Sonic Heroes

"An Honest Perspective"

Sonic Heroes

When Sonic Heroes was announced a year ago, many thought that this game was finally going to help Sonic finds its way in the Next-Gen Consoles. While Sonic Heroes does live up to its expectations to Sonic fans, the casual gamer might cast this title away.

Graphics (9/10)
One thing that the Sonic Team has always gotten right on all Next-Gen systems is the graphics, and Sonic Heroes shines in this one. The graphics are very good, though there are occasional frame rate issues, which kept me from giving it a perfect ten.

Story (6/10)
Nothing new for the blue hedgehog. The standard ''Stop Robotnik/Eggman from destroying the world,'' or something like that. Story has never been important in a Sonic game, so this score is almost ignored.

Gameplay (8/10)
This section I believed would make or break Sonic Heroes, but it did neither. Team switching can be annoying and hard to handle at first, but once learned, its very easy to use. However, there is one problem. Sonic Heroes took away some of the signature moves, like gliding or crawling on walls as Knuckles, limited to their signature moves, like Tails can only fly, or changed them, like Sonic's spin dash. Also, unfortunately, each team plays almost the same, so there isn't a great deal of uniqueness. On the other hand, the combo of the three makes the game very fun because they each bring their own abilities to create a feel not matched by any other game. Frankly, the loss of certain moves and limits of others prevented a perfect 10.

Sound (7/10)
Sonic has stuck with the same high speed guitar songs they used in every Next-Gen Sonic game. Some of the voice acting is done well (Knuckles, Eggman), while others sound too childish and will annoy older fans (Charmy, Tails). Once again, nothing new from Sonic.

Replay Value (9/10)
Though the game itself is rather short, the replay value is very good. Multi-player is always fun in Sonic games, and this is no exception. Collecting emblems, and trying to get the A ranking is very challenging. This game has replay value almost as great as Halo.

Buy or Rent
Always rent first is my motto. You have nothing lose except a few bucks, so rent first.

Reason to Buy
- New style game
- No more treasure hunting
- Every character has importance
- Return of favorite characters

Conclusion
Sonic Heroes will not be the Grounding-Breaking game as people have expected. Still, its a good solid game, with a few noticeable flaws. I bought myself a copy, and I hope you will consider this game in your collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/04