Sonic Heroes Preview

Developer	Sonic Team
Publisher	Sega
Genre	Adventure
Release Date	Q4 2003

Sonic Heroes is a departure for the venerable Sonic the Hedgehog series in more ways than one. Planned for release on the PlaySatation 2, GameCube and Xbox, this will mark the first Sonic game that’s not released exclusively for one console. As such, Sonic Team is making a slew of changes and redesigns to the standard Sonic formula in hopes of both breathing new life into the series and enticing the throng of gamers that may have missed out on the Dreamcast and GameCube Sonic games released in the past few years. While only time will tell whether or not the changes made will prove to be for the best, they certainly do appear to offer quite the interesting spin on the classic Sonic gameplay.

The biggest new draw is the team-based gameplay. No longer will you take just one character out for a spin at a time, as the heroes here have learned that there’s power in numbers. Sonic Heroes offers 4 set teams of 3 characters, making for 12 characters in all—and Sega has really mined the very depth of the well of staple Sonic characters for this one. Right from the start of the game, you can play as the honorable Team Sonic, made up of Sonic, Knuckles and Tails; the evil Team Dark, made up of Shadow (of Sonic Adventure 2), Omega (the only newcomer in the game), and Rouge (also of SA2); the wussy Team Rose, made up of Amy Rose (first appearing in Sonic CD, but most popular for Sonic Adventure), Big the Cat (also from SA), and Cream (promoted from the Game Boy Advance’s Sonic Advance 2); or the devious Team Chaotix, made up of Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy the Bee (which only hardcore Sonic fans will probably recognize, as all three hail from the slightly obscure spin-off title Knuckles Chaotix, released for the Sega 32X).

Although one of the three characters will always take the lead, that doesn’t mean that every character will behave the same way while the other two just follow behind. Every team will be able to go into 3 different formations, based on which character has taken the lead. For the sake of a clear example, let’s consider Team Sonic. If Sonic is in the lead, the team is in the speed formation, and Knuckles and Tails will follow in single-file. Put Knuckles at point, and the team will change to the power formation, which isn’t as fast as the speed formation, but your attacks will be (as the title suggests) more powerful. Finally, put Tails in charge and the team will go into the flight formation, as Tails uses his propeller-like twin tails to soar into the air while Sonic and Knuckles hang from his hands. Although each of the four teams does offer a good deal of variety (as every character has his/her own special moves), they all basically have the same three formations: speed, power, and flight.

All this focus on teams and formations isn’t just a gimmick, as the game’s levels have been designed with this team-based paradigm in mind. Throughout Sonic Heroes’ 14 levels, you’ll encounter many obstacles that can only be passed if you’re in the proper formation. Again sticking with Team Sonic as an example, you might come to a gap in a level that can only be cleared if you go with Sonic and build up enough speed to launch your team across it. Similarly, you might need to switch to Knuckles to use his brawn to bust through a wall or stone that might obstruct your trail. Or if there’s some high-up platform that needs to be reached, you’ll need to switch to Tails to chopper your team over to it. As you progress through the game, the levels will offer more depth by giving you numerous routes to pass through or circumvent whatever impediments might be thrown your way.

The main idea behind all this team-based gameplay is to offer more variety for the wider audience of players that could be introduced to the game, considering that it’s hitting all three major consoles and all. You see, each of the four teams is geared to appeal to a different style of play. Team Sonic offers more classic Sonic gameplay (i.e. more speed), while Team Dark gravitates more towards combat. Team Rose is designed to appeal towards the younger crowd, as Amy Rose has the special ability to hover for a little bit in the air, making the game slightly easier. Finally, Team Chaotix offers slightly more nuanced and puzzle-based gameplay, as Espio the Chameleon can turn invisible, perhaps to sneak past enemies or perhaps to pass through laser fences. Considering the inherent differences in each team’s style of play, playing through the game with all four teams should offer a nice amount of variety and replay value. Similar to Sonic Adventure 2, each of the 14 levels will have four variations based on which team you’re playing, so each team’s specific style will be put to good use. Each team will also have their own storyline and ending, although all revolve around stopping the series’ mainstay villain, Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) and his accomplice in crime, Metal Sonic.

Beyond small exclusive stuff like some sort of GBA connectivity feature for the GCN version, Sonic Team is planning on making all three versions of Sonic Heroes just about identical. There’s also a multiplayer mode in the works for all three versions, but details concerning it are still scarce.

What remains to be seen is whether or not Sonic’s fans will be keen to all the changes that have been made. The main complaints of the past two Sonic Adventure titles have been that they offered too little Sonic and too much of characters that nobody seems to care to play as (E-102, anybody?), and it seems Sonic Heroes is actually taking this concept a step further. Sonic has always been about speed, and if newfangled teams and formations interrupt that speedy pacing that people expect from their Sonic games, gamers might not dig it.

For Sega’s sake, they better. Every new Sonic game has of course been a big deal for the company, but considering Sega’s financial woes in their attempt to make it big as a third-party developer, they’re banking on Sonic Heroes particularly heavily. We’ll all just have to wait and see how things shape up when Sonic Heroes ships for all three consoles at the end of the year.

Preview by Kris Pigna