FA+
Shop
573
Views
Views
0
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Other / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 1280
File Size 228.8 kB
Report this content
More from Randommanelnorse
![Sonic Heroes Game Review [GR]](http://d.furaffinity.net/art/randommanelnorse/1357876174/1357876174.randommanelnorse_sinik_heros.png "Click to change the View")
Bear with me, this is my first game review ever, so go easy on me. D: some things may be inaccurate, but I did research on Sonic Retro, which is the most reliable source of info I know of. If there's something atrocious I may have missed, then let me know, and I'll add it to the review. Some Game Reviewing tips would be nice, too.
Game Review: Sonic Heroes
Who Made This?: Sega/Sonic Team
Consoles: Gamecube/Xbox/PS2
Completed?: Yes, Twice.
Players: 1-2
Nostalgia Rating: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Description:
Sonic Heroes is the first Sonic Title on the Gamecube that was not a port of some
kind, and it was a time where Sonic Team wanted to try something new, most likely to correspond with the newer age coming, that, or I also think it may have been an attempt to make a Sonic game that utilizes some Gamecube thing that the Dreamcast wasn't capable of. I honestly think the game is hit-or-miss, some may like it, some may not. I personally didn't find it to be the most amazing thing, but it sticks in my mind like a thorn that got jabbed through my head. Let's check it out.
Gameplay:
Of course the gameplay is different from that of Sonic Adventure 2. For it's something completely new. Instead of being a single character, you take control of three, all put onto a team with their respective names (Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix.) you are immediately told that you can switch through these things called "formations." Where you basically switch the lead character, and the formation of the current Trio changes to match that formation. There are 3 formations: Speed, Fly, and Power. Speed Formation is obviously the best if you wanna do long sprints, your partners follow you in free form, so this is basically the "most free" formation, and I personally like this one the most, pressing the action button here makes you do certain speedy actions, such as with Sonic, his team goes up behind him and pushes him while he rolls, (no, there's no Spin Dashing.). Fly Formation puts the trio in an awkward tower-like formation with the flyer at the top, I always felt this formation is significantly slower than the others, I think this is intentional, it also seems to have an ungodly amount of traction to the terrain, go fly formation and go across a speed pad, and you'll see what I mean. when in Fly formation, you are able to shoot your friends at people, and do minor damage, or paralyze them, which is kinda disappointing in my opinion. Fly formation is my least favorite formation, and I hate to be in it. Lastly is power formation, again, your partners follow you, but in a way that makes a triangle. In Power formation, as you may have been able to guess, you can clobber the piss out of enemies, and the enemies that take more than one hit (annoyingly these enemies appear ALL the time, especially in later stages, and Homing attack isn't as effective as it was in SA2.) This formation is as fast as Speed formation, if not, only a tidbit slower. There's also a level system, in the sense that you an temporarily level your characters to make them more godlike, I feel as if all the changes are highly noticeable, especially when everyone is level 3, you're basically unstoppable by then. It's fairly simple to play, there's nothing too complicated to figure out neither, since you get a LOT of hints, and you have the characters annoyingly pointing out obvious crap all the time, there's also a Tutorial level. I should also mention that Each Team plays the same exact Zones and Acts, except each are modified slightly, I personally hate this, especially after coming off Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, I dislike that each team doesn't have their own levels, like how Sonic and Shadow have their own personal levels. Team Sonic's is the most "Normal" mode; Team Dark is made to be harder, more enemies, more annoying features, and honestly only good for an experienced StH player; Team Rose's are made to be quite easy, all of the zones are cut in half, and there are less enemies, this mode is good for younger players, but it's a pain for more experienced StH players that want a challenge; Team Chaotix reintroduces a mission-like setting, it's a nice change, but it just makes ya wish you were playing some "Lost Chao" Missions in SA2.
Music:
The Music isn't very amazing, but it's memorable, I sometimes find myself humming the first level song. The theme songs are.... I dunno, the only theme song I really remember is Team Chaotix's theme song, they're not as nice as SA or SA2, sadly, I feel as if this only gets worse throughout the series. Also, this theme song is very annoying, namely the coruse, watch how many people want to smack you when you say
"SONIC HEEEEERROOOOEEEEEES."
Replayability:
Despite the fact that I beat this game twice, I don't think the replayability is as good as the previous games. I don't see myself 10 years from now, going back to this game and playing it for hours. Namely because of the disappointing lack of level variety. Even though the characters and teams are different, you're still playing the same 7 Zones and 14 Acts, just altered slightly depending on the team, each team doesn't have their "own" levels, like in the Adventure series. There is an "A" Counter, a Last Story, and Special Stages, but getting all the As isn't worth it, The Last Story isn't much different from the Adventure series, and I personally think the Special
Stages suck.
Story:
So the Story is alright, it isn't too convoluted if you just try not to think about
all the stories at the same time. They're all just cheap reasons to get all the
teams together, and to have them go fight Eggman, I honestly think the Chaotix's story is the best, because it reminds me of one of those shows or movies where a guy is working for an unnamed, unseen character with a mysterious voice. Team Rose's is the worst, to me. It makes no sense, namely because of the ad that shows Sonic in it with a Chao and a Frog in it, for years I've honestly been wondering when this picture was taken, it is the possibility that it could have been Metal Sonic, but I don't remember Metal Sonic looking EXACTALY like sonic, I just think it's a good example of something cheap to get an adventure going. The Last Story is honestly a little interesting, it's pretty deep, to me at least. I love the fact that Metal Sonic is even in this game, I think this is one of the only reasons to play this game 100% Through, just to see Metal Sonic and see what Amazing things he ends up doing, lemme warn you though, the Last Story levels are relentless, you play as all the teams, but the difficulty remains HARD.
Voice Acting:
I suppose the VOs are decent, I like E-123 Omega, he sounds a lot like Gamma, which is probably a given, but I still like it. The English Big is played by Jon St. John again, It still strikes me as hilarious that Duke Nukem = Big, I still think the guy does a good job. I think the worst VO job done was with was English Tails, I don't know why, but William Corkery sounds kinda inaudible at times, it sounds like he's speaking gibberish a lot of the time, and he is the most ANNOYING English Tails to me. I also noticed that his Sister played English Charmy in the same game, she didn't sound as bad, oddly. This is the last game that Ryan Drummond plays the voice of Sonic, before handing the ball over to Jason Griffith(arguably the worst Sonic VO, I personally think Samuel Vincent is the worst Sonic VO.). This is sad, because
Drummond delivers the most corny line EVER, "YEAH WE'RE SONIC HEROES!" This line literally made me frown when I heard it, especially since it's the LAST LINE HE DELIVERS. I just felt as if it could have been TONS better, it's even worse because he said this 50 seconds ago just about, in response to Metal Sonic, "because we're Sonic Heroes." Not only does it feel repetitive, just, what he says, plain sucks. It sounds very corny to use the name of the game as the name of something that doesn't need to have that name, it also sounds incredibly egotistic. "Sonic" heroes, why couldn't he just say "Because we're the heroes." and for the ending scene, just something like "Let's get goin!" or something like that? It just really ticks me off to hear this.
Now Imma get onto what spesific things I do and Don't like.
What I do Like:
-The Inclusion of Team Chaotix:
Anyone who's played Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X will find this to be a real treat, and you'll also know why it's called "Team Chaotix." Nothing else really but an appeal to nostalgia here for people who owned a 32X.
-The Graphics:
They aren't too amazing now, but I was always stunned by the graphical capability, I also always found myself watching that Metal Sonic transformation scene at the end, over and over again.
-The Nostalgic appeal:
This game isn't the best sonic game, but it has a bit of a nostalgic appeal to it, I feel as if this is the last Sonic game that has this kind of feel to it, namely if you listen to a song from the game.
-The Music:
As I said before, the music isn't the most amazing, but it's very memorable, if you're the kind of person who comes back to play this game after 8 years? The music is a nice flashback.
-The Use of the Renderware Engine:
This made it easy to port to other consoles, I had the Gamecube version, which is the system it was mostly made for, but I never really heard any horrible reviews on the separate systems, they're all mostly identical, which is good, however I heard the PS2 version was only slightly worse, due to form clipping and graphical faults at times.
-Jun Senoue:
Nuff Said.
What I didn't like:
-The way the game was presented:
I do like the idea, having characters follow you, and the ability to switch between them, it reminds me of the older Sonic games, where Tails follows you. However just, most of the other things in this game draws me away from it, as I said before, the Level variety isn't so hot, and the Special Stages kinda suck, they feel hard to control, and the boosting makes it even worse. I know this is when they were trying new stuff, and not everything functioned or felt correct, but I just feel as if, again, coming off the Adventure series, this game coulda been a ton better.
-How Repetitive it is:
I honestly don't know why they could've made different stages for each team, I mean, I don't know how many people agree with me here, It really sucks when you know you have to complete all 4 stories, and it's nothing really unique between the Teams, you're just playing the same levels over and over, except they're modified slightly, That's not really variety to me. Feel free to disagree, but that's how I feel, and it's one of the main things that tick me off about the game.
-The Multiplayer Mode:
It was nice to include this, I liked the Racing mode, It was all just fine, but the battle mode... it kinda sucked. It was all just very confusing in general, If you hated the stupid little battles with other teams in the game, then you'll hate this even more, it's basically the same deal as the battles, except you're facing a friend. Soon you'll both be finding yourself constantly switching formations with your friend, or spamming the flying formation shooting against one another constantly until one of you glitches out and flies off the stage.
-The Deliberately Missed Oppertunity to include Super Knux and Super Tails:
In the last story, I was actually excited to see that Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic all were about to go Super.
... Rather, Super Sonic, Gold Bubble Knuckles, and Gold Bubble Tails.
What happened, did they run out of time? Did they forget that Super Knux and Super Tails ACTUALLY existed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles? AND in the Archie Comics as well? this may be a minor thing, but it Killed the final boss battle for me.
Overall Thoughts:
Sonic Heroes was an Okay game, but there were so many things that ruined it for me, and most likely everyone that came immediately off Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Despite everything, it's ultimate flaw is that it's repetitive, even with the different teams, and their different motives and stories, and the fact that the levels are all modified versions of one another's levels, it doesn't feel different, it just feels like you're going in circles, with each circle changing every time you go. It's a little different if you're playing as a different character through the same stage, like playing as Knuckles instead of Sonic through the same Mushroom Hill, due to the different capabilities of Knuckles, you can take different paths that Sonic cannot, and that's what I'm saying, it lacks the joy of being able to do one thing as one team that you can't do as another, each team is ultimately the same, and each path you take as each team is ultimately the same.
Overall, I just wish there was a larger attempt at making things "different" from one another, instead of just changing character models, voices, and modifying each Zone very slightly.
However, I still find a bit of a joy when playing this game, namely because of
Nostalgia, It puts me in a nostalgic mood when I play it, But when I do play it, I only play it for about an hour before I move onto something better that keeps my nostalgia up, like Sonic 3, because Heroes gets boring very quick. I honestly can't believe this game made it on PS2's greatest hits, XBox's Platinum, and GCN's player's Choice. But hey, I guess you could say that there was much worse in the Sonic Future, so I'm not going to say too much more about this.
Game Review: Sonic Heroes
Who Made This?: Sega/Sonic Team
Consoles: Gamecube/Xbox/PS2
Completed?: Yes, Twice.
Players: 1-2
Nostalgia Rating: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Description:
Sonic Heroes is the first Sonic Title on the Gamecube that was not a port of some
kind, and it was a time where Sonic Team wanted to try something new, most likely to correspond with the newer age coming, that, or I also think it may have been an attempt to make a Sonic game that utilizes some Gamecube thing that the Dreamcast wasn't capable of. I honestly think the game is hit-or-miss, some may like it, some may not. I personally didn't find it to be the most amazing thing, but it sticks in my mind like a thorn that got jabbed through my head. Let's check it out.
Gameplay:
Of course the gameplay is different from that of Sonic Adventure 2. For it's something completely new. Instead of being a single character, you take control of three, all put onto a team with their respective names (Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix.) you are immediately told that you can switch through these things called "formations." Where you basically switch the lead character, and the formation of the current Trio changes to match that formation. There are 3 formations: Speed, Fly, and Power. Speed Formation is obviously the best if you wanna do long sprints, your partners follow you in free form, so this is basically the "most free" formation, and I personally like this one the most, pressing the action button here makes you do certain speedy actions, such as with Sonic, his team goes up behind him and pushes him while he rolls, (no, there's no Spin Dashing.). Fly Formation puts the trio in an awkward tower-like formation with the flyer at the top, I always felt this formation is significantly slower than the others, I think this is intentional, it also seems to have an ungodly amount of traction to the terrain, go fly formation and go across a speed pad, and you'll see what I mean. when in Fly formation, you are able to shoot your friends at people, and do minor damage, or paralyze them, which is kinda disappointing in my opinion. Fly formation is my least favorite formation, and I hate to be in it. Lastly is power formation, again, your partners follow you, but in a way that makes a triangle. In Power formation, as you may have been able to guess, you can clobber the piss out of enemies, and the enemies that take more than one hit (annoyingly these enemies appear ALL the time, especially in later stages, and Homing attack isn't as effective as it was in SA2.) This formation is as fast as Speed formation, if not, only a tidbit slower. There's also a level system, in the sense that you an temporarily level your characters to make them more godlike, I feel as if all the changes are highly noticeable, especially when everyone is level 3, you're basically unstoppable by then. It's fairly simple to play, there's nothing too complicated to figure out neither, since you get a LOT of hints, and you have the characters annoyingly pointing out obvious crap all the time, there's also a Tutorial level. I should also mention that Each Team plays the same exact Zones and Acts, except each are modified slightly, I personally hate this, especially after coming off Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, I dislike that each team doesn't have their own levels, like how Sonic and Shadow have their own personal levels. Team Sonic's is the most "Normal" mode; Team Dark is made to be harder, more enemies, more annoying features, and honestly only good for an experienced StH player; Team Rose's are made to be quite easy, all of the zones are cut in half, and there are less enemies, this mode is good for younger players, but it's a pain for more experienced StH players that want a challenge; Team Chaotix reintroduces a mission-like setting, it's a nice change, but it just makes ya wish you were playing some "Lost Chao" Missions in SA2.
Music:
The Music isn't very amazing, but it's memorable, I sometimes find myself humming the first level song. The theme songs are.... I dunno, the only theme song I really remember is Team Chaotix's theme song, they're not as nice as SA or SA2, sadly, I feel as if this only gets worse throughout the series. Also, this theme song is very annoying, namely the coruse, watch how many people want to smack you when you say
"SONIC HEEEEERROOOOEEEEEES."
Replayability:
Despite the fact that I beat this game twice, I don't think the replayability is as good as the previous games. I don't see myself 10 years from now, going back to this game and playing it for hours. Namely because of the disappointing lack of level variety. Even though the characters and teams are different, you're still playing the same 7 Zones and 14 Acts, just altered slightly depending on the team, each team doesn't have their "own" levels, like in the Adventure series. There is an "A" Counter, a Last Story, and Special Stages, but getting all the As isn't worth it, The Last Story isn't much different from the Adventure series, and I personally think the Special
Stages suck.
Story:
So the Story is alright, it isn't too convoluted if you just try not to think about
all the stories at the same time. They're all just cheap reasons to get all the
teams together, and to have them go fight Eggman, I honestly think the Chaotix's story is the best, because it reminds me of one of those shows or movies where a guy is working for an unnamed, unseen character with a mysterious voice. Team Rose's is the worst, to me. It makes no sense, namely because of the ad that shows Sonic in it with a Chao and a Frog in it, for years I've honestly been wondering when this picture was taken, it is the possibility that it could have been Metal Sonic, but I don't remember Metal Sonic looking EXACTALY like sonic, I just think it's a good example of something cheap to get an adventure going. The Last Story is honestly a little interesting, it's pretty deep, to me at least. I love the fact that Metal Sonic is even in this game, I think this is one of the only reasons to play this game 100% Through, just to see Metal Sonic and see what Amazing things he ends up doing, lemme warn you though, the Last Story levels are relentless, you play as all the teams, but the difficulty remains HARD.
Voice Acting:
I suppose the VOs are decent, I like E-123 Omega, he sounds a lot like Gamma, which is probably a given, but I still like it. The English Big is played by Jon St. John again, It still strikes me as hilarious that Duke Nukem = Big, I still think the guy does a good job. I think the worst VO job done was with was English Tails, I don't know why, but William Corkery sounds kinda inaudible at times, it sounds like he's speaking gibberish a lot of the time, and he is the most ANNOYING English Tails to me. I also noticed that his Sister played English Charmy in the same game, she didn't sound as bad, oddly. This is the last game that Ryan Drummond plays the voice of Sonic, before handing the ball over to Jason Griffith(arguably the worst Sonic VO, I personally think Samuel Vincent is the worst Sonic VO.). This is sad, because
Drummond delivers the most corny line EVER, "YEAH WE'RE SONIC HEROES!" This line literally made me frown when I heard it, especially since it's the LAST LINE HE DELIVERS. I just felt as if it could have been TONS better, it's even worse because he said this 50 seconds ago just about, in response to Metal Sonic, "because we're Sonic Heroes." Not only does it feel repetitive, just, what he says, plain sucks. It sounds very corny to use the name of the game as the name of something that doesn't need to have that name, it also sounds incredibly egotistic. "Sonic" heroes, why couldn't he just say "Because we're the heroes." and for the ending scene, just something like "Let's get goin!" or something like that? It just really ticks me off to hear this.
Now Imma get onto what spesific things I do and Don't like.
What I do Like:
-The Inclusion of Team Chaotix:
Anyone who's played Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X will find this to be a real treat, and you'll also know why it's called "Team Chaotix." Nothing else really but an appeal to nostalgia here for people who owned a 32X.
-The Graphics:
They aren't too amazing now, but I was always stunned by the graphical capability, I also always found myself watching that Metal Sonic transformation scene at the end, over and over again.
-The Nostalgic appeal:
This game isn't the best sonic game, but it has a bit of a nostalgic appeal to it, I feel as if this is the last Sonic game that has this kind of feel to it, namely if you listen to a song from the game.
-The Music:
As I said before, the music isn't the most amazing, but it's very memorable, if you're the kind of person who comes back to play this game after 8 years? The music is a nice flashback.
-The Use of the Renderware Engine:
This made it easy to port to other consoles, I had the Gamecube version, which is the system it was mostly made for, but I never really heard any horrible reviews on the separate systems, they're all mostly identical, which is good, however I heard the PS2 version was only slightly worse, due to form clipping and graphical faults at times.
-Jun Senoue:
Nuff Said.
What I didn't like:
-The way the game was presented:
I do like the idea, having characters follow you, and the ability to switch between them, it reminds me of the older Sonic games, where Tails follows you. However just, most of the other things in this game draws me away from it, as I said before, the Level variety isn't so hot, and the Special Stages kinda suck, they feel hard to control, and the boosting makes it even worse. I know this is when they were trying new stuff, and not everything functioned or felt correct, but I just feel as if, again, coming off the Adventure series, this game coulda been a ton better.
-How Repetitive it is:
I honestly don't know why they could've made different stages for each team, I mean, I don't know how many people agree with me here, It really sucks when you know you have to complete all 4 stories, and it's nothing really unique between the Teams, you're just playing the same levels over and over, except they're modified slightly, That's not really variety to me. Feel free to disagree, but that's how I feel, and it's one of the main things that tick me off about the game.
-The Multiplayer Mode:
It was nice to include this, I liked the Racing mode, It was all just fine, but the battle mode... it kinda sucked. It was all just very confusing in general, If you hated the stupid little battles with other teams in the game, then you'll hate this even more, it's basically the same deal as the battles, except you're facing a friend. Soon you'll both be finding yourself constantly switching formations with your friend, or spamming the flying formation shooting against one another constantly until one of you glitches out and flies off the stage.
-The Deliberately Missed Oppertunity to include Super Knux and Super Tails:
In the last story, I was actually excited to see that Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic all were about to go Super.
... Rather, Super Sonic, Gold Bubble Knuckles, and Gold Bubble Tails.
What happened, did they run out of time? Did they forget that Super Knux and Super Tails ACTUALLY existed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles? AND in the Archie Comics as well? this may be a minor thing, but it Killed the final boss battle for me.
Overall Thoughts:
Sonic Heroes was an Okay game, but there were so many things that ruined it for me, and most likely everyone that came immediately off Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Despite everything, it's ultimate flaw is that it's repetitive, even with the different teams, and their different motives and stories, and the fact that the levels are all modified versions of one another's levels, it doesn't feel different, it just feels like you're going in circles, with each circle changing every time you go. It's a little different if you're playing as a different character through the same stage, like playing as Knuckles instead of Sonic through the same Mushroom Hill, due to the different capabilities of Knuckles, you can take different paths that Sonic cannot, and that's what I'm saying, it lacks the joy of being able to do one thing as one team that you can't do as another, each team is ultimately the same, and each path you take as each team is ultimately the same.
Overall, I just wish there was a larger attempt at making things "different" from one another, instead of just changing character models, voices, and modifying each Zone very slightly.
However, I still find a bit of a joy when playing this game, namely because of
Nostalgia, It puts me in a nostalgic mood when I play it, But when I do play it, I only play it for about an hour before I move onto something better that keeps my nostalgia up, like Sonic 3, because Heroes gets boring very quick. I honestly can't believe this game made it on PS2's greatest hits, XBox's Platinum, and GCN's player's Choice. But hey, I guess you could say that there was much worse in the Sonic Future, so I'm not going to say too much more about this.
Category Other / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 1280px
File Size 228.8 kB
There are a lot of good points presented here, and I think I agree with the overall opinion of the game, although there are a few big details that I feel weren't elaborated much:
The shoe-horned Chaos Emeralds: The Chaos Emeralds basically only exist to provide an extra requirement you need to complete to finish the game's story; there is absolutely no mention of them in the story at all before the final boss fight, Eggman's just goes all "IF ONLY WE HAD THE CHAOS EMERALDS!" and suddenly everyone goes "Yup, we conveniently already have them all!" for no reason other than that you did the special stages to get them. Relatively minor point but it's something that annoys me. Also yeah, on a related note, the whole Bubble Tails and Knuckles thing was stupid too.
The level-up system: It's true that the boosts you gain from the level-ups are quite beneficial, but the inverse is also true that without them, fighting becomes much harder and much more tedious, especially in the later stages of the game. On top of this, every time you die, all of your levels go back down to one, effectively crippling you until you can find more, and the further you are in a stage the harder doing that is going to be.
The secret keys: If you thought going through an entire stage was bad, just try going through an entire stage without ever getting hit at all. This is the requirement for keeping one of the keys that allow you to do the bonus stages, which are in turn what you need to complete to get the Chaos Emeralds that unlock the final ending. While there are multiple keys hidden throughout each stage, most of them tend to be hidden in extremely obscure places. And remember, if you don't win the bonus stage, you have to do the entire process of getting the key to the end of the stage all over again. This brings me to my biggest point.
The sheer length of the stages: This, in my opinion, is the biggest failing of the game. The fact that every team has to go through the same stages wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that going through each of the stages is such a goddamn chore. Compare this to Sonic Adventure 2, where very few stages took longer than five minutes to complete for an experienced player. When I recently did a playthrough of Heroes as Team Sonic, I don't think a single stage was less than five minutes - I would say the average was somewhere in the range of eight to ten minutes. And remember that Team Sonic is the "normal" playthrough; obviously Team Rose will have much shorter stages, but Team Dark's will be slightly to considerably longer on account of the more difficult combat, and Team Chaotix, good god, some of their stages can go on for well over twenty minutes (I'm looking at you, Mystic Mansion). In Adventure 2, the only stage that comes anywhere near close to this length is Cosmic Wall, and I would argue that that stage actually feels satisfying to play, specifically because of the reason that such length is so rare. In this game, when every single stage is so long it loses the impact and they all just feel prolonged and tedious.
Also, something of a personal gripe, but much disappointment at lack of mention in the music department for This Machine, Team Dark's theme, and especially What I'm Made Of, the final boss theme.
I think the review itself is rather solid nonetheless, there is a wide variety of points being explored and it does sound impartial for the most part. I feel a few details are somewhat unrefined and vague, however; for example, the part about the multiplayer gameplay feeling lacking only really talks about the battle mode (which, if I recall correctly, is supposed to operate under a sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic), when I remember there being a total of seven different modes...well, granted two of them are just "racing" but one of them is harder stages. Similarly, the mention of "nostalgic value" in and of itself is a very vague and subjective matter, since not everyone has the same nostalgia, so you really need to explain what makes it so nostalgic for you personally - my experience of this game, for one, mostly amounts to days upon days forcing myself through gritted teeth to get all the goddamn emblems from all of the nauseatingly long stages, so I can't really say I have the same fuzzy memories. Also, on the subject of music again, you mention Jun Senoue, by himself - isn't he just the music composer? He should probably just be put under the music category instead of completely separately. Other than that though, I think the review is mostly pretty well-stated.
The shoe-horned Chaos Emeralds: The Chaos Emeralds basically only exist to provide an extra requirement you need to complete to finish the game's story; there is absolutely no mention of them in the story at all before the final boss fight, Eggman's just goes all "IF ONLY WE HAD THE CHAOS EMERALDS!" and suddenly everyone goes "Yup, we conveniently already have them all!" for no reason other than that you did the special stages to get them. Relatively minor point but it's something that annoys me. Also yeah, on a related note, the whole Bubble Tails and Knuckles thing was stupid too.
The level-up system: It's true that the boosts you gain from the level-ups are quite beneficial, but the inverse is also true that without them, fighting becomes much harder and much more tedious, especially in the later stages of the game. On top of this, every time you die, all of your levels go back down to one, effectively crippling you until you can find more, and the further you are in a stage the harder doing that is going to be.
The secret keys: If you thought going through an entire stage was bad, just try going through an entire stage without ever getting hit at all. This is the requirement for keeping one of the keys that allow you to do the bonus stages, which are in turn what you need to complete to get the Chaos Emeralds that unlock the final ending. While there are multiple keys hidden throughout each stage, most of them tend to be hidden in extremely obscure places. And remember, if you don't win the bonus stage, you have to do the entire process of getting the key to the end of the stage all over again. This brings me to my biggest point.
The sheer length of the stages: This, in my opinion, is the biggest failing of the game. The fact that every team has to go through the same stages wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that going through each of the stages is such a goddamn chore. Compare this to Sonic Adventure 2, where very few stages took longer than five minutes to complete for an experienced player. When I recently did a playthrough of Heroes as Team Sonic, I don't think a single stage was less than five minutes - I would say the average was somewhere in the range of eight to ten minutes. And remember that Team Sonic is the "normal" playthrough; obviously Team Rose will have much shorter stages, but Team Dark's will be slightly to considerably longer on account of the more difficult combat, and Team Chaotix, good god, some of their stages can go on for well over twenty minutes (I'm looking at you, Mystic Mansion). In Adventure 2, the only stage that comes anywhere near close to this length is Cosmic Wall, and I would argue that that stage actually feels satisfying to play, specifically because of the reason that such length is so rare. In this game, when every single stage is so long it loses the impact and they all just feel prolonged and tedious.
Also, something of a personal gripe, but much disappointment at lack of mention in the music department for This Machine, Team Dark's theme, and especially What I'm Made Of, the final boss theme.
I think the review itself is rather solid nonetheless, there is a wide variety of points being explored and it does sound impartial for the most part. I feel a few details are somewhat unrefined and vague, however; for example, the part about the multiplayer gameplay feeling lacking only really talks about the battle mode (which, if I recall correctly, is supposed to operate under a sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic), when I remember there being a total of seven different modes...well, granted two of them are just "racing" but one of them is harder stages. Similarly, the mention of "nostalgic value" in and of itself is a very vague and subjective matter, since not everyone has the same nostalgia, so you really need to explain what makes it so nostalgic for you personally - my experience of this game, for one, mostly amounts to days upon days forcing myself through gritted teeth to get all the goddamn emblems from all of the nauseatingly long stages, so I can't really say I have the same fuzzy memories. Also, on the subject of music again, you mention Jun Senoue, by himself - isn't he just the music composer? He should probably just be put under the music category instead of completely separately. Other than that though, I think the review is mostly pretty well-stated.
I seriously think you should assist me the next time I do a review. :U
I think one reason why I missed so many points was because I wasn't playing through the game as I was reviewing it, So I missed quite a few things that I forgot.
The Jun Senoue thing was a bit of a thing showing my opinion about him in general. I mentioned that the music gives me this feeling of nostalgia, making me remember hearing these songs years ago when The badness of the game was blinded by my sonic fanboyism, and when things were generally more simple for me. Jun Senoue, as far as I remember, has been with the team since the beginning, and I love the sonic music, so I like him and his work quite a bit. If... That makes sense.
I do remember the stages being long as shit, however I moreso remember such with games like Sonic Colors.(planet wisp more spesifically) and I forgot about the key thing. It's strange how they pulled that with heroes, but they didn't do that annoying shit with the Chao Key in SA2
as for the Team Dark theme, I honestly don't remember the theme that well. Which is why I didn't mention it.
The final Boss theme, I thought was cool, actually. I have it on my IPod. Definitely wasn't as good as Live and Learn. But it was still nice.
Thanks For the comments. ;x; I need to learn to play the game while I'm reviewing next time though. XC
I think one reason why I missed so many points was because I wasn't playing through the game as I was reviewing it, So I missed quite a few things that I forgot.
The Jun Senoue thing was a bit of a thing showing my opinion about him in general. I mentioned that the music gives me this feeling of nostalgia, making me remember hearing these songs years ago when The badness of the game was blinded by my sonic fanboyism, and when things were generally more simple for me. Jun Senoue, as far as I remember, has been with the team since the beginning, and I love the sonic music, so I like him and his work quite a bit. If... That makes sense.
I do remember the stages being long as shit, however I moreso remember such with games like Sonic Colors.(planet wisp more spesifically) and I forgot about the key thing. It's strange how they pulled that with heroes, but they didn't do that annoying shit with the Chao Key in SA2
as for the Team Dark theme, I honestly don't remember the theme that well. Which is why I didn't mention it.
The final Boss theme, I thought was cool, actually. I have it on my IPod. Definitely wasn't as good as Live and Learn. But it was still nice.
Thanks For the comments. ;x; I need to learn to play the game while I'm reviewing next time though. XC
Comments