Lets face it, Sonic's glory days are over. Long long ago, when the world was still 2D, Sonic was the only one that could compete with Nintendo's portly plumber. Sonic games were quite different from Mario's, they were very fast, had multiple routes through levels and great boss battles. Then 3D came and the way games were made and played changed quite a bit. Mario's move to 3D was a success, Nintendo somehow managed to add a dimension to their game and still made it feel like a Mario game. Sonic however never quite nailed 3D platforming, the Sonic Adventure games on the Dreamcast and Gamecube were filled with camera and framerate issues.

 

With Sonic Heroes Sega tries to put Sonic back on the map by introducing a new form of gameplay by letting you control three characters at once. Apart from that it's still based on the formula that made Sonic famous: You battle against Dr Eggman by racing through levels, defeating Eggman's robots and collecting rings. Rings in Sonic games don't work exactly like coins in Mario games though. If you get hit in Sonic games you lose your rings, if you get hit while you don't have any rings you lose a life, so it's important to always have a bunch of rings.

So Sonic Heroes is both a new step and a return to it's roots, but can it bring Sonic back to his glory days? Will the Hedgehog be able to outrun Mario again after all these years? Read this review to find out.

Graphics:

Sonic Team has obviously learned from their mistakes in the Sonic Adventure games and Billy Hatcher, Sonic Heroes runs at a constant 60 frames per second. It's also a lot more detailed than the two dreamcast ports. It's still not top of the line 3D stuff, but it's all very colourful and in true Sonic tradition all the levels have very different themes. You'll start in a simple beach level, but when you get to zones like Rail Canyon and the classic Casino Park the levels get really detailed. Not that you'll be able to look at them too much though, Sonic Heroes is very fast so most of the time you'll be running, gliding or flying all over the place. There's one place where the visuals disappoint though. The enemies were always very imaginitive in Sonic titles, unfortunately there are not as much as different ones as in Sonic's Megadrive titles. They look allright, but it would've been a lot nicer if every stage would have it's own matching enemies like in the old 2D games.

 

Sound:

When you pop Sonic Heroes in your Cube, the first thing you'll hear is the incredibly cheesy but catchy Sonic Heroes theme. It sounds like it's ripped straight out of an 80's high school tv series, complete with double guitar solo and over-the-top chorus. This sets the tone for this Sonic game quite nicely, it prepares you for a speedy action filled game that reminds you of years that belong to the past for quite a long time now. So far so good. Then the CG intro movie starts and you hear Sonic, Tails and Knuckles start talking to each other. Especially Tail's voice will irritate you from the first word he utters, he sounds like those kids in public places that keep on screaming to their moms they want ice cream. Unfortunately their talking isn't over after the intro movie, all through the game Sonic and his friends will offer their opinion on puzzles, enemies and other things. Quite annoying, but the music makes up for a lot, it's mostly very speedy and matches the feel of the stage you're playing very well. The rest of the sound effects are done well too, a lot of them are remade versions of classic Sonic sounds, so picking up rings or passing checkpoints will make you feel like you're holding a Megadrive controller again.

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Gameplay:

Sonic Heroes' main feature is the three characters at once idea. Before you start the game you have to choose between four teams, Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose and Team Chaotix. All the teams have the same kind of characters, a speedy one, a fighter and one that can fly (Sonic, Knuckles and Tails in Team Sonic). Every team has it's own routes through the levels, it's own difficulty and a few differences in the moves you can perform, so the choice is not just cosmetic. Controlling your team is fairly simple; you control the character that's walking in front and the other two follow you. By changing the front character you change the way the controls behave and the formation your two friends assume. Play as Sonic and you run very fast with Tails and Knuckles right behind you. Go for Knuckles and you're able to throw Sonic and Tails at any enemies that cross your path, if you walk Sonic and Tails will walk beside you. If you put Tails up front he will carry Sonic and Knuckles, you can fly to high places like this.

 

The levels in Sonic Heroes are filled with nice little puzzles that require you to give the lead to a specific character, unfortunately though most of them are spoiled by hint spots on the floor that tell you what to do or tv monitors nearby showing the team member that's best for the job. So all the three character stuff is done pretty well, it's also got problems though. When you're forced to play as Tails or Knuckles for a while you start to realize that maybe it would be much more fun if you could play the speedy Sonic more. Using Knuckles and Tails to solve puzzles is a lot of fun, but running through corkscrews and grinding along endless rails with Sonic is even better.

Playability:

The way you control Sonic and his friends is very straight-forward, all characters jump with A and do their special move with B. You switch characters with X and Y, you see which button switches to what character in the top-right corner of the screen. Z does a supermove if you've filled the supermove meter by collect rings and kill enemies. You can spin the camera around with L and R or go into first person view with the C-stick. The controls are easy to learn, but are pretty hard to use in places. Because of Sonic's enormous speed it's often difficult to get him to go exactly where you want him to. The camera doesn't help here, especially when you're in small areas it has the nasty tendency to sweep around quite a bit. You can play through the game without too much trouble, but expect to die a couple of times because of the camera or controls.

 

Lifespan:

Each team in Sonic Heroes has fourteen levels to go through. Especially the later levels are pretty tough so finishing the game with all teams can take quite a while. Completing levels gives you badges, just like in Billy Hatcher, and badges unlock extra's. You'll be able to unlock things like new multiplayer modes and all kinds of extra challenges if you beat enough levels with different teams. So the single player mode has the potential to last for more than a few weeks, and then there's also a two player mode. If you haven't unlocked anything yet there's only a race mode where two players race it out in splitscreen, but six other modes are unlockable including a battle mode. You lose some framerate and in splitscreen it's quite a bit more difficult to see what's going on, but it's a lot of fun to compete against another player instead of the mindless robots Dr Eggman has created. All in all Sonic Heroes can last you pretty long if you like playing it.

Final Say:

Let's start with the bad news. Sonic Heroes won't bring Sonic back in competition with Mario, it's just not as polished and involving as Mario's 3D outings. There's also good news though. If you're a longtime Sonic fan, you're bound to like this game. Sonic Heroes is the first game in quite some time that captures the feeling the old Sonic games gave you. It's very fast and has pretty big levels with multiple routes through them. Even the bonus stages are like the old Sonic games, they require you to run through a tube and collect chaos emeralds, just like in Sonic 2. If you're not too familiar with Sonic games, you'd better try Sonic Heroes out in a store or rent it before you buy it, it's quite different from most other 3D platform games so it might not be your thing.