SEGA have finally decided to make their long time mascot Sonic the Hedgehog a multi platform game, now appearing on Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox screens and about time! But for this debut Sonic has bought his friends – to create 4 teams of super heroes, all with their own objectives but they all relate to one person – the evil genius Dr. Eggman. This time he’s sweared to destroy life as we know it in only 3 days, time for the heroes to save the day.

Gameplay:

Sonic Heroes sets you into the world of Sonic the Hedgehog giving you the option to control one of four teams: Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose or Team Chaotix. Each of these teams have different objectives throughout the game – Team Sonic primarily must stop Dr. Eggman at all costs, Team Dark must catch up with Dr. Eggman and find out about Shadows past, Team Rose are out to relocate their favourite pals and Team Chaotix who are detectives have been hired by a mystery person who promise to pay them handsomely whatever the mission. Team Sonic consists of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles who all have their individual abilities – Sonic is excellent for speed, Tails has great flying abilities and Knuckles has awesome strength. Using these three elements will help you get through the levels, such as if you need to fly over a gap in the level or bust through a wall. These strengths are the same for each team and are to be used throughout certain marked areas of levels – Blue represents speed zones, Yellow represents flying areas and Red represents strength areas. Previous games have had you using one character but this time using 3 characters has turned the usual style of Sonic gameplay upside down, that’s not to say it’s bad in fact it’s quite unique but not something that I’d like to see carried on throughout the Sonic series.

Each team has a different objective and also different difficulty levels, Team Sonic and Team Dark are roughly the same difficulty levels and are the hardest to play in the whole game although I can’t decide which one is hardest personally. Team Rose is more for the younger or newer gamer as most of their stages are shorter and have easier areas to work through, Team Chaotix being detectives have unique levels in comparison to the other teams and have to carry out specific targets rather than getting to the end of the level. The levels in the game are very nice indeed for a Sonic game they are long and take a while to finish, as with the speed involved they have to be but with the ‘team’ element in effect each and every level takes full use of the team’s abilities so that you can finish the level using all 3 characters. This time hey have been sectioned off into the old ‘zone’ style with two similar stages then a boss to play through. There are some frustrating parts, particularly with Team Sonic and Team Dark which cause you to take up many lives with one area of the level.

Robots in the game or ‘Badniks’ as they are more commonly known as have been given a change and look more like, well robots really and have moved away from the usual array of badniks that Sonic games usually have - a minor disappointment but they still do their job and pose a decent threat throughout levels. Levels are nicely varied - they have been engineered incredibly with miles or rails to grind and 100s of ships in the air to jump on they are quite simply incredible environments with no boring moments to spare, the only problem with levels is that every team plays the same stage so essentially you are going over the stages 4 times but with a different purpose.

The special stages have been incorporated into the game this time, this hasn’t happened for a few years now and boy have they made it harder, although the style is a little similar to previous special stages it is new asides from that. One stage offers you to collect points and extra lives while the other one allows you to collect a chaos emerald by chasing it (easier said than done) Although there are characters both new and old in the game the Sonic gameplay is slowly moving away from its roots of simple Sonic storylines with possibly the addition of Tails or Knuckles from the early 90’s. Bosses gather difficulty through the game (as do the stages) and require a little thought to get through but nothing worth straining the brain over. Sonic Heroes is good and fun game to play and has attracted many new gamers to the Sonic series, with various elements of previous games mixed together to create a new style of Sonic which is fun for everyone to play but perhaps the series should start to take a back to basics approach on the next game.

vGraphics:

Sonic and his buddies have gained a new ‘shiny’ effect to the way they look; quite frankly it’s a step up for the characters visually as previous outings were still looking predated to Dreamcast times. That said they still could have some more work done on them to improve the way the characters are animated during gameplay and cut scenes. The game also has some CG movies incorporated in between levels which the Sonic series has been lacking recently and is more than welcomed. The game does tend to have the rare bit of slowdown due to the sheer size of the worlds that have been created, but is a minor problem and is something that creeps up now and again in the gameplay. Overall the graphics make an improvement in the Sonic series and are using the Xbox to a nice potential - couldn’t ask for anything more really.

Sound:

High paced style of music is the dish of the day for Sonic Heroes and suits the style of gameplay, particularly as you’re speeding through levels, smashing up robots and so forth. Rock, techno and orchestral type music accommodate the sound in the game with various people lending their talents to the game (No one special!), people such as Ted Poley, Tony Harnell and Crush 40 to name a few. Sound effects are similar to previous Sonic games and retain the quality any change in that field would seriously affect the way the game is played, also characters will talk through the level at various time giving you small clues too. All in all the sound makes good listening throughout the game.

Longevity:

Sonic Heroes incorporates a four team single player mode along with an extra ‘lost story’ mode once they have all been completed, which will take you a considerable amount of hours if you’re a long term sonic fan. The single player mode doesn’t stop there completing a stage or boss earns you the usual Sonic style emblems (140 in total) earning certain amounts of these throughout the game unlocks new features to enhance the game. Once again like Sonic Adventure 2, there is a 2-player mode and offers even more this time offering various modes of 2-player games than ever before.

But despite all this there’s never been a 4-player mode in a Sonic game, as there is 4 teams in the game I would see it as a great chance to add the mode but it was not to be and possibly I don’t think it ever will be as it seems 2-player is all a Sonic game ever needs as it was primarily aimed as single player really. No Xbox Live support at all and I don’t really expect it to, there would be little demand to have online multiplayer but downloads would have been good as previous Dreamcast versions have shown. All in all the game will last the average gamer a good amount of time and completing the game with all the emblems and the story behind all the teams is something worth playing through for.

Round up:

Sonic Heroes has provided a new breed of Sonic game and is a nice change from what we have seen of Sonic in the last couple of years. The game plays extremely smoothly with slightly ‘iffy’ storylines, it delivers a great game that looks good and is an all round joy to play at the end of the day. Asides from the old small niggles the game has its pretty good, the fans will still have their complaints but at the end of the day there is pure simple, uncut gameplay. Blast on Sonic…blast on!

Pros:

• Sonic on Xbox!
  
• 12 superheroes brought in to create a unique ‘team style’ gameplay
  
• Nicely improved graphics and CG scenes
  
• Longer levels and better 2-player mode
  

  Cons:
  

  • Could do with a little bit more longetivity
    
  • One too many cheesy sections in the game