Post by Richard El Britannia on Aug 23, 2008 15:53:10 GMT
Gameplay:
Well, where to begin ... The gameplay is brilliant. It really brings back the immense speed back to the 3D Sonic games. It's incredibly simple, too. Sonic is always running forward by default, so it takes a little of the complexity away. You hold the Wii Remote horizontally and simply tilt left or right to move left or right. To jump, you push the 2 Button and whilst in mid-air, if you trust the Wii Remote forward, Sonic will do his Homing Attack you'll be familiar with from the older Sonic titles. There's a lot more to it than this, though. For example, there are sometimes special levers in the levels or catapults which require you to move the Wii Remote in different ways. Also, before each mission, you can set up skills that Sonic can use to gain different effects. For example, one of the skills is an increased homing range. With this, Sonic can attack enemies from even further away.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is, mostly, but sometimes, you're required to move backwards in missions. In my opinion, this really detracts from the whole "go uber fast" idea. Plus, it's kinda awkward to do. You hold the Wii Remote back towards yourself, then you have to move Sonic in reverse to how you normally would. Now, not only does this detract from the great speediness of the game, it's plain annoying. Since the camera is always positioned behind Sonic, you can't see what you're moving back to. Still, if the camera was anything like the older 3D Sonic games, the whole gameplay would suffer and the whole moving back thing doesn't happen too often. It would've been a lot better if the levels were designed in such a way that you didn't have to move back, ever, though.
As for the actual game progression, there are six zones - I think it's six. Forgive me if I'm wrong - with twelve missions per zone. This gives for a lot of gameplay time and is immensely fun. I still haven't unlocked all of the missions myself! Even if you've completed all of the missions, you can still try to find all of the Fire Souls and get Gold Medals on each of the missions. In each mission, there are three Fire Souls. With all this to do, the game can really last a while and is certainly worth the money.
Also, there is a multi-player party mode. It's alright, but don't expect anything like Mario Party. A lot of the games are pretty shallow and samey. It's a nice little addition to the game, though, and with a few friends, it's pretty fun. Also, as an extra incentive, there are additional characters to unlock for the party mode and you can unlock extra mini-games in the main missions of the game, too.
Gameplay Score - 8/10
Graphics:
Really nice looking visuals in this game. Each of the zones is unique and pretty good looking. Some of the nice looking graphics, really Glad to see they weren't sticking with graphics like the GC. Nothing more to say here, really.
Graphics Score - 7/10
Story:
Well, this kind of game isn't really story dependent, so the score won't suffer much, but my God, it's a pretty crappy story, to be honest. It's cheesy and has barely any depth. You might disagree, but I though Sonic Adventure 2 Battle's storyline was awesome. Cheesy, but awesome. In this game, it's just cheesy. Cheesy and crap.
Story Score - 7/10
Sound:
Heh heh, from reading various reviews of this game, this really seems to be a love/hate thing. Personally, I really like the in-game music. It's very cheesy, though. Still, some cheesy music is pretty cool.
Sound effects are decent. Nothing amazing, but they're good. Voice acting ... Now this is where the game really suffers. Well, the English voice acting at any rate. It is terrible. My advice would be to switch to the Japanese voice acting and have subtitles. Much, much better.
Sound Score - 7/10
Overall:
Overall, this is a pretty good game. Some things can be annoying, though, like having to walk backwards and listen to crappy English dubbing. Still, don't let that put you off. It's an awesome game.
Overall Score (Average) - 7.25/10
Well, where to begin ... The gameplay is brilliant. It really brings back the immense speed back to the 3D Sonic games. It's incredibly simple, too. Sonic is always running forward by default, so it takes a little of the complexity away. You hold the Wii Remote horizontally and simply tilt left or right to move left or right. To jump, you push the 2 Button and whilst in mid-air, if you trust the Wii Remote forward, Sonic will do his Homing Attack you'll be familiar with from the older Sonic titles. There's a lot more to it than this, though. For example, there are sometimes special levers in the levels or catapults which require you to move the Wii Remote in different ways. Also, before each mission, you can set up skills that Sonic can use to gain different effects. For example, one of the skills is an increased homing range. With this, Sonic can attack enemies from even further away.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is, mostly, but sometimes, you're required to move backwards in missions. In my opinion, this really detracts from the whole "go uber fast" idea. Plus, it's kinda awkward to do. You hold the Wii Remote back towards yourself, then you have to move Sonic in reverse to how you normally would. Now, not only does this detract from the great speediness of the game, it's plain annoying. Since the camera is always positioned behind Sonic, you can't see what you're moving back to. Still, if the camera was anything like the older 3D Sonic games, the whole gameplay would suffer and the whole moving back thing doesn't happen too often. It would've been a lot better if the levels were designed in such a way that you didn't have to move back, ever, though.
As for the actual game progression, there are six zones - I think it's six. Forgive me if I'm wrong - with twelve missions per zone. This gives for a lot of gameplay time and is immensely fun. I still haven't unlocked all of the missions myself! Even if you've completed all of the missions, you can still try to find all of the Fire Souls and get Gold Medals on each of the missions. In each mission, there are three Fire Souls. With all this to do, the game can really last a while and is certainly worth the money.
Also, there is a multi-player party mode. It's alright, but don't expect anything like Mario Party. A lot of the games are pretty shallow and samey. It's a nice little addition to the game, though, and with a few friends, it's pretty fun. Also, as an extra incentive, there are additional characters to unlock for the party mode and you can unlock extra mini-games in the main missions of the game, too.
Gameplay Score - 8/10
Graphics:
Really nice looking visuals in this game. Each of the zones is unique and pretty good looking. Some of the nice looking graphics, really Glad to see they weren't sticking with graphics like the GC. Nothing more to say here, really.
Graphics Score - 7/10
Story:
Well, this kind of game isn't really story dependent, so the score won't suffer much, but my God, it's a pretty crappy story, to be honest. It's cheesy and has barely any depth. You might disagree, but I though Sonic Adventure 2 Battle's storyline was awesome. Cheesy, but awesome. In this game, it's just cheesy. Cheesy and crap.
Story Score - 7/10
Sound:
Heh heh, from reading various reviews of this game, this really seems to be a love/hate thing. Personally, I really like the in-game music. It's very cheesy, though. Still, some cheesy music is pretty cool.
Sound effects are decent. Nothing amazing, but they're good. Voice acting ... Now this is where the game really suffers. Well, the English voice acting at any rate. It is terrible. My advice would be to switch to the Japanese voice acting and have subtitles. Much, much better.
Sound Score - 7/10
Overall:
Overall, this is a pretty good game. Some things can be annoying, though, like having to walk backwards and listen to crappy English dubbing. Still, don't let that put you off. It's an awesome game.
Overall Score (Average) - 7.25/10