Sonic Heroes

The Good
When I heard that Sonic was coming to the PS2, I jumped for joy. I have been a fan of the blue hedgehog ever since his first game (Sonic The Hedgehog in 1991), and when I bought this shortly after it's release I was not disappointed. All the action and gameplay that has persisted throughout the entire Sonic series is here, right down to the ring-grabbing!

But what's so different about this game? I hear you ask. The difference is that you now have a choice of 3 teams (as explained in the review). You play all three characters in that team, each one with their own special abilities. In each team, you'll have characters that can either run fast, pack a punch or fly. For example, in the Sonic team it's Sonic who runs fast, Tails who can fly, and Knuckles who packs a punch.

This is a basic but fun game. The levels are well designed, with good baddies and some clever ideas. You'll also have to fight one of the other teams every couple of levels, which adds to the fun.

The audio in this game is stunning in every way. Both the music and sound effects are cool, and the voiceovers are the best I've heard in a long time.

Another highlight I must point out is the game's CGI cutscenes. These are the most beautiful ingame movies I've ever seen. The graphical detail and animation is just jaw-droppingly brilliant! It's worth buying a copy of the game just to see them! You also have the option of watching them in Dolby Pro Logic II sound.

The Bad
With a few fixes in the programming code, this game could've been much better. For one thing, the PS2 version suffers from a nasty controller bug when switching characters. The 2 character switching buttons are sometimes a little responsive, making you select the wrong character! Another problem is the camera not being very good. Sometimes you'll walk off the edge of a platform without knowing it's there.

Also, they are not the best graphics I've seen, and unlike the GameCube or XBox versions, it runs at 25 frames a second. I've seen PS2 games with more detail that run at 50 frames a second.

Another slight problem, although it's not much to worry about, is the fact that you cannot turn off the subtitles during the CG movies.

The Bottom Line
Despite the fact that it has some annoying bugs, this is one quality title that Sonic lovers will want to play again and again.

The Good
Some of the Team Rose levels are quite fun, as are early levels some of the other teams have to make their way through. The graphics look nice and characters like Big are finally doing something useful.

The Bad
The characters are often completely out of control. You're trying to make your way across narrow bridges, platforms, grind-rails three pixels wide and the like and your character is darting about all over the place. The ability to switch characters could have made for an interesting game, but instead you spend half your time fiddling about with controls trying to select the correct character (the character-selection control often selects the wrong one). The camera angles are dodgy, all too often you can't see what's right in front of you until it's too late, and sections like the 'rising lava' are rendered impossibly hard. Some of the bosses are just tedious - Robotnik's big ships need about 300 hits or something like that. And why did they have to include those grind-rails? They were a stupid gimmick in Sonic Adventure 2 used to promote some hideous brand of trainers or other. These games need good ideas, not pointless marketing ploys. The storyline and the 'humour' are just terrible, especially compared to games like Twinsanity. 'Humour' in Sonic Heroes seems to mainly revolve around spaceships with 'egg' in their name. In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, released in 1992, the Death Egg was a humorous send-up of the Death Star. Now, thirteen years and many Sonic games later, the 'egg' jokes are wearing very thin. So Dr Robotnik is fat and bald! We get it!

The Bottom Line
You must choose one of four teams in order to make your way through varied 3-D levels. Each team contains a fast member, a tough-nut and a character able to fly. You can switch between characters in order to cross the levels filled with platforms, dangerous robots, collapsing scenery and the like.

The Good
The smooth graphics used in the movies of this game were great because they were fluid and smooth. At most points, the story was interesting and left you wanting more. Many characters (although it is more accurate to say 'groups of characters') and various unlock-ables were good.

The Bad
Although the quality of graphics are good, the detail to which they were used was quite sad. For example, knuckle's hand consisted of an oval sphere with three miniature spikes sticking out. That's something that you would expect to find in the previous gaming generation, but surely not in this one. Also, although the motion was fast and action-packed at some times, it went so quick you simply could not catch up - for example; on most levels you would run up and down massive loops but by the time you realize where you were, you have already been attacked by a group of enemies.

If all this is not enough - the most baddest thing is the lack of variety! Looking back, I only remember there being 4-6 types of enemies without any variation. Wow, such creativity!

The Bottom Line
I really think Sonic and his crew belong in the 2D world. He should stick to consoles like the GameBoy Advance or Nintendo DS, where he is more suited. Sure, Sonic is Sega's biggest mascot, but he just clearly does not belong in 3D until a time when interest in him was been revived. Sonic is Sega's mascot, just like Halo is to X-Box, but it seems that Sonic is no longer wanted - or needed. Sonic was the biggest thing to ever land on Sega's black little box, and that's probably why this game was so disappointing - it simply had to much to live up to. I only advise Sonic fans to buy this game.