THE GOOD:It's Sonic, and the usual cast are here.
Voice acting is adequate
Some speedy sequences
THE BAD:
Poor collision detection causing death
Flying off in random directions for no reason i.e. during ring dash/light dash and dying
Automatic sequences i.e. boost pad to boost pad missing and you dying
Falling through surfaces and dying
Other cheap, unfair ways of dying
Repetitive music
Poor controls
Terrible camera
No after-hit immunity so in speedy sequences you can have 80 rings one second and be dead from hitting a wall and bouncing into a tree the next second, literally.
SUMMARY:
I'm not going to lie, I haven't played for what would usually be deemed a reasonable amount of time to submit a review, and this isn't something I make a habit of. However, in this instance I am finding it an excruciating experience due to a barrage of technical problems which cause you to die without any fault on your part.
On the first level alone, something that's supposed to be easy, I fell through floors twice, missed boost pads during automatic sequences and went plummeting into the water as a consequence three times, falling through floors and dying, coming off of surfaces and dying, had to deal with Tails's poor, oversensitive flying controls and thus plummeted into the water twice, had to deal with his 'ring snipe' with no crosshair (which at least didnt kill me)... The list of problems goes on and on.
Speaking of Tails, he moves at about a third of the speed of Sonic, sandblasting away the whole point of the franchise. You shouldn't get game over on the first level when you aren't anything other than a three year old or McDonalds employee.
Even navigating about the town is a chore with 180 camera turns when you're going across a bridge, exacerbated by the fact there are pillars and people standing on it to get stuck on.
I can't comment on how the game handles other characters as they didn't start off unlocked, which is fair enough, and from the manual, Silver seems a very interesting character. Furthermore, the later levels MIGHT be better made, but I can't be bothered to go on to the Desert level to find out (so yes, by some miracle I did get past the first level).
I rarely judge a game this quickly. Two Worlds started off with horrible voice acting and barely readable text, but was fun. Jade Cocoon started at a snails pace but ended up a fine game. I just can't foresee Sonic delivering as a platformer at all. The sad thing is, I was expecting it to be a competent 3D platformer, though not competing with it's 2D sidescroller roots.
I preferred Sonic Heroes to this game. I preferred Crash Bandicoot 1 & 2 to this game. I preferred demos of Klonoa 1 & 2 and Pandemonium 2 to this game. I preferred Spyro 2, and even the GBA spyro or Super Mario 2 to this. This is undoubtedly the worst platformer I have ever played. I strongly recommend you avoid this game.
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