The legendary Sonic the Hedgehog is back in an all new adventure titled Sonic Heroes. It’s his first original debut on the Nintendo GameCube and the game aims to take the franchise in a new direction. Sonic has been with us for many years and has graced many of Sega’s numerous consoles. He has had some poor games in his day but for the most part, quality has remained consistent. Not only is Sonic appearing on the GameCube, but he will also show up on the X-Box and Playstation 2, so now every console gamer will have a chance to experience the blue wonder. But does this new gameplay direction steer Sonic for the better? The question is bound to receive many mixed responses but it must be said plainly that this is nowhere near being the best adventure that Sonic has offered in his existence. The game is riddled with numerous technical problems along with unsatisfying gameplay that will leave most non fans unimpressed. What rings true though, is that Sonic Heroes will please most fans looking for a new title featuring their favorite spiked rodent.  

Sonic Heroes’ plot is almost nonexistent and serves only to provide a backdrop for each level, so it is fairly pointless to discuss it aside from telling you that all four teams are after the chaos emeralds and are all working their way up to the final boss battle. As you can see, it’s quite simple, and doesn’t require much in the way of thought, but it serves to explain the adventure adequately. You are split up into four teams, Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose and Team Chaotix. Each team features three different characters that all serve a purpose in helping to clear a level. For instance in the Sonic Team, Sonic is used for speed, Knuckles is there for his strength and Tails is of course utilized for flying. Each team spins off of the Sonic Team conceptually in one way or another to create only slightly varied results. The teams themselves aren’t much different from one another and the map paths only diverge slightly. The stages in Sonic Heroes are huge, but not sprawling. Most of the levels look like glorified NASCAR tracks and provide very little freedom of movement. You will come across various obstacles that will require the utilization of the different characters. If you come up to a pack of enemies, it is best to use your strongest character to dispose of them quickly and if you come up to a wall, use your flying character and continue with that state of mind. The team play concept is fairly simple and plays out that way too, but unfortunately, the feature was further dumbed down by providing too many guidance signals that’s show you what to do. Most of the stages have arrows, keywords or symbols telling you what to do and when. This would have been fine if it wasn’t the only thing most of the levels offered, but the levels are all based on using the powers of your teammates, so it often comes off as a badly planned parentally guided walk through the park. Everything in Sonic Heroes is watered down, except the speed. The redeeming feature that most of the levels possess is that they have some pretty amazing loops and straightaway paths. It doesn’t help that the camera is always in your face, blocking important areas and your view of the surroundings. While the camera is manageable most of the times, it can take on a mind of its own without a moments notice. The bosses are quite interesting to fight, but most of them are over too quickly and frankly there aren’t enough of them. The game will take most people under six hours to complete, and considering the price tag attached to Sonic Heroes, that is a bit of a disappointment. The multiplayer mode has some nicely planned out concepts, but they all fall flat in execution. The only mode worth playing would be the race mode which returns from some of the older games in the series. Other than that, playing with your friends won’t really leave you forgiving the game overall.  

Sonic Heroes also falls short in the graphics and audio categories. While I really tried to respect the style that the developers were trying to convey, it cannot hide the fact that the game is using a polished up version of the Sonic Adventure 2 engine which is aging rapidly by today’s standards. While the game runs at a solid 60 frames per second (which is really amazing considering some of the speed boosts you get), the textures, animations and character models all feel rushed. For example, when you fall off a cliff into the water, there is practically no animation, or sound. You simply fall into blue “stuff”. That’s all you can call it when it possesses absolutely no identity. The boss designs are amazing though, especially for the “very” final battle. If you liked Sonic Adventure 2’s visuals, then you will absolutely love this game as things like draw distance and speed perception have been greatly enhanced, but for everyone else, it may come off as being highly disappointing. There is very little to discuss in terms of the game’s audio presentation other than aside from a few decent upbeat tracks, it kind of lacks anything worth remembering or noting. The voice acting is sometimes worse than what was heard in Sonic Adventure 2, basically meaning the characters sound childish and unaware of any peril they may be in. The sound effects are standard Sonic fare and features many of the classic sounds that fans of the series have come to know and love, but overall these two elements were executed quite poorly.  

When it all comes down to it, Sonic Heroes is a major disappointment for the franchise. Its attempt to push the series in a new direction came off as being too guided and simple, making some yearn for the more open ended mission stuctures of the Sonic Adventure installments. For those of you wanting a killer app of a Sonic game, pick up Sonic Battle for the GameBoy Advance. If you are a fan of the Sonic series, you may or may not be disappointed with this game, but for anyone other than the fans, you will probably find this to be nothing more than a rental. Maybe next time, Sonic fans.