Sonic Heroes

The Good
It's Sonic...that's about it. That is literally the ONLY reason I bought it (and subsequently will also be the only reason I will buy the PS2 and X-Box versions later this month). I need to keep my collection up to date.

The Bad
Practically EVERYTHING. The control is disgustingly inaccurate, the GameCube's 8-notched control-stick well didn't help much when you needed to make finite direction changes at full speed. The music is boring..plain and simple. I would love to hear some sort of throwback to the Genesis era, instead of this new techno-ish + rock + j-pop GARBAGE from Jun Senoue (spelling?). Sonic Team's effort to revive the older type of run and jump Sonic completely does NOT fit the atmosphere the music creates. On top of that, the game itself is lame...I could sit for hours with Sonic 3 & Knuckles (and when I first got them, I did just that) and explore levels, find different paths, etc etc... With Sonic Heroes, the time it takes me to go through a level ONCE is already longer than I want to spend on it, not to mention the fact that once AGAIN we have the whole stupid "Emblem" crap. These are levels that are boring, monotonous and repetitive, TEDIOUS, and just outright lame. No real complexity at all. The graphics are all spiffy shiney (Must be whatever that "RenderWare" logo is on the back of the box), but that's about it...Sonic Team again wanted eye candy rather than a full bodied game. Despite the graphics being crisp and smooth, the camera still sucks... Like, we all know how bad the camera was in the Adventure series...well take that camera, make it boring and stationary, and you've got Heroes' camera. The game is akin to the early Crash Bandicoot games on PS1, only you have more mobility, and you CAN rotate the camera around you to see other things. There's just something about this game I cannot stand......on top of everything else, Sonic Team didn't even get some of their OWN CHARACTERS traits correct... when Sonic runs at full speed...uhm...he either holds his arms at his sides, or stretches them out behind him...he does NOT move his arms when he runs! His spindash is nearly non-existent now as well, reduced to nothing more than a swift kick from a fellow teammate. And Knuckles' biggest claim to fame, his ability to climb walls... is gone. Uhm... What the hell?

The Bottom Line
This game is CRAP. I'm saying this, with Sonic gaming experience from the day Sonic 1 was released... I'm probably one of THE biggest Sonic fans in New England, I have just about every Sonic game that has been made (along with its European and Japanese version counterparts as well). I know the older games inside and out, but I still enjoy playing them... in contrast, any Sonic game that was made from 1999 and after, has been the complete opposite- I barely know the levels at all but I dislike it so much I can't even force myself to play it.

TOTALLY rent it first... don't waste 50 bucks on something you'll wind up shelving in a day and a half. If you want a GOOD 3D Sonic game, push for Mike Wallace to find the working Saturn demo of Sonic X-Treme, or just pop 3D Blast into your Genesis/Saturn.