Sonic is on his death bed as it is, and this game dosen't help matters at all.
User Rating: 7.2 | Sonic the Hedgehog X360
(Before I start, READ THE WHOLE THING, its not ALL bad, or just skip to the bottem) So here I am, a LONG time fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and I was hoping that the Next Gen Sonic would finaly get the rating that Sonic Adventure 2 had when it first came out on the Dreamcast. But truth is, it is lack luster at best. (SONIC's Game) There are three different type of game play that adds to it. The first is Sonic's game. The game opens with a great CG, looks sharp, feels sharp, the voice acting seemed OK for once. Then Eggman comes down, still ok so far, feels great and is also seems like Eggman picked up some voice acting talents. Then a blue wind appears, and shows Sonic in all his glory. He takes out ALL of eggmans robots and then the games biggest down fall. Sonic talks.... and sounds like a seccond rate kids show on fox. Diologue is terrable for Sonic, and as he talks, it almost seems like all the other decent voice acting starts to drop to. This over shadows the game for those of you who actually like the story. Next, controlls. Sonic feels like that car in a racing game were when you hit left, he runs off the road compleatly. Terrable glitches to pull you into the ground. Some times the game will take controll of Sonic and when this happens, every now and then it might deside to run you off the right path and kill you when you arn't even controlling. The game now uses a Super Speed event to, where Sonic move straight on his own as a amazing speed! A great idea, but overshadowed by many flaws. The game's controls in the "Super Speed" events and how the level is set up is just down right more of a chore then a game, some times if you're not lucky, you'll hit a different obsticle even if you just dodge another one. Another problem is, you might die the whole way on the super speed event because of how it is set up, and when you do die, you have to start the WHOLE level over. If you're lucky on you're seccond time through, you can beat the first part and save all you're lives for that part. (Silver's Game!) If you can fight through Sonic's game, you unlock Silver, the strange new Hedgehog from the future, again, his voice work sucks, but atleast his game is enjoyible! It is more of a platforming type of level, where you launch items at the bad guys to beat them, he moves good and feels good. Everything about his game felt like there was more effort then Sonic's game. It takes a few moments to get used to the controlls, but once you do, you are launching cars and crates at bad guys with ease. His level feels like a Mario game sort of, with timed jumps, free movements, and a decent controll feel. Due to the lack of level range to, it stays normal, and feels normal. The whole game feels and looks the same and that actually makes for a enjoyible exsperience. Not much more I can say about his game sense that is really it so far. (Shadow's game) Now it mght just be I am a Shadow the Hedgehog (not game) fan. But Shadow's game almost to me feels like what Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) should have been in the first place. Action is the name here. Using Shadow's Warp attacks, his combo attack, Chaos Spear all in combat make the game feel the way is should. Shadow is the Action part of this game. He is still fast, but more times you'll fight you're self blowing up stuff in cars, bike ect then running fast! Unlike in Shadow the hedgehog were it seemed pointless to drive vehicles, this game actually feels right. And with decent voice acting, Shadow actually has been a enjoyible exsperence so far. Final thoughts Graphics look great. The sound is perfect, the game play, not so much (with Sonic any way). Sonic fans, if you have to have this game, I don't say no, but I would say be ready to suffer through a long game of dieing, and restarting. I hate to say this, but this could be Sonic's last stride, he is starting to fade with out a question.
