Sonic The Hedgehog Review

By Rob Fahey Published 24 November, 2006

Feels a little flat.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Growing up on the outskirts of a small rural town, hedgehogs were just part of the tapestry of nature for me as a child. Small, shy creatures, they scurried about at night munching on the garden's insects and shuffled through the undergrowth occasionally when their daytime sleep was disturbed by boisterous play. Saucers of milk could sometimes entice them into the pool of light by the back door, as long as the cats didn't get there first. Along with badgers, they were nature's treats for eagle-eyed children who kept an eye out after dark.

The problem with hedgehogs, however, was that you didn't tend to see them most commonly at night, when they went about their business. No, you were more likely to see them the next morning, on the way to school. A sad-looking, pancaked hedgehog carcass was almost certain to be laid out on the busy road outside our house at least once every few weeks; its spines were no defence against the wheels of a late-night truck rushing to make it to the ferry port in time, and crossing the road - god knows why they even tried, really, or what enticed them to the other side - was highly likely to end in disaster, a pathetic little spiny corpse, and upset children the following morning.

Which leads us on, somewhat morbidly, to the case of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Back to Basics

For the first next-gen outing of Sega's most famous mascot character, Sonic Team have chosen to return to the name of the first game in the whole franchise. Using the name Sonic the Hedgehog, the title of the glorious 16-bit debut of the character which came to define two generations of console battles, might initially imply that the team intends for this to be a much-needed reboot of the series; boiling it down to the absolute basics of what made it good and fun in the first place, stripping away the accumulated weight of years and finding the key elements that drove the franchise forward in the first place.

'Sonic The Hedgehog' Screenshot 1

Rather than fleshing the game out, the supporting cast often just annoys.

You might as well forget that idea right now, because that's most certainly not what you're getting. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 might have started off life, in some well-intentioned concept meeting deep within the bowels of Sega's headquarters, as a reboot for the franchise - a bold, stripped-down approach to a series of games which has grown fat, old, lazy and boring - but along the road from there to being on an Xbox 360 disc and sitting on the shelf at your local retailer, the game has picked up every fat, old, lazy and boring trait that the franchise has accumulated in the last ten years and added a few of its own for good measure. Then, to add insult to injury - or perhaps vice versa - the team apparently got just as bored of the game as players will be within ten minutes, and pushed the damn thing out the door in an utterly unfinished state.

One common criticism of recent Sonic games is that they're not really about Sonic at all - in fact, the amount of time you'll spend playing as the speedy blue critter has been cut down more and more as a vast and largely incomprehensible cast of supporting characters has been added to the game. Far from rectifying this problem, Sonic the Hedgehog compounds it; while you do start the game off playing as Sonic, you rapidly discover that two thirds of the game are devoted to segments where Shadow and new character Silver are the main characters. Not only that, but when playing as one of the central hedgehog characters, you'll end up switching over to other members of the supporting cast for no apparent reason and will be forced to play as them for a few minutes. A good example is in the ice-themed zone, where playing as Sonic, you'll suddenly see Tails pop up and announce "I'll take over from here!" - which is the cue for five minutes of interminably boring flapping around with Tails' imprecise controls and braindead combat mechanisms, while all the time, Sonic runs along behind you. So why not let you play as Sonic?

Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome

Now, don't get me wrong - playing as Sonic (or indeed as Shadow, or as Silver, who has the ability to pick things up and throw them - WITH HIS MIND!! - but not apparently to actually target them in any meaningful way) is no Holy Grail of fun and enjoyment, which you can't wait to get back to during all the times you're forced to mess around with one of the other characters. It's just that it's better than playing as Tails; and that's not saying much.

'Sonic The Hedgehog' Screenshot 2

As you can imagine, camera angles such as this are not particularly helpful.

Each of the characters' stories - we'll focus on Sonic's for now, since it's the first storyline to be open to you and obviously the one people will be most interested in - rotates around a hub area where you talk to people, take on side missions and advance the storyline of the game. This hub town is particularly appalling - it really does feel like a left-over model from a PS2 game, and astonishingly, it has dreadful pop-up (as does the rest of the game, for that matter, which is particularly unforgivable in a game where you're meant to be moving really fast). Human characters grunt like punched farm animals when you speak to them, and some of them will give you missions to complete - many of which simply involve running around the town as fast as you can finding something before the time runs out. None of the town missions are worth the pain of actually getting into them - there's a massive load delay as soon as you speak to someone who can give you a mission, followed by about ten seconds of text dialogue, then another massive load delay before the mission starts. What the hell they're loading, I don't know - but they feel the need to do it again at the end of the mission, this all despite the fact that each mission takes place in the same town you've been running around for the last ten minutes fruitlessly trying to find the next actual gameplay stage.

Ah yes. The gameplay stages. Once again, rather than shedding the baggage of the past, Sonic Team has chosen to replicate the gameplay of Sonic Adventure - and once again, they have actually managed to bring it downhill. After the abysmal (but almost enjoyable, in a strangely masochistic way) Sonic Heroes, we can only assume that we've reached the bottom of the hill, and the developers are now digging an open-cast mine for the quality of their gameplay to slide into. Sonic's controls are twitchy, unforgiving and unpleasant, with a touch of the stick in the wrong direction often sending him hurtling to his doom. Attempting to adjust your trajectory when moving at high speed regularly makes him fall over or simply slow down to a staggering stop for no apparent reason; trying to gauge jumps so that you land on a platform accurately is a matter of pure trial and error, which is a real shame in a game which insists on giving you a small, limited number of lives, loads of ways to die instantly, and is willing to put you back a good 20 to 30 minutes to the last save point every time this happens.

All of this is compounded by one of the worst cameras I've ever seen in a videogame. Very often, an utterly unhelpful angle which simply doesn't let you see what you should be doing next is chosen; better again, when you try to manually adjust the camera, it will snap right back to its original unhelpful angle at the slightest movement. The camera controls are locked into an inverted setting which can't be changed (and I do mean inverted - the Y-axis is inverted as well as the X-axis, which feels utterly wrong to many players), and often there will be whole segments of the play area you can't even look at because the camera gets stuck on a solid object. Genius. Combined with controls which completely automate some aspects of gameplay (such as combat - press A repeatedly to win game!) while removing any form of stickyness or automation from other key aspects, like sliding on rails, you get the strong impression that Sonic Team have learned absolutely nothing from over ten years of 3D gameplay. There are elementary mistakes being made here which would have been painful in 1996, let alone 2006.

Squashed Flat

'Sonic The Hedgehog' Screenshot 3

This time round Sonic seems to have picked up a human girlfriend. No, we're not sure how that works either.

I could go on. I could talk about the painful voice acting, the singularly cringe-worthy cut-scenes, the innumerable graphics glitches, or the moments in the game where you die for no apparent reason (especially in the snowboarding level, which is a particularly low point in gameplay terms as it even manages to feature checkpoints that you can miss by a whisker and then continue playing, only to be plonked right back at the start of the level when you inevitably die by running into a pile of rocks that you couldn't see because the camera was pointed the wrong way). However, this review boils down to one simple conclusion: this game is unfinished. It was quite clearly released without being properly tested, tweaked or tuned; in my first few hours of play, I uncovered massive, massive flaws which should have seen the game bounced right back from testing immediately, but which have made it onto a final retail copy of the product. If I were to guess at the reason for this, I'd say that it was because the development team didn't really care - and I'm not sure whether that's a fair statement or not, but in ways I'd prefer to believe that Sonic Team rushed this malformed abortion of a game out the door because they didn't care, rather than actually believing that some unfortunate development team actually did their level best and still produced a game this bloody awful.

What should have been a dramatic return to form for Sonic, as signalled by the hugely promising trailer videos from earlier this year and the bold decision to use the original Sonic the Hedgehog name, has turned out to be an absolute mess. Like the hedgehogs I used to see as a child on the way to school, this game has been hit by a truck - and even its spines, in this case the name of one of the most loved videogame characters of all times, couldn't provide the slightest defence against the big fat tyres of apathy which have spread it all over the road. This game has one other thing in common with those poor, flattened hedgehogs: seeing it is going to upset a whole lot of children, of all ages.

2 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (131) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #1 5 years ago

    Wow, that's a spikey opinion of it.

  • DaM #2 5 years ago

    Is the 2 for the bestiality content?

  • patlike #3 5 years ago

    God.

  • JediMasterMalik #4 5 years ago

    OMFG

    That's a pathetic score...

    ...I was expecting more tbh.

  • penhalion #5 5 years ago

    wow and yet after the demo I'm not suprised. I couldn't see much while playing and dies constantly because as mentioned, the camera was pointing the wrong way!

  • bdc #6 5 years ago

    Wow ! 2/10 is the lowest score I've ever seen on Eurogamer, which I've been browsing for a good 10 years now. It's incredibly disappointing to see Sonic crash and burn, but I saw it coming from a mile off. I guess they didnt even try to improve on the year-old demo.

  • York #7 5 years ago

    KILLITKILLITNOW.

  • StratoDriver #8 5 years ago

    have to agree with penhalion on this one.
    I kind of thought that demos where surposed to make you want to rush out and buy the game but the sonic one just made we resent the wasted time downloading it!!
    Looks like one to avoid!
    Ross

  • Darren #9 5 years ago

    I got the game yesterday and I have to say that it's more than a bit of a mess to be honest so that review score doesn't surprise me at all. The Sonic levels are absolutely dreadful and the constant loading is an absolute pain. Together with the same old twitchy controls, a wayward camera and dull level design you end up with a really disappointing game that is almost impossible to enjoy. Almost. I spent more time screaming in frustration at yet another cheap death than actually enjoying it.

    Having said that now I've unlocked Silver's episodes my blood pressure has at least stabilised a little as the slower pace and that the fact that he can fly makes his levels far less annoying than Sonic's.

    4/10 from me but avoid at all costs unless you have the patience to tolerate its many, many faults.

  • NthSimulachum #10 5 years ago

    Sonic doesn't work in 3d. It just doesn't

    Go back to 2D gameplay with 3D graphics or something.

    At least the REAL Sonic the Hegehog will be around soon to tempt more cash from our pockets.

  • Moz #11 5 years ago

    That's the worst score i've seen for Sonic today!!

    I enjoyed the demo and still hold hope that's it's not that bad!!!!! Many sonic games have been slatted of late and norally unjustly.

    Will be back in a couple of days once i've had chance to give it a spin myself.

    Just a shame they keep putting out these questionable 3D sonics. When they have a really good 3D game formula yet are refusing to produce a sequal. Please Please Please SonicTeam give us Nights - Into Dreams 2 Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!

  • Derblington #12 5 years ago

    I knew I was better off buying Superman.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 16:01

  • JayPee #13 5 years ago

    /Whinces

    Ouch.

  • Psychotext #14 5 years ago

    Mmm... Sonic has jumped the shark.

  • quedex #15 5 years ago

    Review by Shinji? And a really shite game as well? Did he insult rauper's mum or something? ;-)

  • kangarootoo #16 5 years ago

    Played the demo, for about 30 seconds. Completely failed to engage me, I died often and the camera blew.

    And there I was thinking about how the 360 was getting a glut of good games recently. Good to see this and Superman Returns keeping the universe in balance :)

  • Chtulie #17 5 years ago

    Well, at least there's stuff like SSX and downhill Jam that combine high speed racing with platforming.

  • therev #18 5 years ago

    What were the two points for?

  • Blerk #19 5 years ago

    Ouch!

  • Ceatlan #20 5 years ago

    Glad I wasn't the only one who thought the control is shocking, I'm basing my opinion on the demo obviously and did hold out faint hope that it might be sorted for the official release. Seems it wasn't.

  • Keyz #21 5 years ago

    Ouch, it's worse than Shadow The Hedgehog. Is it me or are platformers getting darker? Apart from Crash Bandicoot and Rachet and Clank, platformers try a darker tone like Jak, Spyro and now Sonic. (Except for Jak which took a darker tone ages ago) The dark tone usually falls flat though.

  • Moz #22 5 years ago

    @NthSimulachum - Get Sonic Rush on the DS, it really is Sonic on form and insainly hard like the original!

  • absolutezero #23 5 years ago

    Well done giving the Hedgehogs of your youth the shits. Never give cows milk to a hog.


    I pretty much expected this. SEGA have'nt created anything good in years.

  • Chtulie #24 5 years ago

    "SEGA have'nt created anything good in years. "

    Outrun 2?

  • Kon #25 5 years ago

    Let's hope Sonic Wildfire is the return to form Sonic so sorely needs. If we forget the excellent Sonic Rush that is.

  • peterfll #26 5 years ago

    I enjoyed the first two "adventures" and could forgive the glitches apparent in those. However, I too downloaded the demo and just was appalled at how broken the control and camera systems were. I never expected them to be included in spades in the retail version.

    Perhaps someone really is trying to kill the franchise? I can't quite believe that Sega and Sonic Team would release something so fundamentally broken.

    It makes no sense.

  • Moz #27 5 years ago

    Maybe the Wii offering will be better! From the vids looks like it's more on rails. So less frustraight falling off the edge. Hopefully make it play more like a side scroller, whilst giving you the added thrill of speeding through a 3D environment.

  • peterfll #28 5 years ago

    BTW Sonic Rush on the DS - fabulous.

  • President_Weasel #29 5 years ago

    So, worse than Superman returns eh.
    What's a game got to do to get a 1 round here?

  • manic_mouse #30 5 years ago

    From what I've played of the demo this review score is justified. The game is truely awful. It pains me to think that this is the kind of thing SEGA is putting out these days, with it's mascot to boot.

    The way Sonic Team took the Sonic games into 3D was always flawed, yet they never took the time to step back and actually think about what they were doing. The camera in every 3D Sonic game has been piss-poor, bordering on making the games unplayable (as in this case). Mario got this right from day one, and with the speed of Sonic having a reliable camera is far more important than it is for Mario. Not even a simple thing like the camera, never mind gameplay, can Sonic Team get right.

    Sonic in 3D needs to be totally rethought from the ground up. Sonic Team need to look at all the other great 3D platformers that have totally overShadowed (hehe) their efforts.

  • Steroyd #31 5 years ago

    Whoa I never thought any game would be worse than what EA could churn out boy was I wrong.

    RIP Sonic long live Mario. O_O

  • SeesThroughAll #32 5 years ago

    Sadly, this was rather expected :(.

    Quite a bunch of Sonic fans in the States seem to be pleased with Rivals, though. I wonder when will this come out in Euro land?

  • OhWiseOne #33 5 years ago

    Overly harsh, it's not that bad. Typical EG. 360 Exclusive = better pan it otherwise the Pony fanbois will revolt.

  • Steroyd #34 5 years ago

    er Sonic The Hedgehog is multiplat.

  • The_Foo_Fighter #35 5 years ago

    I remember playing it at Leipzig and laughing my tits off at how terrible it was.

  • Kon #36 5 years ago

    "Typical EG. 360 Exclusive = better pan it otherwise the Pony fanbois will revolt."

    You are teh wrong OhUnwiseOne...

  • peterfll #37 5 years ago

    @ OhWiseOne

    It's coming out on the PS3 too.

    OhStupidOne

  • Les #38 5 years ago

    wow, another "next-gen" game that sucks...

  • SimonM7 #39 5 years ago

    The gameplay in this game, for the most part, works really well. The camera performs as good as can be expected in trying to cover what's happening at these speeds, and if you have some Shinobi PS2 sense of how to manage it, it's absolutely fine.

    What goes wrong in this game proper is the presentation though. Load screens are littered everywhere, and even the better action stages aren't particularly inspired. The story gets quite engaging once you start playing as Silver, and even though Shadow hops into vehicles from time to time, all three hedgehogs have reasonably enjoyable levels.

    The game is essentially broken though, there's no denying that. It has bits that are obviously really well made, like some of its cutscenes and all of the models in general, and some bits are almost mind blowingly shite. What the game does in terms of gameplay is vastly superior to any of the previous 3D Sonic attempts, not surprisingly including Shadow the Hedgehog, but it spends so much time kicking your balls with these *superficial* flaws that it's difficult to really care.

    If you like Sonic - and no I don't mean you 30-somethings who liked Sonic as a kid on the megadrive, I mean those of you who still enjoy most of his endeavours despite their flaws - this is still a game worth checking out. It has some good ideas and some genuinely exciting combat mechanics - it's just that they're tucked away in what has to be the most frustrating and painful presentation of a Sonic game yet.

    Shadow the Hedgehog isn't a better game, it just does a better job of wrapping it in a half likeable package - believe it or not.

  • theidiotsarewinning #40 5 years ago

    thought as much from the demo...absolutely impossible to control, nonsense. sonic 2 on xbla please...that was the pinnacle of gaming for me, right down to my brothers and i making up words to the 'casino night zone' music.

  • Shrike #41 5 years ago

    Meh, but I saw this coming. My hopes are resting on Wildfire.. I think the fact that I'm still a Sonic man after all these years really says horrible things about my taste, but, yeah.

    I still like Sonic Adventure 2, though (especially the final part of the game).

  • Lukus #42 5 years ago

    Going by the demo a 2 is quite generous. Apart from looking nice it has nothing going for it. An unplayable mess!

  • Kami #43 5 years ago

    Dear god, what is going wrong?

    Come on Sega, even someone like myself could come up with a Sonic game a million times more appealing than this trainwreck!

    My hopes for the Wii version of Sonic have just plummeted to rock-bottom levels...

  • thebuzzard #44 5 years ago

    Expected as much the demo was blooody awful.

  • the creeper #45 5 years ago

    @ bdc:

    Then you clearly never saw this one:

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61915 ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...[/link]

    :)

  • AcidSnake #46 5 years ago

    Not even a simple thing like the camera

    Actually, from what I know those are really difficult to program correctly...

  • Skeletor #47 5 years ago

    Somewhere in trippy Nintendoland Mario is laughing his arse off. Sega is putting so much soulless shit out lately, kinda sad.

  • Kostabi #48 5 years ago

    A Sonic game being so pitiful makes me very sad. :(

  • Kay #49 5 years ago

    Tried out Sonic Rivals on the PSP the other day. A bit crap, to be honest. So much wasted potential.

    K

  • Azazel #50 5 years ago

    grunt like punched farm animals

    lol

    +1

  • ecureuil #51 5 years ago

    I can't believe how bad it is.

    The previous 3D Sonic games had flaws, but were still good games. Sonic Team should have ironed out these flaws, and delivered a brilliant 3D Sonic game that we've all been waiting for.

    Instead, they got progressively worse. Are they blind or something? Can they not see the glaring errors in gameplay? They appear to have made no attempt to fix any of the problems, and that deserves no loyalty from me.

  • johnboy_johsnon #52 5 years ago

    Man, I'm really disappointed with this. Haven't played a Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2 on my dreamcast. Was hoping this would change things. Obviously not. Then again, Yuji Naka is no longer with Sonic Team so maybe it's time to call it a day with the franchise.

  • lambtron #53 5 years ago

    It was just a rushed launch title is the bottom line. Getting something working is just the beginning - getting it polished is a lengthy task. This was just bodged together then rushed out - I doubt the dev team were happy about it but I bet the people with the money didn't care.

  • Royal Fool #54 5 years ago

    The Xbox Live demo is about two months old now, but it was obvious that because it was released so close to the game's release, the demo would be an accurate representation of the final product.

    And it was it awful. Awful, awful, awful. I won't bother repeating all the mistakes and flaws, but the demo was broken, just like the final game apparently is.

    Sonic Team have officially lost it. Part of it may have to do with Yuji Naka's departure from the studio or troubles with developing on next-gen hardware. But I'm also blaming it on general incompetence.

  • chicknstu #55 5 years ago

    w... whaaa! And here wa sme thinking sonic was about to become Triple A material again.

    You're right. They've fixed NOTHING! This series has proper jumped the chopper.

  • Darth_Flibble #56 5 years ago

    Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 were quite good despite some flaws but the rest of games on consoles: SH, shadow and this one are crap. Sega knows they can crap another 3d sonic game and fanboys will buy it.

  • SonicBoom #57 5 years ago

    Wow...I honestly imagined this game would be good when it finally came out. I remember several months ago a friend of mine who owns an Xbox 360 told me he had downloaded a demo, and thought it was absolute rubbish, but I remained optimistic because I know the Sonic Adventure games divided opinion, and I liked those. But the bad review scores have just kept pouring in ever since that, and I think this might be the lowest I've seen yet. A 2 from Eurogamer, Edge gave it a 3... I don't have high hopes for a good gamesTM score now. Any ideas what Famitsu gave it?

    Edit: I've just realised, suddenly I feel like such an unfashionable outcast with this user name... ^_^

    Also, wasn't this was supposed to be the Sonic game where they took it back to its roots and did away with all the extra characters? I thought the idea behind it was this whole 15th anniversary thing, and that they were going to go back to basics and make it a simple Sonic vs Robotnik game like the very first one.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 17:02

  • chupachups #58 5 years ago

    Sonic on the DS got a much better reception, and loads of people keep saying how much better the game is in 2D, so maybe Sega should finally just turn Sonic into a portable franchise instead of a home console one?


    "Not even a simple thing like the camera
    "Actually, from what I know those are really difficult to program correctly..."

    That might be true, but they've had almost 10 years to get this right, and it's still not working. From the sounds of the review it's actually getting worse.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 17:03

  • bloodflowers #59 5 years ago

    A truly deserved score, this game is utter trash. The most upsetting bit was when the demo came out - I didn't know a 'new' Sonic game was coming out, I thought it was a demo of Sonic 1 or Sonic CD for XBLA.

    That added the twist to the knife.

    edit: chupachups - there'd be nothing wrong with a 2d game on the full consoles. Nothing wrong at all.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 17:06

  • Royal Fool #60 5 years ago

    I doubt the dev team were happy about it but I bet the people with the money didn't care.

    Even if the higher-ups wanted this rushed out the door, let's not forget that Sonic has been Sega's number one franchise ever since the original Mega Drive game was released. This is going to be a pretty big stain on Sega's future.

  • urban #61 5 years ago

    WHY NOT GIVE IT A 1!!!

  • secombe #62 5 years ago

    Would it really not be commercially viable to release a 2D Sonic title on the console formats these days? Even if it was a £19.99 release across all formats? The few side scrolling 2D games that have come out in the past few years have looked stunning, so graphically I can't really see it as a problem, I'm sure they could do some wonderful things with it. For me Sonic only works when sideways movement isn't an option, the games are simply too fast for it.

    Sega seem to still be trading on a name which really cemented itself a place in gaming folklore 14 years ago (to this very day)

  • dudefella #63 5 years ago

    Wow. Just... wow. You'd think SEGA learned something from their previous failures, and instead they keep making each new 3d Sonic game even worse than the last. SEGA gets negapoints from me, a method of scoring that starts at zero and goes down from there, reserved exclusively for jackasses.

    Cookies for who gets the reference.

  • nickthegun #64 5 years ago

    If the 'finished' game is anything like the demo, a 1 may have been more appropriate. The game is just broken beyond comprehension.

  • Dizzy #65 5 years ago

    Like people have said before. Bring back Sonic in 2D!!!!

  • Riggers #66 5 years ago

    The thought of the squished hedgehogs makes me sad in the face :(

  • kentmonkey #67 5 years ago

    Glad it got a 2, so many games (both on here to be honest, and everywhere) get at least a 3 or a 4 despite being absolute shit and having one of the most damning reviews ever. Really pleased someone prepared to really stand by their opinion and give a game an awful score when it's deserved.

  • ChimneyBug #68 5 years ago

    Sega can still make great games, I really think so. They just lost alot of the freedom they had back in the day (the freedom which often didnt give profit, and resulted in alot of debt). Now with bottomlines to meet, Sammy having a major control, teams being remerged, I get the impression they dont have the fighting spirit these days. Still, I think they'll do great games again, but it won't be a Sonic. They've made greater than Sonic, its best we ignore the spasming hedgehog..

  • KillahSouljah #69 5 years ago

    MWAHAHAHaHAHAH 2/10!

    What a load of shit.

  • manic_mouse #70 5 years ago

    "Actually, from what I know those are really difficult to program correctly..."

    Yet this new Sonic game has probably the worst camera I've ever seen in any game ever, based on the demo. It's hard to imagine how they could make it worse. Also bear in mind that these levels are pretty much linear and you remove a lot of the complexity that a camera for an exploration game needs. All it has to do is point in the direction the level goes in and sometimes it doesn't even manage that.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 18:01

  • SlackMaster #71 5 years ago

    The Sonic franchise has been going down hill since after the MD/Genisis day... I can't think of one game other than the retro collections that has been any good.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #72 5 years ago

    I never played a 3d sonic title until I tried the demo on the 360. I was never a huge fan of Sonic (never owned a Sega console, but enjoyed the Sonic compilation for the GameCube) and at first thought that I simply do not get this game. I could not tell where I was running/jumping and was constantly missing things I could grab or jump on - I kept thinking that it is one of those games that are really hard to master because it was just fast and you really have to learn stages by heart to complete them - which works quite well in some games and I enjoy a shoot'em'up that is only beatable when you know exactly the enemy patterns like nothing else - but I could not be bothered with the demo to really learn the game.

    Now with the review it turns out that it wasn't just me but that the game indeed is flawed. Oh well.

  • Vin #73 5 years ago

    BUY THE DS VERSION.

  • Xerx3s #74 5 years ago

    A 2?! 0_o


    ....


    A 2? 0_o

  • MrFlintBlackman #75 5 years ago

    one page for a huge brand like Sonic, but two pages for Superman?! who say writing reviews for poor games were more fun?

  • krudster #76 5 years ago

    Apart from this abberation, Sega's track record of late has been pretty impressive.

  • playgen #77 5 years ago

    Has any sequel that has used the original games name, in an attempt to reinvent the series and make the old games obselete, ever been any good?

    Sega have done this a few times lately, the Shinobi and Altered Beast games on PS2 were both pretty rubbish

  • lemonfist #78 5 years ago

    Wow, this game has been getting some pretty harsh reviews and forum feedback.

    Play Magazine's 95 % score seems pretty suspicious...

  • abigsmurf #79 5 years ago

    You should never leave out regular milk for hedghogs! They're lactose intollerant. All those poor poor hedgehogs drinking regular milk instead of goats milk....

    :p

  • Sid-Nice #80 5 years ago

    You can't blame Sonic or Sega; it's the Microsoft hardware that's crap.

  • TexMurphy01 #81 5 years ago

    Shocking. But Sonic has been going down hill steadily for ages. It's a sad sight for those of us who grew up loving Sonic. Ah well.

    Quick question:

    "This hub town is particularly appalling - it really does feel like a left-over model from a PS2 game, and astonishingly, it has dreadful pop-up"

    A dreadful pop up? What does this mean?

  • Sid-Nice #82 5 years ago

    Shocking. But Sonic has been going down hill steadily for ages.

    He's not going steadily down hill in this game. :)

  • gkscotty #83 5 years ago

    I enjoyed Sonic Adventure, really I did, but every 3D Sonic game since has utterly failed to capitalise on what *worked* in SA and instead just made things worse. After playing the utterly worthless Heroes I'm amazed it could get any worse.

    It's stuff like this that really makes me glad Sonic team will never makes a NiGHTS sequel. I do not need that.

  • Shinji #84 5 years ago

    You should never leave out regular milk for hedghogs! They're lactose intollerant. All those poor poor hedgehogs drinking regular milk instead of goats milk....

    It may well have been goat's milk - there was always a lot of that in the house when I was a kid. I was only five or six so I think any decisions on the lactose-digestion capabilities of rodent life would have been taken by my parents :)

  • nickthegun #85 5 years ago

    Did Play get a different version of the game or something? i'm not usually a gamerankings spod but 9.5 sticks out like a 25 foot high sore thumb painted luminous green and covered in flashing neon lights.

  • Machetazo #86 5 years ago

    @ theidiotsarewinning
    24-Nov-06 16:23:46

    I didn't like the demo either, that much. I mean, the camera would do funky stuff, and then you'd end up missing your spring pad, and you lose a life, but you couldn't see where your destination, a lot of the time. I managed to beat it though, eventually. Not sure if that says more for my determination to continue since it's Sonic; or just my inability to not download it in the first place, since it was free!
    I enjoyed Sonic Adventure a LOT, and SA2 little less so, but I haven't gone anywhere near Shadow or Heroes. I had high hopes for Sonic tH3 Next-Gen, but looks like all that talk of "returning to Sonic's roots" was just PR guff! >: (

    As for your comment, what I intended to say was that while I do agree that Casino Night Zone's music in Sonic 2 was great; for me, the Robotnik boss music was the true standout audio offering from that game! - It's right up there with the boss stage music from Secret of Mana, in my estimation! :D

    Remember though, that the demo was shown at this year's E3, and was clearly pointed out as being early, and almost just meant to give an idea of SEGA's intention. While it is pretty bad, it was never intended to be representative of the final game. I can only think that Sega got carried away with people's anticipation for Sonic, from E3, and set themselves a release date target, there and then, that (and I haven't played yet) was obviously beyond them. They should have concentrated on the quality of gameplay...Doesn't appear as if they did. Way to score an own goal.
    I hold out hope that NiGHTS will reappear one day. It's been far too long :(

    Please SEGA, bring Nights into Dreams, and Christmas Nights to Xbox Live Arcade!

  • Azazel #87 5 years ago

    It's been a long time since the word 'Sonic' was synonymous with 'great videogame', for me anyway.

  • rock27gr #88 5 years ago

    Wow! And it looked so good! Edge gave it a very low score also.

    LEt's hope the Wii version will be (much) better than this!

  • PhakeDC #89 5 years ago

    Sonic is nothing without Yuji Naka. That's the naked truth.

  • SimonM7 #90 5 years ago

    Meeting the launch of the Playstation 3 was probably the deciding factor in rushing this game in the end. Ironically it's now pushed back for the PS3, and fingers across the globe are crossed they take the time to remove the utterly disasterous loading times - the single most devastating thing about this game.

  • kangarootoo #91 5 years ago

    @MrFlintBlackman

    "one page for a huge brand like Sonic, but two pages for Superman?!"

    Are you actually suggesting you think that Sonic is a bigger brand than Superman?! The same Superman that has sold billions of comics, graphic novels, audio tapes, t-shirts, lunchboxes, action figures, cinema tickets and DVDs?

    ;)

  • SomaticSense #92 5 years ago

    So. The frankly appalling demo (which I stated was probably the worst experience I've ever had playing a game in the last 15 years) wasn't just "an e3 build which will not be indicative of the full product" like so many blind fanboys said. Proof in fact that a fucking appalling demo will always end up being a fucking appalling game. You can't polish shit to look like platinum. More proof is the Superman Returns demo.

    On another note. Is this the worst "Release Friday" for gaming content ever in the history of Christmas scheduling? I don't remember a Friday release schedule which is in the run up to Christmas being quite as bad as today.

  • SomaticSense #93 5 years ago

    "Remember though, that the demo was shown at this year's E3, and was clearly pointed out as being early, and almost just meant to give an idea of SEGA's intention. While it is pretty bad, it was never intended to be representative of the final game."

    This is a phrase that really annoys me, especially when they place it at the beginning of demos.

    So the demo "is not going to be representative" of the full priced version?
    Demo is short for demonstration, so what exactly is this 'demonstration' of, if it is not of the full game? If the demo is not representative of the finished version, then why did they release this 'unrepresentative' demo just a month before the full release, knowing that if it was shit then it would put people off buying it whether there is a disclaimer or not? People aren't going to go Wow, that was really shit. But there is that message saying that is was not representative of the full version so I'll buy it anyway as it's going to be GREAT!!!". What kind of stupid tosser would do that? So saying that it was an E3 demo is a pointless argument, especially seeing as the full game has turned out to be - guess what - shit as well, and virtually identical to the demo at that.
    The chances of the full game being turned around from the months since an appalling 'E3 build' demo into a quality game, are about the same as Doncaster Rovers coming back from a half-time deficit of 10-0 against Man U. At Old Trafford.

    Every demo I've ever played and then went on to play the finished version has always turned out the exact same game except (very rarely) a slight difference control layout or (more commonly) improvement to the framerate. Like I said before, if the demo is shit, then no amount of slight changes to the controls, framerate, or graphics is going to make the full game Triple A if the basic core gameplay is bad. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive and a complete idiot.

    EDIT: (sorry for the loooong post...) Another example would be the Dead Rising and Rainbow Six: Vegas demos. Both were 'E3 builds' like the Sonic one, but both looked and played utterly fantastic. Despite being months before release as well.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 22:15

  • Steroyd #94 5 years ago

    Meeting the launch of the Playstation 3 was probably the deciding factor in rushing this game in the end. Ironically it's now pushed back for the PS3, and fingers across the globe are crossed they take the time to remove the utterly disasterous loading times - the single most devastating thing about this game.
    ignore poster

    From E3 to August they didn't hange anything, from August to now they didn't change anything... and you expect it all to be fixed in a couple of weeks? o_O

    I've seen shows with Christmas miracles, but sadly there are no shows like that on TV anymore.

    /looks at the Cinema with the Santa Clause 3 cack.

  • MasterControlProgram #95 5 years ago

    Bad demos can often ruin potential sales of finished good games. If the finished game is as bad as the previous demo, ouch!

    I sincerely hope SEGA is not harming herself beyond hope with this move: if Sonic goes, they're left with just one champion franchise (Virtua Fighter), a good runner-up (Virtua Tennis) and a bunch of wonderful-but-for-fans-only names such as Out Run. It would be really, really sad to see them go out of business, even if their arcade division is still strong in Japan and outside, and would probably survive by herself.

    Don't know how Bandai is involved in the whole picture, though... maybe the old Sega would not have released a game at such an "early" stage, not with their flagship character in...

  • Yeevle #96 5 years ago

    Wow, that is bad, seems like Sega has been running out of steam for a while. :(

  • AHiFi #97 5 years ago

    I liked the demo. I hardly found the camera a problem. I might pick this up when it comes down in price. Now before I get blasted, I bought Gods and Generals - so this will be far from my worst purchase.

    EDIT: Gods and Generals was so funny though.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/06 @ 23:43

  • Dragul #98 5 years ago

    @MasterControlProgram

    Bandai is with Namco not Sega...

    Anyway... Sonic team is dead after this shit and Phantasy Star Universe... Yuji Naka's departure has been the beggining of the Dark Ages for us fans of the previous sonic team work...

    And by the way does anybody know what Yu Suzuki is doing at the moment?!

  • Agent_Llama #99 5 years ago

    Could see that coming a mile off. As people have said, the demo is abysmal. An uncontrollable car-wreck of a game. I died god knows how many times within the first minute as I couldn't see where Sonic was jumping. Utterly useless.

    Yu Suzuki... didn't he do Shenmue? Shenmue 3 hopefully.
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/06 @ 00:35

  • SimonM7 #100 5 years ago

    @ Steroyd

    In case you didn't know, PS3 allows for games to be partially stored on its HDD, resulting in much reduced load times for a lot of games. Sega delayed the PS3 version supposedly to tweak "how it handles downloadable content" but the 360 version makes no mention of said content.

    If they're adding stuff to it they might be making some significant tweaks aswell, but even if they aren't, provided it supports the HDD pre-load it will in fact load faster because of it.

    So regardless of which, there's a good chance that the PS3 version will perform better to an almost certainly significant degree.

  • DocTep #101 5 years ago

    Oh. Dear.

    *Hopes that somebody remembered to securely lock the windows in Nick's office, or that at the very least it's not too many floors up...*

  • Vin #102 5 years ago

    "So regardless of which, there's a good chance that the PS3 version will perform better to an almost certainly significant degree."

    Rubbish.

    A shit game is a SHIT GAME no matter how you slice it - irrespective of the platform.

  • Muddtallica #103 5 years ago

    You know, I think this might be the end of the line for Sonic. Surely there's no coming back after this? It's been so sad watching this gaming icon slowly die, especially since, like many others, I really liked the DC 3D games, for all their flaws. If Sega has any sense (which, judging from this game, they haven't), they'll take this whole series back to the drawing board, put out a few decent 2D games for portables, and wait a few years before building a new 3D Sonic from scratch. Because I don't think that Sonic in 3D is undoable; just that the Sonic Adventure template is now as good as worthless...

  • Baz_Dude #104 5 years ago

    lol

  • Sid-Nice #105 5 years ago

    I think Nintendo should follow in Sega's footsteps and go software only; just think how good Mario would be on the 360.

  • Steroyd #106 5 years ago

    Oh dear lord no Ninty being a software only company would kill them.

    Not only did Ninty outsource most of their franchises but Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Zelda WW Mario Kart DD and just about every game they've made internally up to Zelda TP has been... below par.

    If they were to stick with PS3 or Xbox 360 which essentially has the same type of control as the Gamecube I think we'd start seeing Ninty in decline.

    Still not sold on the wii though.

  • Caspar_Esq. #107 5 years ago

    If you look on Metacritic, the average score has been raised considerably by Play Magazine, whoever the fuck they are.

    "You simply can't ask for more out of an action game. Mission accomplished. Sonic is born anew. [Dec 2006]" 95/100

    Well God help anyone who takes advice from that thing, unless its meant to be a joke.

  • Frogger #108 5 years ago

    "NthSimulachum
    24-Nov-06 15:59:53

    Sonic doesn't work in 3d. It just doesn't

    Go back to 2D gameplay with 3D graphics or something."



    Do you remember a game called Pandemonium ?
    Its 3D side view might suit Sonic much better than that.

    I also tried the demo... and deleted it from my HD after 2 minutes.

  • t8yman #109 5 years ago

    play magazine gave this 95%

    better than gears then?

  • gelf #110 5 years ago

    If this is the sigh of things to come from SEGA I may just skip next gen altogether. I miss the old SEGA they made far more games I liked then anybody else, but no one bought them and now their reduced to churning out nothing but crap recently(Outrun 2 excepted but of course no one bought that either)

  • MasterControlProgram #111 5 years ago

    @Dragul
    >Bandai is with Namco not Sega...

    Yes, sorry, I just confused Bandai with Sammy, which is the actual controlling company for Sega.

  • Darth_Flibble #112 5 years ago

    Sonic games need to be like Viewtiful joe, 3d but a 2d style. I think with talented programmers it would work

    But the publishers know they don't have 1 bit of effort and fanboys will buy it. You just have to look at reader reviews on sites where fanboys gather, 9/10 according one on gamefaq, 9/10 for graphics 9/10 for gameplay. This is why designers don't have to make the game good because he is not the only one

    RIP Sonic
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/06 @ 11:38

  • SimonM7 #113 5 years ago

    @ Vin

    Not everyone shares EG's view that the game on its own is SHIT as you put it. Neither do some of the other reviews strewn about the web if you actually read them.

    But then if considering other opinions that EG's is a foreign thought I understand where you're coming from, but the fact remains that the HDD pre-load on its own will make it a better game. So yes, platform matters.

  • Darth_Flibble #114 5 years ago

    just because your install the game to load the game quicker does not make magically better

    so far it has only got 1 good review (9.5/10) which is just crap, just like how driver3 got that really high 9/10 for a exclusive review.
    [link url=htt p://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/929717.asp
    ]http://ww w.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/9...[/link]
    The rest are just low scores, if it just a few low scores then it would show its "marmite" game but its not.

  • SimonM7 #115 5 years ago

    It doesn't need to be magically better to be better. A lot of reviews aknowledge that at its core it's a fun game, and I'm not talking about the mind bogglingly overscored play review, I mean the gameinformer, IGN, Gamespot reviews among others.

    I have completed all of the episodes myself, including the final one you unlock, and I can say that the core action isn't bad at all, and the camera certainly isn't catastrophic either.

    Its main problems are presentational, and load screens are actually the main culprit, rendering huge parts of the game impossible to enjoy. Shortened or removed load times would be a huge deal, even though it'd still leave a flawed but essentially enjoyable game.

    Edit: Sonic Heroes got 6/10 here, and if you want to think it got that extra 4 points thanks to its gameplay merits then be my guest.
    Edited by 2 at 25/11/06 @ 12:25

  • Darth_Flibble #116 5 years ago

    I've played the game and its not fun, iffy controls, bad camera, for worse than sonic Heroes. KOTOR had long load screens but it didn't effect the enjoyment. The problem is you will say anything to defend sonic games, IGN HAVE NOT EVEN REVIEWED IT so how can have read the review?

  • SimonM7 #117 5 years ago

    I apologize, a score was posted on N-Europe forums that I had confused with IGN. It was the 5.5 1up gave it. You can head over there and read their review, because I seemed to rember those arguments being IGN's. Sorry about that.

    Here's the gamesmaster review. Gamespot you know where to find aswell.

    You're partly right - I WANT Sonic games to be good, so I do presevere with them more than most people, but I could never fool myself into thinking they're fun. I'm so insanely past fooling myself to have fun with games. I think the gamesmaster review score is too high, but the points they raise are absolutely valid.
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/06 @ 13:15

  • Moz #118 5 years ago

    I can't help but think that people are being a little too judgemental here.

    If this games wasn't Sonic but some unknown new game it would be getting 60%-70% in most reviews.

    While there are bugs (mainly the camara) they're not as bad as people are making out. I got through the beach level on one set of lives. Where some reviews have gone on about how annoiing it waas that they had to keep starting from the beginning and how it took several people many trys before they managed it! You have to wonder how good some of these people are at playing computer games!

    From what I've played so far the game is 10 times better then Sonic Adventure Directors cut on the GC. And I know lots of people who like Adventure.

    Just most the people who like the game are too busy playing it to bother with coming onto the message boards.

    Yes it's far from perfect. But its not rubbish it's just not up to what people were expecting.

    Which is probably one of the reason we don't see NiGHTS 2 on the shelfs because people have this idea in their heads about how amazing and mind blowing it would be, because time has made them remember the original as better then it was.

    What they should do is release a revamped version of the original NiGHTS on the Wii and see how it goes down. Then they could do NiGHTS 2 with people haveing more realistic ideas of what it will be like.

  • tnomad #119 5 years ago

    I was quite impressed how in my first few minutes of playing the game I managed to die during a cutscene before the level actually began. Still that was at least more fun than playing uncontrollable beast of a game.

  • monkey-ken-wizard #120 5 years ago

    > 'If this game wasn't Sonic but some unknown new game it would be getting 60%-70% in most reviews.'

    Doubtful, have you played the demo?
    It’s shameful.

  • tomato #121 5 years ago

    I was reading a discarded copy of The Sun on the train the other day and I was surprised to see this get a rather obvious money hatted 90%.

  • miiiguel #122 5 years ago

    @ SimonM7: man!... you sony-only freaks are really funny, the fact that the PS3 "stores partially the games, there'll be a chance that the game miraculasly be the gratest game of all time" ?
    ShiiiT! I think you found the problem to all games, "we store them partially on the HD"!!!!

  • SimonM7 #123 5 years ago

    I'm a Sony only freak? Wow, that's news to me.

    I'm not talking about miracles, I'm talking about reduced load times, the biggest issue at least I have with this game.

  • miiiguel #124 5 years ago

    SimonM7: sorry man, but I've been reading so much BS that sometimes I point the finger in the wrong direction. You know, this generation we'll see most of the games in all platforms, there'll be a few pearls in each system (GoW...), but it will be exceptions. The brand support will be hard to sustain, and nonsense will be spread.
    Anyway the game do suck..., and it would suck even without the glitches.

    Someone said something about Phantasy Star Universe..., I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. It's Japanese, it has all the ingrdientes of a Japanese title, and has low production presentation/aesthetics, but what are people expecting ? A JPRG in a western suit ?

  • SimonM7 #125 5 years ago

    Apology accepted. I know what it's like having frustration build up towards ignorance of the fanboy kind, so it's easy to jump to conclusions when someone acts pro-whatever. Either way, I'm happy to game across all formats, and even though I have a bit of disdain still for Sony, being a Saturn -> Dreamcast fan, it's started to wane as I'm realising how little it matters. Nowadays I just wanna play games.

    Thing is though, I've played through all of this game already, so I don't really need a review to tell me what I thought of it. For me, personally, it needs reduced or removed load times to make me, again personally, not mind it too much. Even then it's far from a great game, but it would make it completely playable. As it is I'm having fun with it during the act stages, and it's really just the way they're broken up by insane loading that gets on my tits proper.

    Edit: I should add that I am a big fan of Sonic, and I wouldn't expect anyone who isn't to even look at this game. Everything I write in regards to this is provided you're a Sonic fan. Everyone else should just steer clear, load times or not.
    Edited by 1 at 28/11/06 @ 12:55

  • miiiguel #126 5 years ago

    yeah, Simon...: I pre-ordered the game for my gf, as I wanted her to enjoy the system wich more times than it should, keep us from enjoying sunny Lisbon, as she/we enjoyed the latest installement in her DS (pretty good, isn't it ?). But then I played it for a couple of hours at a friends, and man...! What have they done to Sonic, I said... . I canceled, and pre-ordered Viva Pinata..., I hope she likes it.
    Edited by 1 at 28/11/06 @ 14:43

  • Zaccix #127 5 years ago

    The funny thing is that the pro reviewers seem to be slating this game, while a lot of reader reviews are generally much more favourable. 1Up's "User's Rating" is currently 7.3, Metacritic's is 7.8, Gamespot's is 7.2 and GameRanking's is 6.0. Frankly, I'm more inclined to believe those scores (given by actual players, as opposed to journalists who have a website or publication and a reputation to think about) than the pro scores.

  • SimonM7 #128 5 years ago

    Well, I'm willing to bet the ones bumping up the scores are Sonic fans that take the time to dig through the crap and uncover what good stuff there is.

    I'm torn myself really. I mean, this game commits so many AWFUL design crimes, and the only reason I'm going "but there's some good stuff in there aswell" is - apart from the fact that there is - because reviewers ARE giving it such a hard time, pointing out all the things wrong with it, and then some.

    I mean they really are unforgivable, some of the things in here, and the question sort of becomes; at what point should you just not bother? It's easy to tell anyone without any investment in the Sonic franchise/characters to never even think about it, but for a Sonic fan it is... well it's sort of still Sonic.

    Actually, I've been interested in this whole line of questioning for a while, and I performed something of an experiment on myself, buying a bunch of critically slaughtered games just to see what was hidden underneath all the stuff the reviews complained about. I figure there's always some sort of good intention with a game, and especially games that have tried, and failed to deliver some new gameplay mechanics became my main focus. My findings were rather interesting. :)

  • Darth_Flibble #129 5 years ago

    ukresistance love Sonic (and sega) but didn't like this but choose to point out the nasty Zoophilia

    [link url=http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/2006/ 11/some-out-of-context-screenshots-of.html
    ]http://ww w.ukresistance.co.uk/2006/11/so...[/link]

    and there is a review at GT
    [link url=http://www.gametrailers. com
    ]http://www.gametrailers. com
    [/link]



  • capcom23 #130 5 years ago

    I totaly disagree with the review of this website! This game is graphicly the best in the sonic series so a 10 for graphics. Sound/music is good. an other 10. Controls is easy an other 10. Gameplay sucks, what sucks? the camera angle. You're hating the camera all the time and that's very annoying. But if the camera problem wasn't there would you look different to this game? yes. This game deserved at least a 7. Graphics isn't garbage, sound isn't garbage, control isn't garbage. it's the camera that's garbage.

  • ScorchioMK7 #131 3 years ago

    Nope Your Wrong This is a Very Bad Game..... Beating the Sonic Stages Alone was Frustrating As Hell... I Gave up on the other two characters because I kept dying thanks to dodgy controling of vehicles and such along with numourous glitches. Music is alright though.... any true sonic fan must know that ever since sonic adventure 2 (the last good 3D sonic game) The series has been declining at an unbelivable rate! It almost kills me inside to see sonic my favourite video game icon getting this kind of treatment