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Preview of: Sonic the Hedgehog | By: Justin Fenico |
25 May-2006 |
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It’s been such a long time since I’ve played a memorable Sonic title. In fact, I believe the last time I did was for the Dreamcast back in ’99. It’s not that I dislike the blue bastard, but after awhile the “speed” rush wears off. Then “they” (Sega) begin creating characters out the wazoo and it I can’t even begin to keep up. That being said; it’s a new console so I’m willing to give Sonic a fresh start. |
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During the playable demo I had the chance to select two different types of Sonics; our regular blue Sonic that we’ve grown up with over the past 15 years, and a new silver Sonic that has telekinetic abilities. Too be quite honest, playing as old blue boy brought me back to the Dreamcast era: breakneck speeds, huge tracks, bad camera work, nice graphics; though nothing really Next-Gen about it. You start out in a very lush level filled with all the trademark Sonic obstacles. Plenty of jumping, collecting coins, bouncing on enemy robots, and running across those cool speed “treadmills”. After a few minutes of mundane action the demo began to pick up a little with the use of a new trick at Sonic’s disposal called the speed dash. The only time Sonic can use this speed dash is when he’s running through a row of coins. After you complete the first part of the level you’re dropped into this behind-the-back racing style view. Sonic must avoid more enemies and collapsing structures by moving left and right. This is the only real time while playing regular Sonic that I felt the gameplay moving in the right direction. I’m pretty tired of watching Sonic run across the wall or bounce onto 10 springs. These types of automatic instances where you have no control of what you’re doing have been a part of the hedgehog’s franchise for too long. I say give us a real sense of speed. Allow US more control of the blue guy.
There wasn’t a whole lot of innovation or “breaking new grounds”. In fact, I believe the tagline for the game was “Sonic blazes his way onto the next-generation consoles”. Nothing about that really excites me.
In fact, the only real bright spot and possible “diamond in the rough” was with psychic Sonic. Speed wasn’t as big of an issue during his mission; which hasn’t changed from the standard “get to the gold ring”. Instead his telekinetic capabilities allow him to throw boxes, huge pieces of steel, incoming missiles towards the enemy, and even the ability to levitate for a few seconds. Being it’s a feature I’ve never experience in the Sonic franchise it’s a welcomed change. Picking up three or four things at a time and hurling them towards your enemy was a new type of fun I hadn’t felt from the Sonic series in a long time. During psychic Sonic’s mission I noticed a much darker atmosphere of broken down buildings, huge spirals of lava shooting towards the sky, and giant mechanical robots impeding my progress. It was a much more enjoyable gameplay experience than the usual “run to the end of the level” objective.
As I said before there were some pretty noticeable camera issues at work which isn’t something new to a 3-D Sonic title. The camera seemed to be pretty fixed into one of two positions; a center position around Sonic or one that was slightly raised. Often times the position of the camera would be awkward enough so that it hindered any real defense I had against enemies. What you can’t see can hurt you in this situation, and often times I wouldn’t be able to see my enemies before they put the big hurt on me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hedgehog made it during the launch window, but there wasn’t nearly enough in the demo besides the psychic abilities that made me crave this as one of “the” PS3 titles to get. That being said, it’s only a demo, so we can only hope that Sonic’s 15th anniversary is celebrated in a much more appropriate, and dare a say “next-generation” way. |
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