Sonic the Hedgehog

"Sonic the Hedgehog!A double edge sword."

"Aw man, I love spaghetti!"
"But there's **** in it!"

Sonic the Hedgehog is a game that cuts both ways, this game has a lot of entertainment to show, but there are problems in the way that make this title suffer.

Audio:8/10
Simply speaking, this game has an amazing soundtrack, possibly the best any sonic game has ever had; it has vastly improved with more diverse types of music ranging in almost all forms. Voice acting is a mixed bag of opinions, while some will accept the voices from 4kids, others will dread the thought of hearing Sonic speak. I personally thought the voices were done quite well(except Omega).There are some times when the lip syncs are off, but are kept to a minimum through out the game and are easy to ignore.

Graphics:8/10
Sonic and the gang look good, but not great. Their appearances may have been an improvement from previous sonic games, but the 360's power is not fully utilized.

Attention on each character's specific attributes are quite noticeable such as Sonic's spikes waving around after moving, very nice.Eggman's mechs have been given a face lift, now looking much more sleek and intimidating.
People are very realistic looking each with distinct facial features (well, not all of them.).

The environments are gorgeous, details and little bits and pieces are sculpted in every area of the game. Sometimes taking time to explore is fun because of how pretty everything looks.CG cut scenes are incredible and radiant
in appearance, top notch.

Story:7/10
Sonic the Hedgehog has a good storyline, but once again, not everyone has the same opinion. Some will love it, some will hate it. I don't want to spoils anything so I'll keep it brief; the game's core story revolves around the Mystery of Soleana and time traveling.

Sonic's role is simple, rescue the princess from Dr.Eggman, it also has subtle hints of bestiality between the relationship of Sonic and Elise (I didn't care). It doesn't go much further then there. The new guy, Silver is much more dramatic taking place in a apocalyptic future being destroyed by a monster called Iblis. Shadow is now an agent for GUN having to deal with a demon known as Mephiles.

Game Play:6/10
Here is where the game truly shines and yet also crashes and burns. The game offers three playable characters; Sonic, Shadow and Silver. Each has their own different ways to play but it all comes down to two elements, combat and platforming.

Sonic is based around speed, zooming right through stages with high paced movement that are also packed with frequent auto run sequences, you can literally put the controller down and watch Sonic do everything for you. Sonic has been slowed down considerably and moves no where near as fast as he did in his previous games. Sonic's running animation takes time to get used to; his max speed is reached very quickly after pressing forward on the joystick. But this is not a bad thing, seeing how the stages you face are full of bottomless pits, hazards, and enemies, running too fast might send you to your doom.

The homing attack has also been tinkered with; you can no longer hit enemies in the rapid succession you used to be able to do, as there is a slight delay in between hits.
Not all of it is bad; the new homing attack also has tighter aim and now can aim upward.

The new action gauge is not really implemented by Sonic as he only uses in two stages. Sonic's mach speed zones are very challenging and very simple to control, Sonic runs forward automatically and it's you job to guide him out of harm's way. While running this fast, Sonic's jumping is changed to a more of a thrust forward rather then elevation, because the jump last so long you might get tagged in midair then slam into something else after your invincibility is gone. This can be quite scary for those with bad reflexes.

Shadow is based on combat and vehicles, his homing attack goes much further then Sonic's and can perform combos on enemies with health bars. While this is helpful, it can also screw you over; aim the homing attack wrong and that platform you where trying to land on will result in you flying right over it, and to fall to your death.

Shadow makes use of the action gauge by filling it with light cores which are obtained by defeating enemies. When it's full you can use Chaos boost which grants access to more attacks. Shadow's vehicles are clumsy and sensitive making it difficult to use and annoying. Practice is all I can recommend. Shadow's speed has been dropped a bit, he no longer moves as fast as Sonic, this'll takes some time to get used to.

Silver, makes use of the havoc system and can use psychokinesis. His game play allows him to manipulate the environment and fling objects, your enemies' missiles, the enemies themselves with Silver's power. Can be a lot of fun, but after a while some situations become overwhelming simply because there are no boxes to pick up, that and nearly everything he does requires the action gauge, fortunately it recovers quickly. Silver's stages tend to last a lot longer then the others due to his slow movement.

Each character gets two other partners to accompany them throughout their story. During certain stages they have parts that you will be forced to play. The side characters' controls are almost unwieldable, some suffer from slippery movement while others are just impractical to use. I personally did not like this feature.

Adventure stages are back, of course like always, some love em, some hate em. There are three areas to explore, a castle town, a new city and a jungle. In order to progress through out the game you have collect info from people by talking to them or taking on town missions which brings me to the one thing that makes this game appear so terrible, the loading screens.

Despite the power that the next gen console possesses, the loading in this game is appalling; they can last from 10-30 seconds long and come in packs of 2 to 3 in a row. This will build up on you. In fact, some town mission wouldn't be so bad, fun even, if the punishment for screwing up was having to wait another minute and a half for round 2.This causes the pace of the game to move at the speed of turtle, rather then the speed of sound.

Glitches are the other half of this 7 headed dragon, you'll be lucky if you never see any, but they are there. If you get to close to the ceiling or wall the camera will spaz out, occasionally instead of staying on that auto run sequence you'll just fling off to the side and miss out on that S rank. I'd like to go on but that's all I've witnessed.

Even though there are glaring problems with gameplay, there is still a lot of fun to be extracted from this title for those who are willing to stick with it. Hell, I did.

Replay value:6/10
In each stage there are 10 silver medals to collect. Along with that, there are gold medals that are earned with the completion of a stage with S ranks as well, including hard mode. There also gold medal that are earned with town missions.

But seeing how there's no reward for getting all the gold medals, I don't see any reason to pursue them. Unless you want bragging right (nobody cares.).Should you desire to get them all, you will be kept busy for a while.

Overall:6/10
Even though this game has a lot of problems, it will still not turn away hardcore Sonic fans. Sonic the Hedgehog is worth a rent for those willing to brave the loading screens and glitches, you can then decide if it's worth owning.If you're not a Sonic fan avoid this like the plague, though I can't promise Sonic fans will like it anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/07