Due to some french prat leaking a PAL master, Sonic Heroes is now "out".
I'm playing the Xbox version, and its a mixed bag. This is what happens when the 2D Sonic mechanics are made 3D properly - a more advanced Sonic Adventure 2 with the teamplay system added on. Levels are again lengthy, linear, repeated bolted-on bits of track (how I'd kill for those individual lovingly-crafted Sonic Adventure style stages) which take half an hour to work through on your first go. The difficulty is frequently unforgivably high - I haven't seen a challenge like this since V.Hard GX Story mode. It isn't helped by the trademark slightly dodgy camera and pant-wettingly precarious grinding sections, some of which play out like puzzles. I liken it to the difficulty structure of Super Monkey Ball - some of the later levels will just present themselves as challenges (haunted house level, entirely interior) which will infuriate or challenge, depending on your mindset. It is probably impossible to beat any of the later levels on your first go without dying. Compared to previous 3D sonic efforts, this game is long and hard, like a huge cock.
Teamwork is very clever indeed. The levelling up system (kinda like an RPG-lite-lite: literally, three levels of power for each character) has worked extremely well, adding tactics to the affair. The method of switching characters takes a fair bit of getting used to, even a few hours in, you'll still have to glance at the diagram; this is due to the button to say, select Knuckles, changes depending on who you currently have out.
The teams are genuinely different and fun to play around with. Sonic Team being the default peg-it team, Dark being just remixes of the levels to make them harder, Rose offers easy cut-down levels and Team Chaotix have to do different challenges on each stage. Each plays the same route through the game, interspersed with tacky FMV. Most stages end with a set piece of some sort which are nice - peg it away from something, peg it down something, peg it towards something.
Special Stages are nothing special. Running down the inside of a pipe, you need to get NiGHTS style Links to garner points in one variation, or catch up with a Choas Emerald in the other. These could be fun, but like the pinball sections, are ruined by the game using the same physics and handling of the standard stages shoehorned into these special sections. You'll see what I mean.
The visuals are a step above SA2. Even on Xbox, there is still slowdown (unforgivably, immediately on entering the first stage, too!) - I dread to think what it is like on PS2. The drop in the frame rate on the split screen 2P modes make them almost unplayable. The music is nice, sound effects are spot on, particuarly in 5.1.
The presentation is a bit pap though. The menus are poorly designed, look horribly garish and inconsisent - I have seen Graphics students knock up nicer ones - clearly no-one who had anything to do with the presentation of SA2 or SA2:B had anything to do with this. Even though the Japanese voices are on the disc, the Xbox one lacks the ability to select them. Unless you run your Xbox in japanese mode, where the text will also change. Stupid manufacturer standards. I am informed the situation is different in the Cube and PS2 versions.
This isn't to say the game isn't fun. Its very challenging and refreshing, but you can't help wishing Sonic Team would let some talented dev house make a hi-res 2D Sonic again..
I'm playing the Xbox version, and its a mixed bag. This is what happens when the 2D Sonic mechanics are made 3D properly - a more advanced Sonic Adventure 2 with the teamplay system added on. Levels are again lengthy, linear, repeated bolted-on bits of track (how I'd kill for those individual lovingly-crafted Sonic Adventure style stages) which take half an hour to work through on your first go. The difficulty is frequently unforgivably high - I haven't seen a challenge like this since V.Hard GX Story mode. It isn't helped by the trademark slightly dodgy camera and pant-wettingly precarious grinding sections, some of which play out like puzzles. I liken it to the difficulty structure of Super Monkey Ball - some of the later levels will just present themselves as challenges (haunted house level, entirely interior) which will infuriate or challenge, depending on your mindset. It is probably impossible to beat any of the later levels on your first go without dying. Compared to previous 3D sonic efforts, this game is long and hard, like a huge cock.
Teamwork is very clever indeed. The levelling up system (kinda like an RPG-lite-lite: literally, three levels of power for each character) has worked extremely well, adding tactics to the affair. The method of switching characters takes a fair bit of getting used to, even a few hours in, you'll still have to glance at the diagram; this is due to the button to say, select Knuckles, changes depending on who you currently have out.
The teams are genuinely different and fun to play around with. Sonic Team being the default peg-it team, Dark being just remixes of the levels to make them harder, Rose offers easy cut-down levels and Team Chaotix have to do different challenges on each stage. Each plays the same route through the game, interspersed with tacky FMV. Most stages end with a set piece of some sort which are nice - peg it away from something, peg it down something, peg it towards something.
Special Stages are nothing special. Running down the inside of a pipe, you need to get NiGHTS style Links to garner points in one variation, or catch up with a Choas Emerald in the other. These could be fun, but like the pinball sections, are ruined by the game using the same physics and handling of the standard stages shoehorned into these special sections. You'll see what I mean.
The visuals are a step above SA2. Even on Xbox, there is still slowdown (unforgivably, immediately on entering the first stage, too!) - I dread to think what it is like on PS2. The drop in the frame rate on the split screen 2P modes make them almost unplayable. The music is nice, sound effects are spot on, particuarly in 5.1.
The presentation is a bit pap though. The menus are poorly designed, look horribly garish and inconsisent - I have seen Graphics students knock up nicer ones - clearly no-one who had anything to do with the presentation of SA2 or SA2:B had anything to do with this. Even though the Japanese voices are on the disc, the Xbox one lacks the ability to select them. Unless you run your Xbox in japanese mode, where the text will also change. Stupid manufacturer standards. I am informed the situation is different in the Cube and PS2 versions.
This isn't to say the game isn't fun. Its very challenging and refreshing, but you can't help wishing Sonic Team would let some talented dev house make a hi-res 2D Sonic again..
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