Sonic Heroes Review

'Puzzles and Speed do not always mix, and here's an example'

The Gamecube has been bombarded with 2 relatively weak Dreamcast ports. And from them, it was clear that no effort was being exerted into making the games even slightly next-gen standard. Now we get a taste of the future, but is the taste too sour for it's own good...

We finally get a NEW Sonic game. We're expecting 6 different players, a Chao Garden and grippingly fast, though repetitive stages. Well this game has bended the Sonic Formula and tampered with the rules. Instead of controlling one - player at a time, you control three. A speed character, a power character and a flying character. You can control the 'leader', and change the leader whenever you want. This should make for some interesting puzzles and difficult challenges. But alas, it only serves in making parts of the game an unplayable mess.

The story is pretty week, as in most Sonic games. The only time you'll see any story is in the CGI movie scenes, other than that, the story is pretty open - ended. There are 4 different teams to play as. Team Sonic, with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails as they run around trying to stop Eggman's revenge scheme. Team Dark with Shadow, Rogue and E-123 will see the story as team after being united in a jewel - thieving scenario. A girl can choose Team Rose, using Amy, Cream and Big finding Froggy. Or, if your feeling sneaky, you can choose Team Choatix where Espio, Vector and Charmy will be your guide. Yes, that sounds like a lot of characters. But be warned, some are just 'clones' of each other.

Most levels will see you running around collecting rings and jumping. However, 3 characters means puzzles. Having the same restrictions of Sonic Adventure 2, the levels are linear and incredibly repetitive. You'll get so used to the puzzles that you won't even find them hard. A typical puzzle involves nothing harder than pressing a switch located miles away. This only adds delay and removes the speed. Having Speed, Power and Fly doesn’t make the game anymore clever either, because the game tells you whom to use and most of the time, switching is unnecessary. There are some clever bits, but they are blocked by the insane repetitiveness and totally straight layout of the levels.

As in most Sonic games, only certain team's adventures are even remotely interesting. You'll want Team Sonic and Team Dark; they're the pure speed teams. Nothing annoying to obstruct you. Team Rose is not a complete disaster, but the sheer simpleness of it may chase fans away. Team Chaotix is an extremely boring adventure. You must laboriously find flower-things over massive levels. This is all right in early levels, but when they start to hide in boxes and enemies it really is a hellish experience that not even true Sonic fans are prepared to endure. At the end of every two levels there is a boss, but this time they seem to have used more innovative methods of battling, and not every boss is just Eggman with a few bits and bobs attached.

Don't bother looking for a Chao Garden, because there isn't one. Do bother looking for an extremely addictive multiplayer, because this has it all. The multiplayer is going to be the highlight of this game. Racing against each other is a lot of fun, because there are less obstructions. However, there are some obstructions to slow you down and they can add unfairness and indeed unnecessary length to the gameplay. A 3D remake of the circular pipe where you collect balloons and avoid spiky balls is back, and that is incredibly addictive to play. Battle mode is a bit harsh and unnecessary power-ups lead to it being messed up at times. But multiplayer has plenty to unlock and makes the rest of the game worth playing to unlock it. There are a few language settings, jukeboxes and movie -scene viewers, but they aren't modes so you can't really play them.

With increased level size and more characters, you'd have expected the graphics to go up in quality. Unfortunately not. These new fresh graphics are well below expectations. It certainly does not amaze in the graphics department. The characters look ugly, looking better than Sonic Adventure 2, but worse than the Sonic Adventure DX. Sure they've added a bit of polish to the models. But that's not good enough. However, even I could get over the horrendous character models if it wasn't for the HIDEOUS backgrounds. They're useless. The textures are bland and lifeless and I've seen better on an N64, a Playstation 1. All the enemies look exactly the same. The effects are too simplistic and generally the whole thing looks lazy. True, there are loads of levels. But I would rather have fewer levels if it meant that the graphics were any good. Disgraceful.

But looking away from the deplorable graphics, we see the decent music score. Yes, the music is rap and rock. But who cares, it still good and it still has the Sonic flavour in it. The voiceovers are okay but they are once again repeated too often. "I'll take the lead" is all right once, but after hearing it for the 1000th time in one level will have you going nuts.

If you can see past crappy graphics than you'll experience one of best Sonic games ever.

Best Bit:
Beating your best score by 1 second. You ARE ranked on your performance, and with the amount of baddies, blocks and puzzles getting in your way, it really is hard to achieve the best mark.

Worst Bit:
Looking at the TV Screen while playing this. If you could play it blindfolded, than this game would be perfect. Unfortunately you can't so you'll have to put up with PS1 graphics and repetitive level design.

Graphics 61% 'Sonic Zeroes'
Useless. You can see what is going on. But you probably won't want to. Even though the game is more vibrant than a rainbow in your backyard, making it have blander textures than black and white desert is just insulting. Also, to pour salt into the wounds, it also made no improvement over the characters models. They really screwed up here!

Sound/Music 93% 'Suitable'
This music only works with Sonic. Reason. Sonic isn't a very varied game. Neither is the music. It keeps up with fast, though linear motion of the levels, while not being a pain to listen to. Boss music is a little uninspired, but that won't bother a true Sonic fan.

Gameplay 86% 'Linear'
3 characters doesn’t mean anything. It only means having to press buttons quicker. The three character puzzles are uninspired, so really, this is the same as the previous two. It's more smooth though, and even the straight movement of the game has a few confusing parts that require you to use your brain.

Value 91% 'Your Choice'
You can make it last as long as you want. Anyone can race through this getting an 'E' in every single level. But if you want the extras, you'll be going back trying to beat your score over and over again. It's either shorter than snail in platform shoes or longer than a kilometre stick. Whatever you feel like.

Overall Score: 82.75%.
Verdict: If you want this, go and get it. Some people won't like the idea of 3 characters. But I think it's an original idea and I won't fault Sega for trying. Maybe trying harder is the key.

What the game lacks:
Variation. The only variation in this game is the differences between the stories. Team Chaotix are the only team that does something different to the rest, and their missions are boring.

What could have made it better:
Having better graphics. As if having lumpy characters wasn't enough, they went and made the levels worse than before...

What it is:
- Fast.
- Obstructive.
- Chunky.

What it isn't:
- Clever.
- Short.
- A milestone.

This review was added on 17th March 2005 by nGaming user ProReviewer.