Sonic Heroes (PlayStation 2) review "Sonic Heroes dashes a bit shaky "

Purchased Sonic Heroes not long ago for the PS2, being that I have thought the concept of controlling three characters from the titular Sonic franchise games ought to be a good thing overall, being that nothing like it have ever been attempted before, besides the Knuckles Chaotix which was very confusing me to ever play. The plot revolves around various groups lead either Sonic or Shadow on their own quests to see who is behind the latest trouble occurring within the game. Seemingly, Eggman is mostly around said problems but there is one more character that influences the events within the game.

Each group includes various characters from past and then current games which act on their own accord, seemingly having not much to do with each other. However that is about the only difference as each group has the same kind of character assigned for each type of gameplay on said groups. Sonic is the speedy one, Knuckles is the power one, and Tails helps the group lift to higher places and so on. While teams like Shadow's and Sonic's are pretty straightforward with each stage, Team Rose (comprised of Amy Rose, Cream, and Big) and Team Chaotix have different ways of going through said stages. Namely the Chaotix Team must collect certain items within the stages before moving forward while the difficulty setting for Team Rose seems easier than most chosen.

If you are unfamiliar with the game and have not tried it before, Team Rose would be the best choice from the beginning. The difficulty as mentioned is not as high as the rest of the other teams and you can quite easily navigate through stages before trying the other characters on their respective difficulty settings. I found out that playing as Team Chaotix was a major setback being that you have to stop and look for the items being assigned for you to collect, something that makes their team gameplay quite a chore and very irritable at times. I would suggest leaving this team for the very last.

On that note, the game suffers from interruptions within the pace it plays through. One moment you find yourself dashing with Sonic in front before you crash face first against an obstacle only Knuckles can destroy (or any character assigned the Power mode into it for that manner.) Another setback is while you speed through the 3D environments, at times it gets *very* difficult to control said characters and you end up most of the time falling through an endless pit more than anything. The camera settings here are quite bad in some parts of the game. I had gotten confused at times on where I should be headed only to realize that the way I was headed led to a dead end, falling into another endless pit as result.
To beat the entire game and get the actual boss of the game you must endure beating it with every group it features, regardless of how awkward or irritating it could be. Only then you can complete the game overall. My main complaint would but Team Chaotix, knowing that I have to go through their scavenger hunt in every stage in hopes that my sanity could be kept in check.

Even with said setbacks, Sonic Heroes is still entertaining to play, I do like most of the characters used and quite like the speedy sections of each stage. Having to get over pauses between said speedy sections changing character is a matter of patience than having to toss the controller away for not keeping said rhythm on each stage. The camera problem is still something to frown upon, but it doesn't keep you from enjoying this game overall.
So yes, this game would be a neat addition to your Sonic library overall.

Community review by CptRetroBlue (September 29, 2018) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.