surprisingly an absolute banger!! it's such a shame it's apple arcade exclusive because this game deserves to be played by more people! the plot isn't the most amazing thing in the world but the fact that this game has a plot and full voice acting at all is really awesome!

the controls are what makes this game SO good! they're impressively responsive and each character is satisfying to control. in particular, i love the way rail grinding and light speed dashing works in this game, it's some of the most responsive on the series! the level design is awesome too with each level being inspired by a skatepark with multiple different paths to take.

such an awesome game, highly recommend it if you're able to play it!

Pretty inoffensive but has a lot of good ideas and makes me hope that we continue to get a lot of these smaller sonic experiences I feel the series has been missing since the 2000's.

Characters control super well and I wish they played more into the physics allowed because the game is pretty on rails in some sections. Level design while I think is pretty great for exploration, is pretty wide and makes going through stages pretty straightforward. That said it is fun to just move around as sonic and friends so it kept the game enjoyable. It has the kinetic energy the sonic/shadow action stages from adventure 2 has which I missed from the series.

It's amazing to have a playable Sonic roster this big again. However, while there are six characters to play, you really only get 3 playstyles between the three types so I wish they leaned into giving everyone individual traits (Amy still never uses here hammer besides an aesthetic these days. The parry in the frontiers dlc doesn't count). I also feel a lot of the "get to the goal" Acts get ruined after the first playthrough since the stage/door unlocks remain unlocked after the level ends. They are able to get a lot of content out of reusing levels and I really think the extra missions were super fun.

I feel most of the problems and restrictions the game has is have is due to the nature of this being designed and budgeted for mobile platforms (please port to other platforms). I do think if Sega Hardlight is given a chance to make a bigger scale, they seriously can knock it out the park. The potential here is huge and it's brimming with a lot of good to be salvaged. I don't see myself playing this again anytime soon unfortunately since it's locked behind an apple arcade subscription I don't want to pay to do daily tails missions. (I'd pay an apple sub for original sonic runners to come back tho...)

Who knew the sleeper hit of 2023 would be a mobile Sonic game that is stuck on Apple devices? No seriously, Sonic Dream dropped out of no where and is suddenly one of the best 3D sonic games in the last 20 years. This Sonic game outclassed Frontiers with probably a fraction of the budget. Sonic Dream Team is the first fully 3D sonic game since Sonic 06, meaning you have a full 360 degree camera and there are absolutely no 2D sections. And somehow with no experience this team knocked it out of the park in their first try. You control up to 6 characters, each controlling very similarly but with slight variations in ability (as it should be), and the feeling of the gameplay is some of the best 3D sonic has to offer. The level design really encapsulated 2D Sonic level design into a 3D game. It's a fast linear, momentum based platformer with branching paths that you can take depending on your skill level. And it's all about getting from point A to B. No gimmick levels. The better you play, the better paths you take, the faster you finish levels. And I'll say it again, every single character is so fun to play this time. To compare, every other Sonic game which had multiple characters had Sonic which always fun to play, and then half of the other characters would have some sort of gimmick. Sonic Dream Team only has 4 zones with 4 acts each, but each act has multiple missions meaning there is so much content here. The game took me a good 10 hours to bear which is pretty good for a Sonic game. My only complaints is the fact that this is stuck on Apple, and very well deserves to be played by all players on console and PC. Also I don't like the sideshow cutscenes either. If you have been waiting for a good 3D sonic game, I urge you to play this.

An.. Apple Arcade exclusive developed alongside the mobile game team… okay then. This game was announced out of the blue and it’s exclusivity to apple devices had me worried, despite thinking the gameplay looked interesting. In the end I was surprised by how much fun this ended up being, though its mobile game roots still hold it back.

Dream team has a story with full voice acting, and while the plot is nothing to talk about, the animation in the cutscenes is nothing short of amazing. While graphically it’s held back by its mobile nature, the dreamy aesthetics are brilliant , and completely original for the series.

Gameplay is a hybrid between the older more explorative styles, and the modern boost formula. The result is a pretty smooth mix that, with a controller and a few camera issues aside, captures the positives of both styles and incorporates them into some fantastic level design. There’s 3 types of characters and each lets you explore levels in different ways, which is good when there’s only 16 stages.

Now each act does have lots of smaller missions which can be fun, but this is mostly to fill the time. Dream Teams levels are brilliant but I wish there was more here I can see the potential for a really fleshed out game, and apparently it’s getting updated, but as is, Dream Team is a welcome surprise- 7.3/10

PLATFORM: iPad
GOAL: Clear Story Mode
PROGRESS: Somewhere in Zone 3

I'm not asking my sister for her iPad back to finish this game, so have an early review that's written way later than when I actually played it.

Controls feel like a gutted Frontiers that just so happens to have momentum physics (which kind of have next to no point due to the lack of a roll button and the insistence on keeping a low running speed cap a la Lost World), level design is kind of too easy and unmemorable, the game has some of the most annoying padding I've seen, the music is criminally bland, Cream and Rouge do not sound the best, and I forgot what Ariem does.

I hyped up Sonic Dream Team as my dream game, but all it did was put me to sleep.

My Apple Arcade trial ran out and I’m trying to save money so I don’t really want to pay for another subscription service but this game is really fun man. It’s hardly a return to the characterisation or world building I loved in the Adventure era but mechanically and design wise it’s super strong and I hope they bring this to consoles and PC at some point, I’d definitely buy it and run through the whole thing.

The way it blends the stage structure of classic games with the base gameplay of Frontiers makes this shine. Goes to show the basis of Frontiers’ gameplay is actually suited incredibly well to this sort of level design and it allows for fast moving sections and slower more thoughtful platforming. On a gameplay front this might be the closest thing we’ve seen to an evolution of the Adventure design, ever. It’s not perfect and I think it lacks a lot of charm and heart, but on a purely gameplay basis, it’s really solid and good fun with heaps of replay-ability and that’s what Sonic is all about.

It's a shame Sonic Dream Team is exclusive to Apple Arcade because I think it may be the best 3D Sonic since, like, Unleashed! Dropped seemingly out of nowhere with a different team backing it, it'd be understandable to be skeptical of its approach. Even though Apple Arcade doesn't allow for microtransactions, that doesn't stop some games from incorporating ill-fitting "long-term engagement" mechanics that can drag down an otherwise clean experience. Air Twister is good, but I don't know if anyone's wanting to play it for 100 hours! Despite the format, Dream Team feels far more like a console Sonic game than it does a mobile one, only more polished, concise, and focused on what it wants to be.

Ostensibly, you could lump this game in with the "Boost Games" of the series and that would make perfect sense. You do a lot of boosting, after all. But I think that'd be selling it short. You see, what makes Dream Team cool is that it understands that Sonic isn't actually about going fast 100% of the time and never has been! Dream Team isn't a slow game and much of the level design still does consist of straight corridors to pass through, but anyone familiar with the series will immediately notice that the boost feels slower, your max speed without it even moreso, and that your boost gauge is pretty small as well. This might seem ridiculous, but it's actually a very smart decision that turns Dream Team into a more exploratory game, giving it a more distinct identity that even channels a tiny bit of that Adventure magic.

Dream Team is structured a lot like Sonic Colors, or so I hear since I haven't played that one yet. You get one juicy main mission and several smaller missions in each level in a zone. The main mission has all the trappings you'd expect, including various collectables, new interactions with the environment, and branching paths that you can experiment with on subsequent runs. The level design is overall on the simple side, resulting in quite an easy game that finishes up right as it runs out of tricks, but I found that there was a lot to appreciate despite that. I think my biggest gripe with modern Sonic game design is how inefficient it is. Each level probably took weeks of hard work and skill to craft, but then you blast through them in a minute (because they're under the impression that speed is all people want from Sonic) and never think about them again unless you're a completionist or a speedrunner. It just feels bad and wasteful to have so much detail and care put into them only for it to be over so quickly, you know?

That's why Dream Team's approach is so refreshing. Sure, the levels still aren't gigantic, but you have actual incentive to stop and look around now. There are a lot of pretty details stuffed into the level design, whether that be background elements, some of the best visuals I've seen in a mobile game, or clever platform arrangements designed to teach players valuable lessons, and the number of branching paths and rail-heavy design probably allows for some neat timesavers on subsequent runs, so you can still get some of those speedrun thrills anyway. Some levels have you searching around for keys in a way that's reminiscent of emerald hunting in Adventure 1+2 (albeit much simpler). The collectibles are very well hidden and encourage you to make use of different characters, which in turn allows for an even greater appreciation of the level designers' craft. The sub-missions do a great job of tipping the player off to these things since they take place in bite-sized chunks of the main levels. If you play through a level first as, say, Sonic, then when a mission makes you play as Knuckles instead, you'll get to see an entirely new path with new challenges. Instead of rail grinding, maybe you're climbing on a moving wall and dodging hazards, or if you're playing as Tails, maybe you get to do a prolonged flight sequence where precision suddenly matters a whole lot. Amy, Cream, and Rouge are here, too, and it's great to have such a big roster in a modern Sonic game, but they're identical to Sonic/Tails/Knuckles in functionality, which is unfortunate. Cheese can't even be used as a weapon like in Sonic Advance 2, which kills a lot of the fun of Cream's return for me. It's not as robust as the Adventure games (I really miss finding permanent upgrades), but it's a step back towards that direction, and at this point, even a slight whiff of Adventure is enough to give me the vapors.

The core of the Dream Team experience is extremely focused and polished, but as you look at the more fringe and inconsistent elements of the game, you do begin to see some room for improvement. The boss fights are conceptually really solid and always a spectacle, but they're very easy to beat and don't offer any kind of incentive to replay them, which feels like a bit of a waste. I really enjoyed seeing how different each one was (though I do wonder if making the final boss into a prolonged level instead of a fight was the right choice...) and it's easy to imagine ways to spice them up, so having them be such a miniscule part of the experience is surprising. The collectibles are inherently fun to collect because the act of playing the game is fun, but I do wish the rewards were more interesting. A majority of the missions need to be completed just to reach the end of the game, but the rewards for the entirely optional blue rings are just Smash Bros-style trophies without the cute descriptions and history lessons those had. I agree with the idea of the journey being more important than the destination, especially since the plot here isn't particularly notable, but it'd be nice if they greased my palms a little bit, you know?

Sonic Dream Team is still a quick playthrough like most modern Sonic games, but it manages to feel a lot more substantial and confident than some of the recent ones have. It avoids rehashing the same 2D era levels for tired "nostalgia" ploys (Scrambled Shores rules because it's not just Green Hill Zone for once), it isn't afraid to try new things here and there, and it doesn't hesitate to make Sonic's ensemble cast have a meaningful presence, all of which is immensely appreciated as a long-time Sonic enjoyer. I've been very pleased with the direction of the series in recent years, between Frontiers placing Sonic in a wholly new context and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog realizing that there's a lot of value in these characters and leveraging that, and Dream Team continues this positive trend by finally trying a different approach to 3D Sonic level design while still using a familiar foundation. I really hope Sega Hardlight gets another shot at something like this on a larger scale platform because I think they could make some of the best games the series has ever seen if they're given the chance to improve upon this idea. Hopefully, this game gets ported/expanded upon for modern platforms so that others can see how Sonic can be and should be so much more than just going fast.

Dream Team was a huge surprise! I was worried going in because it feels like conversations about this game suddenly dropped after release, but this is without a doubt the best feeling Sonic game in years. Each character feels great to control!

It fell flat in a lot of places, mainly the final boss, overall story and music, but it’s just a mobile game at the end of the day. That being said, despite the game being themed on dreams, the levels don’t feel quite wacky enough, it just feels like a regular Sonic game. It would’ve been cool for this game to be given a more unique and memorable identity, similar to how Mario Wonder stands out with the wonder seed gimmick. But again, it’s just a mobile game.

Overall, game felt great to play, level design was solid, and the game looks beautiful! Definitely worth checking out if you have Apple Arcade, and I hope this project inspires some changes in future console Sonic games!

The people stating that this is better than Frontiers are on massive copium I'm sorry LOL.

Hardlight's newest mobile endeavor is indeed an ambitious title for a mobile game. A fully 3D platforming-focused Sonic game is something I'm kind of surprised hasn't already been attempted at this point...though considering most of Hardlight's other titles are more simple pick-up-and-play arcade-y high score-based affairs, it's easy to see why this hasn't been attempted before. I've seen a lot of backlash against this game being Apple Arcade exclusive, and while I do agree that offering the title to more people that can play it is a good thing to do, those asking for a legitimate console port...guys, c'mon...it's a mobile game.

Should start there before I talk about anything else I suppose. Sonic Dream Team is a mobile game at its core and it is fundamentally hindered by being an experience crafted for mobile. What do I mean by this you may ask? Imagine a typical 3D Boost game (the kind that's roughly similar to Frontiers, Colors, Gens, etc) except with a pathetically weak boost, no airboost, no stomp or slide, no wall jumping, and a free camera that fights against you most of the time. That's Sonic Dream Team. It's a boost game but worse. The only things it has going for it movement-wise are the ridiculous range on the homing attack and uh...slope jumping I guess. That's really about it. It's still kinda fun to play on a basic level but like, would I rather play this if I pitted it against any of the other boost games besides Unleashed and Forces? Absolutely not lmao. Seriously, the lack of a stomp really hurts this game more than it should. Precise platforming is a chore because you don't have an effective way to stop quickly enough. And I know they couldn't add these elements in because, again, it's a mobile game. Everything needs to be extremely simple otherwise your fingers would become a pretzel trying to chain all of these different actions together. I played on a controller during my playthrough, and while it is...marginally better than using the touch screen, it only further reminded me of how much lesser this game is than the other boost titles, but I digress. You can also play as multiple different characters but their unique attributes aren't anything to write home about. Amy and Sonic can lightspeed dash, Tails and Cream can fly with a clunky feeling stamina meter, and Knuckles and Rouge can glide (heavily nerfed and plummets like a rock) and climb walls. You can also swap characters on the fly once you've unlocked them but doing so requires you to come to a complete standstill halting the pace of the stage completely. What's worse is that this is even mandatory for specific acts to complete them.

Despite this, the main levels (I'm talking like, the first stage of the act with the red rings and the blue coins) can be pretty fun and well-designed, once you get the task of “collect 3 keys to progress” taken care of anyway. I particularly had a lot of fun with Ego City and the final couple of acts with Nightmare Maze. Scrambled Shores is...fine as a starting level, does what it needs to do. Dream Factory is...also fine. Aesthetically it looked too much like Sweet Mountain and the most interesting aspect it has to offer is rising and lowering platforms. Wooo. Much like Secret Rings (and because, again, it's a mobile game), Dream Team has multiple missions within each act offering various objectives, from time trials to checkpoint gate races. These wildly vary in terms of actual quality. The "get the dream orb" challenges are pretty good. They typically involve completing a satisfying platforming obstacle gauntlet challenge to get a single dream orb. Short, sweet, and to the point. The time trials and the checkpoint gate races are mainly just an excuse to play the same level again with a slightly different goal. The crystal hunt missions are just bad. I don't have anything positive to say about them. Imagine bumbling around a giant closed-off maze looking for a set number of trinkets. It's about as exhilarating as it sounds. The game at least looks pretty nice for a mobile game and the animated intro is fantastic. The animated cutscenes are surprisingly really REALLY impressive and invoke an expressive fluid style of animation we haven't seen since...geez, Rise of Lyric on the Wii U. The problem is that there are only like, 5 cutscenes in the game and the rest of the game's story presentation is in comic book slide show mode with voice over. Hearing Michelle Ruff as Cream again was kinda jarring but I guess it's mainly due to how long she's been from this character. Sadly I don't have much to say on the soundtrack aside from the main theme and the final boss theme. It's fine I guess, nothing terrible to listen to but it just feels like background noise a lot of the time.

Again, for a mobile game, it's pretty interesting and a good step for Hardlight to develop something truly special; but as is, I dunno if I'd ever want to go back to it instead of replaying the dozens of other Sonic games I already have a lot of fun with. Such is the mobile curse.