Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360)

When we think of Sonic some, like me thnk of the 15 year old classic Megadrive series of 2D platformers, others may think of the popular spawned franchises of merchandise and cheap TV shows but either way so many people are aware of this fantastic Japanese invention of a cartoon character.

"The game is set in Soleanna, the beautiful city of water. In his first adventure set in the human world, Sonic meets a beautiful princess ...
...to restore safety and serenity, Sonic must maneuver his way through a series of adventures and challenges where he will encounter and interact with a bevy of allies and enemies & ultimately go head to head against the menacing doctor to thwart his malicious plans.

Along the way, Sonic encounters a mysterious character named Silver. Blocking him with unique supernatural powers, even the Blue dude with 'tude will find it difficult to ... more

When we think of Sonic some, like me thnk of the 15 year old classic Megadrive series of 2D platformers, others may think of the popular spawned franchises of merchandise and cheap TV shows but either way so many people are aware of this fantastic Japanese invention of a cartoon character.

"The game is set in Soleanna, the beautiful city of water. In his first adventure set in the human world, Sonic meets a beautiful princess named Elise, whom he quickly befriends, but Princess Elise is abducted by none other than the calculating Dr. Eggman who is working under dark and sinister motives to destroy this special kingdom of hers.

In order to restore safety and serenity, Sonic must maneuver his way through a series of adventures and challenges where he will encounter and interact with a bevy of allies and enemies & ultimately go head to head against the menacing doctor to thwart his malicious plans.

Along the way, Sonic encounters a mysterious character named Silver. Blocking him with unique supernatural powers, even the Blue dude with 'tude will find it difficult to out-maneuver the enigmatic Silver! As Sonic speeds through the huge kingdom, the mysteries unravel.

Sonic The Hedgehog melds top-tier animation production values with next generation art, physics and game design to create the most intense, high velocity Sonic adventure yet! Featuring interactive 3D environments, a large cast of new and returning characters all wrapped up with a blistering sense of speed!

Get ready for the reinvention of Sonic The Hedgehog!"

When I first heard about the idea of a next generation remake of the arcade platforming classic I was excited at what Sega could create. But it has since become apparent that the franchise has long since had it's day. Like the older games it takes it's form as a platforming game except this time it's in full 3D. The game developers have tried to introduce a feeling of RPG to the title but it really doesn't work - you begin as Sonic the Hedgehog (little changed from the old Sega games). This makes for two types of gameplay, The game takes place exclusively within the City of Soleanna and surrounding area. In the so called free-roaming 'town stages', you can talk to characters, take Town Missions, buy upgrades using rings collected through Action Stages or Town Missions, and further the game's plot by finding entrances to Action Stages - this is where I can see clear influence form the Role-play genre of gaming. Personally I found these levels very annoying - there were times where I spent half an hour just running around talking to man after man looking for a response which would tell me what to do - not the kind of gameplay suited to small children and, at times very boring!

Frequently you will need to engage in one of the games action stages - for these you play as one of three main characters (Sonic, Silver and Shadow). Although each character plays the same levels, each character's unique abilities allow him or her to get to different areas of each stage, and deny them from accessing certain items. The action stages are times courses with one primary route (although short cuts can be taken). You are ranked with grades on how quickly you complete the level (from D to S) as well as what percentage of enemies you kill, rings you collect and several other factors. The goal in the speed levels is to obtain a chaos emerald which is located at one end of the linear level.

There are around 8 of these speedy action stages which take around 10 - 15 minutes and do not prove too challenging; the town contains its own side missions involving racing to certain points and jumping through hoops. At the beginning of each action level you start with 5 lives, this means that you can afford to die via and enemy or from falling off the scenery up to 5 times although extra lives can be collected from gathering 100 rings or a special 1-Up. The levels are split into checkpoints that thankfully means if you die you won't need to go through the entire level again.

Unfortunately you can't help but think that the designers have tried to 'hip' Sonic up for today’s kids, the game is set in some kind of futuristic time where nearly everything you have to battle is a robot which fires homing missiles at you; Sonic has also has been re-designed and doesn’t look quite so 'friendly' as the old Sonic we knew and loved. Robotnik makes a return as the big bad boss but the battles with him are frankly boring and unoriginal, not to mention a little to easy (final one aside).

The gameplay itself varies between each playable character (you begin as Sonic and the others soon become available). The game takes its form as a 3D-platforming game - you see your character in a 3rd person view and you give him commands to move, jump or attack using the controller. Large sections of the so called action stages are in affect cut scenes as you watch sonic run around giant loops and jump between huge gaps - this makes it a little boring as you can't help be feel you want to be in control for the actual exciting gameplay. Variety would probably come in the form of wether the level is set in a snowy, lava, urban, beach or even inside a factory - most of which we have seen in previous Sonic games as far back as the Sega Megadrive. The levels consist of bumpers, jumps, rails, ramps, speed boosts and other 'obstacles' which all sound good but when you actually use them you find your character become uncontrollable in an almost cut scene like run of animations.

Arguably the strongest area of the game is Multiplayer, although only supporting 2 players split-screen. Sonic the Hedgehog features two styles of multiplayer game play that offer two player action. The first being Tag Mode, a co-op type of play between Sonic, Silver and Shadow. Two players, each one controlling a character, must work together to clear levels and collect Chaos Emeralds. In this mode, lives are shared, so if one player loses a life when only one life remains it's game over - this takes place on the single player action stages and can provide some fun as with most co-op gaming. The second game style available is Battle Mode. You may be expecting some kind of duel between the characters but you can think of this as more of a race mode. Battle mode pits two players against each other and has them race to a goal in the selected level. The player who reaches the goal first is the winner.

Playability:

The game is reasonably playable at first but it does become very frustrating. The gameplay uses an irritating try and die formula whereby you just have to keep trying. Many flaws in the games design see glitches also ruining the gameplay, level design is on the whole quite poor and the good parts of the levels are automatically played out for you in lots of cases.

Addictivness:

For obvious reasons that I have mentioned the game isn't very addictive. The speedy action levels are quite fun and can look cool at times but it's unlikely that you'll want to revisit them and on the whole the game is quite short.

Originality:

Sonic may be a 15 year old star of hundreds of media items but this game definitely tries to reinvent the brand - but I think that is where the problem lies - sonic isn't supposed to walk around a town talking to NPC's. IN terms of platformers, there aren’t many on the Xbox 360 so it is quite a one off genre.

Graphics:

Unfortunately the graphics are not a redeeming factor - they seem distinctly last generation. I'm aware that the game is supposed to be somewhat cartoony but the models are very basic and the landscapes full of glitches. I would expect similar graphics on the original Xbox. In HD some of the outdoor landscapes look reasonably good but this isn't enough to redeem the half cartoony and flawed bulk. The game also uses some kind of annoying blurring affect to disguise the graphics, becuase much of the game involves going very fast this just seems like something the developers had to do in order to keep it running smoothly.

Sound:

The sound is very limited - when you talk to people around the free roaming towns they have no recorded voices instead just being given some badly written subtitles which can be hard to read on some televisions. The sound affects are basic and repeated very often - for example when you perform an attack with Sonic he makes the same groaning noise every time and this gets very annoying. The music is quite good as the developers took the time to have a soundtrack with the likes of Akon, Donna DeLory, Zebrahead, Crush 40 and the Japanese composers Tomoya Ohtani and Mariko Nanba - this is clearly very varied but you often don't hear it over the in game sound which is no way near as well recorded.

Difficulty:

One the whole the game is very easy - the action stages follow linear level design where it's hard to get lost. With Sonic you can easily and quickly kill the majority of enemies with the press of just the jump button this takes away the use (or need) of any kind of tactics. The areas of the game which are difficult are the parts which involve jumping between platforms (in the classic platform game style). The can often prove very frustrating as you will lose many lives falling off cliffs and into water and I really don't think the designers meant for this. Bearing in mind the game is intended for kids (despite it having an unusual 12+ rating) I'm not sure the kids of today would tolerate the glitches (sometimes you just die because the games levels are not programmed properly) and have the patience to complete the game.

Value for money:

Personally I would struggle to recommend this game to anybody, possibly a few die-hard sonic fans or the occasional platform fanatic but I wouldn't be suprised if they were disappointed with this adventure. The RRP, like most Xbox 360 games is 39.99 and I can definitely deter anyone form paying this much out. Mine cost 17.99 online but I think this is too much - the only entertainment I really got was playing split screen co-op with a friend and mocking most of what the game had to offer as I played. If you complete the game properly through and through there is less than 10 hours gameplay to be had and it's unlikely that you will want to revisit to raise your grades on some levels or to play on a different difficulty.

Most general perception of the game was less than intended. Across thirty-nine reviews, Game Rankings recorded the average score as 46%; the second poorest average for an Xbox 360 title at the time of the game's release - several magazines which I have read have mentioned the areas of weaknesses in the games faulty formula, glitches and distinctly last generation graphics.

Overall I would give this game 3 / 10, 2 points being redeemed from the entertainment I got from playing through the Cooperative action levels split screen with a friend. Throughout playing there is a general feeling that the game has been rushed - and in realising that it was finished with major deadlines it has since become clear.

Further information and other details:

Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Engine: RenderWare, Havok Physics Engine
Picture format: 720p 1080i 1080p (HD compatible)
Release date: November 24, 2006 (Xbox 360)
Also available on: PS3 and PC
Players: Single player and Multiplayer splitscreen (only 2 players)
Online: Content download only

Thanks for reading. 

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