This game is by far my favorite game of all time. There's just so much that I love about it - the fantastic level design, the tight controls, the incredibly vibrant visuals, the amazing music, etc. Modern and Classic Sonic are so much fun to play, the levels are so much fun to go through, the bosses are all incredibly fun (with a lone exception), the entire game oozes charm and is a great love letter to the entire history of the series, genuinely this game is something I can go back to over and over again and never get tired of it. I hope one day Sonic Team puts together an original game that has as much thought and love put into it as this game did.

I remember liking this game back in December of 2011 when I first got this game and my Nintendo 3DS for Christmas. This was actually my first experience with Sonic Generations as a whole, and I wouldn't play the console version until a year later (and I was absolutely blown away when I eventually did but let's get back on topic). However when revisiting this game recently, it has become abundantly clear how little this game actually offers. When the level design isn't recycled from previous entries (in particular the first 3 Classic stages and Water Palace act 2 are a straight rip from the original level layouts), it's just baffling to go through. Classic Radical Highway and Emerald Coast are filled with long stretches of nothing and repetitive homing attack chains because...reasons. Moderns stages are just Sonic Rush without the trick system which, like Colors DS before it, already makes the movement less interesting and fun in my eyes. Overall you just end up with the game that's not only boring but surprisingly very short. You can legit finish this game in an afternoon sitting. There are extra missions and challenges to beat but they don't offer much beyond the main stages and are harmless distractions at best. The presentation is pretty alright, and I like how certain areas make the 3D effect work well, but all and all this is a pretty lame game all things considered.

Starting off with this game, Mario feels too slow for my liking. Long jumping is really the only way to gain speed and the triple jump is almost useless. Really miss the snappy controls of Sunshine. I also don’t think the swimming controls well either, though thankfully in most of those levels they give you a shell to propel yourself forward so it isn’t too awkward. I also don’t like the powerups in this game. Fire Flower is sluggish, Ice Flower is very fun but temporary for whatever reason, spring Mario...exists I guess, Bee Mario is kinda goofy but I do like using him, and Ghost Mario is also just sort of whatever. The temporary powerup mentality again is something I don’t understand, I guess it makes sense for the invincibility star but for everything else? Why?

Why am I starting with a lot of negatives right out the gate you may ask? It’s because to be honest, I don’t really have much negative to say with this game. The level design is super fun, the antigravity is a blast to mess around with, the worlds are varied and a lot of fun to go through, despite being a more linear affair there are a lot of offbeat paths and secrets you can uncover, and the story (more so the backstory of Rosalina) is incredibly touching to see unfold. Even the motion controlled levels handle very well which was surprising to me. Definitely recommend this one, this is easily my new favorite 3D Mario.

Let me fill you in with some perspective. I'm someone who used to HATE this game. I hated the controls, the stage gimmicks, the combat, the obnoxious casino levels, the fact that you had to play the game essentially 4 times to fully beat it, etc. I put it down for years after I beat it and that was the end of it.

But years later when I returned to it, I was willing to try and put in the effort to work at getting better at this game's controls and mechanics, learn speedrun tech, all that jazz. I wanted to see what others saw in this game, and low and behold, after putting a lot of time in to improve at this game, Sonic Heroes has quickly become a game I despised, to one of my favorite Sonic games of all time.

I think we should start with the control issue, yes speed formation is slippery and finnicky on a first playthrough, but you have other styles to switch to, power and flight. Both of these are slower and have better traction so it's easier to get a handling on the terrain, but once you DO master speed formation, the movement abilities and cool tricks you can do is second to none. You can rocket accel up slopes and ramps to bypass fan gliding sections, use tornado jump as a means of a double jump, slide off a platform and jump before the animation ends to get crazy distance in the air, combining rocket accel with Tails or Knuckles to get crazy distance, it's super satisfying to pull off.

And in terms of the combat, I'll be the first to say that while it isn't amazing, I think it's very interesting and fun to use for a platformer. You have different means of attacks and different strategies for different enemies (like flying metal enemies needing to be stunned by Tails before it can be taken care of by Knuckles). Knuckles straight punches are super effective at clearing hoards of enemies super fast at the cost of being pretty slippery, but you also have the much safer but slower fireball dunk to take care of enemies this way. Faster combat being a trade off for looser control, while the safer option is more slow. Risk and reward design like this is present all throughout Heroes. Another example of this is using the more unwieldy rocket accel to take off shields and flip the turtle enemies (or even use poles) without slowing down versus stopping to use the whirlwind attack and dealing less damage overall. Leveling up throughout a stage also increases your combat effectiveness tenfold; each character can level up 3 times in a stage, with all levels being reset if you die, rewarding skillful play if you keep your characters leveled throughout. max level speed or flight characters can clear a room much much faster than they originally could against Power, with Power formation absolutely slaughtering giant brutes at max level. And then you get team blast which nukes the entire area you're in killing all enemies on screen, and can also have different effects depending on the team you pick. It's usually best to save Team Blast for when you really need it (such as an area full of enemies with a tough bigger brute character with armor), rather than using it whenever you feel like it.

The levels themselves are a blast to traverse through as well. The levels are expansive with different paths and shortcuts to take with a decent length to each level without any of them really overstaying their welcome. Combine this with the excellent movement mechanics in conjunction with the combat and you have a marvelous high speed platformer.

It's not all perfect though, certain issues I had with the game then still are prevalent now. The casino stages absolutely blow. I don't know who was in charge of the pinball physics needed to go up the tables or steer in Bingo Highway but they completely failed at it. The physics are just all over the place and fluctuate on a whim, often times I can be holding a direction and Sonic just refuses to go in that direction and ends up falling to his death. These can make the pinball sections take forever as you can be constantly stuck on the table because the controls just refuse to work with you at all. The special stages are also still awful. The act of getting to them is fine enough (collecting a key locked in a cage and keeping it throughout the level without getting hurt) but the special stage itself controls like garbage and it's near impossible to see obstacles coming in time while moving at such a ridiculous speed. Team Chaotix as a whole is pretty unremarkable as well, with their gameplay being mission focused. Easily the worst out of all the other teams. The game forcing you to play it multiple times can be a turn off but since I love the core gameplay and level design I'm at least somewhat willing to look past this.

Overall I get why people can not like this game I really do. And I also understand if taking the time to master the controls and mechanics and really "git gud" at the game isn't a guarantee you'll like it (heck I did the same for DMC4 and Sonic Unleashed and I still hate both those games), but I employ you to at the very least give it another look at with everything I said in mind. Sonic Heroes is a very weird but extremely rewarding experience. (Also you don't have that stupid Chao raising crap and the upgrade system is gone + no mechs so I consider this better than SA2 by default. Maybe one day I'll try and 100% the game and get Super Hard Mode.)

This is probably what I consider to be the most "vanilla" game I've ever played. It's not awful by any means, but it's also not great either, yet with how many critiques I have with this game I'm kind of surprised I still find this game to be super average and not even more on the mediocre side. For the record, I completed the PC version, but I did experience the Dreamcast version just to see why people are so adamant about it being "the best version", but I won't be going back to it, not only because 30 fps is flat out worse than 60 no matter what game you're playing, but also because I hate the Dreamcast controller with a passion, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

For Sonic's first fully 3D outing, I have to say I am impressed with what they were able to craft together and achieve at the time. Sonic's stages are by far the best parts of the game. His handling in 3D is super smooth, even when maneuvering at high speeds, and most of the stages themselves are fun to traverse through, albeit they can be a bit simple at times. Spindash is super overpowered and can bypass pretty much any obstacle thrown at you, but a part of me doesn't mind and feels somewhat empowered when using this to bypass everything. I don't think everything in his moveset is great though - the homing attack feels super flaccid and enemy chains feel slow and unsatisfying to pull off, lightspeed dash sucks to use (though in all fairness I can forgive this being their first attempt in using it), and on a separate note some stages are saddled with boring gimmicks like the kart ride section in Twinkle Park or the overly long snowboarding in Ice Cap. Still a really fun first attempt.

The rest however? That's where I think this game falls apart. Tails is just worse Sonic, complete with recycled stages that weren't built for his flying abilities, so he's usually able to clear stages in a single jump with no effort whatsoever. Knuckles' treasure hunting barely has any gameplay to speak of. You fly around these big empty areas and follow the constant beeps of the 3 radar tracked emeralds until you find them and win. If you don't like flying aimlessly toward radar beeps, you can also use Tikal to...literally point you in the direction where the emerald is. At that point I'm just kind of wondering with all this help am I actually playing the game (this is why I will always prefer the hint system and 1 emerald radar from SA2). These aren't awful playstyles but they aren't super interesting either.

The other playstyles besides these flat out suck however. Amy is slow and really boring. Her main gimmick is that she's always being chased by this one robot that never really poses a threat. She has this ability to vault and continue her momentum with well timed hammer swings upon touching the ground. The issue is, while it keeps your speed, your speed isn't fast to begin with, so I feel no incentive to use this move because why would I want to maintain my already slow speed? Gamma is the predecessor for those god awful mech stages in SA2, and they're just as bad here as they were there. I don't really know which is worse, I might have to play through Gamma again to make a comparison, but I think mech gameplay in general is immensely boring and timewasting and those sentiments apply here as well. Big...I mean everyone and their grandma love to dunk on Big's terrible fishing gameplay, and uh...yeah it's pretty bad. Bad controls, terrible camera, an overall pointless edition to this game, but honestly I can't really get TOO angry at it since it's remarkably short, possibly the shortest gameplay style in the entire game.

In terms of the rest of the game, the bosses are laughable. These have to be some of the easiest boss fights I've played in any Sonic game, or really any video game PERIOD and that's just kind of sad (with the exception of the final boss in the last story which I consider to be somewhat decent). There's extra missions in the DX version, as well as different stipulations for the same stages you've already played. There are emblems to collect by completing these, and you can even find emblems as collectables scattered in the hub world (yes this game has hub worlds. Aside from the jungle hub world I don't mind these too much, as they aren't as lifeless and as boring as other hubs in the franchise). You can also earn emblems by Chao raising but good luck getting me to care about that sort of thing. I hated being forced to raise Chao and play time wasting minigames in SA2, I guarantee the same will happen here so I just won't bother. The soundtrack is pretty good as to be expected and the game looks really good for how old it is.

Considering all of this, and with all of my collective whining about nearly everything, I'm surprised I don't dislike this game more. I only like one playstyle out of the six present after all. I don't know...I think it's this certain charm Sonic Adventure has, and the style and energy it oozes with all throughout the game. I'd say this is worth checking out, I just wasn't blown away by anything personally. (SA2 still better tho)