Sonic the Hedgehog

Is the new Sonic as bad as everyone says? We lock our rose-tinted specs away and give our own frank verdict.

G A M E   D E T A I L S
Format Xbox 360, PS3	Developer Sonic Team	Publisher SEGA	Genre Adventure	Players 1-2

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By Adam Doree

The new Sonic the Hedgehog is disappointing, without a doubt. But it's not without some merit. Overall presentation is first class, it's graphically very lovely, there's some catchy music and the parts of gameplay that work, often work well. Unfortunately, the list of complaints is a bit longer. But when it's all tallied up, Sonic on Xbox 360 and PS3 isn't the total abomination some have claimed.

When we look at the list of shortcomings in the new Sonic, and the change of direction the project took soon after its announcement, it's not hard to imagine why Yuji Naka quit. Despite the revitalised Sonic game many of us expected, what we've ended up with is something that lost its direction during development and is ultimately more of the same, with little in the way of new ideas or features. But 3D Sonic games, nonetheless, have a lot of fans, and it would be surprising if these fans greet the latest instalment with the same level of disappointment as much of the angry media has.

"The new Sonic is disappointing, but it's not without some merit."

They've had a decent stab at the story and it's even quite good by Sonic standards, with a dose of time travel and a nice twist thrown into the mix. The storytelling itself is nothing remarkable but Sonic's interaction and relationship with humans in the game, chiefly the princess of Soleanna (would), is a welcome change for Sonic fans. Typically these elements usually come across better in the CGI cut scenes than in realtime visual segments.

Particular attention has been paid to Eggman, who eerily looks a lot more 'human' than in previous 3D Sonic games, while a mysterious new Shadow-like character, Mephiles the Dark, will have fans asking questions early in the game.

At first you only have access to Sonic's game, but you'll soon unlock the missions for Shadow and newcomer Silver at the points where their stories cross with Sonic's. Each of these three main missions includes segments where you play as a further pair of characters for each mission; Sonic is joined by Tails and Knuckles, Shadow has got Rogue and E-123 Omega, while Silver is supported by Blaze the Cat (who made her debut in the superb Sonic Rush on Nintendo DS) and, unconvincingly, Amy Rose.

The three main characters all play differently enough to each other to warrant additional playthroughs, and in fact often sections with Silver, Blaze or Rouge are often more enjoyable than Sonic's levels, thanks to a slower pace that leads to fewer unfair deaths, as well as some interesting mechanics - most notably Silver's psychokinetic powers that allow him to launch objects at enemies and bend pre-defined stuff in the environment to create progress paths.

P L E A S E   V I S I T   O U R   S P O N S O R :

"Attention has been paid to Eggman, who eerily looks a lot more 'human' than before."

Smaller differences like Blaze's ability to tornado-jump upwards, add welcome bursts of varied gameplay segments into each of the three main story modes. Shadow has some close-quarters combat and vehicle missions, which are actually half decent, and Knuckles' gliding malarkey still works well - although Tails and his flying is an absolute joke to control.

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Video Coverage (See Latest Videos & Video FAQ Here)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic Gameplay, direct audio, 60fps (normal quality)	1:46	63MB	DFA, ED, 16:9 856x480p60 5.0Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Intro sequence, direct audio, 60fps (normal quality)	1:07	38MB	DFA, ED, 16:9 856x480p60 5.0Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Latest trailer (normal quality)	1:16	16MB	DF, SD, 16:9 640x480p30 1.7Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Direct feed gameplay extended   (PS3, X360 - Sega)	02:19	86MB	DF, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 5.2Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Direct feed trailer extended   (PS3, X360 - Sega)	02:04	32MB	DF, SD, 16:9 640x360p30 2.3Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Direct feed gameplay short   (PS3, X360 - Sega)	00:35	17MB	DF, ED, 16:9 852x480p60 4.2Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog Realtime in-game gameplay footage demonstrated by Yuji Naka (hi quality)	5.08m	140MB	HD, 60 800x448 4Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog As above, normal quality	5.08m	70MB	SD, 30 640x360 2Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog The full trailer (hi quality)	2.22m	64MB	HD, 60 800x448 4Mbps
Sonic the Hedgehog As above, normal quality	2.22m	64MB	SD, 30 640x360 2Mbps