Sonic the Hedgehog Review
Sonic Team continues to run the speedy blue wonder into the ground.
Posted by Robert Workman on Thursday, February 08, 2007
Sonic's days appear numbered as Sonic Team's ailing quality control issues continue to negatively impact its games. Last year, Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 joined previous failures and this year's version for the PlayStation 3 follows in the game series' recent tradition -- and introduces a few of its own.
Sonic battles the evil (and Chaos Emerald obsessed) Dr. Eggman. This time, however, the lovely Princess Elise becomes embroiled in the plot. Eggman needs the princess' necklace to unleash the power of the Emeralds. Sonic not only comes to her rescue and finds an emotional connection that makes him a love interest. (Um, yeah.) Two additional characters get thrown into the fold -- the gun-toting Shadow and a new psychic-powered, hedgehog named Silver (who doesn't have the greatest of introductions -- he fights Sonic in one of the game's most awkward boss battles). In addition, Tails, Knuckles and other Sonic characters return.
In between the action stages, Sonic visits the town of Soleanna, where the princess lived before her capture. Here, he talks with townsfolk and completes objectives. Unfortunately, these objectives have no tie-in with the story, and some of them don't make sense. For instance, one scenario requires Sonic to save a girl stuck on a rooftop before the townspeople clue him in on the princess' location. Furthermore, a shopkeeper possesses Sonic's light-dash ability for no logical reason.
Things get worse within the game's general action scenarios. One stage requires Sonic to snowboard down a trouble-filled mountain. It sounds normal, as Sonic has snowboarded before in previous games. However, some irritating control problems arise. Steering Sonic left and right feels like a chore, and the game literally stops when the stage shifts into an "outrun the giant snowball" scenario. Getting a grip on the controls takes seven or eight tries before figuring out how to survive the snowball's wrath... or give up entirely. The running stages infuriate as well. Lacking any speed control, Sonic must avoid obstacles or hit ramps at just the right time. Otherwise, expect several instant deaths.
In addition to the usual hedgehog antics, Silver's psychic abilities allow him to move objects. However, his levels don't provide much of a challenge, except during some frustrating boss encounters. (Not entirely his fault, though -- the camera presents as much of a hassle as the boss character.) Shadow's stages miss the mark too, feeling like afterthoughts from his previous console release (which sucked). Tails, however, wins the award for worst controls in the entire game. Players maneuver Sonic's buddy through certain areas using the power of flight, while providing him with "ring bombs" as his only offense. Unfortunately, instructing him to reach something as easy as a small ledge takes too many tries.
Several camera problems that plagued the Xbox 360 version return to bother PS3 owners, with constant angle switching that forces players to manually adjust the view to get around. These switches result in numerous deaths for any of the characters, as they accidentally fall off a ledge or don't see an enemy fire at them from behind. The loading time doesn't spare gamers from fifteen-to-twenty second sessions between sequences, even for something as simple as a "find the cop" segment in the city. There's just no excuse for this.
The PlayStation 3 version, offers more hiccups in the visual department. Missing animation frames make the on-screen characters look unfinished. Slowdown constantly surfaces, forcing gamers to accept that the "blast processing" era appears over. The level design also seems to waver, with some levels where Sonic dashes across a chasm on a wind stream look spectacular and others where running around an all-white snow maze turn up lackluster. As for the audio, the soundtrack offers some decent musical fare (including an acoustic redux on an old Sonic theme), but most of the songs get drowned out by the annoying voicework. Sonic and company treat this like a serious affair, but possess cheesy dialogue. Even Lacey Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls) fails to give life as the voice of Princess Elise.
Sonic the Hedgehog for PlayStation 3 most notably suffers from lack of momentum. If Sonic can't run at full speed like he's meant to, he ceases to be important.
Final Score: 4 (out of 10)
Final Score: 4/10
