Initially, the theory behind Sonic Heroes seems promising: single out those break-neck high points of the last two (flagship) instalments and push the dynamic of the game up a notch. Demanding the control of three characters ‘at once’, this is a committed application of some long-standing ideas – ideas evident in the tandem-play of Knuckles Chaotix and/or its prototype, Sonic Crackers. Superficially, the formula seems successful and the result suggests imminent, if not immediate enjoyment; you’re ready to fall in love with Sonic once again.…until something goes horribly wrong.

Insidious and unforgiving, the agents of Sonic Heroes’ undoing are part complacence and, for a considerable part, not even Sonic Team’s fault at all. Their implications, however, are catastrophic.

New opportunities and expectations have arisen within platform games; those almighty ripples that The Matrix sent crashing through entertainment culture have imposed on us the need to be empowered – to amaze ourselves. Having finally struck the platform genre, that influence is threatening to render much of what came before it obsolete. Finding itself bound to the sensation of speed and exhilaration, Sonic Heroes has ironically little room for manoeuvre against this sudden backdrop of exciting developments such as those offered by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. With games inspiring awe on an ever more regular basis, the question is raised: what can Sonic Team do to stop this institution from falling into an abyss of apathy?

Based on the evidence at hand, the answer is: little.

From a series of low-res menus the game branches into four main routes, each based on a different trio of characters. Each team has a specialist in ‘Flight’, ‘Power’ and ‘Speed’. Team Sonic is your effective ‘normal’ mode, consisting of Tails, Sonic and Knuckles. Team Dark offers a more challenging game thanks to longer jumps, different level paths and an increased volume of enemies. Team Rose is the easiest mode, while Team Chaotix attempts to impose a mission-based structure upon the games singular series of levels.

The team dynamic itself is simpler than many will have expected. Players select a leader from their team, who they then control while the other characters enter formation beside them. In the case of Flight characters, team-mates will hang underneath them as they take to the air. Embellishing the team concept, attacks are performed as a group and are appropriate to the status of the leader (e.g. a Power leader throws the other characters like fireballs). It’s certainly an interesting development; it certainly isn’t, however, enough of a departure to justify the game around it. The combined skill-set of your three characters is nothing that would over-burden a single character.

This is where Sonic Team become accountable for their part of the demise – Sonic Heroes sporadically features new little ‘bits’, yet so very much is familiar. The same abundance of rails and channels are there because, without them, those supersonic moments would be impossible to navigate within a 3D control system. This was fine when those moments were still impressive, but the corkscrews and spiralling chicanes just don’t stimulate the senses any more. Worse still, the nasty cracks in this latest generation of Sonic engine are still there and as annoying as ever. For example, the semblance of control you have as Sonic thunders through a network of tangled chicanes is just that – a façade – yet it’s still enough to guarantee the occasional ‘deadly mishap’ that feels both unnecessary and unfair. Similar lapses of control occur elsewhere – moments where your dominance of the situation dissolves in a second of unforeseen misdirection.

The engine also fails in an arguably more serious capacity – frame rate. It requires little comment because to apply that term to a Sonic game is like sounding a clap of thunder. But there are points in Heroes where, contrary to your high hopes for this PS2 version, everything suddenly starts to grind. This particularly affects the more ambitious boss encounters, effectively ruining these sparse moments of genuine excitement.

Moments of design laziness permeate throughout, quickly establishing it as the foremost undermining element. The levels themselves are frequently repetitive in nature, reusing the same tricks and devices time and again for no better purpose than length. Casino Park is the real offender in this respect, throwing players from one king-size pinball table to the next (a section which would have been far more enjoyable had the physics changed to suit the situation). And, of course, these are the same old stages that Sonic has, for this reviewer, served up just one too many times. Busier and better textured as they are, the environments on offer are an unforgivably lethargic selection from an overly stale pot.

It seems extremely harsh to lay this level of criticism upon a game that is, in essence, competently produced. But games are made to excite and entrance, to immerse and challenge. Sonic Heroes achieves none of these; its tricks are old and it offers no challenge but for the irksome nuisances of its design. Granted, there will be some who find this a far more palatable prospect than others; the opportunity to blister through a proficiently recycled Sonic 'episode' is, for them, enough. Others, however, will reach a certain stage and quietly resign their controller to the floor, feeling the loss. Significantly, these games are the beating heart of the Sonic tradition around which the various spin-offs and licenses revolve. The heart has stopped with this game, and it isn’t hard to imagine Sonic Team fervently, yet unsuccessfully searching for a means by which to restart it.

Sonic the Hedgehog: 1991-2004.
They loved him for the speed and he lived by the speed - lived until there was nowhere left for the speed to take him.