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Sonic Heroes
  PS2PlatformerUC  
  opened by paleface at 03:22:01 12/05/05  
  last modified by paleface at 12:27:18 03/05/24  
  paleface [sys=PS2; cat=Platformer; reg=NA]
           
I'm not really a Sonic platformer fan, but this one seems worse than most. On the plus (hyork!) side, a save from it will unlock Comix Zone and The Ooze in Sonic Mega Collection Plus. But the game itself...not my thing.
 
Sonic is all 3D now and stuff, so at least you can sometimes see where you're going with the camera aligned behind you, but actually a lot of the time it doesn't work out that nicely. But the big shtick here is that you're controlling not one, but three creatures, who all babble incessently, and who you have to rotate through constantly to get through the seemingly endless, pointless levels. It was bad enough going through 3D jumping puzzle after jumping puzzle with just one character, but now you have to juggle between three cripples. I'm not sure how this makes things better. There are even four teams of three, so you can play through the game with each team, which I guess is replay value or something.
 
And again, this being a modern Sonic game, everything is grotesquely bright and super-saturated, voices are sappy to the point of inducing headaches, and you're always being shifted between trundling bashing action and sudden zipping along through the air while the game plays itself. I think it's this kind of thing that gives children ADD symptoms. You can switch to Japanese voices, a surprising option, but they're just as oversugared, although it's a bit better if you can't understand the idiotic things they're saying.
 
In another mind-boggling stroke, they've made the menus a huge pain in the thumb by being inconsistent with the confirmation button. Most North American PlayStation games use X as the confirm button to navigate menus. Well, Sonic Heroes, maverick that it is, stick with the Circle button for most menus (as you'd find in Japanese PlayStation games). This is bad enough, but then certain menus require you to confirm a menu selection with Start. Wait! I see it! Three buttons--three characters--Sonic Heroes! Brilliant!
 
  paleface 02:25:45 12/06/05
           
Forgot to mention that a lot of the actions have no sound effect, or such a negligible one that it might as well not exist, leaving you feeling kind of immaterial as you're fighting or jumping or whatever.
    
 
references:
· Sonic Adventure 2: Trial (PS3)
· Sonic Generations (PC)
· Sonic Mania (PC)
· Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2)
· Sonic Origins (PC)
· Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (NGPC)

 
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