Sonic 2006

I recently got Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 for my birthday and man do I have mixed feelings about it. I was so hyped about this game four years ago, back when I was obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog games. I still have fun with them, but lately they've frustrated me way more than I've had fun with them. Sonic Unleashed was kind of the limit for me. Honestly, a "werehog"? So he's a man hog? That wasn't even my biggest issue. All of the night levels drove me absolutely insane. I don't think I've ever been so angry at a video game in my whole life. The day levels were quite good though. I had a lot of fun with those. At any rate, this is about Sonic 2006...

If I had a PS3 4 years ago, I would have bought this game when it came out. I watched all the trailer videos and gameplay demos, downloaded the music and lurked on all my favourite Sonic forums for news. One aspect I do have to commend the game for is its fantastic music and beautiful graphics. They aren't the graphic we see in 2010, but it was good for 2006, like many other games. I am going to focus on all of the good parts of this game first, because we all focus on the bad way too much.

So, the graphics and music are excellent as I already mentioned. Tons of interactive environments that are quite large. You have the option of exploring, doing quests for the people of Soleanna or just sticking to the story. I normally just stick to the story, for reasons I'll touch on later, but the choice is there for the player to make. The gameplay is creative allowing you to play as three characters: Sonic, Shadow and Silver (I like to call them Paedohog, Angsthog and Geekhog). Sonic's missions are the usual running levels with parts of super speed, attacking with the homing attack and jumping puzzles. Shadow's story involves alternating between driving vehicles and running. Silver, a new character to the franchise, uses his mind to throw objects, manipulate structures and float. Silver is by far the most fun to play because of this. Though, ramming cars that have mounted guns into towers and watching them explode adds a little fun to Shadow's missions (even if it is a little too much like the Shadow the Hedgehog game).

This brings me to the overall story being told through the three characters. I, personally love it. It is hilarious. In almost every cutscene I have had a "wtf moment" that keeps me wondering what the writers and developers were on when they created this beast. The lameness is epic, and I love it. I know story is a big deal for some people, but honestly, I'd rather have good gameplay. The story in this game lightens the mood and makes me laugh. I like that. It's a little too complex for a Sonic game in my opinion. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on and I could pick out WAY too many plot holes. For the most part, good times.

All right, now I get to complain and I'm making a bee-line straight for the controls. Two words: THEY SUCK. The controls are so touchy, that one wrong move and I'm flinging myself, head over heels into a bottomless pit, or the water or a wall, or an enemy. The vehicles are difficult to drive and keep balanced. If you so much sneeze the wrong way, your vehicle rolls over or explodes. Sometimes I'll be running along a straight path and then Sonic will randomly veer off to the right and fall off a cliff. Then with Silver I try to shoot a box or pick up an item. The key word here is try. The objects can be difficult to aim and Silver sometimes won't even pick up what you want him to. I remember trying to do a mission where you had to hit targets and you had to have the right objects shot at the right angle at the right distance or you'd miss. The cameras don't help with any of this either. Half the time the camera freaks out and suddenly you're staring at a wall or the floor. Sometimes the camera would lock, making you a target for the robots just off screen that you can't see no matter which way you try to turn the view. It's ridiculous.

The gameplay in general is annoying. The worst part is the load screens. OH GOD THE LOAD SCREENS. I avoid the missions or "side-quests" because of these (and of course you HAVE to do some of them to advance through the story). You get a load screen after you agree to the mission, then you wait about a minute. Then you hear the person who gave you the mission explain what you have to do (and usually this is a useless one-liner) and go through ANOTHER minute load screen before you can play. Not so bad...if you beat the mission. If you fail, you can't just restart, you have to sit through another lengthy load screen, listen to another lame-ass one liner about how you fail before a load screen is yet again shoved in your face. Then you have to talk to the person again and go through the entire process. I'd honestly rather be drilling holes into my head. Load screens aside, the story missions themselves could get annoying. In the middle of these levels you switch between characters that may be traveling with the main character. This is a cool idea and fun at times, but sometimes they switch in at awkward times. One of shadows missions included a part where started the level flying and about 20 seconds later you enter a segment controlling Rouge (split off by a load screen). I just ask what the point of the first part even was. The planning for the transitions were just sloppy in many cases.

Now, I haven't played the entire game yet, but I've watched all the cutscenes. All two hours of them. I really don't think that much exposition is needed for a Sonic game. I'm not saying it wasn't entertaining. In fact some of my favourite YouTube poops are based off these cutscenes, but the original games had about 20 seconds worth of what you can call "cutscenes", maybe even less. Not only that they have this creepy little plot where a princess falls in love with a hedgehog, which is wrong on so many levels. One of my biggest issues was that they had the nerve to kill Sonic the Hedgehog and then bring him back to life. THEN THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE THEY WENT THROUGH WAS WORTH NOTHING. They don't remember ANYTHING of what happened. This was akin to "and then he woke up; it was all a dream". MY GOD.

I am glad to have gotten this game, it is a challenge, keeps me on the edge of my seat and gave me a lot of good laughs. My point is, they could have done so much better. It's better than Sonic Heroes, but Sonic has a long way to go in terms of redeeming himself in my eyes (I'd say Sonic Rush and Sonic Chronicles were a step in the right direction). At any rate, I will watch and wait. I still have hope for the platformers.

Also...why does every Sonic game after maybe Sonic Adventure Battle 2 treat Knuckles like a hot-headed dumbass? Yeah he's got a short temper, but he's the freaking guardian of Angel Island, the last Echidna etc. Sonic Chronicles DID do him good (I really love that game aside from the cliffhanger). GIVE KNUCKLES A LITTLE DIGNITY!

And now for some poop (by toadomos):

Rouge Loves her Precious
Eggman
Elise is a Loser