Sonic Heroes come to the Rescue! (by Laura)
Sonic Heroes is a lovely platformer. Lately I have been hearing people saying terrible things about this game, as well as other 3D Sonic platformers. Here is my message for them: WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! It's true that Sega hasn't exactly perfected the camera system for this game as well as the other Sonic 3D games, but please give Sega some credit for this good platformer. To start with the good in this game, and there is a lot of it, the voice overs are totally sweet. I normally don't pay much attention to the voices of the characters, as they little interest me, but this game struck a cord there. Each voice, matches his or her corresponding character's personality, species, and gender perfectly! There is no question about it. The graphics are good, regardless of the very occasional jerky camera, and the video clips and the stories are also some of the best I have seen. How each story begins, collides with other stories, and ends is masterpiece, and unlike many other games, once you finish a story, you can watch all of the movie clips of that story in the options menu! The music totally rocks, especially the team themes, and the levels all have a good moral lesson for kids: that you need to work with others as a team! Speaking of team, this game is very team oriented, the teams are:
Team Rose: which consists of Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit (and, as always, accompanied by Cheese the chao), and Big the Cat. This team has adventures that are beginner difficulty. This is good for young children, and getting beginners used to the game. You may also enjoy this team's cuteness.
Team Sonic: this consists of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna. This team has a journey that is a little harder, normal difficulty to be exact. This is good for those who want a little more of a challenge, and enjoy the light bantering of this somewhat humorous team.
Team Chaotix: the members of this group include Espio the Chameleon, Charmy the Bee, and Vector the Crocodile (who is apparently "The Head Honcho"). This team's adventures have been dubbed "dubious". The difficulty, in my opinion, varies from easy to hard. If you like detectives, mystery, and treasure hunting, this team is for you. Most of their missions consist of finding a certain amount of something (five keys for example). Not all of them, but most of them. My last comment on them is: this is easily the most comical team in the game. I have been set off laughing by a comment from these dudes several times. You should have fun with them.
Team Dark: this team has Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, and Omega (who is an ex-eggman robot). The mercenaries of this team are shrouded in mystery. First off, I must comment that it's like a soap opera for children, that they brought Shadow back from his presumed death, and with amnesia included. This team has hard difficulty, and often makes you go farther in the levels than you would normally have to with other teams. This group would be extremely boring if it wasn't for Rouge. Shadow and Omega take things very seriously, which makes Rouges role the person who lightens things up. It's an interesting contrast of personalities.
So, like I stated earlier, I believe it is good for children to see teams of all kinds. This basically teaches them you can team up with others, no matter how different they are, and work together on a task to make it easier. Moving on, Sega also brings the special stages to 3D. That's right, rather than collecting the emeralds in the storyline (like with the Sonic Adventure series) you actually have to collect a key, hightail it out of the level without getting hit, and complete a special stage in order to get a chaos emerald. Oh, and true to form, the last special stage is once again the hardest. There is also the "Last Story" that I will not go into detail here, but trust me, get all seven chaos emeralds and access it. It is definitely worthwhile. The only flaws I have to list for you is these:
1. Because of all of the team action, each individual lost something move wise. I am talking about things like Knuckles' gliding and climbing abilities as well as Sonic's somersaulting. Big no longer fishes like he did in Sonic Adventure, and the flight characters (Tails, Cream, Charmy, and Rouge) cannot fly as long or fast as they originally could. Which sadly makes sense, seeing as those little things are carrying all of the weight of the rest of their teams. Their cool team moves make up for most of the lost abilities, but you still have to miss Knuckles' climbing skills in those tight situations.
2. The flight members each have a special attack that they can do alone, but there is little point to them having it, seeing as they are almost never alone. So your stuck just doing thundershoot. While powerful, I do believe flying characters lack variety in their abilities.
3. The camera doesn't operate 100% smoothly. It is slightly better than Sonic Adventure 2:Battle, and doesn't matter much anyway however.
4. There isn't enough variety in the chaotix missions. It's always either find a certain amount of something, sneak past someone, or get from point A to point B before time runs out. I guess it would be difficult to make it more than that, but still, the missions lack that "investigative" thing that detectives do.
5. There is no water to swim in. This isn't exactly a huge problem, but I did enjoy confronting and swimming in bodies of water the other games throw at you. Here, the only water you get is Seaside Hill and it behaves more like a bottomless pit. It would have been interesting to see how each team adapted to a swimming pool, and maybe see what funny thing Sonic would have to say.
6. Finally, the zones are not as expansive. It just puts you on one path and makes you go forward. The advantage with this is that you can never get lost, but it loses that "go wherever you want to" charm.
That's it. The 2 player mode is also great for those who are interested, and Omochao (a robotic chao) can colorfully guide you through the menus. This game is well thought, well planned, and well designed. There is even a zone for pinball fans in Casinopolis so this game has something for absolutely everyone. GET THIS GAME! Trust me, you will get hours of enjoyment from it.
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