Many claim that Sonic began his fall from fame with the infamous PS3/360 game Sonic the hedgehog (Sonic 06, Sonic Next Gen, Sonic 360, whatever you want to call it). I believe however that the hedgehog's fall began a little bit before with a game called Sonic Heroes released for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, and the Microsoft Xbox. The game has received mixed reactions from critics and gamers alike, how does the game fair in my opinion? Lets take a look.
Apparently the game is a sequel to Sonic Adventure 2, taking place a little bit after the events of said game. Sonic is running in the middle of nowhere when he is confronted by Tails and Knuckles. They tell Sonic that Robotnik (or Eggman as the game calls him) is planning to take over the world and in three days he will be successful. He challenges them to stop him if they can, so the three agree to team up to stop Robotnik.
This is merely one of the stories, you see, you get to choose from 4 different stories, Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Chaotix and Team Rose. Team Dark consists of Shadow, who survived the events of Sonic Adventure 2, Rouge, who is investigating something, and a robot called Omega who is hell bent on killing both Robotnik and any of his robotic creations. Shadow has amnesia and wants to figure out who he is so that complicates matters as the team agree to seek out and defeat Robotnik.
Team Chaotix is basically a group for hire. They carry out random missions assigned to them for pay. The group consists of Espio the Chameleon, Charmy the Bee, and Vector the Crocodile. They receive a mission from an unknown man that has been captured by an unknown man, and offers them a huge reward if they can rescue him. They agree to carry out the mission to find their client.
Lastly Team Rose. This team consists of Amy Rose, the girl who wants to marry Sonic, Big the Cat, a fat, stupid cat that wants to find his buddy Froggy, and Cream the Rabbit, who wants to find her little Chao buddy Cheese's brother Chocola. The three agree to team up to complete their goals.
OK sorry that took so long. But the stories may SEEM complicated but they all tie in at the end considering all four teams go through the same damn levels as one another. Yes, Sega rehashed practically every level. While the requirements for each level may vary a tiny bit, most of the teams missions consist of getting to the end of the levels. And the designs aren't any different from each other. The only team that has different requirements is Team Chaotix. They have to do different things for each level, from killing a certain amount of enemies, to gathering a certain amount of rings etc.
Team Sonic, Dark and Rose are basically the same. While some teams may be harder than the others(Team Rose is the easiest) nothing is different. The Bosses for the most part are the same. With the exception of what are called the team battles. Usually the team will have to do a tag team battle with one of the other teams. If you play as Sonic's Team, you will be fighting Rose, Shadow etc. If you play as the other teams, its just switched. The Final battle for all four stories is once again, the same.
So you're probably thinking "That isn't enough to label the game as crap" well I'm not done. The levels are frustrating as hell and not in the good way. The controls are very slippery, usually resulting in you powering your way off a cliff to your doom. Even slightly pushing the analog stick walks you into a power run, thats usually damn near impossible to control. This is especially annoying considering most of the death hazards in this game are bottomless pits. These controls also make many of the boss battles harder than they should be. I died more times from falling off a cliff, or a jump that over shot a platform due to the slippery control scheme. OK, maybe thats just the PS2 version, but I defend my claim anyway.
The camera is almost as bad, and combined with the slippery controls, the game's difficulty goes from fair to fake. Half the time the camera isn't facing the direction you want it to be. The camera is especially frustrating during Tag Team Battles. The camera will zoom very far out and make it difficult to see what the hell you're doing, usually causing you to run off a cliff you intended to avoid.
(SPOILERS)
So in the end, like Sonic Adventure and 2, once you complete all the stories, a final story is unlocked. As it turns out, Robotnik wasn't the man that you were chasing, it was Metal Sonic, who intends to wipe them all out. Robotnik was Team Chaotix's mysterious client, and all the teams team up to fight Metal Sonic. So in the end, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles transform into their super forms and defeat Metal Sonic.
(SPOILERS END)
So how does the game fair? To be honest, I have played far worse Sonic games than this one. The game is mediocre above all else. With slippery controls, poor camera angles, and rehashed levels that when combined, create a repetitive, frustrating, and over all, not very fun game. Believe me, Shadow the hedgehog is probably worse, and Sonic o6 is defiantly one hundred times worse, but I think Sonic Heroes defiantly contributed to Sonic's decline, I don't like this game very much at all, but once again; your mileage may vary.
