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

A New Day Brings New Adventure

The Good
The graphics and design areas. The graphics are just amazing. The gameplay sometimes makes me feel dizzy and sick, after watching Team Dark use Chaos Control, that is.

Team Sonic are my true heroes. I like controlling Sonic, as he can run faster then ever before. Although, Shadow runs ten times faster then him. I'm always the Speed typed character on Level 3.

I also liked the return of the Chaotix. Vector is the best character out of that team. He makes Esipo do all of the work and make him agree with him. Charmy seems to be just like Tails and Cream.

The Bad
At first, in Knuckles Chaotix, Charmy was a sixteen year old, and in this game he is only six. Sega have taken ten years off his age.

It's too bad, that they didn't add a replay mode after the action stage, like there is in Sonic Riders.

The Bottom Line
Sonic Heroes is a game for everyone.

Team Sonic: People who are advanced in playing video games.

Team Dark: Out standing players.

Team Rose: People who are new to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, or younger players.

Team Chaotix: The same as Team Sonic, I guess.

GameCube · by Rachael Blenkin (1) · 2007

Easily-pleased youngsters or Sonic fans might like this. Otherwise....

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.

PlayStation 2 · by Gary Smith (57) · 2005

[ 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.