Games Revisited: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

[Sk8teland85]

Now my sister has a rather deep 360 lineup of games compared to me, heck all I got is Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, and Perfect Dark Zero. She got this game a while ago for some reason and did not play it all that much. But she tells me she like it and would not sell it for some odd reason. Now I had only played this game for a little bit before I got too annoyed at everything bad I had heard about the game being right and stopped playing. But I am the kind of person who believes in 2nd chances and that is just what I gave this game, a 2nd chance.

Where to begin, well once I started up the game I will admit it does not look that bad at all really. While there are many 360 games that look better than this game it still has a nice overall look and feel to the gaming environment. It is very colorful and each area has its own unique look and feel to it which is always nice. That is not to say it is perfect since it is not. There is a lot of pop in of objects which is where an object in the environment just pops in out of thin air when you get close enough. Also, there is the occasional frame rate dip which is always annoying.

Now this is one of those games that plays nowhere near as good as it looks. Heck even if the game had N64 level graphics it still would look better than it would play. How can I describe this in words? Well I really only have 2 major complaints the controls and the camera, sadly these are the most important aspects of the gameplay.

First the controls, well to put it simply they are just too responsive sometimes and not responsive at all other times. So either way you never feel in control of the game and it is just so annoying. Adding to this is my 2nd complaint, the camera which just never seems to work quite right. Even with full control over it you sometimes just cannot get the camera to give you a good angle to see what you need to.

But these are all problems that most of you already know about the game and overall while they where annoying they where not so annoying I had to just turn the game off because of them. I will admit overall the games concept is rather nice and there is a fair amount of things to do in the game which keeps things interesting. It is just too bad that the control and camera problems prevent it from being any fun.

I like how there is this massive hub world similar to those found in 3D Mario platformers like Super Mario Sunshine. That is actually rather ironic that I mention that since both hub worlds have a similar kind of look to them at parts. The game also makes good use of the Havok Physics engine which is nice. All the character models look good and there is some decent music to the game as well.

Overall looking back at this game I have to say I am not really mad at Sega for making a bad game. I am mad at Sega for rushing what had the makings of a good game at it's core out the door just to make money. This game really had a lot of potential. There was a nice overall design and a lot of nice gameplay ideas, but it was all ruined because Sega did not take the time to fix the control and camera problems. I hope Sega eventually sees that there is no need to rush games out the door like they do now a days.

[Nayrman]

you forgot *now loading* the *now loading* very ann- *now loading* oying  *now loading* load scree- *now loading* ns... *now loading*

[Tupin]

This is not only the worst game on the modern systems, it's one of the worst games ever.

Sonic just wants to glitch through everything and move even when I'm not touching the analog stick.

[JrDude]

Good job, that is basically how I feel, it's just I didn't care enough to make a long ass post. The game was cool imo.

[Triforceman22]

Iv'e had Shadow glitch at the beginning of a level and somehow end up at the end of it O_o

But yeah, the game is prety bad, but iv'e played much worse.  (Superman 64.....ugh)

Lets hope unleashed gets Sonic out of his little "rut".

[Tupin]

Iv'e had Shadow glitch at the beginning of a level and somehow end up at the end of it O_o

But yeah, the game is prety bad, but iv'e played much worse.  (Superman 64.....ugh)

Lets hope unleashed gets Sonic out of his little "rut".

I hope so, he hasn't had a good 3D game since the Sonic Adventure series.

I think it would sell better if it used the Sonic Adventure name, that's what it's using in Japan.

[JrDude]

Iv'e had Shadow glitch at the beginning of a level and somehow end up at the end of it O_o

But yeah, the game is prety bad, but iv'e played much worse.  (Superman 64.....ugh)

Lets hope unleashed gets Sonic out of his little "rut".

I hope so, he hasn't had a good 3D game since the Sonic Adventure series.

I think it would sell better if it used the Sonic Adventure name, that's what it's using in Japan.

Yes it would sell better, but if it ends up being bad, then the Sonic Adventure name would be ruined and all hope of good Sonic games would be lost forever.

[Triforceman22]

I'll laugh if the next sonic game after BK is called adventure 3.