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It's a shame that a game with such a strong PR campaign and mouth-watering gameplay trailers should turn out like this. Every indication us fans were given about this game is that it was going to be the revival of a classic. This would be the innovation Sonic needed to become a major player in the realm of 3D gaming. Unfortunately, as fans who previewed the demo that became available on the X-Box Marketplace realised, this game was no re-invention. This is a sequel and a very bad one at that.
Sonic the Hedgehog suffers from a lot of problems that could have been fixed if it wasn't so clearly obvious that the whole game has been rushed into shops to please the fans. Glitches are apparent from the first stage. You run Sonic into a loop and he falls off the other end and into a pitfall because the game has positioned Sonic incorrectly. When you get to sections of the level where the game needs to load it spends 20 seconds every time. This will happen up to 3 times a stage and destroy the pace of the game. You even get 2 loading screens before you've even began one of the mini-trials the game throws at you. When you collect an invincibility monitor you can't actually tell whether you're invincible because there is no clear effect. The music changes but that is it. But the big problem I have with the game is that Sonic Team lied to us. This isn't a re-invention. The gameplay and the engine is very similar to past 3D Sonic outings. You still have a homing attack, you still have the light dash, you still control Sonic in the same way. Also, if this were a re-invention, all the things we have come to take for granted from Sonic games (such as the Chaos Emeralds) would have been explained to us in order to make the story a fresh one. But this isn't the case. As a Sonic fan you are expected to know the backstory, to know about the Chaos Emeralds and to know about the other characters' backgrounds. Successful game re-inventions like Doom 3, made an effort to re-tell everything so gamers who were new to the series could understand things on the same level as past gamers. To put things simply, this title will not introduce a new generation of kids to the Blue Blur on the same level the original Sonic the Hedgehog did. But this title isn't all a mess of rushed script and misinterpretation. There are plenty of things that an avid Sonic fan will enjoy. The clear references to the original Sonic Adventure such as the re-invention of Emerald Coast (Wave Ocean) and the successful implementation of the adventure fields are nice little reminders of times when Sonic was great. But considering this is supposed to be a next generation title, why do we still have to put up with things like terrible drawback distances? I've been roaming around the Soleanna adventure fields and grimacing as other humans and shadows just appear as you get closer to them. The weird thing about this game is that the story is the strongest aspect of it. Sonic's interaction between humans and the time travel element (which is a clear reference to Sonic CD) make for a fantastic plot with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you gripped. It's a shame they didn't make a movie out of the story instead! Sonic the Hedgehog on X-Box 360 isn't a terrible game. Experienced Sonic gamers will find things they like about the game like the clever little references to past Sonic games. But when you can clearly see that this game was rushed by the developers just so they could have it out on the shelves before Mario (I'm guessing) it really makes you wonder about opportunity that Sonic Team have now wasted. No wonder Naka-san has left. 6/10 Written by Sonic Yoda on 08/01/07 |