Going into Sonic Heroes, my expectations were all over the place. After the many ups and downs I’ve heard about this game, picking it up and putting it down many times in the past, it’s no wonder it took me so long to finally play this game for myself. When I did, I couldn’t have been more happier to finally unlock the Super Hard mode. Sonic Heroes is one of the biggest surprises I’ve had with this series, from its lively art direction, the three-team system, the soundtrack, and the fun & entertaining writing. Sonic Heroes has to have some of the most diverse and best designed levels the series has ever had, from the inviting and breezy Seaside Hill, the fast paced and reflex testing Rail Canyon, the open and luscious Frog Forest, and the epic finale that is the Egg Fleet which does an amazing job testing all of your abilities. Sonic Heroes has not only become one of my favorite PS2 games, but it’s one of my favorite games of all-time, full stop.
That said, there are still things that hold it back from being my absolute favorite Sonic game. The pinball physics are not good, the camera can be pretty annoying at times, the bosses put up no challenge (outside of the last two), some of the Chaotix missions are pretty monotonous, and the act of reaching the Last Story can be fatiguing.
Additionally, the GameCube port specifically suffers from significantly slower camera rotation, horrendous sound mixing that would make Sonic Adventure 2 blush, and badly optimized controls that result in more instances of slipping off the stage from way too sharp turns, simply because of the GameCube controller’s 8-directional control stick, making accurate turns much harder on GameCube and you’re more likely to run into a hazard by accident.
Besides those drawbacks, I still wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone that has never played it before and are curious about it. Just do yourself a favor and avoid the atrocious GameCube port, okay? Okay.
That said, there are still things that hold it back from being my absolute favorite Sonic game. The pinball physics are not good, the camera can be pretty annoying at times, the bosses put up no challenge (outside of the last two), some of the Chaotix missions are pretty monotonous, and the act of reaching the Last Story can be fatiguing.
Additionally, the GameCube port specifically suffers from significantly slower camera rotation, horrendous sound mixing that would make Sonic Adventure 2 blush, and badly optimized controls that result in more instances of slipping off the stage from way too sharp turns, simply because of the GameCube controller’s 8-directional control stick, making accurate turns much harder on GameCube and you’re more likely to run into a hazard by accident.
Besides those drawbacks, I still wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone that has never played it before and are curious about it. Just do yourself a favor and avoid the atrocious GameCube port, okay? Okay.