Sonic Heroes

Moby ID: 11564
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Sonic Heroes is a 3D action-platformer in which the player takes control of a team of 3 characters, each with a special ability - speed, fly and power. The objective of the game is to race through levels as quickly as possible whilst defeating enemies and collecting rings. Your time, rings and enemies defeated make up a point system, and more points mean a higher rank on the level. There are 4 teams of characters each with their own changes to the gameplay:

  • Team Sonic is the intermediate difficulty featuring Sonic (speed), Tails (fly) and Knuckles (power).
  • Team Shadow is the hard difficulty featuring Shadow (speed), Rogue (fly) and E-123 Omega (power).
  • Team Rose is the easy difficulty featuring Amy (speed), Cream (fly) and Big (power).
  • Team Chaotix features new mission-based objectives with Espio (speed), Charmy (fly) and Vector (power).

The game features 4 modes:

  • Story Mode, giving players the opportunity to play through levels as the story progresses.
  • Challenge Mode, giving players the opportunity to replay levels that they have previously cleared in Story Mode
  • Battle Mode, a multiplayer mode where players can race or battle each other
  • Tutorial Mode, teaching players the basics of playing the game.

Spellings

  • ソニックヒーローズ - Japanese spelling
  • 索尼克英雄 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • 소닉히어로즈 - Korean spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

189 People (176 developers, 13 thanks) · View all

President
COO
Product Marketing Manager
Director of Product Development and Localization
Localization Producer / Assistant Product Marketing Manager
Senior Media Manager
Creative Services Manager
Public Relations Manager
Director of Quality Assurance
Offshore Project Manager
Senior Release Manager
Build Engineer / PC Project Coordinator
Supervisor
Design Coordinator
Layout Designer
Editor / Layout Designer
Marketing Consultant
Sega Ex-Patriot
Producer
Director
Art Director
Main Programmer
Main Game Designer
Sound Director
Player Designer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 48 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 83 ratings with 11 reviews)

Far better then many give it credit ...

The Good
I've read the many reviews both here and on other websites, and from personal experience with the as well, I can tell you it is far better then many give it credit. Sure, it has its problems, but there are plenty of positives that come out of the experience as well.

For one, it introduces a new play mechanic to the series, using three characters instead of the usual one in order to solve the awaiting puzzles and wizz through the arenas. Each of the different teams are the same design wise (one is used for speed, the second power and the third flight), and swapping between the three during play adds an element of strategy to the game, something that is rarely used in such a game.

Graphically, this has to be the best looking Sonic title so far. The earlier levels may not show off that much, but once you get into the later half of the game, the levels start to improve in detail and hark back to the early Sonic games design wise (especially Casino Park, that recreates the pinball like Vegas levels from the original Sonic games of old). In fact, the game has an amazing sense of speed, and those that hang around long enough will enjoy the hectic rush.

The Bad
There are areas of the game that just seem rushed, including the multiplayer mode that is simply tacked onto the disk. The music score is the old school rock pieces that seem to be a staple of this franchise, but to me it is getting real old, nothing like the more amusing and entertaining scores of Mario Sunshine or Jak II.

The control scheme takes a little getting used to at first, swapping between the three characters at will. But stick with it, as once you get the hang of things you'll be flying along.

Lastability is also a factor. The 14 levels on offer are fairly long, but at the speed at which you are going, they fly by quickly and without much fuss. Still, there are other teams to play as, so there's the added incentive to try again a few times.

The Bottom Line
So despite what some people might say, this is not the worst Sonic game ever made, and is far and away the best 3D rendition of the franchise from the three made so far. It is certainly the only title to really capture the speed and excitement that the 2D Sonic's had, that's for sure.

It has its problems, and there are the usual camera and bug errors, but overall Sonic Heroes is still well worth a play, and it is a step in the right direction for the future of Sonic in 3D.

GameCube · by Kartanym (12418) · 2006

Not bad 3D platformer, but has some lacks

The Good
First of all, I like its "arcade-style" gameplay (in my opinion, it is more enjoyable than "mixed" style of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2). The game is fast, you can quite quick learn how to play and without irritating "demurrages" - enjoy the gameplay! I was afraid a bit, that the same set of levels for every team will make it quite boring, but I was positively surprised - despite quite similar experience in case of Sonic's Team and Dark Team, every time I had different experience and I had the motivation to end all scenarios. It's graphic and animation are really nice, but one of the strongest point is the music - memorable, dynamic, exciting - it's one of the best set in whole Sonic's history. I liked some of the multiplayer modes (like bobsleigh race or action race), they're simple, but enjoyable.

The Bad
First of all - camera & controls. Camera is sometimes really terrible and making some fragments unreasonably hard (harder than they could be in case of properly working camera). If someone prefer to play on game pad, probably he won't have any issues with control, however I like to play on keyboard, and guys from Sega didn't allow us to change control! And the default configuration is rather bad. Fortunately, using combo "keyboard + mouse" is helping to have more comfortable experience (but why I can configure pad and even mouse, but not keyboard?), but still - it's a serious lack. I didn't like more "slippy & clunky" style of controlling characters (especially in case of speed characters), it was made better in SA 1 & 2). Some voices are unfortunately quite weak - Rouge should has more dynamic voice, Knuckles too (I had impression, that they're slowly falling asleep). And there was a couple of fragments, when game suddenly (and in totally unpredictably way) t ended some longer sequence (for example riding on the rail) and I didn't have even time to react/jump/whatever. Some of multiplayer modes are almost totally unplayable (like team battle), I also really regret, that for every mode there are only 3 stages. And since it's PC version - I also regret, that there is only local multiplayer (I really wish that they could add "online" variant too). Getting back to single player scenarios - I didn't like these two "halloween-style" levels - their project was trivial, boring and a bit irritating.

The Bottom Line
Sonic Heroes is really dynamic 3D platformer, this time quite far from the mixed style of two previous games (Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Adventure 2). And this time plot doesn't have too important role - it's rather an ornament, being some excuse to a couple of cinematics (they're looking quite good, by the way) and "carry on". But it doesn't hurt in any way - the game meant to be dynamic, with rather simple rules, and it's doing it quite good. It has four scenarios - all on the same set of levels, but fortunately with different style, and believe me, you can feel it. It's quite long game in comparison to other Sonic titles, but while you'll probably end all "normal" scenarios, only the most devoted and persistent fans will end all (or at least most of) challenge levels. It also has a couple of multiplayer modes - unfortunately, only local.

Windows · by M R (11) · 2015

Why? Seriously? WHY?!

The Good
The graphics for this game are nice, the way the characters look, I like it. The level designs are pretty cool.

Although to be honest, I would prefer a 2D Sonic The Hedgehog game

The Bad
A lot of things, the gameplay, the music, it is just horrid.

First of all, getting a band like Crush 40 to do the music is like getting Lady Gaga to do the music for Resident Evil. It is nothing but a waste of crap.

The controls are nothing but junk, they are slow at responding. Using a PC controller is a pain in the ass, unless you get a program to get it to work on the game. If I wanted to go through that much of a hassle I would play another game.

The Bottom Line
Sonic Heroes is a 3D, 3rd Person Action/Adventure game. If you are a hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fan you may like this, but if you are one that likes the older games, then this game is junk. The controls suck, the music sucks, the gameplay sucks. Only real good thing is the graphics. Then again, I would rather play Sonic 3D Blast then this game. All and all. A waste of time to play.

Windows · by AaronGamer (29) · 2010

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

Milestone

This was the first Sonic game to be released on multiple platforms (Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox) simultaneously.

Team Chaotix

Team Chaotix is made up of three of the main characters from Knuckles' Chaotix.

PlayStation 2 version

The PlayStation 2 version is infamous for being poorly optimised and performing badly due to the weaker nature of the PS2's hardware when compared to the Xbox or GameCube. The PS2 version runs in 30fps with additional frame drops as opposed to the GameCube and Xbox's 60fps. The PS2 version also suffers from a lower draw distance and longer loading times. Another oddity exclusive to the American PS2 version is that, on menu screens, O acts as the primary "enter" button and X acts as the back button, similarly to how Japanese PlayStation games are controlled; the European version uses the correct button layout.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by will.i.am.

PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Windows added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Alaka, ~~, Grandy02, Rik Hideto, Deleted.

Game added January 4, 2004. Last modified March 3, 2024.