'Sonic Heroes' Retrospective Review

Video Games

Dec 29

Sonic Heroes poster — Image Source: Altar of Gaming

Sonic Heroes turns the big 2-0 as we ring in 2024. This was the first major multi-platform release for the blue blur, having spent his first 10 years locked on SEGA's hardware. The game received mixed reviews upon release, but how does it hold up 20 years later? Let's find out

Gameplay

The gameplay is more similar to the Genesis-era games rather than the more action adventure-oriented gameplay of the Adventure titles. What sets it apart, however, is the team-based mechanic, where the player controls three characters at once, with one character acting as the lead in their formation. The teams are Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles), Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega), Team Rose (Amy, Cream, and Big), and Team Chaotix (Espio, Charmy, and Vector).

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There are three formations within each team: speed, flying, and power. Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Espio are the speed characters; Tails, Rouge, Cream, and Charmy are the flying characters, and Knuckles, Omega, Big, and Vector are the power characters. The speed formation features your typical Sonic gameplay, flying focuses on flying and vertical platforming, and the power formation focuses on combat. Though the levels are linear, they do feature some branching paths that can be accessed via one of the formations. The levels in the Team Chaotix story are unique in that they often feature fetch quests for the player.

Sonic Heroes gameplay — Image Source: CultureSlate

Returning to the franchise are special stages that are primarily used to collect one of the seven chaos emeralds. The layout is a halfpipe-styled level similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Within the level are spheres that allow the player to boost through the level and avoid obstacles. This style of special stage is a refreshing new take on the classic format. There’s also a two-player split-screen mode that features the players racing to the end of the stage along with other challenges, including kart racing. Overall, the gameplay of Sonic Heroes is a unique twist on the 3D Sonic formula that harkens back to its 16-bit roots.

Graphics

Sonic Heroes — Image Source: CultureSlate

The game’s graphics appear to be more stylized and cartoonish compared to its predecessor Sonic Adventure 2. Rather than take a more realistic approach, the game instead opts for more colors and shine. Each of the character models appears rather glossy, and this extends slightly into the pre-rendered cutscenes as well. Nonetheless, they still look pretty good even 20 years later and appear mostly consistent across platforms due to the use of the RenderWare engine making it easier to port the game to each console. The only platform that has some slight performance is the PlayStation 2 version, which has lower-quality textures and runs at 30fps as opposed to 60 like the other versions. Nonetheless, the game has aged quite well graphically.

Story

Compared to the stories of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes’ story is relatively simple. Team Sonic is going after Eggman to stop him from using his Eggfleet to take over the world. Meanwhile, Rouge breaks into Eggman's base and finds Shadow (who was presumed dead after Sonic Adventure 2) and a robot by the name of E-123 Omega, who seeks revenge on Eggman. Now, as Team Dark, they too are after the mad scientist. Team Rose's story is focused on Cream finding Chocola Chao and Big finding his best buddy Froggy. Lastly, the story for Team Chaotix focuses on their detective agency as they get a job from a mysterious client and now must do various tasks to prove themselves. The stories, though separate, all come together in the end, and they brilliantly motivate the gameplay.

Music And Sound

Jun Senoue returns to compose the music for the title. The music is mostly high-energy rock, and each team has their own unique theme that represents their overall feeling or tone. These themes and the main theme of the game were performed by Senoue's band, Crush 40. The score features several hummable tunes that have surely stuck with fans for two decades.

The voice acting is pretty good in both languages. In Japanese, the cast is carried over from the previous two titles, with the notable exception being Ryo Hirohashi making her game debut as Tails. Sonic Heroes features several characters who are either new to the series in this installment or are receiving a voice for the first time. These include Cream the Rabbit (voiced by Sayaka Aoki, who reprises her role from Sonic X), Vector the Crocodile (voiced by Kenta Miyake), Espio the Chameleon (voiced by Yūki Masuda), Charmy Bee (voiced by Yōko Teppōzuka), and Metal Sonic (voiced by Junichi Kanemaru). All of these actors do an amazing job portraying their characters.

The English cast is also mostly carried over from Sonic Adventure 2, except Tails. In this title, the two-tailed fox is voiced by William Corkery. Other newcomers include Jon St. John as Omega, Sarah Wulfeck as Cream, Marc Biagi as Vector, Bill Corkery as Espio, and Emily Corkery as Charmy. Though the deliveries may be slightly off at times, this is considered by many to be the best work for this cast and the perfect send-off before the actors from the 4kids dub of Sonic X took over in 2005.

Pros And Cons

Let's begin with the pros. The gameplay is fast-paced and intense while not featuring too much of a steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with the series. Sonic Heroes also features a rather memorable soundtrack that continues to be a favorite among Sonic fans. The graphics have aged nicely across all platforms. Lastly, the story, while simple, is still rather engaging. One more pro is that the PC version has a rather vibrant mod scene!

There are some cons, however. Firstly, though this is the best performance by the Adventure era English cast, it still features some wooden performances on occasion, particularly from Tails. On the gameplay side, there are several times when the level design is too linear to the point of feeling constrained. The controls can also be a bit touchy at times, and the camera doesn't help things. Finally, there is some slight slowdown in the PC version, and the controls don't exactly translate well to modern controllers.

Verdict

Sonic Heroes still holds up rather well and is a pretty enjoyable experience. Time has mostly been kind to it in all departments, and it is still a fun game to play in 2023 and even into 2024! Sadly, the title has yet to see an official modern re-release, but thankfully, the game is relatively easy to find on the second-hand market. If you're in the mood for some classic high-speed action, then be sure to pick up Sonic Heroes

Rating: 8/10

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