Sonic the Hedgehog

"R.I.P. Sonic the Hedgehog June 23, 1991 - November 7, 2006"

It wasn't all that long ago that Sega was one of the top players in the video game business and they had a console of their own to compete in every generation. Their first two consoles were successes and while they didn't reach the same popularity of the Nintendo Entertainment System or the Super Nintendo, Sega proved that they could be a formidable opponent against Nintendo. However, Sony soon joined the fold and the Sega Saturn was trampled by its competition, the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. After this stunning defeat in the fifth generation, Sega decided to get a head start on the sixth generation with their Sega Dreamcast that ultimately failed to contend with the Xbox, GameCube, or the PlayStation 2 and was soon discontinued. Ever since, Sega has turned to solely developing and publishing games for companies that used to be their rivals and ever since then the quality in their flagship series, Sonic the Hedgehog, has declined exponentially.

The Sonic games used to be really good games that could challenge even Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. series back in the day, but ever since Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (which was a really good game), the Sonic games have been on a downhill slope. Sonic Heroes attempted to do something new with the series and while innovation is always welcome, the game simply wasn't as fun as its predecessors. Now Sonic is making his first appearance in the seventh generation and the game really leaves a bad taste in your mouth, especially if you like Sonic games.

Problems start almost immediately as you discover you have to walk around a town, which works kind of like a hub, and you can barely control Sonic, Shadow, or Silver. Seriously, it would be easier to maneuver a car going two hundred miles down a speedway while you were drunk and blindfolded with no arms. That may sound like an exaggeration, and maybe it is a little, but the point is that it is extremely hard to maneuver anyone around this town due to an oversensitive analog stick and a horrendous camera.

There are also side quests you can complete in this town for extra rewards, but the aforementioned terrible camera and spotty control make it almost impossible to even enjoy these frustrating extras for even one second.

Then there are the actual levels which are just as bad as the rest of the game, unsurprisingly. Each of the three characters play through the same stages, albeit with some tweaks here and there to accommodate their gameplay styles, and while this is a good idea, it falls flat on its face. I might as well start with Sonic since he was the first victim to this mess Sega has tried to push as a video game.

Just like in any other game in the series, Sonic has to speedily run through the stages, using his homing attack on robots, collecting rings, and performing death-defying feats on insane loops like he was a little rollercoaster. A common problem in any of the 3D Sonic games is that when using the homing attack, Sonic rarely goes after a robot you want and this problem has not been fixed for this title. There were plenty of times where I would be clearly aiming for a robot right in front of me, but Sonic decided to flip off a cliff in order to hit another robot that posed absolutely no threat whatsoever.

A somewhat new gameplay mechanic has Sonic speeding through the stages with a newfound sense of speed and while this could have been a good thing, the developers missed the opportunity by a long shot. How exactly did they ruin Sonic's sense of speed? Well, whenever this event occurs, the camera literally moves right in front of Sonic's face, meaning you can't see where the hell you are running. As you could guess, this often leads to you falling straight off a cliff or running into a robot or something.

Next to have his legacy molested is Shadow. Unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoyed Shadow the Hedgehog and I had a lot of faith with Shadow in this game. Unfortunately, insurmountable glitches, the bad camera, and the controls ruin what could have also been a cool part of the game and that's Shadows ability to drive vehicles.

A brand new hedgehog joins the fray this time around and while he is definitely cool, the time traveling Silver the Hedgehog's segments suffer from the exact same game breaking problems that befell Sonic and Shadow. Silver could have also been pretty cool since he has telekinesis powers and all that jazz, but he ends up as yet another missed opportunity in the game.

You get to play as various other characters for short periods of time from the Sonic universe depending on what character you are and they all have their own abilities. The list of playable characters extends from Knuckles to Rogue to even the semi-new Blaze the Cat. With all of these different gameplay mechanics being incorporated you would think that at least the game would become even a little good, but since you are basically doing the same levels over, this is never fully born and it's a shame that Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all didn't get their own levels. You can build the levels, Sega, you have the technology.

You don't just get to pick right from the beginning whether you want to be Shadow or Silver, but instead you have to unlock the other characters by playing through Sonic's story first, then Shadow's, then Silver's, and then you have to do a “last story” at the end of the game, which just ends up making everything confusing.

Multiplayer made the game in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, but for some reason Sega just didn't get it right with this game. There is Tag Mode where you basically just go through levels and collect Chaos Emeralds with your choices limited to Sonic, Shadow, or Silver. Since there are three characters, it kind of makes you wonder why they didn't just make the game unique with a three player cooperative multiplayer mode…or better yet, include characters they've had in previous games and make the game four player cooperative with online capabilities. Get with the times Sega. The other mode, Battle Mode, would have been entertaining if it weren't for the glitches and the terrible camera ruining things yet again.

One of the great things about Sonic games is they usually have pretty awesome stories with plenty of high octane action sequences and they are usually stuffed with dramatic moments, but this game just doesn't live up to its predecessors. Towards the end things start to pick up, but the way the storyline is axed into four separate pieces makes things a little confusing, not to mention irritating, and I can't wrap my head around why Sega would do this. It's hard for me even to describe the storyline because of this, but I'll try anyway. There is some princess chick that has a key that Dr. Eggman needs to conquer the world, but Sonic is there to stop him. Shadow's story picks up where Shadow the Hedgehog left off and focuses on an evil version of him named Mephiles, who is described as literally Shadow's shade. If you don't know what that means, it means the guy is Shadow's shadow. I know, right? Silver the Hedgehog lives in a terrible future where he and his friend Blaze the Cat are tormented by an evil being named Iblis. This guy has the power to control the “Flames of Disaster” and Silver is led to believe that Sonic is the reason for the Flames of Disaster existing in the first place. All in all, Sega had a good story here and it develops into something great, but the way it is presented practically makes it obsolete.

Another point where Sonic the Hedgehog shines is its amazing graphics. The cut scenes are absolutely gorgeous with brilliantly detailed environments and character models that even Square Enix would be jealous. Unfortunately, glitches and technical problems abound in game and there are a lot of repeated textures, generic looking human characters, and bland environments. Plus you have to go through all eleven stages three times, which is ridiculous because the Xbox 360 is fully capable of providing eleven different levels for each of the three characters. On top of all that, the loading times are inexcusable and painful, popping up for nearly anything you do.

While some of the music in the previous Sonic games were sufficiently corny, they were still fun to listen to and some of them were actually very catchy. You won't find any of that this time around as the soundtrack is bland and boring and is the most unmemorable soundtrack I've come across in a game in a long time. Still, there is some star power here in the form of Akon.

As you could guess, the game really isn't all that long and can probably be completed easily in five to six hours. That is if you can force yourself to wade through the pool of glitches and technical issues. After that, you might have some fun with the multiplayer modes, but they don't hold a candle to multiplayer modes in previous installments in the series and broken gameplay mechanics all but make them obsolete. There are some achievements to unlock, but the chances of you wanting to continuously play this game are slim to none. What I really wish Sega had implemented in this title are those little blue creatures we all know and love as Chaos. Raising them and evolving them in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle was another reason why that title was so awesome and I don't know why Sega isn't smart enough to include this feature in all of their Sonic games because it definitely spikes the replayability up.

I was very disappointed with this iteration of Sonic and I'm sure almost all the fans were, too. Sega spent barely any time on this game and you can tell due to the glitches, bad camera, awfully repetitive gameplay, pathetic loading times, and lackluster multiplayer modes. Hopefully Sonic will be able to redeem himself in the future, but if the next few Sonic games are as bad as this entry, then I'm afraid it may be time to put our little blue hedgehog friend to rest just like Sega's console aspirations.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/08

Game Release: Sonic the Hedgehog (US, 11/14/06)