Sonic Heroes

"For the first time ever, a Sonic game is on PS2, and it is a great game at that!"

The Sonic the Hedgehog series is one of the most well known series the gaming world has ever seen. Originating way back on the SEGA Genesis, the Sonic series has really come a long way. Unfortunately, Sonic games became scarce when the next generation consoles swept the world. The SEGA Dreamcast had some Sonic games, but the console didn’t do very well. Then, the Nintendo Gamecube has been lucky enough to have Sonic games gracing their game library. Finally, Sonic Team and SEGA decided to release a multi-platform Sonic game and for the first time ever, the Playstation 2 has a Sonic game on it! And Sonic Heroes is a very good game at that!

Gameplay: 9/10
The most obvious new feature in Sonic Heroes is that instead of controlling as one character, you control a team of three characters. Each team has one character geared towards speed, one character geared towards strength (power), and one character geared towards flying. Each type of character will have his or her own abilities that you’ll have to use throughout each level. You’ll be able to swap between characters with a simple touch of a button. This team-based system is really innovative which causes for strategy. A speed character may have an easier time to dispatch a certain robot than the other character types, while as a power character will be able to clear an obstacle while the others cannot. You’ll have to know which character to use in each situation, which is what this game is all about.

There are four teams in Sonic Heroes. They are Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix. Team Sonic consists of Sonic, everyone’s favorite speedy blue hedgehog, Tails the cute double-tailed fox that flies, and Knuckles, the echidna with the attitude and the fists. Team Sonic’s missions are long and complex but shouldn’t be very difficult. Team Dark consists of Shadow, Sonic’s black hedgehog nemesis, Rouge, the treasure hunter bat, and E-123 Omega, the powerful robot bent on revenge. Team Dark’s missions are just as long as Team Sonic’s, but are slightly different with much more robots and enemies. Team Rose consists of Amy, the Sonic-obsessed pink hedgehog, Cream, the kawaii rabbit who uses her big ears to fly, and Big the biggest cat of them all that attacks with his umbrella. Team Rose’s missions are much shorter versions of the other two, with more rings. Finally, Team Chaotix consists of Espio, the purple chameleon with ninja skills, Charmy, the bee who loves flowers, and Vector, the cool crocodile. The Chaotix members came from the SEGA 32X game, Knuckles Chaotix. Team Chaotix’s missions are very different from all of the others, you have distinct goals to complete in each level, such as gathering a certain amount of keys, or heading through a level without being noticed by any enemies.

Story:
All four teams have their own story and reasons for going against Dr. Eggman, the evil scientist who’ll do whatever it takes to rule the world. Team Sonic gets a letter from Eggman himself that he’ll unleash his ultimate creation in three days! Team Sonic has to stop him before it’s too late. Team Dark wants revenge on Eggman. Shadow is mad because he doesn’t remember his past, while Omega is mad at Eggman for sealing him away, never using him. Rouge uses this hatred to benefit her treasure hunt. Team Rose is looking for the Chocola, the twin of Cream’s chao, Cream, and Froggy, Big’s friend. They feel that Sonic and Eggman are connected to their disappearances. Team Chaotix is hired to go after Eggman and follow through with their job because they always accept jobs that pay. All four stories technically go on at once where they’ll have to face Eggman’s ultimate creation together. These four stories mold together to form a classic battle that you’ll remember for a long, long time.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics on Sonic Heroes are superb, with huge amounts of detail within every little thing. Everything is smoothed out and well detailed. Unfortunately for the PS2 version, the Gamecube and XBox versions are much better looking. The PS2 version runs at 30 fps (frames per second), while the other versions run at 60 fps! However, this should not dissuade you from picking this game up because the graphics are truly great and the lower fps shouldn’t affect your fun.

Sound: 8/10
Sonic fans should be very familiar with the sounds of Sonic Heroes as sounds from previous Sonic games. There are the traditional ring chimes and such that truly bring the feeling of nostalgia. Sonic Heroes also sports an excellent collection of background music. Although, none of them are as exciting and memorable as say Ice Cap Zone (from Sonic 3, Genesis). Fortunately, Heroes retains the character-based theme songs that are very fun to listen to. And those songs are good too! Just for the record, check out Team Dark’s theme song because almost everyone loves that song! Sonic Heroes also has a great cast of voice actors providing voices to the many unique characters. Each voice fits the character perfectly and you can understand how each character acts just through their voice! They’re just that good.

Play Time: 20+ hours
If you’re a true Sonic fan, you’ll get by an entire story in only a few hours. Each stage should take about seven to ten minutes to complete on your first time through. Lucky for us, there are four different teams. And after you complete the stories, there are many more things this game offers that will have you playing even longer!

Replayability: Loads
You have four teams so that’s four stories right there. Plus there’s another story you’ll have to unlock. After you complete all of the stories, you are offered an extra mission in every level to execute. Team Sonic will have to complete the level within a certain amount of time, Team Dark will have to kill a certain amount of enemies, Team Rose will have to obtain a certain amount of rings, and Team Chaotix will have an expansion of their previous mission, meaning more objects to fine, less time to complete the level in, or a stealth feature thrown in. Even after you complete all of the missions, you’ll have to go back and complete each mission with an “A” rank (the game ranks each mission you do based on how much each character is used and how fast you completed it in). Then, you’ll unlock Super Hard mode, where you’ll be offered a harder version of the game. There’s really so much to do in this game.

Multiplay: 2 players
Sonic Heroes offers a fun multiplay option where two players go head to head in various events. As you progress with the game in single player, you’ll unlock more multiplayer events. These events include races (the first to the goal wins), battles (first to knock all three opposing characters off the ring wins), and ring races (who can get the most rings in a certain amount of time). Although multiplay is always fun, Sonic Heroes offers only three stages for each event, which isn’t all that enjoyable if you play the heck out of an event. There are also some slowdowns present. Plus some events are unfair such as in the ring race, you could simply attack your opponent and they’ll lose all of their rings. Regardless of all that, multiplay is really fun!

Final Recommendation: Definite Rent, Likely Buy
Some people will probably dislike the style of Sonic Heroes, or they complete the stories way too fast and avoid the extra missions, etc. This game is well worth the buy, but if you’re having doubts with this game, really rent it first and see how well you like it. This is a great game, but some might not enjoy it for personal taste reasons. If you can’t buy it, at least give it a try. It’s not every day that there’s an awesome Sonic game for the Playstation 2.

Flaws: Maybe Too Many
This game is not a perfect game, and there isn’t a perfect game out there. Sonic Heroes does have its own fair share of flaws. First, there are a few glitches with the game. You might fall through a floor with no chances of flying back up. Although this happens rarely, it really sucks when it happens.

The number one cause of deaths (of the characters) in the game is falling off the stage. It is very easy to miscalculate a jump and fall to your doom. Plus you may simply unintentionally charge, punch, or boost yourself off a cliff. Some enemies will even push you off the cliff if you’re fighting in really close range. All this truly does suck because you are helpless to get back on solid ground. This does sort of make you more cautious wherever you go, but that type of cautious seems unnecessary in a game like this.

Recovery time is also short. If you get attacked, you lose your rings and get knocked down and stay invulnerable for a short time to recovery. This time is really short in Heroes as the moment your character stands up; they are instantly vulnerable to attacks. This is a disadvantage when encountering enemies and missiles that will repeatedly attack you because if you’re not lucky enough to fall on a ring, you will almost always die. Another flaw is that you don’t really swap between characters on the fly. You have to be on solid ground to swap. So if an enemy knocks your power character off a cliff, you won’t be able to immediately switch to your fly character to fly yourself back on ground. This also brings the stupidity of your teammates. If you accidentally fall off, the other two will fall off with you instead of staying in one spot to wait for you to recover.

Some people may bet turned away from Heroes because they think the idea of teams is stupid. It really isn’t and the teams provide a new style to the Sonic games. If you aren’t so sure about the teams, at least give Heroes a try before you continue to doubt the teams. The only real flaw of the teams is that you really can’t control only your favorite character and you will have to put it with a character you find annoying who’s in that particular team. Another thing that takes way from the team experience is that there are signs that say “Speed”, “Fly”, or “Power” that tells you which formation you that would be the best to overcome the current obstacle. Although the signs are acceptable in early levels, it becomes annoying that you’ll encounter them even in later levels. And there are one or two signs that suggest one formation, while you find a different formation gets the job done faster and easier.

Some say that the control scheme is a flaw. Heroes has the O-X swap from Japan where O is to confirm while X is to cancel, which is the opposite of what we’re used to in the States. However, this should NOT pose any problem because you’ll easily get over the change. If you can’t, just press Start for confirming. Anyone who bashes this game based on this “flaw” alone is not very bright. Great games like Metal Gear Solid retain the Japanese O-X swap and they’re not bashed because of a change between two buttons. This should not be a problem for everyone after a few seconds of getting used to.

As mentioned earlier, the Gamecube and XBox versions of Sonic Heroes are better than the PS2 version due to better graphics, higher fps, and shorter loading times. However, the PS2 version is just as playable and you will never notice the differences between the versions unless you have looked into every detail when you play two different versions. Despite all of these flaws, Sonic Heroes is truly a great game and you’ll probably never experience any or all of the flaws mentioned. And if you do, Sonic Heroes is just so fun that you’ll be back playing doing your best to stop that flaw from bothering you, which should be quite easy. These flaws should not pose a negative affect on the amount of fun this game has to offer.

Final Score: 9/10
Being the first time a Sonic game has even been released on PS2 or XBox, Sonic Heroes does well to bring the Sonic feel to the other gamers. Sure, Sonic Heroes is not the best game over any other game, nor is it the best game it could be itself, but it is entirely fun with a ton of replayability. Sure there’s a few flaws, but none of them are bad enough to destroy your Sonic experience. If you are or were a Sonic fan, definitely check this game out because you will not be disappointed. For those who have no idea who Sonic is, try out this game anyways because it’s really that fun. I wouldn’t be surprised that many Sonic fans go out looking for their Genesis games for more of a nostalgia feeling. No gamer should be called a gamer unless they at least try Sonic Heroes out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/04