Sonic Heroes

It's a servicable and innovative effort, but there's still room to grow. [Mar 2004, p.107]

8 / 8 / 8 / 7 - 31 silver [Vol 786]

It's way too easy to dash off a cliff into an instant death, which seems totally out of place these days.

The control elements are mixed and players may find themselves trying to move the game along through stabbing at the wrong keys. However, get past that and you will find a game that moves along nicely, but won’t offer anything new or markedly different.

For everything Sonic Heroes gets right there's a massive fault ready and willing to ruin the hard work - a less than stellar framerate, especially in two-player mode, numerous glitchy moments and - dare we say it? - graphics that are actually inferior to the Dreamcast Sonic iterations.

Gamers who haven't exactly stuck by Sonic's blurry blue side over the years will have to work a little harder to get to the fun, spastic heart of Sonic Heroes, but those who know what to expect in terms of mechanics and sheer kinetic insanity will feel right at home.

The game's graphics aren't on par with today's console offerings -- sure the worlds are colorful and large, but perhaps the developers at Japan's Sonic Team studios had to sacrifice visuals for speed.

A fast and challenging experience that is hurt by camera, collision and polish issues. The levels designs and teamplay are definitely unique, though. [Feb 2004, p.24]

The glorious 3D speed rush is still broken by moments where you will scream with rage inspired by whatever sadism or idiocy has kept Sonic Team from fixing its camera and control schemes after five years of 3D Sonic games.

Old-school Sonic speed plus a few new twists makes for a decent if not earth-shattering return to the realm of the blue hedgehog.

The PS2 Heroes is by far the worst looking of the three. Generally there isn't much of a change in a game's visuals if it's designed for all three consoles, but the underpowered Playstation 2 really takes a beating this time around.

Basically, the camera is a dog that constantly runs the wrong way on you, forcing you to yank the leash to get it under control. If you don't get a handle on it, expect plenty of falls off of edges.

Picture a Sonic game that struggles to go at 30 frames per second, in an age where even the Dreamcast didn't do Sonic that injustice. Sometimes it's like playing a slideshow on fast-forward. It's impossible to be precise with one's movements, or sometimes to even see where the characters are going. Not fun at all.

The game is just a mess at most times (besides the graphics and sound), the gameplay has bugs and there are a couple misleading times in the many levels. The game is also sometimes so fast paced that it's impossible to get some vital powerups and items.

The techincal aspects of Sonic Heroes are handled well, with the exception of the camera and voice work. In fact, the camera is worse than "Mario 64's" (and that's saying a lot) and the voice acting is downright repulsive. [Apr 2004, p.9]

The concept is well and good, and works well – except for the fact that you still must slow down to use Knuckles and Tails (or the equivalent member in one of the three other teams in the game). These are the moments that the game truly lags, and once again the shoddy camera has come back to once again make the game a pain.

As with the previous two 3D Sonic outings, Sonic Heroes is a solid platformer that could've been a lot better if the developers had spent more time balancing the levels and tweaking the unbelievably frustrating camera. [Feb 2004, p.108]

Sonic Team almost seems to be daring you to try and have fun with the PlayStation 2 version by making it significantly uglier, slower, and generally just rougher around the edges than the other two versions.

The camera is crap, the scale is awkward, the story and characters are basic and cringe-worthy, the combat is tedious, the platforming and puzzling is too basic, and I was well bored of it by the time I conquered the final level with the first of the four Teams, which wasn't even that long after I first grabbed it out of the shrink-wrap.

It's also the closest the series has been to its roots in well over a decade.

There is definitely the potential for a very good game here, unfortunately it is hidden well by the many bugs and annoyances.

At 30fps on PS2, it's not as great, but still good. [Mar 2004, p.59]

Marred by technical issues (slowdown galore, jagged edges, simplistic-to-a-fault level design) that make it third-best behind the GameCube and Xbox versions.

Rarely does dying feel like the player's fault and, in typical "Sonic Adventure" fashion, the best bits are when you find that the majority of control has been taken away from you, and you're flung around the world at escape velocity. [Mar 2004, p.105]

Long stretches of each stage can be severely frustrating and annoying, but when they're not, it's still pretty fun -- and getting "in the zone" to complete an especially hard part in one try is always satisfying.

This game feels like nothing short of a chore to play.

A giant mess on the whole. For starters, you encounter plenty of nice little glitches throughout the game, including random spots where characters just fall through solid objects because of some lame collision detection. [Feb 2004, p.98]