Bright and colourful eye-aching visuals
In Sonic the Hedgehog there are three playable characters; the hero himself, Shadow and Silver. Shadow the Hedgehog is able to drive vehicles and skates as opposed to run around the colourfully eye-aching environment. We actually found Shadow even harder to control then Sonic thanks once again to the over sensitive controls and the more complicated battle segments.
Silver, the time-travelling Hedgehog, uses a different tact when it comes to defeating enemies and moving around the terrain. We had to use his telekinesis power to attack enemies and solve problems which generally involved moving objects around (stack one box on top of another or throw a rock at an enemy with the power of the mind). The level we played as Silver actually offered some respite from the ferocious speed of Shadow and Sonic, but although the puzzles were occasionally good fun, stopping to throw and stack objects just became monotonous. The change in the two styles of gameplay, from the urgency and pace of the Sonic and Shadow levels to the leisurely style of Silver’s levels, means that it almost feels like you’re playing two separate games and that just felt wrong.
Click for larger imageIn the world of 3D gaming, Sonic just doesn’t do it for us. We didn’t spend too much time playing the game, just enough to fall to our death a billion times and get an aching pain right between our eyes, but we played enough to know that we don’t like what we've seen so far. Fans of the series will still love the fast paced action and the rail-grinding, sliding and homing attacks, but will probably turn their noses up at the slow paced sections where you play as Silver. The visuals are as bright and colourful as ever and the most impressive thing was that we didn’t experience any slowdown despite the frantic pace.
Click for larger imageWe’ll probably be reviewing it as well and who knows we might change our minds. Anyone got a paracetamol?
