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Sonic Heroes .:: Sonic Heroes


Sonic Heroes

Name: Sonic Heroes - All three nations

Other Names (Nicknames): N/A

Release Dates:
December 30th, 2003 - Japan
January 6th, 2004 (Gamecube) - USA
January 27th, 2004 (PS2 & X-Box) - USA
February 4th, 2004 - Europe

Quality: 128-Bit, 3D Platformer

Game System(s): Nintendo Gamecube, Sony Playstation 2, and Microsoft X-Box

Also released on:
(1). PC - Sonic Heroes PC Version

Developer(s): Sonic Team

Character Introductions: E-123 "Omega".

Region Game Takes Place On: Unconfirmed.

Concept Introductions:

          Sonic Heroes was quite literally the hype of the fanbase for almost an entire year until its faithful release. Screenshots, videos, and theories were thrown left and right from site to site. Many of the new assets of Sonic Heroes helped stimulate the hype. Most notably, Sonic Heroes was the first multi-console Sonic title released on all three next-gen game consoles with slight differences. (X-Box and PS2 variants enabled different languages, and of course, as expected, the PS2 version's graphics aren't as good.) But other than that, Sonic Heroes introduced a new twist to the traditional Sonic style of gameplay unsees since Chaotix: teamwork. The player controls a team of three characters at the same time, switching between each character that possesses one of three attributes: speed, power, and the ability to fly. While speed is the leader; most useful for running through the zones, loops, and quickly destroying enemies with moves like the homing attack, the power is meant for mass demolition or breaking down objects in the way. And last but not least, if there is a place you need to get to, but it is too high up, you have your flyer to lift you up. And through the zones, you'll find either blue (speed), red (power), or yellow (flying) power cores that enhance the corresponding attribute by one level. At level three, they are at their most powerful. Obviously, it is more complex than just that. But I am only getting into the basics.

          In spite of the teamwork gameplay, Sonic Heroes managed to bring back the oldschool Sonic the best out of all next-gen games with the return of many traditional sound effects in the ZONES (you heard me: go to the Audio Room, you'll notice they are referred to as "zones" again). The structure of the zones are based more off of the zones from the older games, and hell, the first one even has checkered hillsides. Special Stages also make their return in Sonic Heroes, accessible by getting one of the Special Stage keys in every even-numbered zone (there are 14 zones in all). The Special Stage key must be kept throughout the entirety of the zone (merely getting hit causes you to lose it) and then you enter the Special Stage, where the objective is to literally chase the Chaos Emerald through a giant tube. Accessing the Special Stage in odd-numbered levels just leads you a bonus stage that is exactly like the Special Stage, except you are rewarded a bunch of lives instead of the Chaos Emerald. These assets from all of the old games definitely impressed veteran fans. Yet, where there is light, there is darkness, which will be explained further down. Last but not least, Vector, Espio, and Charmy make their return as Team Chaotix! Further details on them will be explained soon.

Concept Deductions: Checkpoint markers finally change appearance drastically in Sonic Heroes. They appear as a ring on the ground with a small pillar of light coming out. Hitting it gives you the original checkpoint marker effect along with a power core that is of the attribute of the current character you are switched to. (I.E. You're using Knuckles, and you hit the checkpoint marker with him, you'll get a red power core.) Powerups change appearance once again, taking on an appearance inspired by the original Sonic 1/2/Gamegear games' powerups, somewhat like TV monitors but are rotating on a small red platform. (New powerups include the Team Blast, power core powerups, and flight boost powerups.) Rouge loses her old gear and gets some new getup to go along with Sonic Heroes' new childish atmosphere, although it actually looks MORE skimpy than her last one. Something you'd see in a Power Rangers pr0n flic. Nothing comes out when you destroy the enemies anymore either. Yet, every 5 to 10 enemies or so, a randomly colored power core will come out.

Storyline:

          Tails and Knuckles finally catch up with Sonic as he tours around the globe, and pass him a letter from his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman, threatening another outrageous revenge scheme. This time, the deranged scientist announces that he has finally completed his ultimate weapon, and in a matter of three days, he will be ready to bring the world to its knees! Unlike Tails, disturbed by the message and unsure what will happen, Knuckles relaxes, confident that there's nothing to worry about. Sonic, however, shows a brief flicker of a smile and takes off again into the distance. With that familiar grin of confidence, Sonic says he wouldn't miss this party for the world! And this is how the three reunite for their next adventure to put an end to Dr. Eggman's wicked ploy as Team Sonic!

          Meanwhile, treasure hunter Rouge one day hears that Dr. Eggman is accumulating a massive treasure collection. She immediately heads for Dr. Eggman's headquarters to liberate these riches, but discovers the base abandoned with all of the valuables gone. However, she comes across a stasis capsule that to her surprise houses the figure of Shadow. Far from being deceased as everybody thought, he was indeed very much alive, but unconscious. In order to release Shadow from the capsule, Rouge switches on the facility's power, unintentionally reactivating the final E-Series robot, E-123 "Omega." Shadow wakes to find his memory gone, unable to recall why or how he went into stasis. Omega, on the other hand, was rather upset about Dr. Eggman shutting him down. Mistaking Shadow for one of Eggman's robots, he immediately starts to attack him. Rouge steps in to break up the fighting, and reminded them both that their enemy is Eggman, the three shook hands and Team Dark was formed.

          Amy, crazily in love with Sonic as always, is concerned that she hasn't had any contact with him for over a month. Making little progress on his trail, she is about to give up hope when she catches sight of Sonic's picture in a newspaper. In her excitement, Amy runs straight to the publishers to ask where the picture was taken, and on her arrival, she meets a huge, familiar looking cat called Big, and a cute rabbit named Cream that we all know and love (mostly hate). A quick exchange of stories reveals that Big is looking for his best friend Froggy, and Cream is looking for Cheese's twin Chocola, both of whom had appeared in the picture with Sonic. From this, they decide to continue their search together as Team Rose.

          And hey, the Chaotix boys were in on this new scheme too! Been awhile since they got involved with anything. The Chaotix Detective Agency is always at your service if the price is right. Lately, however, things have been quiet with very little work available. But one lazy day, a mysterious package is delivered to Chaotix, and inside they find a transceiver which mysteriously promises a handsome payment if the Chaotix will take on a case. Charmy is thrilled by the offer, but Espio remains skeptical due to the strange nature of the communication. Boss Vector, with dollar signs in his eyes, wastes no time in gathering his troop together as Team Chaotix to take hasty advantage of the opportunity.

          So off Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix go to accomplish what they had set out to do. However, unbeknownst to them, it wasn't Dr. Eggman who was really behind all of this, but instead an old face our friend Sonic thought he would never see again…

Personal Criticism/Opinion:

          Sonic Heroes was substantial proof that when it comes to video games, you definitely can't judge a book by its cover. Sonic Heroes in its pre-release stages was what everybody believed to be the impending of the greatest Sonic game of all time. However, long behold, Sonic Heroes is today considered the worse next-gen, mainstream 3D platformer. This decision was due to Sonic Heroes' unbearable gameplay premise, extremely corny dialogue and script, and Shadow's plothole-ridden, and generally unwanted return.

          I used to hold Sonic Heroes with the same respect most fans do now — in other words, none. However, after replaying the game, I found that Sonic Heroes is actually pretty decent if you disregard its piece o' crap script. Sonic Heroes was Sonic Team's attempt to renew the feel of the oldschool games, but in a 3D interface. In many ways, they succeeded. But the few ways the failed it caused the game to be completely raped. Many of this game's assets were inspired by Knuckles Chaotix', which alone should tell you that it in many ways, it isn't that good. The biggest asset of Sonic Heroes that completely killed Sonic Team's attempt to make it oldschool was the teamwork style of gameplay. Luckily, Sonic Team learned their lesson.

          Sure, it's cool to control three characters at once, but it is incredibly hard to adapt to and it annihilates the speed trait that Sonic games are supposed to have, particularly when staying in the same area to destroy a crapload of enemies in power formation. It was a breath of fresh air… unfortunately from a person with real bad halitosis. Sonic Team wanted to try something new, it sucked, they knew it, it's time to forgive them, folks.

          Next up, we have the script of Sonic Heroes. Sonic Heroes' lines are so corny that Oprah would have a freakin' BALL with this game. Now you see, when you are playing a game where you actually feel embarrassed when playing it around others; those others being gamers that are used to playing stuff like Final Fantasy games, Tekken, DOA, and Grand Theft Auto, well, you know something's wrong. This is based off of true events, for the record. I have to turn down the volume as low as I can when playing it around others so they won't laugh at me, particularly if I happen to play as Team Rose. Lines like, "We'll show them the real Super Power of teamwork," and, "We'll buy you some time so you can use your super powers," (this is coming from Shadow, BTW) is NOT the kind of stuff you want 20+ year olds to see you drawing entertainment from. That is corn city. And the fact that they actually speak while you're running through the zones DOESN'T help.

          With a dialect like that, it just goes to show that Sonic Team tried a bit TOO hard to make the game like the oldschool ones. If this is how the old games were, I am GLAD Sonic didn't talk. And I actually don't think Sonic's old games were like this. The Sonic OVA Anime movie, which is based off of the old style of Sonic, isn't corny at all. Neither are the small hints of Sonic's voice that are in Sonic CD. Sonic is supposed to be sassy and have a cool, yet snappy attitude. In Sonic Heroes, if you found out Fisher Price helped make this game, you'd say, "I knew something was up!" Think of… a black guy who is trying to act like a white guy who is trying to act black. That's how Sonic is in Sonic Heroes.

          Last but not least was Shadow's return. It made sense until the very end of Team Dark's story. Rouge and Omega step into a room filled with hundreds of Shadow clones in capsules. She then says to Omega, "Hey Omega, did I ever tell you that Shadow is a robot? And… Oh, nevermind." This line right here sprouted what is known as the biggest Shadow mystery of all time, until it was fixed in Shadow's later released spinoff title. Other than that, Shadow's return was also highly unwanted. With his new angsty, bewildered personality, many fans, even Shadow fans, think that that he was anally raped by Sonic Team. The feel that Shadow gave you from Sonic Adventure 2, which was good and unique, was completely shattered by his return in Sonic Heroes. It killed off the tragedy that surrounded Shadow. It just goes to show that fanboys and fangirls usually control Sonic Team. It's a shame they'll listen to the fan's incentive whining about MORE SHADOW, MORE SHADOW, but they can't make a new freakin' NiGHTS game.

          However, onto the actual game itself. The gameplay style, disregarding the team premise, is similar to the generic Sonic gameplay formula: run through the zones and get to the goal, yadda yadda. The new team twist is the only major league difference noticeable. Like Sonic Adventure 2, the cutscenes are all that link each zone. There are 14 zones in all, every two zones looking generally the same. It would've just been easier, not to mention more nostalgic if they just called the second levels "Act 2" instead of an entirely different zone. Good thing is, the structure of the zones really brings you a blast from the past. The looping, twisty highways, the surreal object placement, and the checkered hillsides definitely gives you some of that sought after Sonic deja vu.

          Sonic Heroes' problems were its storyline assets and the gameplay. But visually, Sonic Heroes is amazing. Sonic Heroes had the best FMVs of its time out of any Sonic game with realistic texturing, awesome lighting, and high resolution modeling and effects (but I STILL think they could've done better). And it has the most FMVs out of any Sonic game. An FMV was between almost every two zones, and at the beginning and end of each story. Overall, visually, Sonic Heroes IS the best next-gen Sonic game yet.

          Emblems make their return in Sonic Heroes as well. Each stage has two missions, the first mission being the one you do in the story mode. There are 120 emblems, yet 141 A Ranks. Getting all of these gives you nothing but a bunch of extra features in 2-P mode, and a stupid Super Hard Mode which is no more than playing the game as Team Sonic with no game save, no continues, no bosses, no emblems or rankings, and the levels are much harder with assets from all of the team's versions of the levels (particularly Team Dark's). Beating that gives you nothing but a stupid "Thank you for playing" message after the credits. There was a hoax out there where if you put in a certain Action Replay code, and access Bingo Highway with any team, it brings up a Palmtree Panic extra stage load screen, but no actual level. This proved to be false in the end. If only it weren't.

          The 2-P in Sonic Heroes is shades of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle what with all of the different modes and mini-games and challenges. There is basically the generic race challenge which is nothing but the normal gameplay but where you're racing somebody. There is the kart race which is where you use the buggies (that are used in several stages in story mode) to race through areas among other modes. While selecting your characters (this is for the GCN version), hold A+Y (X+Triangle button for PS2, and A+Y for X-Boxers) after you select a level and the characters you chose will be metallic versions of themselves.

          Finally, let's move onto the character intros. E-123 "Omega" is the final testament of the E-100 series introduced in Sonic Adventure, where the showcase there was E-102 "Gamma." E-123 "Omega" was seen as un-needed by Eggman, which is why he was shut down and placed in an old base with Shadow. This infuriated the robot, which was gifted with free will, to avenge himself and prove he is Eggman's best robot. E-123 "Omega" is definitely a step up from his Sonic Adventure predecessor with all types of firepower in his arms, more dynamic articulation, but unfortunately, not a cooler voice. And unlike Gamma, Omega wasn't destroyed. So Sonic Heroes wasn't the last we'll see of him.

          But let's get to what we're really interested in: The Chaotix boys. Unfortunately, their personalities and statistics from Knuckles Chaotix' weren't maintained, which was a huge disappointment. Luckily, Vector maintained his original gimmick for the most part. Vector still loves music, food, and is still a cool croc. But in Sonic Heroes, all he really cares about is getting money, and paying the mortgage on the detective office. Finally, a Sonic character with realistic desire! Espio is now a calm, collected, opinionated, and real corny ninja dude, and Charmy's a 6 year old, scatterbrained, bad mannered brat with a real annoying voice (that was VAed by a chick, no less). So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Chaotix have been completely destroyed, with the exception of Vector. And thank GOD for that, he's my favorite Sonic character of all time!

          Sonic Heroes, pretty much, is a Sonic game in the middle. A lot of people hate it, few like it. I'll admit, I gave it a rather harsh opinion before. But luckily after playing it a second time and really getting into it, well, it's not as bad as most give it off. So I'd suggest to give Sonic Heroes a try, in spite of what other Sonic sites have said about the poor thing.
         
Let's see some GAMER'S PERSPECTIVE:

Replay value? Replay value is obviously good since its based off of oldschool Sonic games, which always had good replay value. All of the stages are accessible in the stage select menu after you fully beat the game, and then there is the extensive 2-P features, and of course the emblem hunt will always keep you stoked for what rewards you get. However, the chao mini-game system is no more in Sonic Heroes, killing off its replay value quite a lot.

Graphics? Sonic Heroes' graphics are what basically boost it up to a respectable Sonic title. The levels are mapped excellently, giving you a feel the old games gave you. They are spacious, abstract, and creative. The FMVs in Sonic Heroes were the best ones at the time. The lip-synching in Sonic Heroes was done originally in English, a first for Sonic games. The Japanese version was the dubbed one this time. So for USA gamers, that means the FMVs were top notch. (With the exception of the obvious Sonic Team quality in FMVs, which is not good — the texturing on the models sucked. Maybe if they tried to slightly simulate actual fur on certain parts of them, more realistic skin texture, and as always suggested, define the palms of their freakin' hands and knuckles.) The in-game models were well done (the anatomy isn't as good as SA2's), yet the texturing for them was absolutely intolerable. Most of the pieces on the model were done by element texturing, which could have instead been done just as easily by painting the objects onto the mapping with even BETTER results. The resolution of the models was well done, along with the detail; but this is regarding the MODELING. Not the craptacular texturing. But most of all, the texturing had this REAL ugly gloss thing going with it that made the characters look metallic, which was used before in Sonic Adventure DX. The specularity on the models is so intolerable that Sonic fans literally hacked the PC version and released it without the gloss on the models. If they painted a lot more onto the mapping and added in more detail and defined more, then the Sonic Heroes models would've been spectacular.

Music & Sound Effects? As usual, most of the tracks were composed by the main man of Sonic music, Jun Senoue, while the main theme, as usual, was sung by none other than Johnny Gioeli. Each team had their own theme done by some new artists (except for Team Sonic's, who was done by the composer of all of Sonic's themes since Sonic Adventure, Tony Harnell). Team Dark's theme is the best one out of the four, followed by Chaotix's. Sonic Heroes OST brings back Sonic Adventure's diversity with rock, techno, and even acid reggae on Frog Forest Zone. If you want to listen to some variety, get this OST. In fact, Sonic Heroes soundtrack is just a step behind Sonic Adventure's. The music for Sonic Heroes was another thing that made it so good. You want some REAL techno? Listen to Bingo Highway or Power Plant (this one by far is the best track, in my opinion). And the Special Stage Emerald Challenge BGM is just… too cool. Definitely an OST worth buying and/or downloading onto your overpriced IPod.

Storyline? Thank God the storyline wasn't the problem. Just the script that emphasized it was. The storyline for Sonic Heroes is basically a compilation of four mini storylines for each team. It's not really that bad, and the return of Metal Sonic was definitely a plus. Cool stuff.

OVERALL RATING? I rate Sonic Heroes as a 5/10.