Around two and a half years ago, Sonic Team released their first (and thus far only) mobile game. Sonic Runners finally brought the famous hedgehog to a gameplay style that should have fit like a glove. It was a side-scrolling auto-runner packed with rings to grab, characters to collect, and more nods to SEGA history than you could shake a ceramic knife at. Unfortunately, it was also packed with free-to-play shenanigans galore, using virtually every trick in the book to try to monetize. At its core, the game was fun, with interesting level designs and fairly solid gameplay. That clearly wasn't enough, however, as SEGA ended up pulling the plug on the game less than a year after its debut.
That's the business, but it was a shame to see the decent work Sonic Team had done on the game go to waste. I guess I wasn't the only one that felt that way, because Gameloft has picked up some of the pieces of Sonic Runners to create Sonic Runners Adventure [$2.99]. It's a curious release in more ways than one. First, the simple fact that Gameloft is publishing a Sonic game, never mind one that Sonic Team themselves had a hand in. Second, that Gameloft is publishing a premium game without any IAP hooks whatsoever. The company has completely moved away from games with this sort of model in the last couple of years. There's also the fact this is yet another premium game built from the scraps of a failed free-to-play release. Following on Final Fantasy Dimensions 2, is it safe to call this a...