Sonic Heroes has arrived, and now for diehard Sonic fans a question must be posed. This won't be an easy thing to do, since if you're a longtime fan of the series you've been under the "Fell for It" category since way back in the Blast Processing days. The question, however, must be asked:

"Do you like where this is going?"

Sonic fans, it is to you I admit that the last game I played in the series was the first Sonic Adventure, and the last game I loved in the series was Sonic CD. I am not a 2D crusader, but I must make clear my belief that some things simply belong there (Street Fighter, Castlevania) while others can thrive in the move to 3D (see Mario 64, Metroid Prime). In order for the latter games to be successful, however, something has to give, something has to go, and preconceptions need to be shattered. The later entries in the Sonic series are like running into a girlfriend years after breaking up and listening to her tell you not much has happened in her life after watching her adjust a diamond engagement ring while asking her personal assistant for a Zima. Simply put, this series needs a resurrection, not a facelift.

Sonic Heroes is a game that tries very hard to capture a 2D feeling that really can't be translated to a 3D environment (i.e., the sense of satisfaction seems to have been lost in the transition from pressing forward to go fast to pressing up to go fast). It offers a fairly large story mode along with a time attack, two-player game, and gallery mode for unlocked goodies. If you haven't heard about it yet, SH allows you to pick a team of three characters from among four teams. Each character has different traits that if used at the correct time, allow you to find perhaps an easier or more rewarding path through the level (e.g., Sonic = Speed, Tails = Flight, Knuckles = Power). Each character is accessible with a press of a button. Basic gameplay consists of picking the right character for the situation you're presented with (easy, as the game will usually let you know in some way) and then going house killing enemies, moving fast, and picking up rings. Each character can also level up three times a stage by collecting glowing balls, which are randomly placed throughout the stage or left behind by destroyed enemies.

These ideas were all a part of what got me excited back in May when I first laid eyes on early footage, mostly because it seemed to solve the massively convoluted "Sonic and his chums" universe and it gave the impression that the actual gameplay situations could be limitless. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking that either. Then of course reality sets in as you try out each team. You see, of the four possible gameplay experiences only one is actually unique and strays away from the main game. The other three are simply mirrors of your basic Sonic, Tails, Knuckles game each basically representing (rather poorly) a difficulty setting. The Chaotix team is the only one offering a different experience (objective-based gameplay), but even this is hindered by the fact that it plays through the same slightly altered stages as everyone else with teleportation devices replacing giant rings so you can return to the beginning of a stage if you missed something. Each team has slightly different attacks and attributes to it as well, though the three base character ideas mentioned above remain the same.

With what seems to be a running theme in Sonic Team (the developer, not the three-animal wrecking crew) games nowadays, each stage gives you a letter grade based on your performance (number of deaths, points, time it took you, etc . . .). While allowing you a certain freedom, the game itself has really strict requirements for finishing with a decent grade. It's safe to say that without knowing the layouts of the enemies, ramps, and big jumps on each stage, you aren't going to make an A your first time through. But I suppose if you look at it, that adds replayability to a game that should be bursting with it anyway, considering you have to finish the game four times to get all four storylines wrapped up. Also worth a mention is the addition of very traditional-looking bonus stages that require you to collect what look like giant balloons to in order to finish.

Heroes has a much more irritating problem, though, and it's one that after two previous fully 3D adventures is inexcusable: the camera. Now, in a slower-paced 3D platformer, this would still be inexcusable, but in a game like this the camera is a priority. As anyone who has played a 3D Sonic game can attest, it is daunting at first to watch the screen move really fast while Sonic does a loop-de-loop through a massive triple-barreled ramp. As a matter of fact it so daunting that most people assume they just entered an in-game cut scene only to find out after letting go of up (or whatever the direction the camera happens to facing for the millisecond it isn't following your every turn through the aforementioned ramp) that they are in control of Sonic and he's wondering why they didn't just do something to save him from death by gravity. The camera in these games has been death to a lot of moments when you feel like its picking up or that you're getting in a rhythm, and isn‘t that what Sonic is about? Well besides speed of course - and red shoes.

The game has a pretty good graphics engine going for it. Using the RenderWare engine hasn't done much in terms of graphical detail or clarity, but it has allowed it to run at a very consistent frame rate while increasing the sense of speed and motion sickness by quite a margin. SH really is in love with the idea of so much, so fast. You won't be blown away by the models or the backgrounds, but it fits right in with every other colorful character action-platformer on the market. A nice little touch that I thought worth mentioning (though not technical at all) is that the loading screens between stages look like the headers and footers from the original Sonic game. It's a nice nostalgic graphical touch of the type that Sega seems to be loving nowadays.

The soundtrack, on the other hand, is all a matter of taste. If you're a J-pop freak, you'll simply die. If you're everyone else in the world, you'll turn it down - at least at the beginning. Admittedly, the soundtrack does get a lot more nostalgic later on in the game, but by then you'll really wish you turned it way down, because you see, nearly every team has at least one annoying four year-old boy/girl, one whiny teenager, and one angst-filled twenty-year-old doing the voice acting. The only exception is Team Chaotix, which inexplicably has a guy doing his best Solid Snake impression playing a chameleon and Roberto the plumber from down the street playing the gator dude. Hey at least it's different right?

So we come back to the question I asked earlier: Do you like where this is going? If all you ever wanted out of a 3D Sonic game was Sonic Adventure and an option for objective-based gameplay on stages not designed for it, three controllable characters, a massive sense of speed, and Espio "Solid Snake" Chameleon, then this is your game. If, like myself, you were patiently waiting for the Sonic series to be resurrected, it looks like the future is going to be wide open for a bit.

· · · Daniel Bucy