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.
Version
 Xbox 360, PS3		Developer
Sonic Team		Publisher
SEGA		Genre
Adventure



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Some levels are simply massive, and come in five or six segments not stop, with no loading, and just a 'classic save gate' waypoint between each bit. While some almost feel too long, it can be challenging to fight through, and you rarely feel short-changed.

Throughout the main stages in the game, a lot of the level themes have been seen before (railway, jungle, lava) in recent titles like Heroes, and there are not many fresh ideas in the levels either. But most levels have at least a couple of parts that are a blast to speed through with Sonic or strategically figure out with other characters. Things aren't too consistent though and some levels are comically much shorter than others. Aesthetically, most levels are beautiful.

"Most levels have parts that are a blast to speed through with Sonic or figure out with the others."

There are a handful of levels with completely separate play style built into them, ranging from passable to awful. There are a number of into-the-screen sprinting sections where you must employ fast reflexes to jump and weave obstacles coming at you, but there are some pretty shoddy design flaws in these areas that add frustration to what could otherwise be a fun stretch of twitch-based gameplay.

Meanwhile, the snowboarding presents another broken part of the game with control that is cumbersome and a mix of flawed camera and design that means the end of the level can't come soon enough. These areas look nice, but it takes way too much getting used to for little payback.

In the vein of Sonic Adventure, levels are joined with role-playing 'town' based areas, which include perhaps the most flawed parts of the game. We thought we'd be the only ones struggling to work out how to open up the first level, but it seems many players spent in excess of half an hour figuring out that only by speaking to the guy represented in blue do you get to buy the item from the shop needed to progress towards the first level.

This area early in game requires you to squeeze through a 'gap underneath a wall', a gap that you should quite easily be able to spin under based on logic, but needs an item from the shop, even though at this particular point of town, there's another supposed clue - a soccer ball - that suggests maybe doing something 'smart' might be in order. You soon learn to take a hint when given.

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

In the town areas, there are a handful of repeated NPC inhabitants who communicate with you via text boxes. Town areas are not as polished as the proper levels, but they do let you head into various side missions, ranging from dull (find a dog somewhere) to appalling (Three Musketeers) to actually quite fun (find six kids running around through the town inside the time limit). There's rarely a useful reward though, and the loading time programming with the missions is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE.

"Losing an hour's worth of progress and achievements is nobody's idea of fun."

There's no new environment or anything to load in - the only change is the mission parameters and different music and some text to be displayed. It doesn't require countless sets of ten-second loading time, and it's particularly annoying if you want to retry a mission straight away, you have to go through several load screens for nothing, skipping text each time. It's just inexcusable, farcical. Even we could fix the code up to correct this problem. Seriously. Here is a video that perfectly demonstrates the problem.

It's also no fun to spend a lot of time in a town area collecting hidden bonus items and points and mission successes, only to enter the next level, die, and restart WAY early before you'd done the hard work. Entering a new level should automatically save your town progress (since the option to do this manually is there), but no. Losing an hour's worth of progress and achievements is nobody's idea of fun - and you never want to do them twice.

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Video Coverage
(See Latest Videos & Video FAQ Here)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
DescriptionDur.SizeDetails
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