Sonic 06 doesn't need a review. Everyone knows what this game is, one of the prominent examples of true potential buried under heaps and heaps of stupid design choices, an awful rushed development period and an overly ambitious structure that was simply just not feasible considering how much they wanted to include.
This starts with the story, which frankly, sucks. Sonic 06 attempts the multi story narrative approach from the adventure games, except its even more sloppily handled than those if you can believe it. Not only did they force each of the 3 main hedgehogs to travel to every stage no matter how non sensical it is to the plot, but the connecting threads are so loosely handled and the amount of plot holes is staggering, to the point the story begins to make almost no sense. The basic gist is easy to follow but with the time travel elements being handled so poorly, you could probably write a book on all the holes in this one. It's not even entertaining, the writing is boring, the animation is extremely stilted and the actors all sound uninterested. Mephilis is an interesting idea for a character, but his manipulation of Silver to kill Sonic makes almost no sense. All the characters act like dumbasses and the series continuity is almost completely ignored. Elise is a terrible character, and the infamous kiss scene just speaks for itself. Some of the CGI cutscenes are great, and the Super transformations are some of the coolest so far. But this story is a disaster.
The gameplay is very similar to Sonic Adventure 1 in how it’s structured, as either Sonic, Shadow or Silver, you run around hub worlds, heading to the next stage when prompted and even completing side quests which are not only completely boring, but are nigh on pointless unless you’re playing as Sonic. Every character can buy upgrades using rings as currency, and side missions are the best way to collect more rings if you’re not able to get S-ranks on your first try in stages. Sonic has a ton of upgrades, most are totally broken sure, but they can be fun to mess around with. But for Shadow and Silver this isn’t necessary as they only have like 4/5 upgrades, rendering the side missions as pointless time consuming distractions. As there is absolutely positively nothing of interest in these hub worlds otherwise, they just serve as pace breakers for the game.
There are 9 playable characters, and within them there are other gameplay styles like snowboarding or vehicles. Most gameplay styles have been taken and adapated from Adventure, but while recognisable, it’s noticeably more stiff and rigid than the adventure games. Each of the 3 main characters has 2 side characters you will occasionally switch to, it’s pretty infrequent but it does happen.
Sonic has his normal move set, but he’s considerably slower than before, his homing attack is delayed, you can’t Spindash while moving and also can’t jump out of it rendering it pretty much useless, and his bounce move isn’t really used much for level design, it’s only really useful for killing enemies faster. So sonic isn’t a lot of fun to play in this game. He also has these absolutely atrocious Mach speed sections which, without practice, are stupidly hard to beat, and a snowboard that literally cannot turn without locking up. He had a ton of upgrades and these are fun for the fact that most if not all allow you to break the game. Great. Tails is playable here, but he’s even slower than Sonic, has broken flight which just drops you like a rock after a while, and terrible attack options. Knuckles is also slow, his glide is very heavy and he gets stuck on walks when climbing them, rendering Knuckles nearly unplayable. His combat barely works and this is just an embarrassment, luckily you don’t play as him much.
Shadow is a more “combat focussed” sonic, he’s slower but can deal with enemies faster… in theory, it’s mostly just mashing the X button until enemies die, sometimes he has vehicles to help him do the job but these, without fail control, like utter ass. Shadows levels mostly come down to beating up rooms of enemies, and it’s boring. Rouge is similar to Knuckles, same problems expect her glide is slightly better and her bombs are stronger than Tails’, but she still gets stuck on walls. Omega is actually okay, he’s pretty fast, can use a few different attacks to deal with enemies and he has a hover which is fun to use. I don’t mind when I’m in control of Omega, shame it’s not very often.
Silver sucks, which is a shame, he’s a Hedgehog with psychic powers, which unfortunately only means he can hover, pick up stunned enemies, and manipulate contact sensitive objects. He can catch enemy bullets, but not only is this inconsistent, but you can only catch so many. Silver is the slowest character in the game, and again he mostly just kills room after room of enemies. A fun idea for a character but one that missed every mark. Blaze is fun, she’s basically Sonic with a double jump, a faster yet unreliable homing attack, and a cool fire spin move. Shes great, shame you only play as her twice. Amy is the worst character in the game. She’s extremely slow, her hammer attack has 0 reach, she can’t attack in the air, her double jump barely lets her move, god what happened here.
The characters suck, but some of the levels are actually pretty good! Level design often offers multiple paths to take, secrets to find and a decent sense of flow, which is hampered by the characters but… it is there. It’s a shame that 2 of the 3 stories just fill these stages with enemy mandatory enemy encounters instead of just letting you explore.
Boss fights aren’t great, most of them drag on to a stupid degree or are just unfair. I will say though, the final boss, Solaris, is a great Super Sonic fight.
The more you play of this game, the more you can learn to work around the awful design, there is fun to be had here if you put enough time into it. But is it worth it for a game that at its best doesn’t even hit the level of either adventure games? I don’t think so. The basic “get to the goal” structure makes this game easier to digest than “Shadow the Hedgehog”, but that doesn’t make 06 this “overhated gem” that people are making it out to be. This game is a disaster, and I say that as someone who’s 100% completed it. I can get fun out of it at times and hey I don’t think it looks awful. The music also can’t be ignored, it’s incredible, no doubt the best thing about the game. But it’s not enough.
Sonic 06 is truly a low point for this franchise. It missed the mark hard, and unless you’re super curious, I wouldn’t give this one the time of day, play the fan remake “P06” instead.
This starts with the story, which frankly, sucks. Sonic 06 attempts the multi story narrative approach from the adventure games, except its even more sloppily handled than those if you can believe it. Not only did they force each of the 3 main hedgehogs to travel to every stage no matter how non sensical it is to the plot, but the connecting threads are so loosely handled and the amount of plot holes is staggering, to the point the story begins to make almost no sense. The basic gist is easy to follow but with the time travel elements being handled so poorly, you could probably write a book on all the holes in this one. It's not even entertaining, the writing is boring, the animation is extremely stilted and the actors all sound uninterested. Mephilis is an interesting idea for a character, but his manipulation of Silver to kill Sonic makes almost no sense. All the characters act like dumbasses and the series continuity is almost completely ignored. Elise is a terrible character, and the infamous kiss scene just speaks for itself. Some of the CGI cutscenes are great, and the Super transformations are some of the coolest so far. But this story is a disaster.
The gameplay is very similar to Sonic Adventure 1 in how it’s structured, as either Sonic, Shadow or Silver, you run around hub worlds, heading to the next stage when prompted and even completing side quests which are not only completely boring, but are nigh on pointless unless you’re playing as Sonic. Every character can buy upgrades using rings as currency, and side missions are the best way to collect more rings if you’re not able to get S-ranks on your first try in stages. Sonic has a ton of upgrades, most are totally broken sure, but they can be fun to mess around with. But for Shadow and Silver this isn’t necessary as they only have like 4/5 upgrades, rendering the side missions as pointless time consuming distractions. As there is absolutely positively nothing of interest in these hub worlds otherwise, they just serve as pace breakers for the game.
There are 9 playable characters, and within them there are other gameplay styles like snowboarding or vehicles. Most gameplay styles have been taken and adapated from Adventure, but while recognisable, it’s noticeably more stiff and rigid than the adventure games. Each of the 3 main characters has 2 side characters you will occasionally switch to, it’s pretty infrequent but it does happen.
Sonic has his normal move set, but he’s considerably slower than before, his homing attack is delayed, you can’t Spindash while moving and also can’t jump out of it rendering it pretty much useless, and his bounce move isn’t really used much for level design, it’s only really useful for killing enemies faster. So sonic isn’t a lot of fun to play in this game. He also has these absolutely atrocious Mach speed sections which, without practice, are stupidly hard to beat, and a snowboard that literally cannot turn without locking up. He had a ton of upgrades and these are fun for the fact that most if not all allow you to break the game. Great. Tails is playable here, but he’s even slower than Sonic, has broken flight which just drops you like a rock after a while, and terrible attack options. Knuckles is also slow, his glide is very heavy and he gets stuck on walks when climbing them, rendering Knuckles nearly unplayable. His combat barely works and this is just an embarrassment, luckily you don’t play as him much.
Shadow is a more “combat focussed” sonic, he’s slower but can deal with enemies faster… in theory, it’s mostly just mashing the X button until enemies die, sometimes he has vehicles to help him do the job but these, without fail control, like utter ass. Shadows levels mostly come down to beating up rooms of enemies, and it’s boring. Rouge is similar to Knuckles, same problems expect her glide is slightly better and her bombs are stronger than Tails’, but she still gets stuck on walls. Omega is actually okay, he’s pretty fast, can use a few different attacks to deal with enemies and he has a hover which is fun to use. I don’t mind when I’m in control of Omega, shame it’s not very often.
Silver sucks, which is a shame, he’s a Hedgehog with psychic powers, which unfortunately only means he can hover, pick up stunned enemies, and manipulate contact sensitive objects. He can catch enemy bullets, but not only is this inconsistent, but you can only catch so many. Silver is the slowest character in the game, and again he mostly just kills room after room of enemies. A fun idea for a character but one that missed every mark. Blaze is fun, she’s basically Sonic with a double jump, a faster yet unreliable homing attack, and a cool fire spin move. Shes great, shame you only play as her twice. Amy is the worst character in the game. She’s extremely slow, her hammer attack has 0 reach, she can’t attack in the air, her double jump barely lets her move, god what happened here.
The characters suck, but some of the levels are actually pretty good! Level design often offers multiple paths to take, secrets to find and a decent sense of flow, which is hampered by the characters but… it is there. It’s a shame that 2 of the 3 stories just fill these stages with enemy mandatory enemy encounters instead of just letting you explore.
Boss fights aren’t great, most of them drag on to a stupid degree or are just unfair. I will say though, the final boss, Solaris, is a great Super Sonic fight.
The more you play of this game, the more you can learn to work around the awful design, there is fun to be had here if you put enough time into it. But is it worth it for a game that at its best doesn’t even hit the level of either adventure games? I don’t think so. The basic “get to the goal” structure makes this game easier to digest than “Shadow the Hedgehog”, but that doesn’t make 06 this “overhated gem” that people are making it out to be. This game is a disaster, and I say that as someone who’s 100% completed it. I can get fun out of it at times and hey I don’t think it looks awful. The music also can’t be ignored, it’s incredible, no doubt the best thing about the game. But it’s not enough.
Sonic 06 is truly a low point for this franchise. It missed the mark hard, and unless you’re super curious, I wouldn’t give this one the time of day, play the fan remake “P06” instead.