Sonic Heroes

[DF]

Starting off the new year right, huh.

It looks like it took me around 10h 53m to get to the end of the game with all four Teams, then another 10 minutes to get through Last Story on another save. I'll explain later.

What is Sonic Heroes?

This is a 3D action platforming kind of game with some beat-em-up elements(?!). It also serves as a sequel to Sonic Adventure 2. This was put on the Nintendo Gamecube, Sony Playstation 2 (this version was made downloadable on the PS3), Microsoft Xbox, and PC, though it was never ported to anything else nor was the PC version put on Steam or any other digital download service.

Setting

Doctor Eggman is up to no good yet again! Issuing a challenge to Team Sonic, he claims he'll conquer the world if not stopped in three days. Team Rose receives a newspaper clipping showing Sonic kidnapping Big's friend Froggy and one of Cream's Chao friends, Chocola, so they set off in pursuit. Rogue infiltrates one of Eggman's bases and comes across an amnesiac Shadow, and they work together with E-123 Omega to take the doctor down. And Team Chaotix composed of Vector, Charmy, and Espio finally receives work through a walkie talkie in the mail. Four teams of three hit the road for their own reasons, but surely they can put aside any differences and cooperate if they meet, right? *cough*

The game world is made up of a number of stages where each pair shares a theme, such as Seaside Hill starting on a beach before transitioning to ruins over water where Ocean Palace maintains the ruins over water theme. Unlike Sonic Adventure and its sequel, no other humans than Dr. Eggman appear, though someone or something must be piloting the cars in Grand Metropolis.

Gameplay

This game attempts to fuse some of the mechanics from the 'classic' 2D Sonic games and the Sonic/Shadow stage gameplay from the previous two games where you zip through stages, corkscrews, loops, and so on while grabbing Rings and blowing up enemy robots to get to the end of the stage. As opposed to playing as different characters in their own story as in the first Sonic Adventure or finding yourself playing one cohesive story with different characters at different times in Sonic Adventure 2, you now play as three characters at once going through a variety of stages. The game's primary gimmick centers around the Team mechanic.

Each Team is made of three people: One Speed character, one Flight character, and one Power character. The current formation of the Team depends on which of the three is the current leader. Speed formation unsurprisingly has the fastest movement speed and plays fairly close to Sonic/Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2. Everyone forms up in a line behind the leader for this one. Flight formation is the slowest, but you're able to fly upwards for free and have a limited amount of horizontal movement while hovering. Everyone is stacked up in a totem pole, hanging from each other's legs under the Flight character. Power formation is average speed, and it's suited for destroying obstacles/enemies. This one has everyone fan out in almost a horizontal line while moving around.

"Cool, so I can just stay in Speed formation and pretend this is Sonic Adventure 3, right?"

Hahaha, no.

Every stage has a number of sections where you're either encouraged to use a specific formation or are automatically forced to switch. There are various Gimmicks that require one of your character's special moves, like a pole that Sonic can use Tornado Jump to launch from, or fans that Knuckles can use to push the team higher by gliding on them. Sometimes you may have alternate routes, like a monitor that reads Speed and one nearby that says Fly, sometimes you have no real choice. You're playing as a team of three, so it's understandable that you'd have to make use of everyone at some point. You're still given free rein over how to play as long as you're not in a 'specific formation required to advance' situation.

There are lots of enemies in this game, and with zero research, this probably has the highest enemy density in even recent Sonic games. You can skip most of them, but there are times when you have to destroy everyone in the area to unlock a switch or open a door. Good thing each character is good for fighting in some way! Speed characters can jump and generate a tornado that knocks off enemy shields and flips them on their backs. They also can use Homing Attack to either cross 'enemy bridges' or have the other characters join in to pound on a vulnerable foe. Flight characters can launch the other characters as long-range homing Thunder Shoot attacks that stun enemies and bring flying enemies to the ground for a few seconds. Power characters can use the other characters in a combo that varies depending on the Team, and they can damage enemies that have armor where the other two can't. Enemies are no longer single-hit affairs, and each has a health bar that appears when damaged. How best to take everyone out quickly?

Why not use a Team Blast? A gauge builds up as you score points and earn Rings, and you can pull off a Team Blast when you're on the ground and mobile. Your Team has a short cutscene animation, and everything in the immediate area takes heavy damage. Each Team has an additional effect other than the damage, but having a source of guaranteed damage can be a great way to take out annoying, hard to kill enemies all at once.

Some stages have a bobsled/trolley set up. This device moves automatically, and every time you take damage, someone is knocked off. Speed is first, Power next, and Flight is last, and losing everyone naturally costs you a life. At least you can still jump right before disaster strikes. The hint bubbles weirdly refer to a previous version of the game where the characters were either removed in a different order or in a random order since they specifically mention the Flight character falling off not being a failure state.

There's also a Level system here. Crossing checkpoints gives the current leader a Level Up, while glowing spheres found from monitors or certain enemy groups give the matching leader a bonus: Blue is Speed, Yellow is Flight, Red is Power, and these colors are consistent for everything else in the game, too. Level Ups make the character's attacks hit harder and also gives the Power character an evolving combo finisher. Each character can Level Up three times, but you can't save these between stages or lives!

When you finish a stage, you're given a lettered Rank between E and A for how well you scored. Each character's contribution and Levels are tallied up along with the time taken and number of Rings you had on-hand when you finished. Think you can get all A Ranks? Clearing stages also awards Emblems that unlock additional modes in 2P Mode.

Each stage also has a small number of keys. Finishing odd-numbered stages with a key on-hand takes you to a Bonus Challenge Special Stage where you need to collect Power Spheres to build up meter and charge to the end of the stage, receiving extra lives for how high you scored. A key in even-numbered stages takes you to the Emerald Challenge stage where you must also use Power Spheres to chase the Chaos Emerald and collect it before it reaches the end of the stage. The key is forever lost if you lose Rings while holding it, so playing cautiously is a good idea. Despite this game bringing back classic Sonic elements, you still can't go Super at will, and the Chaos Emeralds are only used to unlock Last Story after you finish every Team's Story. At least you only need to collect all seven in total across all four Teams instead of getting all seven four times over.

If you've ever played Sonic Advance 2, the flow of this game is the same: Two Acts of regular play followed by a boss-only Act, then you move onto the new Zone where the pattern repeats. Every Team plays the same stages, fights Eggman directly three times, fights two different Teams, and fights two sets of enemy wave survival stages. The game implies that all four Teams are adventuring at the same time, but you never see anyone in the other stages except for the mandatory VS Team fights.

VS Team fights are pretty different from the rest of the game. In these 3-on-3 bouts, your Team and another Team are both put on a round platform hovering over an abyss. Your objective is to knock everyone else off before the same happens to you! For once, getting hit with zero Rings isn't death, but it stuns you and makes you easy to knock back. There are powerups on the outer ring or floating above the abyss, so grab them to get an advantage!

There is no Chao Garden, either. I guess that's just a Sonic Adventure feature?

Gameplay Modes, Minigames, and Character Classes

There's a Tutorial where you take Team Sonic through the 'Stage 00' Sea Gate stage, and Team Rose has this as a mandatory stage. To save you time, you may as well just play Team Rose's story instead of doing the tutorial proper since you can't skip Team Rose's iteration.

There's 1P Mode for your standard expected play, and you can either do Story or Challenges to access each stage's second mission/Emblem/A Rank when you beat the stage with that Team. Last Story unlocks after beating every Team Story and getting all seven Chaos Emeralds in total. Apart from story scenes, this is just two boss battles, the first of which is strangely reminiscent of the Bizarro-Sephiroth battle in Final Fantasy VII where three Teams damage the boss in sequence, then the grand finale has Team Super Sonic (Super Team Sonic?) taking on the boss' final form alone.

2P Mode needs two players, and this holds a number of VS modes like races and Team Battles. I didn't get to look in this since I didn't have a second controller set up.

You can also change options, listen to game music, or look at event videos as you unlock them.

I guess I can talk about the different Teams here.

Team Sonic
The standard Team with a normal difficulty level. Sonic is able to use the Light Dash to zip along lines of Rings. Tails, if somehow left alone, can throw a trio of 'dummy Ring' traps that zap enemies that touch them. Knuckles does punching combos when leader and when airborne, launches Sonic and Tails to the ground at a downward angle. After using their Team Blast, Sonic can do the Lightspeed Dash attack from the air until the meter runs out.

Team Dark
The 'hard difficulty' Team that has more enemies present in their stages. Shadow is also able to use Light Dash near a line of Rings, Rouge can also use dummy Rings when alone, and Omega also uses a punch combo with the same downward shot using allies. Their Team Blast freezes time for a few seconds while the meter drains, but you can cancel it early by pressing Z again since it freezes the entire stage instead of just enemies.

Team Rose
The 'easy difficulty' Team that has shorter stages. Amy can't use Light Dash, but she can perform a different, ranged Tornado Jump, and she can hover after a jump by holding A. Cream can send her Chao, Cheese, to attack enemies when she's alone. Big knocks his allies into enemies from afar like a baseball and belly flops directly down from the air. Their Team Blast not only does damage, it gives everyone in the Team a free Level Up, it gives them a Shield, and it also gives them Invincibility! Very handy to deal with trouble...but watch out when you're the trouble facing them!

Team Chaotix
Where the other three Teams have 'Get to the Goal Ring!' as their general objective, this Team has different objectives for each Stage. You may need to find a number of items/objects hidden in the stage, you may need to collect and hold onto a certain amount of Rings at one time, you might even need to avoid detection from enemies! Espio can't use Light Dash, but his air attack turns him invisible, and this is actually useful for the two stealth missions. Charmy can't throw dummy Rings, but there are flowers in the stages he can interact with to warp the Team around, or to warp the Team back to the start of the stage if you reach the end without finishing the mission. Vector also shoots his teammates at enemies with a ranged attack, and he too does a directly downward slam from the air. Their Team Blast causes enemies to give Rings when destroyed, and because the Team Blast gauge fills when you gain Rings, you can potentially have a new Team Blast ready if you blow up a bunch of robots with your last one. In Robot Storm, I actually reached 999 Rings because of back-to-back-to-back-to-back Team Blasts!

Super Hard, unlocked after getting all Emblems and all A Ranks, is a 14-stage gauntlet where Team Sonic must go through each stage minus boss battles back to back. There isn't scoring either, so I guess it's kind of a marathon challenge?

Microtransactions/Add-On Content

Being an old console game, there's nothing here.

How I Played

I went through the game with Team Rose first, Team Sonic, Team Chaotix, then Team Dark last. I figured it'd be kind of a progression of difficulty with Chaotix throwing a wrench for something different. Because I had zero interest in going after the Chaos Emeralds, I decided to just finish the four story routes as normal, then did Last Story in my old save instead.

I didn't really stick to one formation. I guess I did more of Power than anything, but I just mostly stuck with what the game wanted me to use.

Controls

The control stick moves your characters around. A jumps, does the Homing Attack for Speed characters, starts flying when held by the Flight character, starts gliding for Power characters. B attacks with a variety of ground and aerial moves depending on the leader. X and Y change formation leader. L and R and the C stick to the sides rotate the camera, though this only works in a small number of areas. Start pauses.

I had quite a few problems with the controls. General controls worked well, but there were other situations where things just did not work or worked incorrectly or so on. I'll have a lot to say later on.

Difficulty

There are no difficulty settings other than the general Team difficulty levels and Super Hard being its own thing.

When you take damage holding Rings, you're knocked down for a moment before you can get back up and recollect Rings. Getting hit with zero Rings removes one life, and you restart the stage or back at the last checkpoint you crossed. Falling off the stage also removes a life. Allies that get hit are just knocked down, and their falling off the map doesn't do anything. Some enemies are able to capture them, and you won't be able to swap to the captive character until you free them. If they're removed by a golden cage enemy, they're returned when you hit a checkpoint.

There actually isn't a Game Over screen. When you run out of lives, the game just throws you back to the Story Select screen after appearing to freeze for a couple of seconds.

The game's difficulty is overall kind of medium, but it hits ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ level in several places.

Saving

The game automatically saves after every stage. Because of the way I had my emulator set up, I had a whopping 99 different save files I could use, and I don't remember how it works on a real console in terms of blocks per save or what. You can 100% the game with one save file, so no need to have one save for each Team or the like...not to mention that you can't unlock Last Story this way.

Graphics

The game's 3D graphics are pretty vibrant in some areas. Stages are absolutely huge, and outside of the stage title card and occasional loading screens, there are no in-stage loading sequences.

Character models have been updated from Sonic Adventure 2, though they for some reason all look shiny, like everyone is made of plastic. It's most pronounced in Seaside Hill/Ocean Palace since it's outdoors and sunny, but less so in Hang Castle/Mystic Mansion since it's at night and indoors.

Each Story has full motion video sequences. In promotional art, characters have their mouths on the sides of their faces much like the style used in the prior Adventure games. Here, these sequences are animated keeping the mouths on the side, so it looks really weird in motion. Characters who have no speaking lines just have the beige area with no visible mouth, eerily bringing to mind Mephiles the Dark from 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog! In in-engine cutscenes, everyone's mouths are in the center of their face as normal, so it's a weird stylistic clash for me.

The blue Speed, yellow Flight, red Power colors stay consistent across all Teams even if their 'auras' or trails are different color, like Amy's aura whatever is pink even though she's a Speed character, but her Power Core and icon and so on are still blue.

On the UI side, your score, current Stage Time, and Ring count are on the top left corner. When you defeat a number of enemies in short order or zip along a line of Rings with Sonic/Shadow or other things, a colored score reward is shown below your Rings. The top right corner holds the Team Blast meter, your team icons with the current leader on the bottom, and buttons to press for Team Blast and to switch leaders. A B button prompt also appears for context-sensitive things like using Light Dash or pulling switches. Text appears on the bottom of the screen for subtitles, and power-ups you receive also show up here for a moment.

Enemies and bosses have health meters, but they're kept in small speech bubbles with a number attached. Naturally, you want to make the number zero with your attacks.

Apart from the weird mouth situation and everyone being shiny as plastic in the sun, the graphics are good enough. I think other than a couple of times I noticed frameskipping, the game held a nearly constant framerate for me.

Audio

There is a lot and lot of voiced content in this game. Characters don't shut up! There are hint bubbles peppered throughout the stages, and one of your three will say something relevant for what you need to do, and there are unprompted comments, too. Characters also say something every time they're switched to and every time they attack or really do anything that isn't just moving around.

Every. Time.

I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! ANNIHILATION! CHARGE! ANNIHILATION! CHARGE! ANNIHILATION! CHARGE! ANNIHILATION!

Yeah. The PC port actually has a hidden feature to disable all voices but hint bubbles and other subtitled comments! It's even called 'Charmy_Shutup'. Hah.

Just as Sonic 3 & Knuckles had each Act in a Zone with their own song and a common visual and musical theme between them, the same applies here. Here's the soundtrack link. Interestingly, each of the Teams has their own theme song, and you even hear shortened vocal-less versions when you fight said Team after Lost Forest. This game also breaks the two-game streak having the title theme be the true final boss theme. It's completely different this time!

Stability

I didn't have any crashes or the like, but I sure ran into some bugs and other weirdness. A character not making it all the way through a loop-de-loop? Sure. Trying to jump to hit some Trick Rings and being launched to my death? Oh yes. Not being sure if I should steer or not steer to attach to a rail? Yeah. Mm. Oh, and I even got launched off of the table to my death in Casino Park somehow! Team Dark had a section in I think Lost Jungle where I had to use enemies as stepping stones for Homing Attack, and Rouge helpfully assisted into an enemy I needed, sending me to my death.

Replay Value

I mean, you have to beat the game four times, so there's that much going for it. Every stage has two Emblems to collect and two A ranks, and that applies to every Team, too! If you're looking to 100% the game, it'll take you a little while, especially figuring out how you're going to reach the A Rank score thresholds.

What Worked For Me

Team mechanic
Believe it or not, I actually liked the idea of playing as three characters at once. If anything, it actually gives Tails a bit of his classic games gameplay back since Sonic Adventure required him to beat another character to the end (granted, you could explore areas like Mystic Ruins or Station Square just fine) and Sonic Adventure 2 made him a clone of E-102 Gamma and stuck him in a mech (unless you were in the Chao Garden, then you had nowhere to really fly). Swapping characters is pretty fast unless someone's currently taking a nap after getting hit or are currently disabled by an enemy or stage effect, but it allows for varied stage design you couldn't get if you were playing just Sonic or just Knuckles and so on.

Multiple plays
I'm kind of on the fence about this, but having a reason to actually play the stages several times because of the different Teams is kind of interesting. I didn't pay much attention to see if the stages were really much different outside of enemy staffing and the like, but at least some have differing routes, so try one with one Team, try the other with another?

Music
I quite like the music in this game. It's kind of neat how each Team has a full song of their own, and each boss has their own song, too.

What I Didn't Like

All the nits fit to pick.

Challenge, but with big, flashing warning letters
The controls in regular stages mostly are fine. But God, don't make me do Special Stages. You're in a hollow full pipe for these, and you automatically move forward. You're supposed to move to the sides to collect the orbs and dodge the bombs. Right, that's easy enough. The problem is that, for some reason, your character will constantly climb up the side of the pipe if you're anywhere outside of the 90-degree wedge at the bottom of the screen. You will have to fight the weird gravity to keep your character from just sticking to the top of the pipe. It's Mad Space all over again! Bonus Challenge stages aren't really bad since you can reasonably make it to the end of most, but Emerald Challenge stages will really test your patience. I still remember one time on console where I somehow got the Team to run in reverse towards the screen instead of into it!

I thought I was doing things wrong by holding forward anyway, but even just trying to do direct left and right movements didn't help. You can't even jump since that kills all of your momentum. And it's a real shame that Special Stages are like this since holding down B to dash and running into a bunch of orbs cause you to go ridiculously fast, and this extreme feeling of speed is totally ruined by your character just merrily sticking to the top of the pipe for no reason. Even if you're not speeding, well, good luck getting them to not go where the weird gravity wants them to go.

Have fun not getting hit!
Another thing tied to Special Stages. Each stage has at least one key, right? You lose it if you get hit or die. Trying to hold onto that key can be an exercise in frustration at times. Did you do Tornado Jump and an enemy walked into you when you could do absolutely nothing? Do it over! I saw a suggestion to let Team Rose collect all seven Emeralds due to their easier, shorter stages, and getting a free Shield and Invincibility off their Team Blast, and I have zero objections to that. It's still doable with other Teams, but there are several points in later stages where it felt like the developers were placing enemies or hazards out of spite.

A dirty joke about railing
A good portion of this game is grinding on rails ala Sonic and Shadow's stages in Sonic Adventure 2. I mean, one of the stages is 'Rail Canyon', so that gives you an idea of what to expect. I had some serious issues with rails at times. Let's see. I died once when trying to jump from a rail onto a platform because, even if you're on the outermost rail, you can still attempt to rail hop and fall into the abyss despite a platform being there. I tried to steer after a rail dumps you into the air to land on another set and died, but this happened quite a few times in Sonic Adventure 2, too. Okay, so I'll do nothing and let the game land for me! Fell to my death. There was one part after a cannon sequence in Bullet Station where I hit the center of a small three-rail platform that launched me slightly up, and...oh, there's only the two rails to the sides right below it. Death. You can only change leaders on the ground, so no saving yourself with Flight formation unless you were already in that to start with! I somehow clipped through a vine rail in Frog Forest and died. Team Dark has a few sections in Final Fortress where there are enemies at the end of rail sections, so that's fun if you were going fast...and hope that doesn't screw you up for landing on the next section!

(Still) have fun not getting hit!
Getting hit causes you to drop Rings and get laid out on the ground for a moment. You have very little mercy invincibility since even trying to get up early is no use, and by the time you're on your feet, you have a split second before the next hit will land. It makes some combat sections and bosses a total chore to play. The prior games only knocked you back but gave you immediate mobility once you landed, so while I can understand its inclusion to give your allies taking hits sense, it applying to your leader is just frustrating. Even if you aren't laid out when taking damage in the air, you still have a moment of helplessness before you're given control again.

Lost Rings are also weirdly bouncy. Depending on how high up you take damage, trying to recover them can be a bit difficult because they're rocketing back upwards. At least this delays their timer for disappearing.

Stand and fight
The forced combat sequences are kind of okay. I did like how there's an effectiveness system (Speed against shields, Flight against flying, Power against...everything), but because enemies have a health bar, forced combat slows the game to a halt. I know having to kill enemies to advance isn't exactly new (Homing Attack 'bridges' being a good example), but this is made worse if you happen to die and lose all of your Level Ups since those boost your attack damage. Thunder Shoot at base doesn't even do damage at all! Let alone when it feels like not homing in on what you want to hit.

There's one enemy I especially did not like. There are giant hammer robots you have to fight. There's one variant that has a helmet. You're supposed to get it to do its repeated circle swing to get it off-balance, then either Tornado Jump or Thunder Shoot to knock it down and its helmet off. Great! Its head is still the only vulnerable part of its body, and you can either attempt to do Power aerials (which harm your allies?!) or knock it down again, then carefully navigate around the hammer that can still hurt you, then have your Power character spam attacks--oh, it's already getting back up. Final Fortress likes throwing these at you in the last parts, so you can't even hope to have enough Team Blast built back up before facing the next.

Using Tornado Jump to remove shields also for some reason grants a long mercy invincibility to the enemy if they're not launched into the air. Why?! It's bad enough you have to stop to fight sometimes, but making an already prolonged encounter even longer for no reason is maddening.

Are we done yet?
Stages are the longest they've been in a Sonic game, not that I'm about to dig up the previous ones and do a comparison. I actually broke past 10 minutes quite a few times, and Chaotix Mystic Mansion was the worst, coming in just under 20. And I got a B Rank somehow?! Stages go on and on and on at times. Team Rose got off easy. Their stages are a little short of about perfect length, but everyone else's just drag on at times.

Team Chaotix gets the worst of it because of their unique mission structure. I had to do 20 minutes in Mystic Mansion because I missed two torches around halfway, and then I had a fun time trying to figure out what the game wanted me to do to advance and loop back to the start. For that stage, there was an exact number of torches, but I don't know if other stages have an exact number of objectives or not. It's nice you're sent back to the start, but you're probably already going slow, so doing it again thinking you might've missed something early? And I don't remember if the checkpoints return for these additional loops or not, so if you die, how much ground will you have to re-re-retread?

Please shut up.
The voice lines for swapping leaders or doing actions gets old very fast. Some characters are grating to listen to (hi Tails, Cream, Omega, Charmy), but the frequency of these voices is probably the worst part. I mean, the hint lines and other commentary are fine, just the...I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! Here we go! Here we go! ALL THE TIME. And it sucks to mute the game because that means you're losing out on the actually good music, and even if there was an option to globally mute all voiced audio, you'd still lose the hints and other dialog. I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! I'll take the lead! And then in Bullet Station, after getting launched from the massive gun, you're put in a small canyon where you can veer left or right to snag item balloons, and of course your current character will play their item line for every one of these you pick up.

Please shut up.

If you want the absolute distilled version of this, listen to this tool-assisted speedrun of the game. Leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it to me...

...makes the dream work?
There are some weird issues with the Team system and formations. On paper, it sounds really cool. In practice, it works okay sometimes. Like...

When you're in a formation, your other allies form up depending on the formation. Easy enough. They even act automatically in Speed and Power formations! They follow up your Homing Attacks with their own, and in Power formation, they automatically attack enemies in range! Neat. Except...your allies have a pretty bad tendency to fall behind or just not be present. For example, there are loops that split into three, so the obvious thing to do is switch to Power formation so everyone takes their own loop and gets the rewards. But in my experience, I got this to work all of one time because every other time, my allies either followed my loop or were stuck in God-knows-where-land. I mentioned above where Rouge accidentally kill-stealed Shadow trying to cross an enemy bridge. I already mentioned how Thunder Shoot sometimes can't land hits despite it being another homing attack.

Power formation is also kind of set up poorly. Your allies attack on their own, but you automatically call them to you when you do B button attacks, so you lose out on this attack drone feature. You can just not do B attacks, but then you're limited to just jumping on enemies. There's no real reason why you couldn't have both the drones and ground attacks, not that it'd make clearing the arenas much faster.

When doing pinball in Casino Park and BINGO Highway, you can score big when all three balls are in the slot machine or when your allies pick up the other bingo chips! Except...they're off on their own again. Didn't you all enter the pinball thing together? Doesn't matter! The game still keeps track of them and provided they're not X'ed out, you can switch to them to see where they are, but why does it work like this?

Verdict - 2/5

Well, that's one way to break Sega's streak of 5s. This was another Secret of Mana for me, a game where the memories I had were great and positive, but the replay was anything but. I really don't want to have to come up with a category for 'inverse redemption'.

This game has a lot of neat and cool ideas, just I think the execution fell flat. I didn't have much fun with this. I mean, sure, I still did laugh a few times at launching off the stage or somehow missing a rail, but it wasn't a 'because I'm happy' kind of laugh. There were quite a few sighs and rolling of eyes, too. Maybe part of my poor performance came from playing sloppily, and I admit to checking out early and just going through the motions even playing Team Sonic, and that wasn't halfway through all four stories yet. Yeah, it's on me to press on, but I wanted to get to the end. I did! That's what matters. I got to the end and got words down.

And for all of my complaints, I still don't think it deserves a 1. Four point scale and all that, but something would have to be very awful, it'd have to deserve the score for me. I had a lot of problems with this one, sure, but there are still decent parts of the game under all of the mess and warts and such. I think Secret of Mana still would rank under this just by its self-defeating gameplay mechanics (the magic system most notably).

I wish this was a joke review, something to gain clout by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ all over a game just in time for its 20th anniversary (not that anyone reads these, I know), but hell, I genuinely looked forward to giving this another go! Honest. I haven't played it since it first came out, too. The return was not worth the disappointment. And I don't want to play this ever again. I mean, sure, the itch might come knocking in a few years, but Future Self, please look here. Don't do this to myself again.