Golden VGM #580 - Sonic Heroes ~ Sonic Heroes
4- DESCRIPTION:
And for my #2 favourite Sonic game, we have the much underrated Sonic Heroes. Why is it that I hear from everyone that this game sucks? It totally doesn't!
Yes, the game is flawed; playing the game four times to beat it is a bit excessive, and it can be glitchy at times. But for a game that tries the emulate the golden days of the classic era, as well as stay fresh in its own right, it does its job very well.
First, the characters. Fans and critics everywhere despise them, saying that they are one-dimensional and they take away the attention from Sonic. While they are indeed simple characters, they all still have their own personalities, ones that even a child can recognise without having to identify their colour. For instance, I don't think of Knuckles as "the red one", I think of him as the tough guy who is pretty smug and loves to wreck things. They're uniquely simple, is what I'm getting at. And also, unlike all the one-dimensional side characters that Mario has, these characters actually do something alongside the main character, which makes them all the more likeable.
Then there's the levels. Not only do they retain the feel of different zones of the classic Sonic games, they're also pretty imaginative in terms of their concept. For instance, Mystic Mansion is simply a spooky mansion, but the size of it and the ghostly tricks that occur in it make it fitting for gameplay that involves fast-paced running.
And speaking of the gameplay, the concept behind it is rather unique and interesting. You control three characters at once, and you advance through the level based on different formations each character within the group takes. And while each group does play the same, the personalities and banter they share in each level makes playing the game four times so much less of a chore. Not to mention the level design of each zone changes depending on the group you play as, so even though the zones are the same, the changes could make them either easier or harder.
So in the end, I don't see why this game still continues to get the shaft. Yes, it does have its fans, me included, but it seems there are some that still think this was the turning point for Sonic's downfall, and that's an unfair perspective in my opinion. And I'm also personally glad that Sonic Boom will be taking inspiration from Sonic Heroes for its core gameplay. The more I hear about it, the more I get excited for it.
- DEVELOPED BY: Sonic Team USA
- PUBLISHED BY: Sega
- DIRECTED BY: Takashi Iizuka
- PRODUCED BY: Yuji Naka
- COMPOSED BY: Jun Senoue / Naofumi Hataya / Yutaka Minobe / Tomoya Ohtani / Keiichi Sugiyama / Hideaki Kobayashi / Mariko Nanba / Teruhiko Nakagawa / Fumie Kumatani
- PERFORMED BY: Crush 40
- PLATFORM/S: Nintendo GameCube / PlayStation 2 / Xbox / PC / PlayStation Network
- GENRE: Platforming
- WHERE MUSIC PLAYS:
[EVENT] - Introduction
[EVENT] - Last Story ~ Credits