Sonic Heroes

Back in the early days of gaming, the one thing that every console released had to have was a “mascot” that helped sell the system, and show the power of that system. Nintendo had Mario and Sega had Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic games were always known for tremendous speed, collecting golden rings, and going around loops. Since Sonic has leapt into 3D, the games have not been as polished and refined as some of the other games that had been converted to 3D. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were good, but had their fair share of problems. Sega has now created their first original Sonic game for all formats, but will it be as good as the glory days of Sonic? Read on to find out.

Unlike all the previous Sonic games, Sonic Heroes revolves around team-based play, with each team having three players. There are four different teams to use in this game, Team Sonic, Rose, Dark, and Chaotix. The teams go through the same levels but there are different challenges that players will see. Also each of the teams also represents the games difficulties. Team Rose is for beginning players, Team Sonic and Team Chaotix are for the intermediate players, and if gamers want a true challenge they need to go with Team Dark.

There are three different types of characters on each team: Speed, Flight, and Power. To get through each of the levels players will have to use each of these characters attributes if they want to get through each level in a timely and successful manner. Switching between the characters is easily done, and players do this by pressing the X or Y button. It might take some getting used to at first, but within several minutes you will be able to switch players on the fly and defeat the enemies even faster! This also presents a strategic element to the games, and helps make the replay factor even better.

To help give further emphasis on using each of the characters, they each have different moves at their disposal when the lead characters are different. Sonic can create wind tornados, jump across walls, and run really fast. Knuckles can break down walls, get all the characters to lock arms and float in the air, and throw Sonic and Tail at enemies to create a devastating blast. Tails can fly and kick the heroes into enemies. The best thing that the characters can do together is the “team blast,” this is a destructive move that takes out all of the enemies in the area.

Sonic Heroes looks really good, it is very colorful and has lush animations. It feels like the developers took all of the levels from the very first Sonic game and recreated them in 3D and they look great. The environments are huge, lushly detailed, and it has nice effects. The character models in the game are also nicely done and animated. All of Sonics moves look great in 3D from his spinning around to running around fast. What is really impressive is that with all of this stuff going on that the frame rate never dips below 60fps. This is very nice and something that has to be done for a game where speed is crucial.

Another good-looking section in this game is the Full Motion Videos. Players will be able to tell that the Sonic Team took their time to make sure that they looked really good and presentable for this game.

The main problem with this department is the camera. While it isn’t as bad as the Sonic Adventure games, it is still not perfected yet. There will be times that you will have to adjust the camera to get a better view of something, and you will find yourself fighting with the camera just to get a view of anything. This is very bad when you are along an edge and you need to get a better view so you know what character to use, and the camera zooms in on the characters so your view is worse than before.

The sound in Sonic Heroes still follows the same pattern set forth in previous games. The sound effects are nice, from the classic collection of the rings, getting hit by enemies and spilling the rings, and the many others you will hear. The music is still cheesy but it still fits in with the rest of the game. Just like the previous Sonic Adventure games, the voiceovers are still a joke. What is good is that this game supports Dolby Digital Pro Logic II, so you can hear everything Sonic related in style.

Sonic Heroes is rated E for Everyone and contains mild fantasy violence. It will take up to two memory card blocks for saves.

Gameplay: 7.9
The game plays really nice, it is a whole lot “speedier” than the previous Sonic games, which takes it back to its roots. The strategic element that this game presents is also a nice twist to the formula. The only thing that kills this game is the finicky camera.

Graphics: 8.3
Sonic Heroes looks very nice, from the FMV’s, character models, and the environments players will speedily transverse. What makes this even better is that all of this happens and the frame rate remains a constant 60fps. Good job Sonic Team!

Sound: 7.8
The classic sound effects and the zany music that is in this game will take players back to the days of the original game. The only thing that drags this category down is the cheesy voiceovers that all of the characters have.

Difficulty: Easy
Even playing with Team Dark, the game is still relatively easy to go through all of the fourteen different levels. Plus the game almost always tells you which character to use in any given situation, which takes some of the challenge of figuring it out for yourself.

Concept: 8.3
I am glad that Sonic Team decided to go back to the “roots” of Sonic more for this game than the previous ones. Plus the addition to use three characters during the game and make it more strategic is nice.

Multiplayer: 8.3
The multiplayer is nice and has a few selections for you and a fellow gamer to play with. First players choose a mode to play, then a team, and finally a level to play in. The person with the highest score will win.

Overall: 8.0
Even though Sonic Heroes has its shortcomings; it is really fun to play. At times this game offers the classic Sonic feeling as you zip through some of these levels as fast as a speeding bullet. If you are a Sonic fan then I highly suggest picking this game up. This is also a good game for families that have younger children to play as well.