time gear
Eternity in an hour
Sonic has had a few different looks over time, with Sonic Unleashed being the game that introduced his most recent overall design. There's been some small changes to it since then such as the length of his quills and other small details like that, but generally the overall design has been consistent in the games since Unleashed. I do generally really like this design, it was appealing to me when Unleashed first came out and I'd be lying if I said I didn't still like it. However, it's also not my favorite Sonic design, and I would like some of what they had going on in the past to return in future titles.
In regards to Sonic's boots, the design in Unleashed and later games feels very Classic Sonic inspired. They're basically just the boots from the pre-Adventure era but with a metallic shine to them and white soles. It's not an outright bad look, but I'm not a huge fan of this on Modern Sonic's design specifically. The shape of them looks strange and uncomfortable, especially with the pointed toes that look like they'd cramp all your toes together in a painful way. They're also incredibly solid objects that don't really deform much while Sonic runs, which takes away a lot from the aesthetic of Sonic's mobility. I really like his boots from Adventure 1 and the Advance games which had a more natural and foot shaped look to them and deformed in a natural way during his run cycle or when he tapped his foot to the ground during an idle animation. That's a detail I think is sorely missing from the recent titles.
As for Sonic's overall proportions, I generally think SA2 and the Advance games did it best. He had a design in these games that felt believably like a teenager leaning towards being an adult, not too tall but not too short, somewhat more "realistic" but without taking it as far as 06. I'd imagine that if they could find a way to translate his proportions from his Advance series 2D sprites into a modern 3D model, it would basically amount to an HD SA2 Sonic with different boots and a modern color palette, and that would look particularly fantastic in my opinion. Something about his design in these games really nailed it with the cool factor in a way that more recent games are forced to settle for second best at. I do actually really like the SOAP shoes, but I would rather they be a cosmetic toggle option rather than the default canonical look similar to in Frontiers.
And speaking of cosmetic toggle options, Colors Ultimate only scratched the surface of the potential in this regard. There's a wide array of possibilities of various different shoes, boots, gloves, and full costumes that could make for really great unlockables. I'd really like to see a future game go ham with these options, and not just for Sonic. These would be really cool rewards if they want to stick to the open zone format. Complete side objectives, get cosmetics as rewards. This could include accessories from previous games such as Caliburn and the guantlet from Black Knight, Riders attire, the SA2 DLC outfits, etc. in addition to references to other SEGA franchises, and also other more generic/original cosmetics.
Something else I'd really like to see become a mainstay in Sonic's canonical appearance is Chip's Bracelet. In addition to being a really cool look on Sonic, it also is lore significant as a reminder of the adventure Sonic went on together with Chip. Since SEGA wants to more concretely connect the games into a unified timeline, this is a detail I think sticks out as an obvious change to make.
I also think I should point out some thoughts regarding elemental aesthetics and Super Sonic. Recently Sonic has been starting to get portrayed as having a connection to blue electricity in his base form, which feels like a betrayal of him not actually having super powers. His abilities are completely natural unlike Shadow who is as strong and fast as he is because of the concentrated Chaos energy that is within him. Sonic's more appropriate elemental aesthetic is blue wind. However, electricity being the aesthetic of Chaos energy does work very well as an opportunity to make Super Sonic symbollic of a Thunder Storm. Sonic as the wind + Chaos energy as lightning = The Storm. As for Super Sonic's design, I'd probably lean towards what was going on with him aesthetically back in the Adventure and Advance days, but with his classic/modern quills. While there is the lore tidbit of Shadow's appearence being modeled by Gerald with the Super Sonic prophetic mural on Angel Island as a direct inspiration, aesthetically I'm a bigger fan of the two Hedgehogs having unique appearances even in their super forms, even if I do think the Shadow quills look really cool on Super Sonic regardless. As an additional tidbit regarding the differences between them though, I also think Super Shadow looks better with his golden glow being much more pale. It does a lot in helping the two super Hedgehogs to have contrasting appearances even while transformed, and also still looks really good even when Shadow is by himself.
I ultimately don't really expect SEGA to make significant changes to Sonic's looks, even in the form of largely backtracking to older designs aside from occasionally bringing back Classic Sonic, but I still think there's value in expressing my opinion that Sonic had a cooler look to him back in the day and his more recent look doesn't quite scratch the itch for him to look that cool again.
In regards to Sonic's boots, the design in Unleashed and later games feels very Classic Sonic inspired. They're basically just the boots from the pre-Adventure era but with a metallic shine to them and white soles. It's not an outright bad look, but I'm not a huge fan of this on Modern Sonic's design specifically. The shape of them looks strange and uncomfortable, especially with the pointed toes that look like they'd cramp all your toes together in a painful way. They're also incredibly solid objects that don't really deform much while Sonic runs, which takes away a lot from the aesthetic of Sonic's mobility. I really like his boots from Adventure 1 and the Advance games which had a more natural and foot shaped look to them and deformed in a natural way during his run cycle or when he tapped his foot to the ground during an idle animation. That's a detail I think is sorely missing from the recent titles.
As for Sonic's overall proportions, I generally think SA2 and the Advance games did it best. He had a design in these games that felt believably like a teenager leaning towards being an adult, not too tall but not too short, somewhat more "realistic" but without taking it as far as 06. I'd imagine that if they could find a way to translate his proportions from his Advance series 2D sprites into a modern 3D model, it would basically amount to an HD SA2 Sonic with different boots and a modern color palette, and that would look particularly fantastic in my opinion. Something about his design in these games really nailed it with the cool factor in a way that more recent games are forced to settle for second best at. I do actually really like the SOAP shoes, but I would rather they be a cosmetic toggle option rather than the default canonical look similar to in Frontiers.
And speaking of cosmetic toggle options, Colors Ultimate only scratched the surface of the potential in this regard. There's a wide array of possibilities of various different shoes, boots, gloves, and full costumes that could make for really great unlockables. I'd really like to see a future game go ham with these options, and not just for Sonic. These would be really cool rewards if they want to stick to the open zone format. Complete side objectives, get cosmetics as rewards. This could include accessories from previous games such as Caliburn and the guantlet from Black Knight, Riders attire, the SA2 DLC outfits, etc. in addition to references to other SEGA franchises, and also other more generic/original cosmetics.
Something else I'd really like to see become a mainstay in Sonic's canonical appearance is Chip's Bracelet. In addition to being a really cool look on Sonic, it also is lore significant as a reminder of the adventure Sonic went on together with Chip. Since SEGA wants to more concretely connect the games into a unified timeline, this is a detail I think sticks out as an obvious change to make.
I also think I should point out some thoughts regarding elemental aesthetics and Super Sonic. Recently Sonic has been starting to get portrayed as having a connection to blue electricity in his base form, which feels like a betrayal of him not actually having super powers. His abilities are completely natural unlike Shadow who is as strong and fast as he is because of the concentrated Chaos energy that is within him. Sonic's more appropriate elemental aesthetic is blue wind. However, electricity being the aesthetic of Chaos energy does work very well as an opportunity to make Super Sonic symbollic of a Thunder Storm. Sonic as the wind + Chaos energy as lightning = The Storm. As for Super Sonic's design, I'd probably lean towards what was going on with him aesthetically back in the Adventure and Advance days, but with his classic/modern quills. While there is the lore tidbit of Shadow's appearence being modeled by Gerald with the Super Sonic prophetic mural on Angel Island as a direct inspiration, aesthetically I'm a bigger fan of the two Hedgehogs having unique appearances even in their super forms, even if I do think the Shadow quills look really cool on Super Sonic regardless. As an additional tidbit regarding the differences between them though, I also think Super Shadow looks better with his golden glow being much more pale. It does a lot in helping the two super Hedgehogs to have contrasting appearances even while transformed, and also still looks really good even when Shadow is by himself.
I ultimately don't really expect SEGA to make significant changes to Sonic's looks, even in the form of largely backtracking to older designs aside from occasionally bringing back Classic Sonic, but I still think there's value in expressing my opinion that Sonic had a cooler look to him back in the day and his more recent look doesn't quite scratch the itch for him to look that cool again.