It hurts me to my core to admit that the first Sonic game I played hasn't held up as well as those before it. I still enjoyed myself while playing this time around of course, but there was just so much sticking out compared to SA2 for example, something I don't hold as high as others to begin with.
To start off, the four (five, technically) campaigns are a cool idea and a natural evolution of the last two games in the series. These isolated stories don't go as far character wise as I would like to, ESPECIALLY in Team Dark's case, which is a shame because Sonic 06 of all games might have the best to offer in their department. Even with the lack of character progression, Heroes makes up doubly with the interactions each group has, Team Chaotix specifically being some of the most charming in the franchise as a whole possibly. Ignoring the Story being a slight step down from SA2, I'd still say its the middle child within the first trilogy of Sonics 3D titles, SA1 being way more weak in most departments other than individual character's more memorable dialogue. Nothing too special overall but far from bad or even mid stories to choose from.
Gameplay wise, however, is where Heroes begins to waver as the years go by. Despite what many have told me, Team Sonic and Rose were by far some of the most miserable stages I've had to go through, either because of how long the stages dragged on, or in Rose's case, nothing of substance at all. I mean seriously, her entire team just feels like an excuse for the special stages to exist (of which are some of the worst in the series if you don't know how to cheese them). Team Sonic however suffers from the sheer amount of gimmicks the game feels like throwing at you per zone, instead of sticking to what SA1 and 2 action stages excelled at. Essentially, its trying to be too many things at once, and fails at being what it should be at its core. That being said though the gimmicks can be fun, all things considered tbh. Its funny that I say that, even though Team Dark is by far longer in every stage, but idk their levels just always felt more complete and focused compared to Sonic's. On that subject, Team Dark is definitely my favorite of the 4 rosters to work with, most likely because of how broken their team blast is, being one of like two games to showcase Shadow's abilities through gameplay in the entire series. Even with that in mind, both of these teams (Team Sonic especially), have the exact opposite problems they did in SA2, in the sense of the controls being more competent, but outright unresponsive in the most important moments. The light speed dash is completely broken and doesn't work 70% of the time with Sonic, but for some reason Shadow's is fine? The homing attack is probably the best its been so far but still jank without a reticle to judge who is top priority to the character. The worst addition is the Rocket accel to me, which is the only move in the game that constantly fights with another, being the light speed dash of course. How this got past play testing is beyond me, but there's nothing to do about it I guess, just have to deal with two completely opposite movement options being mapped to the same button. Team Rose an Chaotix don't have this issue of course, and they are almost better because of it. I say almost because as I said earlier Team Rose just sucks level wise and bored me half to death honestly. Chaotix, on the other hand, took me by surprise by how much I enjoyed just fucking around with for their entire campaign. I really don't want to be a contrarian for the 2000th time but yeah, these stages are much more competent than Sonic and Rose's by a landslide to me, despite being the most gimmicky of all. The thing is though, these gimmicks are pretty loosely tied to the plot, and lead to genuine exploration at times in these levels that cleverly hide behind linearity pretty frequently. That and their movesets are the best behind Team Shadow, with Espio being the only thing holding them back (like seriously what do any of his moves do besides the cloak?). The levels themselves are really cool, and in my opinion better than most in SA2 not named City Escape and Metal Harbor. But then again this game also has Frog Forest, which may as well be unplayable without an emulator. Like holy shit this and Rail Canyon expose how rushed the rail grinding was for this era, but at least with SA2 there is still a fundemental skill gap to be had, despite how poorly explained and implemented it was in most stages (except Final Rush), but in Heroes it is either unresponsive or a one way ticket to death. Frog Forest also had the worst use of the light speed dash, and I'm not sure what causes it to glitch out, but my theory is that the camera can reset your momentum if its being flicked by the LSD, but I'm probably wrong on that entirely. But yeah I really wish they'd give this and the adventure formula another go, some real fun to be had thats bogged down by the colossal amount of bugs that lead to unearned deaths, padding game time out probably past twice its intended length. Its for that reason that I can't begin to recommend this game for anything but an emulator, as you can save state as much as you want to negate the game screwing you over for playing it completely right. You didn't hear that from me though, never pirate games that billion dollar companies refuse to rerelease after 20 fucking years.
TL;DR: Team rankings go 1. Dark 2. Chaotix 3. Sonic 4. Rose, but with a REMAKE, yes I'm going to fall on that for every 3d sonic game pre unleashed, the potential for this game is limitless.
To start off, the four (five, technically) campaigns are a cool idea and a natural evolution of the last two games in the series. These isolated stories don't go as far character wise as I would like to, ESPECIALLY in Team Dark's case, which is a shame because Sonic 06 of all games might have the best to offer in their department. Even with the lack of character progression, Heroes makes up doubly with the interactions each group has, Team Chaotix specifically being some of the most charming in the franchise as a whole possibly. Ignoring the Story being a slight step down from SA2, I'd still say its the middle child within the first trilogy of Sonics 3D titles, SA1 being way more weak in most departments other than individual character's more memorable dialogue. Nothing too special overall but far from bad or even mid stories to choose from.
Gameplay wise, however, is where Heroes begins to waver as the years go by. Despite what many have told me, Team Sonic and Rose were by far some of the most miserable stages I've had to go through, either because of how long the stages dragged on, or in Rose's case, nothing of substance at all. I mean seriously, her entire team just feels like an excuse for the special stages to exist (of which are some of the worst in the series if you don't know how to cheese them). Team Sonic however suffers from the sheer amount of gimmicks the game feels like throwing at you per zone, instead of sticking to what SA1 and 2 action stages excelled at. Essentially, its trying to be too many things at once, and fails at being what it should be at its core. That being said though the gimmicks can be fun, all things considered tbh. Its funny that I say that, even though Team Dark is by far longer in every stage, but idk their levels just always felt more complete and focused compared to Sonic's. On that subject, Team Dark is definitely my favorite of the 4 rosters to work with, most likely because of how broken their team blast is, being one of like two games to showcase Shadow's abilities through gameplay in the entire series. Even with that in mind, both of these teams (Team Sonic especially), have the exact opposite problems they did in SA2, in the sense of the controls being more competent, but outright unresponsive in the most important moments. The light speed dash is completely broken and doesn't work 70% of the time with Sonic, but for some reason Shadow's is fine? The homing attack is probably the best its been so far but still jank without a reticle to judge who is top priority to the character. The worst addition is the Rocket accel to me, which is the only move in the game that constantly fights with another, being the light speed dash of course. How this got past play testing is beyond me, but there's nothing to do about it I guess, just have to deal with two completely opposite movement options being mapped to the same button. Team Rose an Chaotix don't have this issue of course, and they are almost better because of it. I say almost because as I said earlier Team Rose just sucks level wise and bored me half to death honestly. Chaotix, on the other hand, took me by surprise by how much I enjoyed just fucking around with for their entire campaign. I really don't want to be a contrarian for the 2000th time but yeah, these stages are much more competent than Sonic and Rose's by a landslide to me, despite being the most gimmicky of all. The thing is though, these gimmicks are pretty loosely tied to the plot, and lead to genuine exploration at times in these levels that cleverly hide behind linearity pretty frequently. That and their movesets are the best behind Team Shadow, with Espio being the only thing holding them back (like seriously what do any of his moves do besides the cloak?). The levels themselves are really cool, and in my opinion better than most in SA2 not named City Escape and Metal Harbor. But then again this game also has Frog Forest, which may as well be unplayable without an emulator. Like holy shit this and Rail Canyon expose how rushed the rail grinding was for this era, but at least with SA2 there is still a fundemental skill gap to be had, despite how poorly explained and implemented it was in most stages (except Final Rush), but in Heroes it is either unresponsive or a one way ticket to death. Frog Forest also had the worst use of the light speed dash, and I'm not sure what causes it to glitch out, but my theory is that the camera can reset your momentum if its being flicked by the LSD, but I'm probably wrong on that entirely. But yeah I really wish they'd give this and the adventure formula another go, some real fun to be had thats bogged down by the colossal amount of bugs that lead to unearned deaths, padding game time out probably past twice its intended length. Its for that reason that I can't begin to recommend this game for anything but an emulator, as you can save state as much as you want to negate the game screwing you over for playing it completely right. You didn't hear that from me though, never pirate games that billion dollar companies refuse to rerelease after 20 fucking years.
TL;DR: Team rankings go 1. Dark 2. Chaotix 3. Sonic 4. Rose, but with a REMAKE, yes I'm going to fall on that for every 3d sonic game pre unleashed, the potential for this game is limitless.