With the Sega Dreamcast came the first ever Sonic game in full 3D. Sonic Adventure was a fun, fast-paced adventure game which had a few slight issues that prevented it from achieving greatness. A nagging camera which would often clip through the walls and slight control issues which would cause unjust deaths by way of running off a ledge or missing a target. Since then, Sonic games have only become progressively worse and it all came to a head with the release of the offensively bad Shadow the Hedgehog last year. Now, SEGA hopes to redeem themselves at this years’ E3 by showcasing a new Sonic title featuring what fans have been craving since Sonic Adventure, actually playing as Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog featured on the Xbox 360 is a very beautiful game. Everything seemed to be illuminated giving Sonic a very sharp and unique look. Some familiar issues plagued this demo though. The camera was very difficult and at times impossible to control; making playing through this demo very frustrating. The targeting system was for lack of a better term, broken. Twice while attempting to perform a homing attack, Sonic would launch himself directly off the ledge of an elevated platform, resulting in a quick death. The pace of the action was also very underwhelming.
There were two selectable characters in this demo, the first of which of course being Sonic, and the second being the mysterious Silver Hedgehog. In these sequences with the Silver Hedgehog the focus switches from speed to action. Not action in the Shadow shoot em, up sense, but similar. This sequence was difficult to control as the button layout was not even slightly similar to Sonic,s. The action seemed overly chaotic and had no flow, which made death a very frequent occurrence. Basically, these Silver Hedgehog sequences felt like yet another tacked on element to increase the games length.
Being such a large fan of the Sonic franchise, it breaks this reporter,s heart to see the blue hedgehog lead down such an unfortunate path. If a few issues are addressed, such as the frustrating camera and a lackluster sense of speed this game could be a big contender. Until then, however, we,ll just have to be disappointed.
