SapphireLibra3 Reviews #8: Sonic Heroes · 6:29pm Aug 15th, 2016
Sadly Sonic Adventure 2 would be the last Sonic game to appear on a SEGA exclusive system, as the SEGA Dreamcast was a commercial FLOP! Because of this, SEGA had no choice but to go third party, which meant that the blue blur would have to find a new home. In an ironic twist of fate, that new home would end up being the home of Sonic's greatest rival...
Nintendo...
Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 would first be ported to the Nintendo Gamecube, where they'd be revamped with slightly better graphics, new material added, and in the case of SA2, now the extra characters you could use in 2 player mode were available at the get go, making Sonic Adventure 2 Battle a must have for anyone owning a Gamecube.
But shortly after, SEGA would create their newest Sonic game, this one sadly being the first nail in Sonic's coffin in the eyes of many of his fans, which is odd to me, because this game was TONS of fun to me. But hey, what do I know, right?
So without further ado, I am SapphireLibra3 reviewing Sonic Heroes for the Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation 2, and X Box. Wow... that's a lot...
STORY
This game's story is a little simpler than the two games before it, as it's more so four different plots as opposed to four full on stories, which works in the favor of the game in my opinion. Less to keep up with, and for me, less work to do on the story section 
.
The game is broken up into four "teams" of three characters: Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix. I'll briefly go into all four plots.
Team Sonic: Our main characters, featuring Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Tails gets a letter from Dr. Robotnik saying that in three days he's going to launch his air fleet, and challenges Sonic to stop him. Tails is worried, but Knuckles is all "We got this". Sonic, with a familiar cocky grin rushes off to stop Dr. Robotnik, this time with Tails and Knuckles traveling with him. Yeah, that's their story in a nutshell.
Team Dark: Featuring returning characters Shadow, Rouge, and newcomer E-123: Omega. Rouge is infiltrating Robotnik's secret base to steal his treasure, which turns out to be an amnesiac SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG, who for some reason doesn't recognize her. Immediately, they're assaulted by one of Robotnik's robots, Omega, who was for some reason sealed away in that room despite his destructive power. Rouge stops Shadow and Omega from killing each other, and the three of them (reluctantly on Shadow and Omega's part) decide to work together, Shadow searching for his memories, Rouge seeking that treasure, and Omega seeking good old fashioned REVENGE.
Team Ro-
Do I have to? Do I really have to go into this team? I do? Damn it... *sigh*
Team Rose: Featuring Amy, semi newcomer Cream the Rabbit, and... ugh... Big... the... Cat... (WHY?! WHY IS HE BACK!!! 
) Amy sees in the newspaper that Sonic apparently stole Cream's pet Chao named Chocola, and Big's pet frog, Froggy- Seriously Big?! You lost sight of him AGAIN?! God! You are just MADE of fail! Realizing that Sonic can't be the culprit, Amy decides to bring these two along and help them find their lost pets. There! I did it! Moving on goddamn it!
Team Chaotix: Featuring Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy Bee, returning characters from the obscure title Knuckles' Chaotix. These three are a bumbling detective agency struggling to pay the bills. They receive their big break when a mysterious package comes to their office, being a walkie talkie used by a mysterious man who's hiring them for a mysterious mission. Espio is understandably suspicious, but as Vector points out, "They never turn down work that pays," and they need the money BAD. So, they set out to save their client.
Normally, after beating the four main stories, you unlock the final story, but this time you have to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds in the Special Stages AND beat the four team's stories. When you do, it's revealed that Chaotix's client was Dr. Robotnik, who was imprisoned by a newly enhanced Metal Sonic, who used his new shape shifting powers to impersonate Sonic and steal Froggy and Chocola. Why? This actually makes sense, believe it or not. Metal Sonic wanted the data on Chaos, so he took Chocola and Froggy since Chaos was a mutated Chao, and Froggy had extended contact with Chaos's tail. Yeah, he really thought that through.
He also wanted the data on Sonic and his friends so he could turn into his ultimate form, Metal Madness. Using the Chaos Emeralds, the other teams hold off Metal Madness while Team Sonic charge up their super forms. Sonic calls on the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and shares his power with Tail's and Knuckles, and the three of them face off against Metal Sonic's true ultimate form, Metal Overlord, which has the COOLEST FINAL FIGHT SONG EVER!!!
Oh wait, we're not at the Sound section yet? *sigh* Fine, I'll wait.
This game's story is simple, one of the simplest stories in a 3D Sonic game, and you know what? That's okay? The stories do what they're supposed to do: get each of the teams together and on their way, and give them a reason to do whatever it is their doing in the first place. From their, we're left to focus on the meat of this game. That being...
GAMEPLAY
This game plays a lot like the old Sonic games in terms of its level design and pacing. The first stage is your brightly colored forest area, while the last stage is Robotnik's mechanical base. Each stage has two acts, followed by some sort of encounter, either a boss battle against Robotnik, a rush of enemies, or even a fight against another team (these fights are terrible...). Regular enemies now have life gauges, which means that you might find yourself using the homing attack more than once on a single enemy. This might be hit or miss, because while I don't mind that, it does slow down the gameplay a bit.
Instead of choosing one character for each stage, you choose one of the four teams, and alternate between the members. Each team is broken up into three standard members:
Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Espio are all SPEED characters, represented by the color blue.
Tails, Rouge, Cream, and Charmy are FLIGHT characters, represented by the color yellow.
And Knuckles, Omega, Big, and Vector are POWER characters, represented by the color red.
On the Gamecube (the version that I have) pushing the X or Y buttons switches the leader of the team, and thus the formation. Speed formation puts the characters more or less back to back with the Speed character in front. As the name implies, this is the fastest formation and is used mainly to get through long hallways and tight slopes. Here you can use the move "Rocket Accell", which has your Power and Flight members push the leader forward. Each Speed member also has a wind move that can blow their enemies into the air or push them up long poles. Some enemies can't be defeated otherwise.
Flight formation has your Flight member fly up in the air a bit with the other two members hanging underneath him/her holding onto each other's legs. This formation is used to fly over large pits and attack enemies long distance with the Thunder Shoot. This attack paralyzes enemies, and depending on the level might just destroy them all together.
Power formation has all of your members stand in a straight line next to each other with the Power member front and center. This formation is the strongest one, used to plow through certain obstacles that the other formations can't. Attacking with this formation has the other members take the form of either fists for the Power member, or even projectiles. This formation uses fire.
If you're not sure how to proceed, there are screens that show you what formation is best for each section of the stage. If all of this seems complicated, don't worry. There's a full on tutorial you can use if you're new to the game, or if you play as Team Rose.
I should probably get into that now, how the teams differ. All four control more or less identically this time around, but each team is different in terms of difficulty. Team Sonic is the most standard difficulty, and honestly the most fun team to use. Team Dark has the longest stages with the most enemies, making them the Hard Mode of this game. Team Rose is, understandably, the Easy Mode, with shorter stages that are even stated to be good for younger players, and the tutorial is mandatory for their playthrough. Finally is Team Chaotix, who have stages with odd objectives, like killing a certain number of enemies, finding the Chao hidden in the stage, or special objectives exclusive to that area.
Each team also has a screen wide nuke called a Team Blast. You charge up the gauge for Team Blast by collecting rings and killing enemies. Once you use Team Blast, certain effects linger depending on the team. Team Sonic is able to use the Light Speed attack for the duration of the gauge, Team Dark freezes time for the duration, Team Rose gains temporarily invincibility, and Team Chaotix gains rings for each enemy they defeat.
Within each stage is a key, and if you bring that key with you to the end of the stage, you unlock the Special Stage. If you go to the Act 1 version, the goal is just extra lives. It's the Act 2 version you really want, because its there that you have to chase after the Chaos Emerald. There are multicolored orbs that charge up your dash meter, which you use to catch up to the Chaos Emerald. These stages aren't TOO hard, but the controls are terrible here, making it harder than it has to be. But getting them is TOTALLY worth it, for the final fight alone. This game has one of the most fun final battles in any Sonic game in my opinion. Speaking off, now I can focus on the section I've been waiting for.
SOUND
The music in this game is different than your usual Sonic game, in terms of a 3D title. It's more lighthearted, putting me more in the mind of the 2D titles, which I think is what they were going for. Each stages's theme is fitting for the environment you're in, and some of these tunes are really beautiful. I damn near cried listening to some of these songs.
Naturally, all of the teams have their own themes, and I feel that all the themes match their respective teams perfectly:
Team Sonic's theme may seem a little soft core compared to Sonic's usual themes, but remember that this song is for Tails and Knuckles as well, and what they stand for. It gives this feel of "We've done this before, so we know we got this". The entire song is literally about how they're a team, covering each other's strengths and weaknesses, and mentions how they actually ENJOY working together.
Team Dark's theme is definitely more hard core, as they're the anti-heroes of the game. Their theme is cool because unlike Team Sonic's theme, which talks about the fact that they're a team of close friends, Team Dark's theme actually isolates each member in the three verses, Shadow first, then Rouge, finally Omega. Each one ends in the same way though, followed by the chorus. This matches the team because unlike the other teams, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega all have their own reasons, but the one thing that connects them is Robotnik.
Team Rose's theme is by far the most lighthearted. It matches Amy more than anyone on the team, but there's this constant theme of love in the song, which works as both Cream and Big lost someone special to them that they love. The song matching Amy more than anyone also works since Cream and Big are more so following Amy, who promised to help them find their loved ones.
Finally you have Team Chaotix's theme, which is interesting. Much like the rest of their gameplay, their song doesn't really fit in with the others. It's really more or less an anthem for the entire team, and could be looked as almost a promo for them. This works though, since they're the only team that's technically professional and authorized, the other three being vigilantes, wild cards, and a group of kids who need to stay out of trouble.
Oh, and I HAVE to mention the song that's for the final fight. First off, Crush 40 wrote and performed it, so that's a good sign. Second of all, it's the only song in the game that's really of the level of intensity that we've heard from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. This creates more tension in the fight, as it's letting you just how serious this is. Also, if you pay attention to the lyrics, they match who you're fighting perfectly, and make it seem more personal. Like this fight is more about pride than anything.
Overall, this game's soundtrack is phenomenal, as is the voice work. This time the sound is mixed perfectly, nothing drowns out the voices, and no one is cutting each other off or talking over each other. As this was the last Sonic game to use these voices, it was a nice send off in my opinion.
Sorry that I spent so much time with the sound this time around, but in my opinion this is the best part of the game.
FINAL VERDICT
This isn't a bad game in the slightest. It's a great game, but does that make it a good Sonic game?
I my opinion, it's definitely an okay Sonic game, but I can see why some people might not have liked it. The team gimmick is really just that; a gimmick. It isn't really needed, but it's a fun idea. I feel like if this game hadn't been the first of many Sonic games to rely on a gimmick, this wouldn't have been so poorly received. When it came out, it was on the Player's Choice lists for both PS2 and Gamecube.
I will admit that some of the teams coming together was a little forced, and if you don't know anything about Knuckles' Chaotix, then Team Chaotix sort of just comes out of nowhere. Also, I feel that separating the teams based off of difficulty wasn't really the best. It makes returning players feel like they're getting an unbalanced experience, especially playing as Team Rose. Sure, Amy is in that team, but Big the Cat is in it. He's not unbearable in this game, but he's still Big. Maybe that's just my bias.
Is this game worth playing? Hell yes it is. It's not perfect, but it's definitely one of my top favorite Sonic games.
As such, taking into account everything I've said here plus my own enjoyment of the game has me rating Sonic Heroes...
8.5/10
Plus a recommendation to Buy It. Just play the game as a fun game, and you'll have a great experience. Seriously, it's not a bad game.
Well that's it for this review. Please follow me on Patreon, leave your comments on Sonic Heroes below, and until next time, have a wonderful day. I love you all.
Salute`! 
"an amnesiac SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG, who for some reason doesn't recognize her" Um, he has amnesia, that's why he doesn't recognize her.
4151344 I wrote the first part of this review at almost 2 in the morning, so cut me SOME slack.
I just had an idea for a potential good use of Big. In a hypothetical Sonic RPG, you can play a fishing mini game with Big to find Froggy and the better you do in the game, the more items you can get that can help you along.
4151365 You know what? Yeah... that IS a good idea for Big the Cat.
4151346 Alright you some slack. If you want the rest it'll be $35.
4151370
And if you do badly, you just get come cash and some rings, or just rings if rings serve as cash, meaning you get something out of it no matter what so that the player doesn't want to rip their hair out. You'd be able to find the items you get via Big later on in the game making it entirely optional, it's just a way of getting said items earlier on to make your life a little easier. Plus, it can be a nice way of relaxing after beating a particularly difficult boss or going through a horde of tough enemies.
If I remember correctly , the next canonical game in this part of Sonic history is...
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Shadow_the_Hedgehog_Coverart.png
Oh, this will be interesting.
4151676 *sigh* Yep, that's the next one... and I've played it...
This is going to be painful...
4151888 The game isn't that bad, its the backtracking in a Sonic game that is the problem. If they cut out the strange need to be able to go backwards it would have been a lot better. And before someone gets on me about "But the EDGE!", Shadow is one of the least edgy anti-heroes in gaming, and is down right huggable most of the time.
4152879
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this.
A game that I remember playing; it was alright.