Who ever says that this game sucked needs to play Sonic the Hedgehog '06, see if you can say it again!
The story is slightly different than the normal Sonic storyline, although you can't complain much. Due to a tragedy centuries ago that involved the seven chaos emeralds, a mythic creature known as Chaos wrecked havoc on the ancient echidna civilization. In the midst of the destruction, the creature, along with a young female echidna was sealed away in the Master Emerald, and the civilization was erased from existence. Now in present time, Eggman has released Chaos and seeks the seven Chaos Emeralds. And with his usual vigor, Sonic along with comrades Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, along with newcomers Big the Cat and Robotnik's malfunctioning robot E-102 Gamma are out to stop the raging Chaos from destroying their city, and stop Eggman in his tracks.
Gameplay has evolved from the side scrolling platformers most of us grew up with, now with 3D enviornments, you speed through several stages with different characters, each with their own style (i.e. Sonic's basic reach the goal, Tails racing another character, and Knuckles searching for Master Emerald fragments), and own story that corresponds with one another. Each characters controls are more or less the same, jump, attack, camera movement, etc. and some controls do multiple actions, such as the attack button is also for picking up and talking with non playable characters. Each characters also have specific actions that only they can perform (Sonic can light dash, Tails flies, Knuckles digs etc.) and each character gets upgrades throughout the game to modify or upgrade their abilities.
The controls are a little sensitive, but with time and patients, they can be mastered, though the buttons that do multiple actions can be uncooperative at times. Graphics are excellent for Dreamcast standards and show Sonic in 3D like how he should be (though when they talk, their mouths move like a stereotypical anime cartoon, which is actually hilarious to watch) and the music, though cheesy at times, it actually pretty good.
A few things I can gripe on is the voice acting, not the best out there, in fact, it's actually quite bad. And sometimes when speeding through a level (normally in Sonic's story) the camera, controls and even the stage it's self can't keep up and you go though a floor or something. and this is just a personal gripe, Big the Cat in his entirety (story and all) seems pointless, who wants to play with a mentally retarded cat (who I think is actually the eldest of the Sonic crew) who restlessly hunts for a useless frog and his only mode of gameplay is fishing, what the hell.
One cute thing is the Chao Garden, a place where you can take care of cute little creatures known as Chao. You feed them, give them animals, and make them race. And a nifty little function can be used by putting the chao in the memory card and take care of it on the go.
I know I left alot out the review, but It's better if it's played than talked about, and if you have a Game Cube or Xbox 360, you'll get that chance! So enjoy!