Sonic Rush is like coming back to an old friend. This is definitely one of the better games in the series. The levels are really fun, and the trick mechanic ties the whole experience together super well. Major props for also being one of the only titles to have good special stages. And no review of this title can go without mentioning the soundtrack. I haven't played Jet Set Radio but I imagine I'd love the funky spirit of those games as much as I do this one. Hideki Naganuma is a beast at this stuff.

Unfortunately, the stuff that drags really drags. Namely, the bosses are awful. It's not like classic Sonic bosses where they're always open for attack; instead you have to wait for a weak point. Combine that with them keeping the 8 hit health bar and the occasional instant-kill attacks and it's not a fun time.

Thankfully they don't take up a lot of time. Definitely recommend to existing fans, though not as an introduction to the series (skill ceiling is quite high).

They bastardized 06 for this game??

I'm thoroughly split on this one. Basically everything here where this is a game is annoying and makes me not want to play it. Like, do we really have to use imprecise motion controls for everything? Why is this an autorunner with level design not built around being an autorunner? Why are there so many required missions and why doesn't the game tell me which ones are required? Why do I have to unlock good controls? Why am I still leveling up and unlocking moves + missions after I've beaten the damn thing?

Also these are nitpicks, but why are the stages laid out in a list on the main menu rather than anything immersive? I would have been happy with a book-style presentation too, since that's more thematically meaningful here than in SatBK. Why is Seven Rings in Hand the main menu theme? Why is the title screen playing some random-ass drum track instead? Feels like the two got swapped or something.

It's such a shame, because a lot of the other stuff is brilliant. The soundtrack is literally all bangers, one of Sonic's strongest by far. This game also has really punchy sound effects and they sound great. The stage locales are all really interesting new ideas for Sonic. The story is one of the best in the series, I think, even though it's pretty barebones - Sonic is in character, unlike 06, and the presentation is very stylish. Plus the CG cutscenes look great when we do get them.

I don't think I'll be revisiting this one. Would only recommend to longtime fans who haven't played it. There's a reason I put it off for so long. If you want the good of this game and none of the bad, play Black Knight instead.

(Review is of the Sonic Gems Collection port as that's the one I played)

Your experience with this one genuinely comes down to "play it like a driving game, not a platformer." I already knew to use the accelerate button going into this, and then it was just a matter of getting used to the controls. My criticisms mostly come down to how short the game is, but I have only played with one character and have yet to find all the Chaos Emeralds yet. There's fun to be had here. Soundtrack is also a surprise hit, I found myself annoyed finishing levels because it meant the music would stop.

I haven't played Chapter 1 in a while (will need to revisit it once the Chapter 3-5 demo is released, same with Chapter 2), and while I think it's a step up from Undertale in most ways, I can't help but find it to be a bit basic. That sort of comes with the territory though, being only the first chapter of what's seemingly an 8-chapter adventure when it comes to its end. Very nice music, the battle system and visuals are an upgrade over Undertale, and it raises a lot of interesting and fun questions. I wish it maybe leaned a little less on Undertale, but we'll have to wait for the full game to really see what that's all about.

I don't remember my time with this all that well, and I do really need to give it another shot. However, I can say the passion here really shines through to the final product. Unfortunately I can't really give this one a perfect score because the level design is a smidge too expansive and long for my tastes. For someone who only gets into the classic series in short bursts, putting that gameplay into Heroes-length marathon stages makes it hard to get through this one. I imagine most fans of the series (especially the Mega Drive titles) will have a lot of fun here, but it tends to fall a bit to the side of how I like my Sonic.

I don't really understand why the average review score on this one is a 1.7?? Sure, this has the most baffling choices in it out of any of the Adventure-formula titles, but it also has some of the best music, and the level design is quite fun to traverse. The alternate gameplay styles are also much closer to the appeal of Sonic than the alternate gameplay in Adventure 2 especially, really the biggest fault here is the movement speed on non-Sonic characters. Yes, the story is completely baffling, at least in Sonic's campaign, but this is also home to some of the best Shadow characterization in the series (and he really did need it after that solo game lol). Overall it's possible to really have a lot of fun with this in bursts, you just need to keep an open mind with it. In that sense it's not too different to other Sonic titles, honestly.

Sonic Heroes wants to be a modern take on the classic formula, but it gets bogged down by being obviously rushed. This shows mostly in the level design, which can end up getting repetitive and mechanical first and foremost over all else. These levels, more than most others in the series, simply feel like backdrops to "gameplay", if that makes sense.

Ultimately how you feel on this game will probably come down to if you find this gameplay loop engaging (which I do), and whether you're willing to tolerate some jank (which I am). Unfortunately, this only really applies to the experience of just one team. The game makes you replay it essentially three times, plus a fourth mission-based playthrough, a decision I'm really not okay with. I think this game desperately needed to trim the fat and feature only one or two teams, leaving the others to a multiplayer mode or something. A single-team experience is already repetitive, but you play the same levels in the same order four times. Needless to say, fully completing this game needs to be a slow-burn process or else you're going to burn yourself out and want to put the game down.

(I recommend the GameCube version for the best experience - bad performance on PS2, and Windows takes a while to get set up with proper mods. Xbox is fine if that's your only option)