Sonikku hiirôzu

Over a decade ago, a played an Animaniacs video game for the SNES. The game is a side-scroller (as with most games in the early-1990s). But instead of controlling a single character, I get to play a team of three characters. And as long as the one I control does not die, the other two will be fine.

And when I started playing Sonic Heroes, I was amazed to relived that beautiful Animaniacs experience. The difference between this game and the aforementioned one is that Sonic Heroes is a 3D game, and it has more features. As with the Animaniacs game, I get to play three characters. Each character has a set of moves for certain situations, and I could switch between them during a game.

Because of its uniqueness, I would consider Sonic Heroes a classic in the Sonic series. The games' developers perhaps wanted to try something different by having the player to play a group instead of an individual character.

When the Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001, I wasn't much into video games or consoles like I was years earlier. This was until I read game articles in Wikipedia, and later bought an Xbox 360. Because the Sonic Heroes game is created for an original Xbox, my Xbox 360 needed a special hard drive to play it.

When I began playing the game, one thing unique about it is that, I get to control a team of three characters instead of a single character. I find this a little unusual at first but I still enjoy the game. Like good Sonic games, it has nice graphics and music.

Although various other Sonic games have been available when I got Sonic Heroes, I prefer this one for a reason. Sonic Heroes is the last Sonic game where Tails is voiced by a boy (William Corkery). In games released after this, Tails would be voiced by three whatever they are which is kinda sad. So here is perhaps the last game of the series where things are done the appropriate way.

This is the first time I have played a Sonic game and I have not been disappointed. Well, almost not...

This is an exciting game with lots of combinations which teach the value of teamwork: for instance, get Tails to bring down a flying enemy and then get Knuckles to smash him to bits. Lovely, fast-pacing graphics accompany fast and furious situations.

My one complaint is the absence of any visible kind of Save option. There are obstacles in this game which are very difficult to overcome and it takes a lot of practice in order to do. Stage 4 of Team Sonic, for example, ends with you having to climb up a fast-flowing lava pit. If you die and wear out all available lives then you have to go through the whole Stage from the beginning, which can get repetitive and tedious.

It's not as if there is no time to save a game. There are times when the characters can get a respite so a game save is possible, and if most games such as Doom and American McGee's Alice can provide Save options for whenever a player chooses then I do not see why Sonic Heroes should be the exception.

Major design flaw here, Sega. It does not tempt me to buy more of your games.

OK.... sonic was good..... 10 years ago. This is basically a tool to test whether children have epilepsy. level one of sonic hero's almost drove me to the edge of insanity as the colour brightness and speed can only be compared to a night at the sydney fireworks display mixed with an episode of pokemon.

Graphics: OK, of what you can make out apart from the blinding colours and awfully crude textures it looks rather basic, the PS2 version is crap.

Gameplay: Push forward..... thats about it.

Longevity: You might get a couple of minutes before you black out, those 2 minutes where spent on the menus.

Music: Well what where you expecting a powerful orchestral score? no way, you thought the visuals were painful? well the soundtrack is there to make the experience all worth while! ever fancied hearing patriotic garbage being spilled out by a blue hedgehog and an 8 year old squirrel?and to accompany the wonderful voice acting we have a dreadful synthesised score that will make you run out and by the soundtrack.

Overall: Sega, well done! you have obviously given up on making decent games like jet set radio, you have decided to make a half baked pile of horse crap.....

Sonic the Hedgehog made his first video game appearance in 1991. His first video game was such a success that Sega made him their mascot. The character would appear in more installments.

Although Sega quit making consoles in 2001, Sonic would continue to appear in games played on other platforms. And the game Sonic Heroes marked the beginning of the period.

Besides being the first Sonic game released in Sega's post-hardware years, Sonic Heroes is also something I would like to call the final gem in the Sonic series. In other words, it is the last game in the franchise where things are done pretty much within tradition. From Sonic Adventure to this game, the fox's speaking role was done by little lads. But in games following Sonic Heroes, old long-haired undesirables stole that role and (perhaps) to no end which kinda saddens me. If the character in a video game, TV show, or film is a young boy, it would be really nice to reflect that character by using a young boy actor to do his words. I can only hope Sega would understand that.

Anyway. everything else about the game such the music, graphics, and gameplay, their just as good as any Sonic game in Sonic's 3D era. Again, this is the final gem in the Sonic series.