Sonic Heroes is so weird. The levels are generally fine, although I think I only like the Casino levels because of nostalgia. As someone who pretty much only likes the Adventure games, the level design here was really interesting. It felt like they tried really hard to mimic 2D Sonic's level design, and I think they succeeded for the most part. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly wild about 2D Sonic so sometimes it fell really flat for me. The game controls really weird. The camera is super finnicky and sometimes gets so close you can't see anything, and because the only camera controls you have are moving it horizontally there's nothing you can do to fix it but pray. The homing attack also seems to work less reliably than in the Adventure games which leads to some absurdly frustrating boss fights. Speaking of boss fights, the Eggman ones are just the Sonic/Shadow final boss from SA2 but with Eggman in a giant flying machine OR waves of enemies, OR you fight another Team from the game in combat that rivals the jankiness of the Shadow/Sonic forest fight and the Knuckles/Rouge fights. The combat is generally ok. It doesn't really try to be more than it is, and leveling up makes things way easier. This is good because it makes me consider which character I want to get the checkpoint levels, and makes me very afraid of dying.
Team Sonic's story is basically just fast (save for the last couple stages which take about as long as the standard Team Dark stage). High energy stages that require lots of changing between characters and lots of different paths. Fun stuff!
Team Dark story contains really long stages (typically like 10+ minutes from recollection). Lots of combat or difficult platforming. Definitely the hardest of the stories. Their team attack freezes time which can do some pretty fun stuff.
Team Rose's story is baba binky literal baby mode. After doing Team Dark it was a really nice and quick palette cleanser. Each level is like 4 minutes at the absolute most, and it feels good to rush rush through everything after doing some hard stuff.
Team Chaotix is weird and I'm sure if you're reading this review you already know about it. Weirdo missions that range from really lame to really frustrating. The level where you just have to get to the end of the stage? Boring! Done that 15 times in every other story! The level where you have to blow out 40 flames? Frustrating! It's very linear and just takes forever! The level where you have to go undetected across the Egg Fleet? Sick as hell! More please!
Last Story is whatever who cares. Special stages control like absolute shit and the fact that you're required to do them seven times at minimum is criminal. Music is pretty alright if on a seemingly short loop. Love the cutscenes with my whole heart, there's just something so special about them. If the game worked better and you didn't have to replay it 3 times (Chaotix is different enough that I don't count it) the game might be better than exactly average when I'm feeling charitable.
Team Sonic's story is basically just fast (save for the last couple stages which take about as long as the standard Team Dark stage). High energy stages that require lots of changing between characters and lots of different paths. Fun stuff!
Team Dark story contains really long stages (typically like 10+ minutes from recollection). Lots of combat or difficult platforming. Definitely the hardest of the stories. Their team attack freezes time which can do some pretty fun stuff.
Team Rose's story is baba binky literal baby mode. After doing Team Dark it was a really nice and quick palette cleanser. Each level is like 4 minutes at the absolute most, and it feels good to rush rush through everything after doing some hard stuff.
Team Chaotix is weird and I'm sure if you're reading this review you already know about it. Weirdo missions that range from really lame to really frustrating. The level where you just have to get to the end of the stage? Boring! Done that 15 times in every other story! The level where you have to blow out 40 flames? Frustrating! It's very linear and just takes forever! The level where you have to go undetected across the Egg Fleet? Sick as hell! More please!
Last Story is whatever who cares. Special stages control like absolute shit and the fact that you're required to do them seven times at minimum is criminal. Music is pretty alright if on a seemingly short loop. Love the cutscenes with my whole heart, there's just something so special about them. If the game worked better and you didn't have to replay it 3 times (Chaotix is different enough that I don't count it) the game might be better than exactly average when I'm feeling charitable.