(This review is based on the Wii Game, DS evaluation will be added later) After years of awful flop titles, lame gimmicks, poorly conceived and developed games Sonic the Hedgehog seemed like a lost cause franchise. Then 2010 promised us Sonic the Hedgehog 4 which was good but unfortunately has it's gaping design flaws, and of course Sonic Colors which was scoffed at but actually turned out to be the better of the 2010 releases.
I'll admit I scoffed and rolled my eyes when I saw the preview for this game as it looked like Sonic Team was up to its old shenanigans again with more silly gimmicky games. But on a friend's recommendation I picked this up and I was beyond impressed. Everything from level design to game to story was spot on perfect even enough to outrank the DreamCast/GameCube Adventure series games.
The positives of this game: The game play provides classic Sonic style speed and adventure with old time platforming. Sonic Team managed to avoid getting too hard too quickly like they did in Sonic 2006. The camera is probably the best its ever been in any Sonic 3D game ever. Camera screw was so magnificently avoided in this I was impressed.
The platforming arenas still managed to balance out the difficult with the ease that old platform lovers will enjoy the challenge of and non platform lovers won't want to throw their controller at the TV screen.
But no doubt the best aspects are the 3D speed stages with just good old fashioned running and jumping. While there is the homing attack in this it is much more refined than it has been in the last few years but still somewhat glitchy as I'll get to in my flaws section.
Storyline is pretty simple and strait it has cut scenes with new voice actors but in the Wii version far fewer characters than recent games. (DS will have more). You stick with Sonic through the whole game play and don't alternate to other terrible characters. (like Silver) (again based on Wii play) The writing is quirky and funny and aimed for a younger crowd but takes me back to the old Adventures cartoon series of the 90s (Both SatAM and Weekday). The game physics aren't screwy and work well with the Game Cube Controler and I suspect they will work just as well with the Wiimotes.
The whisps are fun to play, like Saw, Laser, Rocket and drill. The underwater stages, wow the underwater stages were the most fun I've ever had in any water stage in any sonic game ever. In past games from Genesis to Present Sonic has been slow in water making water stages pure nightmare fuel. However Sonic has gained super jumping skills allowing you to jump high and fast through the water. With enough Speed you can also run right across the water making it unnecessary to go under. But should you go under the classic air bubbles are back complete with the fun sound effect from Sonic's old school games. And yeah the drowning music is even back too. In this game the score cards at the end of the stage are interactive and can be used to gather extra lives and rings.
Now the flaws? So few but I got to say once again the homing attack is not as good as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. It's better than it has been. Homing attack is a bit uneven unless you are button mashing that will send you into the bad guys losing your rings. Alternatively you can use the Speed Dash which gives you a nice boost of speed. This time around 100 rings does not give you extra lives. You have to rely on playing with the score board at the end to hopefully drop a few lives (and you will shed a fair few). But be quick because Sonic eventually gives a pose leaving you unable to scoop up lives on the other side of the screen. For the final boss you want to rack up lives and doing it in this game is pretty tough.
If you played/like Sonic Unleashed but hated the wearhog aspects this game will be your fancy. Before I'm ready to call Sonic is making his comeback I'm going to wait to see what future games hold.
