Generally, when a game is postponed multiple times, it means that the developers want to improve their baby until they reach ultimate perfection. Or else it means they're mired in technical issues that the game will suffer from no matter what. Bad luck, that's the case Sonic heroes.
The big family
In absolute, Sonic heroes could have been called Sonic Adventure 3. The course of the action is the same, its representation also, and the decorations, almost. We find the same infernal loops, the small islands covered with bumpers, or the rails on which we can "grind" like Tony Hawk. In short, we are evolving on well-known ground, whereas a Mario Sunshine brought a little freshness with its southern village side. At the time, the Sonic Team did not rack their brains too much… Ditto for the enemies who have nothing original either. Now, the difference mainly comes from the fact that you no longer lead a guy, but a team of three characters. The game offers you 4 teams in all, which look like this:
- The Sonic team : Sonic runs fast, Knuckles kicks hard, and Tails flies through the air carrying the other two.
- The Dark team : Shadow runs fast, E 123 hits hard, and Red flies. Same, what.
- The Rose team : Amy taps with her hammer, Big plays dumb with her fishing rod, and Cream flies (and, incidentally, she pampers her little Chao, who is sometimes confused with the Maxime of the same name).
- The Chaotix team : Espio runs and throws shurikens, Vector kicks hard and Charmy Bee flies and hatches flowers. You may not know them and that's normal, they only made brief appearances in games like Sonic in Spain or Sonic at the beach.
Note, however, that the level of difficulty is not the same depending on the team you choose, and that the Chaotix team only works for the dough: unlike the others, you will only have to recover valuables inside the levels. In any case, all this brings a lot of variety to the game, which is not a bad thing.
What's up ?
The course of the action, as we said, is very similar to the two episodes of Sonic adventure. But here, the levels (always well structured) are more based on cooperation. Two keys are used to jump or tap, but the other two are used to change characters at any time, depending on the dangers that arise. This small tactical dimension is rather pleasant and will change from the pure speed to which we were accustomed. In the new department, Sonic can now bounce against walls, and with the help of his friends, he can grab the poles or fly over the ventilos in parachutist formation. There are plenty of fun little ideas like these, and it's best to figure them out on your own. Finally, each team has a devastating special move to perform in case of danger.
But, but… this game is not over!
This is the kind of sentence that we proclaimed to the editorial staff while playing Sonic heroes. Although Sega is one of our favorite publishers, we are disappointed at the time. While a version was playable during the last E3 in May 2003, what we have in our hands today does not manage to satisfy us, the fault of too many camera bugs which affect playability. Sonic is so fast and light that he becomes uncontrollable, and we are even surprised to prefer Knuckles during pure platforming phases. Collision problems are just as frequent, and the soundtrack seems downright incomplete: sometimes, the characters hit opposing robots with all their might without causing the slightest noise.
So we are disappointed. This does not mean that Sonic heroes is completely missed: we find with pleasure this good-natured atmosphere and certain passages are really excellent. But that doesn't make it a great game, so let's hope the real Sonic Team arrives in the near future to reinvigorate this deserving license.
