This year Sonic turns
thirteen, but he's not showing any signs of slowing down!
In fact, if to prove all his naysayers wrong, the latest
Sonic game to hit the streets is not only out on one system,
but is having a big release on all three current consoles!
Let's hope the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and X-Box are ready
for Sonic Heroes!
Sonic Heroes is visually
more of a successor to the 2D Megadrive games than the Adventure
series. One look at the chequered hillsides and you won't
help but feel some nostalgia. But that's where the nostalgia
ends! The new twist with this game is that you don't just
control one character: you control three! If you want to
play Sonic, you'd better brush up on Tails and Knuckles
too! In an innovative move, this game allows you to use
Sonic's speed, Knuckles' raw power and Tails' ability to
fly to reach the end of each zone. Throughout the various
levels you will need to switch between these three characters
to be able to pass certain parts that would be impossible
with just one of the characters.
There's four teams
altogether:
- Team Sonic, featuring Sonic, Tails and Knuckles;
- Team Dark, featuring Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega;
- Team Rose, featuring Amy, Cream the Rabbit, and Big;
- Team Chaotix, featuring Vector, Charmy and Espio.
Each team must traverse fourteen levels in a bid to stop
Dr. Eggman (Robotnik) from taking over the world. The levels
are basically the same for each team, but there are many
differences in the paths each must take. The difficulty
level also changes depending on which team you choose to
use. While Team Sonic have the usual medium difficulty level,
Team Dark has much more challenging levels, Team Rose is
easier, and Team Chaotix have more alternative gameplay
styles such as object collecting or hiding from badniks!
As you would expect
from these latest consoles, the game looks amazing, with
crisp textures and smooth character models are all around.
There's also a wide variety of levels to look at so it never
gets boring. You will take your team from sparking beaches
to huge jungles and even through a fleet of airships! The
level design also far surpasses anything seen so far in
a 3D Sonic game.
The soundtrack to the
game is about on par with the previous 3D outings, so if
you liked them, you'll love what's on offer here. Particular
stand-out tracks include "Hang Castle" and "Final
Fortress". Each team also gets a vocal track, and although
all four are well done, none of them are as inspiring as
past Sonic music, such as "Live and Learn" from
Sonic Adventure 2.
The gameplay stays
true to what people love about Sonic, his speed. While to
begin with the character switching may seem cumbersome,
it soon becomes second nature and won't slow you down. The
only team that really deviates from the fast gameplay is
Chaotix, whose hunting levels can get quite tedious, especially
if you weren't fond of the Knuckles and Rouge levels from
Sonic Adventure 2.
Storywise, this game
is much lighter on plot than the Adventure games, and that
can seem a bit jarring at first. But less story means being
able to jump right into the levels without lenthy story
sequences detracting from the gameplay.
Sonic Heroes boasts
seven different 2-player modes, each of which have a variety
of gameplay styles. While these pack in even more playability,
the downside is that you need to have someone else to play
with. While the 1-player mode features pretty intuitive
artificial intelligence, the 2-player mode is sadly lacking
in that department so unless you've got a friend or relative
to hand, you won't be playing these exciting levels very
often, which is a shame.
Sonic Heroes is a great
addition to the Sonic game library, and has all the best
features from the Adventure games intact, while ditching
the elements that didn't work well. The team gameplay was
a controversial move, but it's ease of use and increased
gameplay style has payed off. The controls can be a little
tricky sometimes, and some levels can take some getting
used to, but disregarding these small faults, this is a
very entertaining game that won't get old fast!
