At a glance...

Sonic Heroes review

Mascots used to be a big thing in pre-mainstream gaming. Sonic represented Sega and its consoles, while Mario was Nintendo's icon. But now that Sega are a multi-format third-party publisher, Sonic no longer plays a central role for the company - the likes of Otogi and Virtual Fighter are the company's best assets, as well as titles such as Football Manager 2005 and Worms 3D developed outside of the company, and when Sonic is prominent for Sega, it's the form of the GameCube and Game Boy Advance re-releases of the classic 16bit titles, rather than new 3D versions like this game, Sonic Heroes.

Since the transition from 2D to 3D, things haven't been so successful for Sonic. The Sonic Team have continually failed to capture the enjoyment and freedom that even the constraints of two dimensions offered and made the games so special - something which is brought more to light by the excellent Super Mario 64 on the N64 (and soon to be re-released on the Nintendo DS). Sonic Heroes, it is sad to say, is like the Sonic Adventure titles in that it offers little new, yet at the same time fails to capture the glory of old - leaving you with a game that is frustratingly linear and too easy for platforming veterans. The perception of choice quickly fades; while you are given the choice of 4 teams at the start - including the famous Team Sonic (Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails) - and each of the three characters in a team has unique abilities, you will soon discover that this doesn't present you with the option of tackling obstacles in different ways. Instead, you are forced to use certain characters (such as Knuckles to break through rock, or Tails to fly for a short while) at certain points, in a certain way, and sometimes you are even told the who, where and what. The fact there is little to no choice makes the game extremely limiting, although the scenarios are slightly altered for each team, so repeat play could still be somewhat enjoyable. Added to this is the fact that the routes seem so obvious, and the game as a whole feels very unconnected; you just seem to work through levels start to finish, without taking in any emotion or feeling that you are part of the game. In essence, it just feels like an unconnected series of linear mini-challenges.

The game's controls can at times feel a bit fiddly. While two buttons - triangle and circle - are used to go to the next or previous character in the cycle - sometimes when in the heat of the action it isn't obvious who you'll change to. In a rush this could result in death by not being prepared for the on-screen action, if not, it could mean switching to Sonic, activating the dash, and running off the edge and to your doom (as well a wasted 20 minutes). A simpler way would have been to map each character to one of the four face buttons - especially as the game isn't demanding on button. Rotating the camera is possible with L2 and R2, although it isn't particularly useful, as the camera angles can sometimes prove awkward.

The graphics are of the usual colourful variety you've come to expect from Sonic Team titles. They look good - although not groundbreaking - and the scale the levels, as well as enjoyable features like loops, are impressive. However, the occasional slowdown and low framerate in single player - which gets worse in two player - is a big downside to a game that is based on a fast-moving character, with some of the game's best parts occurring when the action speeds up.

The game's two player action isn't bad if you can cope with the slowdown that crops up when the action gets heavy. There are a variety of ways to play - the one open at the start being the Action Race which seems both players take control of their team within the game universe (so both teams can see and interact - i.e. steal rings from - each other, and it's a race to the goal. It's not bad, but of course suffers from the same linearity that bugs the main single player game again and again. A pity, when Sonic used to be one of the most accessible and enjoyable games of the 8 and 16bit eras.

Ratings

Click here to buy Sonic Heroes from Amazon.co.uk.

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