HOLiDAY_AETERNUS

User Score
9.2

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 9.5
Value - 9.5

 After SEGA decided to be a software exclusive company, it was safe to say that they would not be as awesome as they used to be. Sure, they were still are, but not as it much as before. Sonic went into some mainstream hibernation for a while, and it would be a while for a mainstream 3D game to be released. With the ports of the legendary Sonic Adventure Games being inferior to the original AND THANK THE GREAT GODS I OWN THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS, I would be losing patience. Fortunately, Sonic Heroes was announced. I was really, really looking forward to this game. It was released in Japan in December 30th, 2003; a couple days earlier before the United States would get it on January 5th, 2004 and the Pal Region on February 6th, 2004. This was also the first mainstream 3D Sonic game of entirely new material to be formally released on platforms of different companies. And so, I would get this game around 2 months after it was released in the United States.

 Being very excited for this, I started playing it. It was a lot of fun, especially considering how new it was at the time. Sonic Heroes is a much underappreciated game full of thrills and excitement. It has some of the features that made the Sonic Adventure Games so great and while Sonic Heroes has some problems of its own, it’s still a very great game.

 There’s a cool boxart and instruction manual. The game’s plot isn’t as strong as it was in previous Sonic games. Doctor Julian Ivo Robotnik aka EGGMAN has an ultimate weapon that will be ready in a matter of days and challenges Sonic and his allies to stop him. Now, why would somebody tell their greatest enemy what their plan is? As Sonic and company race to stop Robotnik of their plan in the form of mass teamwork, there will be other teams along the way. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles make Team Sonic. With familiar faces like Amy Rose The Rascally Hedgehog, Cream The Rabbit & Cheese The Chao, and Big The Cat & Froggy (Team Rose)searching for Sonic, a new character known as Chocola The Chao, or Froggy himself to the return of characters.

 The Chaotix finally reappears as Team Chaotix, with Espio The Chameleon, Vector The Crocodile, and Charmy The Bee making the cut again. Unfortunately, characters like Mighty The Armadillio, Ray The Flying Squirrel, Heavy & Bomb do not appear, most likely due to keeping in touch with this game’s “3-Man Team” style. And really, the Chaotix does work fine the way it does in the game.

 Shadow The Hedgehog, last appeared and presumed to have been dead in Sonic Adventure 2 and Rouge The Bat reappear and a new yet familiar character known as E123-Omega the Robot appears, making Team Dark. The reappearance of Shadow was met with unfair criticisms which were all mostly about bias against the character itself. I thought Shadow deserved to reappear.

 The presentation of this game is good, while it does adapt a significantly “corny” theme. Still, it does match well. The graphics of Sonic Heroes are a bit disappointing, a step back from how cutting edge the blue blur’s Dreamcast ventures were in that column. RenderWare is a great company. However, there are some way better graphics companies. SEGA should have stuck with a better graphics engine, and more on CRIWARE. The environments look very nice and very reminiscent of Sonic’s SEGA GENESIS ventures. There are also some very nice special effects to be found in Sonic Heroes.

 Now, how does this game play? In short, it plays very well. It has a lot of what made the Sonic Adventure games so enjoyable, retaining the traditional highspeed gameplay. The game now utilizes a “team” element where 3 characters are played as at once. You switch into the required format for the game. There are Speed, Power, and Flight. This is a very fun element and each form is fun to control. These are also very underrated and met with unfair criticism. The game always remains fast paced and pressing a single button is no hassle.

 A new “Team Blast” technique is featured in Sonic Heroes, where after destroying enemies and collecting items, you can execute an ultrapowerful technique that damages enemies. Each team’s version of this is unique from each other and has various aftereffects. And speaking of variety in the teams, each team will play a bit different. Team Sonic’s levels are the most structured and balanced of the game, Team Dark’s levels are made to be more challenging, Team Rose’s are the easiest, and Team Chaotix varies in missions. Also, there is a return of the Special Stages and I find these to be the best Special Stages ever in a Sonic game. The boss fights are awesome as well.

 Still, Sonic Heroes is not without its faults. Even though the teams have some differences, they are mostly minor and just noticeable in the difficulty for the most part. Other than the Team Blast, each team plays almost exactly the same and you’ll be going through the same levels in the same amount and order. I’m not criticizing anything for that, but it would be nice if there was some more originality involved.

 The main problem here is that it can lack a lot of polish. The characters control very slippery and the level design is just lacking in some serious areas. The way they are structured just seems odd. The game just overall plays a bit incompletely done with a notable lack of polish, especially when compared to previous Sonic games. Still, there’s a nifty “Level” system here, so props there.

While it does have its problems, Sonic Heroes still plays like the typical great Sonic game for the most part. The controls are very simple although mastering which exact buttons to switch into the format you want instantly can take a while. There is a cool Multiplayer Mode and you can unlock new styles for it as well which is cool. The Multiplayer does pale in comparison to Sonic Adventure 2’s, though. The last bits to note are that the Boss Battles here are awesome.

 The musical score in Sonic Heroes is near perfect for most parts of the game, with a lot of jamming tracks. The vocal themes aren’t always perfect, though. The main theme song is very, very corny and cheesy. But it does keep with the game’s theme and I can’t say that Sonic Heroes’ theme song was not memorable.  The lyrics of “We Can” is overly corny and Tony Harnell should have performed instead of Ted Poley, although both artists are cool. The “This Machine”, “Follow Me”, and “Team Chaotix” songs are greatly done and match with the characters/teams.

 The voice acting of Sonic Heroes is very nice and some of the best of the original cast. While it doesn't seem to have as much effort as in previous games, Sonic still sounds great in this game as do all of the characters. Charmy’s voice is a bit too girly though (and to be honest, Charmy isn’t as great as he could be in this game. But he’s still cool). Characters will talk more often in stages and while it's nice to hear the voice acting overall, the script is consistently cheesy and pointless at many times ("Look at all those Eggman's robots!"). Still, it's memorable. The game mostly aces in sound.

 There is plenty of replay value to be found in Sonic Heroes with all of its unlockables, like collecting emblems for more multiplayer modes. They are nice, but pale to the unlockables in Sonic Adventure 2. There are plenty of stages and the playing as the different teams is unique enough to keep playing stages with each of them. And if the PC version comes to mind, there is a lot of fun with all the mods for the game.

Overall, though, the game stands well. Sonic Heroes follows in the bright paths that the franchise has been taking. It has some notable problems, but it’s still a great game. If you enjoyed the Sonic Adventure titles, there’s a high chance that you will enjoy Sonic Heroes. In short, Sonic Heroes does the job.

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