Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective: 25th Anniversary Edition (Part 2)

 PART 2: DASH INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION.

SONIC 3D BLAST:
(Sega Genesis - November 5, 1996)

While Sonic 1 and 2 were games I played a lot in Daycare, there was another Sonic game that would occasionally show up on the table next to the Genesis. That game was Sonic 3D Blast.

As it's name would imply, this is a whole other beast than the previous games. Instead of running through colorful 2D levels rescuing animals from robots, You run through isometric 3D levels rescuing animals from robots. There is also a third Act with a boss battle.

The main idea for this game is to go through Zones with 2 Acts and rescue these little birds called Flickies from Robotnik's robots and guide them to these gold hoops in multiple areas.

I gotta be honest, There isn't much I can say about this game, because I'm not the biggest fan of it. I mean, the game is not terrible by any means but I don't find it to be enjoyable for very long. It's like Monopoly, fun at first but then drags. And some of the enemies and hazards can be really annoying. When I try to jump on the enemies to free the Flickies, most of the time, I'm gonna get hit and lose my rings. And when I do get hit, the Flickies I have collected scatter and I have to grab hold of them again, but the Flickies have this nasty habit of not locking onto you the first time and I have to pass through one numerous times before I have hold of it again. Having to do this over and over again is very monotonous and I loose interest. This is one of the few Sonic games I have played that I have never completed.

That being said, the game still looks good graphically and the music is passable, I especially like the theme from Rusty Ruin Zone.

One notable thing about this game is that it has a Shield item that when equipped and pressing the jump button twice makes you do an attack that homes in on an enemy. A Homing Attack if you will. It's actually quite handy for taking out robots.

I gotta mention the Special Stages in this game. Tails and Knuckles also appear in this game in certain area's of the Zones, and if you have 50 rings they will take you to the Special Stage where you can nab the 7 Chaos Emeralds (No Super Sonic for collecting them though, sorry.)
You get the Emeralds by running on a track and collecting rings while occasionally jumping over spiked balls. They're similar to the ones from Sonic 2, only these Stages give you way more rings then you need. By the time the prompt comes up telling how many more rings you need to get you'll only need to get like 3 or 5 more and you'll have almost quadruple that amount in your way. Even the spike balls are pretty easy to jump over and avoid and only shave off 10 Rings off your count.

Overall, Sonic 3D Blast is a game I can't enjoy for very long, regardless of how OK I find the game to be. That shouldn't stop others from trying it out though, it's honestly not as bad as most people say it is.

SONIC ADVENTURE

(Sega Dreamcast - December 23, 1998)

(Nintendo GameCube - June 17, 2003)

With the last game, Sonic games began to evolve on to the next generation of consoles. I recall knowing of the Sega Dreamcast, but I never got to own it. I really have no idea why I never pressured my parents to buy me one, especially since I knew there were Sonic games on it. I guess I was distracted by other games around that time. I do remember having a Nintendo 64 around that time and I played a lot of Zelda and Pokemon.

For a time I sadly fell out of the Sonic series. And it didn't help that my Genesis had died rendering me unable to play them. Even with the Sonic & Knuckles Collection, I still felt left out of the series.

Then I got the Nintendo Gamecube and discovered the Sonic Mega Collection, which came with Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast among others. 

I eventually would get to play Sonic Adventure, as well as it's sequel 'Sonic Adventure 2', but not on the Dreamcast where they were first released. I had the pleasure of playing the GameCube re-release of the game 'Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut'.

Now, here's where things get complicated: I actually played Sonic Adventure 2 before I played Sonic Adventure and that may have some effect on my opinions of this game. See, I think Sonic Adventure is a good game, but I find so many things irritating about it.

Sonic Adventure is pretty much like a classic Sonic game, but with more meat to it. You have more characters to play as, bigger levels and a much more expanded story.
Dr. Robotnik, now referred to as 'Eggman' (his original name in Japan), is trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, which are now integrated throughout the story and gameplay, so he can use them to power an ancient being known as 'Chaos', destroy the city of Station Square and build his own city 'Robotnik-Land'. Sonic and friends, of course, ain't having any of that.

There are 6 playable characters with their own different interlocking stories, level design and boss fights. And once their stories are done, a final story is unlocked with the true ending to the game.

Returning playable characters include Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. But unlike the previous games where these 3 all had the same control set, they've all been overhauled.

Sonic plays pretty much the same way. He runs fast, can do the Spin Dash and bounces into robots to free little animals, but he also has a few new tricks up his sleeve. The Homing Attack introduced as a power-up in Sonic 3D Blast is now one of his natural abilities and it's great for taking out enemies.
His gameplay consists of him running through Stages and getting to the end, plain and simple. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sonic stages are easily the best part of the game.

Tails can still fly and can now use his tails to attack enemies. His stages play very much like Sonic's levels, only you have to race against and beat Sonic to the end of them. The stages have been altered to better make use of Tail's abilities and provide a nice bit of level exploration.
There are also times where you can play as Tails piloting his plane called, The Tornado, where you fly through the air shooting down enemies and battling Eggman's massive flying battle station.

Knuckles' levels have him running around stages trying to find pieces of the Master Emerald, the thing he has dedicated his life to guarding. The Emerald has been shattered because of Chaos and it's up to Knuckles to put it back together and restore it to it's rightful place on the floating Island known as 'Angel Island'. Knuckles has to collect 3 pieces in each level and the game has a radar that beeps faster the closer you are to any individual piece. I really enjoy these levels.

Now for the newcomers.
First there's Amy Rose, returning from Sonic CD with a brand new design. She also has a hammer that she can use against enemies, which would be great if there wasn't a delay on the swing and she didn't stop moving to use it. When you play as Amy, you have to outrun one of Eggman's robots and reach a balloon at the end of the stage. Amy isn't too fast so a lot of running around and using the hammer to do a forward lunge is essential for completing the level. Amy isn't anyone I look forward to playing as.

One of the more unique aspects is that you get to play as one of Eggman's robots: E-102 Gamma. As Gamma, your goal is to run through levels while shooting everything in sight because his levels have time limits and the only way to get more time is to kill enemies. However his stages will come to an end a lot sooner than you may think, and while that may be a problem for some, I don't mind it much and I find the stages enjoyable. That, and I'm a sucker for games where I get to shoot things like a maniac.

And then you have...Big the Cat. Where do I begin?
When I saw the trailer, I saw Big and based on his look, I thought he might be the classic old, wise character of the game. That's not what I got at all. Instead, he's an annoying dopey character with a voice that grates on my eardrums. You know what you do as Big?
You fish.
Yes, Big has a small frog friend named 'Froggy'. All Big does throughout the game in his levels is fish for him. I really don't understand why this was put in the game. Yeah, there's the part in the story where Eggman is pursuing Froggy because he swallowed a Chaos Emerald, but besides that, you could remove Big from the game as a whole and it would effect virtually nothing.
Needless to say, I don't enjoy playing as Big.

While I enjoy the gameplay of Sonic Adventure as a whole, I'm not particularly fond of all the work needed to get the gameplay. This game comes with Adventure Fields, areas you explore to get to the levels or collect items you need to unlock levels. These area's can be huge and I find myself running around longer than I should trying to figure out where to go. Granted there balls of light you can select that outright tell you were to go, but I still feel like the Fields are little more than padding. I would have preferred it if it was like the old games where you just go from one stage to the next. Or better yet, make getting to the levels part of the cutscenes in the game.

Speaking of which, I do like how the game looks, it's bright and colorful as a Sonic game should be. Sonic and his friends look especially good in 3 dimensions. However, the presentation and voice direction is really bad. While the voices do match the characters really well, the delivery ranges from good to unbearable. And the lip sync (or rather, lack thereof) is absolutely atrocious.
I'd also have a better time playing through the game and enjoying the scenery if the camera wouldn't jitter all over the place.

In conclusion, I think Sonic Adventure can be fun in doses, I actually liked this game when I was younger, but playing it now I sadly find myself more critical of it. And saying this disappoints me, but Sonic Adventure has not aged well to me at all and feels too much like a chore to play.
Sonic Adventure 2, on the other hand...

SONIC ADVENTURE 2

(Sega Dreamcast - June 23, 2001)
(Nintendo GameCube - December 20, 2001)

I actually came to know about this game in a rather weird way. In my freshman year of High School, I watched the cartoon 'Sonic X' which actually used the stories from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. It wasn't until I was telling my friend about it that he let me know of the video game in question. So having a GameCube, I managed to pick me up a copy of 'Sonic Adventure 2: Battle' and played it for myself.

I love pretty much everything about Sonic Adventure 2. The returning characters are great as well as the new characters, Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the most interesting and well developed characters in the series, and I enjoyed Rouge the Bat. The gameplay feels smoother and there's no Adventure Area's like the last game. You simply go from level to level with story cutscenes in between them. I like this approach better.

The story is really good too. It's can be serious and dark, while still being light-hearted and fun. There are 2 main stories in the game. You have a Hero Side Story, where you play as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles trying to save the planet. And there is also a Dark Side Story, where you try to conquer the planet as Shadow, Rouge and for the first time in the series, you get to take control of Dr. Eggman! Once you complete the Hero and Dark stories, a Last Story unlocks with the true ending.

Sonic Adventure 2 takes 3 of the gameplay styles seen in the previous game and applies them evenly to the 6 characters.

Sonic and Shadow play pretty much the way Sonic did in SA1. You run fast, collect rings, take out enemies and get to the goal. Both also has the returning Homing Attack which is as fun and effective as ever to use. This game also introduces the ability to grind across rails like a skateboarder.

Tails and Eggman both ride in mechanical walkers and control similar to Gamma's gameplay in which you go through levels shooting the crap out of everything, only there are no time limits and you have a health bar you fill by collecting rings. Like I said before, I like these stages, there's nothing more fun than running through levels and blowing up things like a badass!

Knuckles and Rouge go through areas finding Master Emerald shards (Yep, the dang thing broke again). While some levels can be a bit annoying (Lookin' at you Mad Space!), I still enjoy playing these stages a lot.

You may run into a few small glitchy parts of the game that can happen at really random intervals, but I can get past those no problem and they aren't much of a hindrance. Besides, this game is almost 15 years old, I'm willing to cut it some slack.
Unfortunately, this game still suffers from less than stellar presentation. While character animation is better, the voice mixing is still off sync and at many times, characters will flat-out interrupt others.

I can't talk about this game without talking about the music. I just realized I didn't talk much about the music in the last game, and aside form the main theme, I find the music in SA1 to be good, but nothing special.
This game has a ton of memorable songs and tracks. From the first level in the Hero Story 'Escape From the City' to the main theme of the game and the final boss fight 'Live and Learn', the music in Sonic Adventure 2 is fantastic!

Remember how I said I played this game before I played Sonic Adventure and how doing so may have effected my opinions a bit? I love Sonic Adventure 2, when I got through with it I immediately jumped into Sonic Adventure and was disappointed. Sonic Adventure 2 did so many things I loved and Sonic Adventure didn't deliver the same thrills I had when I played it.
Weird thing is, there are a group of Sonic fans who feel the opposite way. I don't agree, but at the same time I will respect their opinion.

For many years, this was my go-to Sonic game. I couldn't stop playing it then and I still find time to play it today, it's awesome.

In fact, I would love to see an HD Remake of this game that makes the game prettier, refines a few gameplay issues and finally fixes the voice problems. It probably wont happen, but that would be awesome!

SONIC HEROES
(Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 & XBox - December 30, 2003)

Ah, Sonic Heroes. I still remember the commercial for this game like it was yesterday, a man running into a room telling an unseen group of heroes that the city was under attack, only to find out that the 'heroes' are all old and kinda lame. The announcer then says it's time for some new heroes: SONIC HEROES!
After seeing this commercial, I hurried down to my local BlockBuster and nabbed me a copy to play on my GameCube.

First off, I wanna say this game looks BEAUTIFUL! The graphics and character models look great and the lip syncing actually matches the movement. The voices also match the characters very nicely, with the exception of Tails who sounds like he has a cold.

In many ways, Sonic Heroes is structured like a classic Sonic game, Levels with 2 Acts and a boss fight, the ability to go to special stages, and multiple characters to play as, it also implements elements from the Adventure series, such as multiple interlocking stories as well as a Final Story

But with Heroes, you don't just play as a lone character, but 4 teams of 3 at the same time. 

Team Sonic, of course has Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.
Team Dark consists of Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega, a robot who seeks revenge on his creator Dr. Eggman for imprisoning him.
Team Rose is comprised of Amy, Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat. Don't worry there's no fishing in this game, but you'll still want to tear your ears out after hearing him speak.
And then there's Team Chaotix made of up characters who originally appeared in the Sega 32X spin-off game 'Knuckles Chaotix'. Those characters are Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon and Charmy the Bee.

Every team has a character with a special attribute: The Speed characters (Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Espio) run fast and use the homing attack. Fly characters (Tails, Rouge, Cream and Charmy)... well...fly. And your Power characters (Knuckles, Omega, Big and Vector) basically wreck everything they touch. You can also collect colored orbs which level up the characters and make them stronger.
While gameplay is pretty much the same, each team has their own stand out differences. 

In addition, each team represents a different difficulty. 
Team Sonic - Normal
Team Dark - Hard
Team Rose - Easy

Team Chaotix's stages on the other hand range in difficulty. Their levels are mission based, objectives can range from finding a certain number of items or destroying every enemy in the level.

Speaking of enemies, unlike the previous games where one hit would kill them, Eggman's robots now have health bars, meaning you'll have to bounce on and homing attack them multiple times to destroy them depending upon how strong your characters are at the moment. It can be pretty annoying to do if you don't have your level ups.

While I think this game is fun, it's plagued by one pretty big hiccup: The control is slippery as hell. When you get your characters up to speed, they can go pretty dang fast! And you can't just stop on a dime, at least not without sliding off a platform to your death most of the time.

When I played this game that was one of the biggest issues I had with this game and it almost made me hate this game. It got to a point where I actually traded this game in to GameStop (that was the first and last time I will ever do that).
I eventually got the game back because I had actually forgotten what I thought about it before I got rid of it.
And I told myself that this time, I was gonna complete it.
I was having fun at first, but after a while the slippery controls got to me a bit. And it doesn't help that the level design is comprised of moments that you have to react to at a split second notice to avoid certain death and constant hovering over instant death. And the final levels and the game can be a punishing test of patience. 

And while we're on the subject of frustrating things about Sonic Heroes, let's talk about the Special Stages in the game.
To get to them you have to find a key in the second Act of the levels and make it to the Goal without getting hit once or else you will lose it and not get to the Special Stages. If you do this you get transported to the Stage, a half-pipe track similar to Sonic 2, only you have to chase the Chaos Emerald by collecting these colored orbs to increase your speed and catch up to it. 
I'm not gonna try and sugarcoat this...I HATE these stages!
Why? Because of the controls. If you thought the control in the main game feels slippery, it's worse in the Special Stages! The control is way to jittery and in some cases, you wont be able to move in the direction you want to go. It gets worse in the later ones that add groups of spike balls that slow you down exponentially making it harder. And you need the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the final story of the game. My best advice is to replay the levels as Team Rose, since they have the easiest levels to get through with less chances of losing the keys. 

And yet, despite all that, I still pushed forward. I managed to make it past all the frustrating levels and made it to the final boss of the game (which the intro to the game, I think, mistakenly gives away) and I beat the game.

I enjoy Sonic Heroes. A lot. Does it got issues? Sure, but unlike Sonic Adventure, I feel that the good outweighs the bad.
With Sonic Adventure 2 being great and Sonic Heroes being good, Sonic games can only continue to be of the same quality.
...
Right?

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (A.K.A: SONIC '06)
(XBOX 360 - November 14, 2006)
(PlayStation 3 - December 21, 2006)

Oh boy, I have to talk about this one now.

After I played Sonic Adventure 2, my interest in the series had been reinvigorated. Then I picked up and played Heroes and afterwards, I needed more.
The only problem was the next game was coming out on consoles I never owned, the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. At the time, I only knew of the 360 version, so you'd think I would jump at the chance to acquire the console to play it. But, I didn't.

Truth is, there was just nothing else on that console that I cared to play and unlike the GameCube or the upcoming Nintendo Wii, I didn't care to buy a console just to play one game. It had always confused me that there wasn't a version on the Wii. There was one in development, but that turned into the Spin-Off game: Sonic and the Secret Rings. And the less said about that game, the better.

And then I discoverd YouTube. And that was when I learned more about the game. It was apparently one the worst Sonic games ever made.

That brings me to this point: what can I say that hasn't already been said about this game? I feel like people should already know how bad this game is, since it's one of the most talked about and over-reviewed bad games ever. It just feels pointless, It's like trying to talk about 'Batman and Robin', you don't need me to tell you how much of a bad movie it is because it's pretty much common knowledge. I could talk about the details of the gameplay, story and controls, but anything I could add would just be repetitive.

In fact, I can recommend 3 great reviews of Sonic '06 on YouTube by 3 great users:
ClementJ64, SomecallmeJohnny and TheDarknessthecurse
(Videos contain strong language)

But I suppose I should say at least something, I guess, so here goes.

This game has the reputation as being the absolute Sonic game ever made. Do I agree with this? Well, I don't think it's THE worst. But, it's certainly in the top 5.

For one of my birthdays, I got a PlayStation 3 and it became one of my favorite game consoles. And then, I discovered Sonic '06 was released for it. I heard nothing but bad things about it, but I still picked it up to try it for myself. There is a difference between hearing about a bad game and playing a bad game.

There were things I hated about it, the glitches, the load screens and the mach speed sections which were pretty much uncontrollable.
The gameplay was all kinds of mixed bags. I thought Sonic, Shadow and newcomer Silver had interesting mechanics, but a lot of elements just weren't implemented well. I used to think that if a remake of the game was released it would be better, but that still leaves us with one of the worst stories ever put in a Sonic-NO, any video game in general!

I still managed to beat the game, despite the tribulations. But the sad truth is that there is no saving this game. Which is a shame, because there is a possibly good, playable game hidden in this train wreck.

Sonic '06 damaged the series and shortly after, I began to notice the darker side of the Sonic fanbase emerge. People began to turn on the series and stop hoping for the best, they began complaining about the dumbest crap imaginable, like the voice cast supposedly not being as good as the previous games and the inclusion of too many characters just to name a few.

But I never lost hope, I didn't let little things like that get to me. I had faith that the series would get better, and in my opinion, it did. 

TO BE CONCLUDED...

Click here for Part 3

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