It's actually a shame how good this game is because it's locked behind Apple devices with Apple Arcade.

The story is whatever, Sonic stories have never amazed me or anything and I certainly wasn't expecting much from this game. It's the standard "Eggman did something, we gotta stop him" and it's fine.

The six playable characters in the game are a lie as there are really only three. Three different character types with two characters in each and those characters play the same as each other. Sonic and Amy are your speed types and they get access to the light speed dash and air dashing. Tails and Cream are your flight types who can fly, and Knuckles and Rouge are your power types who can glide and climb walls. Every character can boost and homing attack. As far as controls and movement goes it feels great to play and keep your speed going. Certainly feels better than Frontiers anyway. I will commend the game for allowing you to switch out characters in the middle of the level. While it's unfortunately not available in every level and is quite slow, I appreciate the option and offers many unique play styles and approaches.

Level design was an honest surprise, with springs that maintain your speed and wall running segments to keep your speed going. It's more difficult to get your speed and flow interrupted which is what Sonic should be to me at least. My favourite level was the last level, Egg City.

Boss fights were ok, nothing that really all too memorable. Performance is something they gotta address. Sound mixing was all over the place, with some sounds being super loud and some being really quiet. I first played and beat the game on Apple TV and had the game crash perhaps two or three times. On my M1 MacBook Air the game ran wonderfully at 60fps but again, crashes aren't uncommon.

If you have Apple Arcade or at least a free trials of it like I had, then I highly suggest giving this a go. You can pair basically any game controller to an Apple device that runs this game so do not bother with touch controls. My hope for this game is that it eventually get released on consoles, I'd happily buy this on Switch for AUD$30.

Now that I have played Sonic Dream Team, I have no doubt in my mind that Sonic Team needs to be deprioritized as the people making Sonic games. Yeah ok people like Frontiers. So happy for you, queen. Play this shit and tell me what you think. Yeah, you see what these devs are cooking? You wish to see more of exactly this? Yeah yeah yeah.

It's got big ass problems from me de facto declaring this the best 3D Sonic game. It's short. It's padded out. I experienced performance hiccups every so often, but maybe that's just the RAM limits of the Apple TV I was playing on. You can also play this on newer Iphones and iPad but you better have a controller.

It's kind of fucked up that one of best playing Sonic games ever made is trapped on Apple Arcade, a service so few people use that only exists for sheer marketshare value of Apple. It's better than most subscription services for games. But, subscriptions for games still sucks. LET ME BUY THIS ELSEWHERE.

Am I Sonic fan? I claim not to be. I'm 31, an age where I shouldn't be really interacting with this kind of stuff lest I get sus looks. That said, Sonic as a franchise is 35 years old and I've been around every marketing push. Sega doesn't make new franchises with a lot of marketing push. They have only really pumped all their money in making this blue fuck relevant -- with feature films, TV shows, memes, half-baked games, etc. I don't even conceive of most of the characters in the sonic franchise beyond their memes. Chili dogs, gotta go fast, all the really shitty games, Ken Penders comics, Ugandan Knuckles, this song that has been stuck in my head for a year.

I can't avoid him even if I wanted to, because I can see the 3D gaming potential of Sonic. It is sad that Sonic Dream Team is a release I didn't even know existed until I was browsing my sister's Apple TV! It ended up being the best official 3D Sonic thing I've played in actual decades! Usually, unless it's a fan game, his games are probably deeply flawed! It's kind not getting that way anymore maybe!?

There are people who are now grandparents out there who were prime demographic youths when OG Sonic dropped. He is like Scooby Doo for Gen X. Sonic went 3D 6 years into his conception and we're just now seeing what potential there is that can be seen and felt; what a truly good 3D game can do beyond having busted or overly linear level design! It's kind of pathetic that we just got here but we are here. Sonic Team wasn't even responsible for making me feel that way. Sonic Team! YOU'RE TOO SLOW.

Sonic Dream Team is good even if you hate this chili-glizzy-guzzling anthro hedgehog. It is my hope for you that a Sonic game will natively run past 30fps without performance issues in your lifetime.

Sonic Dream Team is a strange game. The level design is somewhat akin to heroes, which makes sense with the returning speed flight and power character mechanics. The speed and flight characters feel good, but power is just bad to control, Knuckles and Rouge are comparable to how they were in 06 and I might even argue that they are even worse here. The controls have a weird feel to them that is unlike anything I've ever felt before, and playing the game on the phone makes things hard to see. On that note, the exclusivity of this game is enough to criticize it for, the fact you cannot actually own this game, and it is only available on Apple Arcade is stupid, especially since this game is incredibly repetitive. If you already have Apple Arcade, Sonic Dream Team is worth giving a shot as you may have fun with it, but by no means should you go out of your way to play this game.