Cronic Heroes! (Sonic Heroes (Xbox))

Member Name: walmslei

Product:	Sonic Heroes (Xbox)
Date:	21/04/04 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Graphics

Disadvantages: Poor Gameplay, Difficult Controls

I remember some years back, when Sonic was first released on the Megadrive as it's flagship title, and the massive following the game took. It featured what were then, fast paced, colourful graphics, with fairly linear gameplay, but enough to keep the average gameplayer amused for an hour or two here or there.

Since then I have pretty much lost interest with the Sonic genre, mainly due to me growing up a little, getting a job, a house and all that nonsense. However, for Christmas I was bought an Xbox, and recently aquired Sonic Heroes through an auction at eBay.

First impressions are good, the game starts off with a fancy introduction and music sound track, that make you think you are in for something pretty special. The game features a training mode where you are taken through the special abilities of our 'sonic heroes'.

Sonic, as per the original games, is the main character, who basically has the ability to run fast. Tails is a fox, who has the ability to fly by spinning his tail, and Knuckles makes up the team, a red sonic-like character, who can break things with his fists. All the characters have very specific abilities in terms of speed, power and attacking strengths.

The first proper level to the game features a cut-scene at the start that goes through the storyline. Whilst these look nice, the story is really just the same old thing - Robotniks taking over the world, got to be stopped by Sonic. As the level starts it looks very impressive, with the world being presented from Sonic (or your chosen 'hero's) point of view. Whilst the old platform games were very playable, it certainly seems that all newer computer games, must have this 3D element.

As you go through the first level though you immediately start to notice a few things. For a game that was always very linear, Sonic Heroes is even more so, and the game 'forces' you along a very specific path. Whilst
the surrounding graphics look amazing, your interaction is limited to this path (very much in the same way as Crash Bandicoot on the Playstation). The minor deviations you can make only take you along other paths, which reach the same end point, hence you have no real concept of a 3D world, but really a standard 2 dimensional platform game from a rather different perspective.

The controls are somewhat awkward, which is mainly related to keeping the camera (i.e. tracking sonic/tails/knuckles) pointing where you need to look. This is a problem common to many games using 3D environments though, and you do quickly get used to correcting things as you go along. More annoying is the constant need to switch between Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, and whilst I appreciate this is the main point of the game, you do tend to find that Knuckles is a lot more useful than Sonic for the vast majority of the game. Correct me if I am wrong but the game is Sonic Heroes......

The games difficulty is ridiculous and is the biggest thing that lets it down. All too often you can go for a complete level without any problems - Baddies, when you encounter them, are often that poor at attacking they present no real challenge to you. The game during these stages is not complicated or difficult enough, and you feel more like you are watching an interactive story, than playing a game. At other points though, you hit very specific area (the rising molten iron/firey stuff in the power station) where the difficulty is jacked right up to nigh on impossible.

Level based games should present an increasingly difficult challenge as your progress through the game - Not in this case, you'll often find easy levels scattered amongst the odd difficult challenge. By making the game play out like this it is easy for the player to become frustrated with it, since it just doesn't flow well.

On the plus side the levels look fantastic and the concepts
the designers have come up with from playing pinball with Sonic, to grinding a la Tony Hawks style are all interesting deviations from the normal gameplay. The old concepts such as collecting rings are also incorporated, and you still find the odd hidden life hiding in a tree or behind a piece of 'dodgy' looking scenery. The game is fast paced, and features some additional play modes such as time trials and two player games (which frankly are much more playable than the standard story mode), which add to the appeal and perhaps give further life to the game once it has been completed.

Whilst I have not completed this game, I find it unlikely it will be on my playlist for long. I could not recommend it for my age group (teens to mid twenties) due to the boredom factor, and for younger players I would think the game presents probably too much of a challenge in some stages. At £40 I would suggest waiting for it on budget if this is really your thing - for die hard sonic fans only!

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