theman61890's Full Review: Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360
Sonic has always been one of my favorite characters from my youth with classics on the Sega line of systems. At one point he was so popular that he was rivaled to Mario, but nowadays he cant even run alongside the lovable plumber. Makers have tried to revive Sonic's status, but every attempt has seem futile since no Sonic game has been nothing more than decent recently, which is a far cry from the classics constantly put froth with Sonic years past. This game unfortunately continues the bad trend.
Story
Sonic always had decent stories and this game was not different. However minor plotholes and hiatus' in the storyline causes some confusion and causes the story to be lackluster at times. The main story is that Sonic must rescue Princess Elise from our old nemesis Dr. Eggman.
Alongside Sonic, Shadow also has a story. Shadow's story begins with Shadow barging into Eggman's headquarters. We find out that he is there to save Rouge who has been held captive for a reason that is not fully disclosed in the game. All we know is that Rouge was trying to take an item from Eggman and got caught. As Shadow enters he is faced with an opponent named Mephillis, who looks like a "Frankensteinish" imitation of himself. This monster sends Shadow to the future in which Shadow must find his way back to the resent to undo Eggman's evil. Actually this story has a great ending to it.
Graphics
The graphics are decent, but the makers surely did not push the capabilities of the 360. After playing visual beauties like Gears of War and Mass Effect, this game looks like it belongs on the Gamecube console. The levels look plain with not much moving parts in the background. Although some levels, Like Crisis City, are stunningly beautiful, most of the other levels are not anything special to look at. Also the characters models seemed outdated as all of the Sonic characters look like they did on older systems. The only exception was Elise and Silver who look stunning.
The cut scenes were one of the bright spots graphically. The characters moved pretty well, the only problem I had was that the lip sync was off with the words. So sometimes you would hear a characters voice and there mouth will be closed. Also I loved the intro movies fro each character especially Shadow's. Overall the graphics were "iffy" and it surely had its bad spots, but also did have some good spots.
Sound
The sound was awful. Every aspect of the sound was pitiful, no positives whatsoever. First of the enemies all sounded like someone scratching metal alongside concrete, just an annoying screeching sound. Also the voice overs were really sad considering the voice cast from the Sonic X games were back. Elise had no emotion throughout the game and sounded different at various different points in the game. Rouge sounded like she was on crack throughout the game. Sonic's voice was fine, but his laugh was annoying beyond belief.
The soundtrack of the game was really forgettable. Probably the worst Sonic soundtrack of all time. Ever since Sonic Heroes the Sonic games have been getting worst soundtrack wise. The game is full of rock/techno song that give no feeling into the game and levels. This game just plain sucked musically.
Gameplay
The gameplay was sub par but you get use to the weaknesses to enjoy the gameplay a bit. Sonic is much slower this time as he is not really speedy compared to his past titles. However there are Mach Speed points in the game in which you activate it in order to make Sonic godlike fast to finish a certain level or goal. Mach speed parts are very glitchy. Sometimes you will get literally stuck on the game screen and just die. Sonic also has a variety of abilities you can gain by collecting rings.
Shadow is painfully slower than Sonic, but is much stronger. He can do multiple combos in a row, something Sonic is unable to do. He also has a Blast gauge that lets you perform three other moves, whom are all very lethal. Such as
Chaos Spear, which momentarily paralyzes enemies.
Silver uses telekinetic powers to attack. he can throw boxes and reflect enemy projectiles back at them, which is pretty cool. The only downside is that he cannot pick up multiple items or the items will break and crash into each other. Like Sonic, Silver can buy abilities that will let you float around and another move that helps Silver paralyze his enemies.
Alongside the main three you can also use Tails, Knuckles, Omega and etc. But their only in minor parts. There are about 13 levels in the game, the average for a Sonic game. Some levels can be fun but the rest of painfully boring. Many Sonic levels include parts in which you must carry Elise which makes Sonic even slower. Overall the levels are essentially very shot except that last levels which are painfully long, just a bad dynamic set forth.
The controls were more crisp however in this game compared to more recent titles. The game is not as sensitive as it once was. Before just clicking the joystick could have disastrous results, in this game the joystick is a bit more resistant. Also in the game you don't need to control the camera as much as before since the camera is really good in this game. Before the camera would just go out of control at random spurts.
Replay Value
There is not really much relay after beating the three stories. The only thing is that you need to replay the levels many times to unlock all 180 gold medals. There are also a few unlockables that will help increase replay value, but not by much.
Overall this game was a real letdown. I bought this game in thinking that Sonic was going to be revived. This game was heavily hyped as the resurgence of the Sonic franchise, but that was surely not so. With flawed gameplay, bad graphics, hideous and annoying sounds, the game is really pitiful. the only thing decent about the game is that some levels are actually fun and are decent to play through. I must recommend renting or borrowing since this game is really not worth the money you will pay to buy it new or used.
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