Knuckles’ attacks you can get the hang of, but it’s no great shakes, while Tails’ item box bomb instead of his tail whip is just plain lazy. Aside from Silver, you won’t be using your special abilities most of the time, as Sonic’s gems usually just get in the way and Shadow is more than adequate without Chaos Boost.Īmigo characters are annoying at the worst of times, with jumps not harming enemies, leaving them to defend themselves using crummy close range moves. Obtaining new abilities via shop is novel, but very simple as you always collect more rings than you need. Each character has a special meter for powers – Silver can use his PK energy to lift items, Shadow can use Chaos Boost to perform major attacks, and Sonic can customise his abilities with shoe gems purchased from the shops. It’s a welcome gameplay addition, and it’s just a shame many of his levels are marred with slowdown. You can pick up items and lob them at enemies, use your PK to cross-large areas and hover across gaps. Silver’s the new kid on the block, and his levels are very enjoyable. Silver adds a new dimension to the game that is enjoyable to play.

It’s not without its moments of tedium but simply put, Shadow the Hedgehog should have played like this. The vehicles work much better too, although you will hate the town missions involving jeeps and motorcycles. Far from being cheap, it makes your level flow a bit better. This is a great move because we really, really hate enemies with health bars in Sonic games. He has a homing attack melee move, which can knock down an enemy’s health bar considerably.

Just not with as much accessibility as we’d have liked. There will be times when the bounce attack is executed when trying to do a Light Dash, and the Spin Dash can only be used from standstill. Just jumping does nothing, which is just a little bit irritating. Sonic’s attacks have been stripped so that only his bounce attack and homing dash will actually destroy enemies. Unlike Sonic Heroes or Shadow, where moving forward a little bit would result in you speeding off with little traction, the inertia here from walking to running speed suits Sonic just right. This is not a bad thing in fact it’s perfect. For those new to the game, it can be a bit of an adjustment as even Sonic is considerably slower than in past games. While looking superb, the characters control pretty well too. Seeing Omega do hilarious standby animations by rotating and scratching his robotic belly is a joy to behold when passing the time. Hell, we even like Shadow again now, as his new role is pretty badass. The moment Sonic bounces into view you know our cocky hedgehog is back. The one thing the series has lacked until now is a perfect personality representation of the characters. The graphics are pretty basic for a next generation console, but for a Sonic game they are more than adequate. One thing this game has gotten perfect is the personality and animation of the characters.

The levels are varied and have many decent challenges within them. Lacey Chabert’s role is really rather token but she makes the most of it. Jason doesn’t put a foot wrong as Shadow though, and Mike Pollock does Eggman further justice. Voice acting is your typical Sonic fare – they should probably all button it. The story is involved and very entertaining, and if you can forgive the plotholes here and there (and the irritating “Lose-Princess-Save-Princess-Lose-Princess” structure of Sonic’s Episode), it can easily rival Sonic Adventure 2 for its mature premise and ultimate foreboding in the Last Episode. The difference between CG and in-game cutscene is very slight, you really couldn’t tell the difference. Impressively, sequences using in-game graphics look amazing too. As ever, the CG team behind these stunning pieces need awards or something. From the moment you turn on the game you’re introduced to a series of wonderful cutscenes. Well, you would think so, but it’s all a bit of a mixed bag. Now we’ve hit the next generation of consoles, does the tried and tested work in Sonic the Hedgehog? The result is a mixture of Sonic Adventure’s town stages and level structure and Sonic Adventure 2’s involving plot lines. After changing the formula with Sonic Heroes and getting mixed responses, the Team have gone back to basics and stuck with what works.

Keep it in your pants nintendo ad 90s