Sonic Heroes

"Gives new meaning to the phrase "Team Sonic""

When I first saw Sonic Heroes, my first thought was "Wow! They're making a Sonic Game for multiple platforms." Well, now that they've released it, I realized I made a grave oversight. I should've looked more at the game, but then again, I liked the surprise I got instead.

Gameplay

The first thing I should make clear is that Sonic Heroes is not Sonic Adventure 3. What does this mean? It means no shooting, no fishing, no let's find some emerald shards missions (for the most part). Now, I like the Adventure series, but it had some problems. Namely, every level that wasn't a "get to the end of the stage as fast as you can" level. Sonic Heroes rectifies this problem and harkens back more towards the original game's style, with a few changes, of course.

The first, and most noticeable and important change, is that instead of running through the stage at insanely fast speeds with just Sonic, you now run through the stage with three characters. While the specific character on each team (we'll get to them later) varies, there are still three basic archetypes, Speed, Fly, and Power. The name's are pretty self-explanatory, I'll elaborate on specifics. Speed Characters (such as Sonic) focus on, well, speed. They are the fastest characters and usually feature a light dash to follow rings and a fancy wind move to use on enemies. Fly characters (such as Tails) do just that, Fly. Power characters (such as Knuckles) can destroy meddlesome objects and are the most capable at eliminating enemies. Switching through the three characters is essential to survival. Speed characters can zip by tricky areas, but you'll need your Fly character to get over some obstacles, and destroying enemies without your power character is quite difficult.

I was really amazed that Sega was able to accomplish the use of the three character's so successfully. It's impossible to get through the stages with one character, and I found myself switching characters very frequently, from light dashing with Sonic through rings up to a wall that I had to have Tails fly over only to come across enemies that I need Knuckles to destroy. The formation (character) switching takes some time to get used to, but after a while you'll know who you need, when you need them, and what you need them for, and you'll react almost instantaneously.

Sonic Heroes probably features every single character to ever be in a sonic game. There are four teams of three characters each. Team Sonic consists of the aforementioned Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Then there's Team Dark, which features Rouge, Omega (a robot), and the triumphant return of Shadow. Team Rose, featuring Amy, Cream (the rabbit), and Big (no, you don't have to fish with him). Finally, there's team Chaotix, consisting of Espio, Vector, and Charmy. Yeah, I know, you haven't seen them in almost a decade (since Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X ), but there back. You can choose any of these teams to go through the game with. However, all four groups go through the exact same level path. It's quite disappointing, I was hoping each would have it's own path. Regardless, there is some difference in the style and game of each team. First of all, while each type of character has similar attacks, there's slight variation. Big, for instance, is able to hit long range, while the other Power characters are not able to do this. More importantly, the make-up of the stage will vary slightly based on the team you choose, with the most dramatic change coming in the form of Team Chaotix. While the others just have to get to the end of the stage, Chaotix has to find certain objects before the end of the stage. Don't panic, it's not like the old Emerald collecting stages from Adventure. The other three teams are basically just difficulty settings. Team Sonic in the middle, with Rose a tad below, and Dark a tad above. What does this mean? It means that Rose's stages have fewer enemies and are shorter as opposed to Team Sonic, while the opposite is true with the Dark stages. Other than those slight differences, every team plays through the same.

I was also impressed by the stage design. Not only do they look stunning, but they are varied in their play style. The gameplay doesn't just boil down to "push up". There are some multiple paths in the straight out running stages, but there's also some casino stages, where you basically control Sonic and co. like a pinball, and some grinding rail stages. Of course, the grinding and casino stages aren't JUST grinding and casino, there's also some running in them, true to Sonic form. Also of note, and true to Sonic form, is the progression of stages. While the classic Act system doesn't return, the game DOES follow the format of "two stages followed by a boss". The stages will just progress as Stage 1, Stage 2, and so on, but the basic format is the same. Adding to that is the fact that the two stages are very similar to one another.

Speaking of Bosses, I was again impressed by the quality of the boss fights. They weren't repetitive, and they were semi-challenging to boot. In fact, as a whole game, Sonic Heroes is fairly challenging. Not really frustrating, but it will take some effort to complete.

The only downside to the game is that you're forced to replay it with all four teams if you want to complete it. Since they all go through the same stages, this can get very annoying, very quickly. However, if you really like Sonic Heroes, this shouldn't pose any problem at all for you.

Story

Nothing too special here, but what were you expecting from a Sonic game? Actually, too Sega's credit, each team does have a different purpose for going through the stages, and as such they'll have different scenes at the beginning of a new section of stages. Anyway, Sonic and friends got a challenge from Eggman, Shadow and co. just want to destroy Eggman's minions for revenge, Amy and her pals are all looking for someone (different for all three), and the Chaotix crew are trying to fulfill a job promise.

Graphics

The graphics are greatly improved over the previous Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Adventure DX that were released for the GameCube. The character's have been smoothed to a shine and just don't have that grainy appearance that they had in the past. Really, owners of either of the GCN games can pop them in and compare. The difference is noticeable right from the beginning. It's not just the characters, either, the stages are well-detailed, too, mind you. This is easily the best looking Sonic game

Of course, take my comments with a grain of salt. I'm really comparing the game to previous Sonic installments. That being said, the graphics ARE quite good. No, they aren't amazing, but they're still good.

Music/Sound

All the classic sounds are back in full. From the Ring collection to the stage completion chime, they've all returned. The BGMs are just the standard Sonic style fast-paced rock songs. The theme song is also catchy, and I appreciate the fact that Sega took the time to record an actual song with vocals again. The song is nice, but I didn't like it as much as the various songs that were included with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

The voice acting in Sonic Heroes is about as well-done as the game can manage. You have to remember, this isn't some stellar gripping story, so the actors do the best with what they're given. Some of the voices DO get annoying (Charmy, Cream), but it's not because of bad acting.

Replay

See, this is the annoying part. While in theory, this game should have tons of replay value, I just don't see it. Sure, the grading system is still in place, so you perfectionists will be able to play through that level fourteen thousand times just to get that little A ranking. And there's two player to boot. However, the game basically forces replay on you in order to finish the game once. This is annoying and does take out some of the fun in replaying the game. Ok, quite a bit of it.

Summary

Pros

+++ New team system adds depth to the gameplay
++ Great Graphics
++ Good Soundtrack

Cons

- Different Teams go on the exact same stages
- Some slowdown during two player

Sonic Heroes is the best Sonic game in years. It's just that simple. If you like Sonic, then Heroes is for you. It's fun, it's a change of pace, and at the same time, a throw back to classic gaming. I do wish they had just made a few exclusive stages for each team, but alas, this was not to be. It's still a good game, though one that's really worth checking out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/04, Updated 05/08/08

Game Release: Sonic Heroes (US, 01/27/04)