After Sega gave up on the Dreamcast, they decided the next 3D Sonic game should release on every major system. The Sonic Adventure games were ported to the GameCube after launching on Dreamcast first, but this was the first 3D Sonic game to launch day one on a console not made by Sega. In this game you control a party of three characters, rather than just one character at a time like in other Sonic games.
Sonic Adventure?
This game is one of the few in the Sonic series that control like the Sonic Adventure games did. It feels a bit more restrictive, probably to fit in with the more linear level design, but it is still mostly the same. The other characters are much different though.
All four parties that you play as also have a flying character and a fighting character to complement the Sonic clone of the group. These characters’ main uses are getting past some obstacles that are specifically designed for them and making combat a bit more varied. The system certainly works, but it doesn’t really make the game any better than it would have been if such a system was not in place. It’s a pretty mindless mechanics to interact with, overall.
It seems that the main reason for having three characters with you at all times was making the combat more interesting. More than any other Sonic game up to this point, Sonic Heroes focuses a lot on combat. This is odd for a Sonic game, but if it is good there isn’t really any need to complain.
Tedium
The combat isn’t that fun. The enemy variety is decent, but they aren’t really treading any new ground here. The fact that the flying and speed characters’ attacks are unreliable doesn’t help matters either. Fighting the same enemies hundreds of times has never been the most entertaining gameplay concept, and Sonic Heroes doesn’t really do anything to make itself an exception.
This focus on combat also makes the level design worse because almost everything has to be a hallway now so that they would have room to put a bunch of enemies in a group to block your path. It could be argued that Sonic Heroes is more of a combat and puzzle game than a platformer when you look at how much time you spend doing each task.
Four times
You have to beat the game four times to get to the end, once with each group of three playable characters. Unlike the Sonic Adventure games where a lot of effort was put in to make the stories different, hardly anything is different between the stories in Sonic Heroes. It all comes down to playing on the same stages, fighting the same enemies, and using characters that control mostly identically.
The results of your efforts aren’t exactly rewarded either. It won’t be spoiled by this review, but even compared to the Sonic Adventure games which didn’t really have a reason to give you more content once you finished both stories since they were unique and had original content, Sonic Heroes still disappoints with it’s unlockable true ending.
This game carries over the multiplayer idea from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and even expands on it with more unlockable modes. Not unlike Sonic Adventure 2: Battle’s multiplayer mode, though, Sonic Heroes’ multiplayer mode is mostly a novelty.
What about everything else?
Since Sonic Heroes was for a mostly different audience than the Sonic Adventure games they decided to not build on the story of those games. Instead, they made a new self contained one. Unfortunately, it’s not really a good story at all. It’s basically just an excuse for them to fight Eggman again, and nothing more than that. This is arguably all a Sonic game needs, but it’s not earning Sonic Heroes any additional points. Some of the writing and cutscenes that are there are bit odd at times, but not really in a blatantly bad way.
Graphically the fidelity is higher than any other Sonic game up to this point, but the art style clearly changed. Instead of the somewhat realistic look of the earlier full 3D Sonic games, Sega decided to go with a more fantastical and cartoony look. Overall it looks good despite some awkward lighting that came as a result of this new style. The prerendered cutscenes look quite good too, even with the small file sizes that the GameCube allows for. It does feel like the budget and ambition was toned down compared to the Sonic Adventure games, though. The performance is quite good as well, though your mileage will vary if you try playing this game on other systems.
Musically the game is quite good as well. Not every song is a hit, but there are many more hits than in other games with rather unnotable soundtracks. The voice acting is about what you would expect from a Sonic game. It’s certainly entertaining, but not really because of its quality most of the time.
Is it worth it?
At the price it goes for as of when this article was released? Sure. At the price it was when the game released? Not really. The amount of actual unique content in here is relatively slim for a GameCube game, and the ways they try to remix it don’t help much. The content isn’t that amazing in the first place, either.
If you are a Sonic fan, a fan of 6th generation console games, or just a massive fan of 3D platformers then this game is probably worth checking out. Otherwise, this game doesn’t really have that much going for it.
Overall the reviewer would give the game a 6.5 out of 10.
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