Sonic Heroes

Sprite's brother was playing Sonic Heroes, still is I think, and that compelled me to write about that game here too.

It's one of those "if only's". If only they hadn't added some awkward bits with huge drops. If only they hadn't made Big so annoying. If only they hadn't diminished Team Chaotix's levels into mind numbing "go-fetch" levels.

Still, this game has what I've found most Sonic games do, charm. It makes me want to get every emblem, unlock every mode. It appeals to the perfectionist gamer in me.

An example in it's charm, or indeed the example lies in Team Chaotix. Just when you've gotten used to everyone taking themselves seriously, Team Chaotix stumbles in, tripping over the mat and crashing the best china in the process. There's what would appear to be a 3 foot bee on crack, whizzing around at a pace just inside recognition of the human eye, rattling on in his 6 year old voice quips that serve only to confuse. Then there is Vector, a significantly larger creature with the boorish arrogance of the stereotypical macho-male. The game was almost worth it when he approached the so-self-conscious-it-hurts Rouge with the line "Who's this broad"

Classic.

Espio is a return to typical Sonic form, an overly skilled, overly self-confident ninja who you can tell is going to be wallflower material. He runs away from the spotlight screaming like a little girl.

The other three teams are standard Sonic affair, Team Sonic (or Team Old Skool as they might as well be called,) are the 16 bit Old-Timers. Team Dark are the new-generation devil worshipper kinds. All of them are about as morally adjusted as the average whore-house, and are not indisposed to destroying everyone/thing/etc. in their quest to find "the truth". Good luck to them.

Finally Team Rose. God damn whose idea was that. Take the three most annoying voice actors in existence, multiply their annoyance for all being concentrated into one place. Then add pink fluff by the articulated truckload, compress into the forms of a schoolgirl hedgehog, an even younger rabbit and a retarded cat with an IQ off the scales (in the other direction) and who really really should be looked into by the police. He's a grown man (er thing) hanging out with 2 girls with a combined age of roughly the same. Did Sega not think this through?

The gameplay is mixed, half the time it's awesome, the other half it's Team Chaotix. I hate, hate, hate having to search the beach for bloody hermit crabs. What does that have to do in the large scale of things?

The other problem is the usual carry on of glitches and poor design, coming off the rails to landing underneath metal boxes. I shudder.


All in all though, It's a good game, more difficult than your standard Sonic fair, but enjoyable nonetheless. Just if you play as Team Rose, mute the sound.