera that has you running off cliffs, worse control, lame breakdancing moves, hideous voiceacting… . I can erase it from my hard drive, but can I erase it from my mind? Get out of my brain, Sega!