SONIC HEROES

is a video game in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. It is the first multiplatform game in the Sonic series. The game was developed by Sonic Team USA on the Nintendo GameCube, then ported onto the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, and PC CD-ROM using Renderware technology. The phrase "Sonic Heroes" refers to the uniting of the protagonists of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
The game introduces several new gameplay elements. Unlike past Sonic games, which have all had a player controlling one character, players are able to control three characters at a time, switching the party's leader from speed, power and flight. The player must use these abilities to get through two "stages" before fighting a boss, which can either be Eggman in a robot, another team or an army of robots commanded by Eggman.
This game also marked the return of many characters from the Sonic universe: Chaotix, a group last seen in ''Knuckles' Chaotix'' on the Sega 32X; Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat from ''Sonic Adventure 2''; Cream the Rabbit from ''Sonic Advance 2''; Big the Cat from ''Sonic Adventure''; Metal Sonic, who, prior to this game, had not played a major role in the series for years, last having one in ''Knuckles' Chaotix'' in 1995. The game also introduces a new character, E-123 Omega.
Although the plot for ''Sonic Heroes'' is somewhat sparse, a portion of it, particularly Team Dark's storyline, was a set-up for ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' released in 2005.
The plot of the game picks up where ''Sonic Adventure 2'' left off, the predecessor itself was a continuation of ''Sonic Adventure''.

Contents

Teams

Team Sonic

Team Dark

Team Rose

Team Chaotix

Reception

Reviews

Voice actors

References

External links

Teams

Unlike the past Sonic the Hedgehog games, Sonic Heroes is the first Sonic game that allows the player to control three characters at once (although the player controls the selected character, while the computer takes control of the remaining two characters). A player will choose one of the four teams to use at the beginning. The four teams all will have their own strengths and weaknesses as do each of the individual characters. Sonic Heroes was the first Sonic game to introduce the "Speed, Flight, and Power" concept into the series.
A team is made up of three characters, each suited for a specific task. The three types of characters are "flight," "speed," and "power." Flight-type characters are able to ascend short distances with other party members; Speed-type characters have the ability to move at a faster rate than the other two members of the team; Power-type characters are the physically strongest of the three, with the ability to smash rocks and crates, cause more damage on a target, and penetrate certain armor.

Team Sonic

★ Sonic the Hedgehog - Speed (leader)

★ Miles "Tails" Prower - Flight

★ Knuckles the Echidna - Power
Team Sonic is the title team of Sonic Heroes. One day, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna, the game's protagonists, receive a letter from Doctor Eggman. He tells them of his new ultimate weapon that will be ready within three days, thus challenging them to find and destroy it. The three band together to stop Eggman's plans.

Team Dark

★ Shadow the Hedgehog - Speed

★ Rouge the Bat - Flight

★ E-123 Omega - Power
Rouge sneaks into one of Eggman's bases in order to find a secret treasure. Instead, she finds Shadow the Hedgehog, encased in a capsule and without memory of who he is, and comes across a robot, E-123 Omega bent on destroying Eggman's robots. After realising that all their problems lead to Eggman, they team up.

★ the team name is a reference to the Dark story in Sonic adventure mode. which is the game Shadow and Rouge both appered in.

Team Rose

★ Amy Rose - Speed

★ Cream the Rabbit and Cheese(note only Cream is playable) - Flight

★ Big the Cat - Power
The characters of Team Rose are each trying to find someone important to them. Amy searches for Sonic, because she notices that he had been missing from her life for quite a while, and also tries to defeat Eggman just in case Sonic had been captured or something like that, impressing Sonic so that she may have herself another shot at getting married to Sonic. Big is searching for his amphibian friend Froggy again, and Cream is seeking out Cheese's lost brother, Chocola. With a picture in the newspaper (of a Chaos Emerald, Froggy, and Chocola being carried off by who they believe to be Sonic) as their only clue, the three join up to find their lost companions.

Team Chaotix

★ Espio the Chameleon - Speed

★ Charmy Bee - Flight

★ Vector the Crocodile - Power
Team Chaotix is composed of quiet, ninja-like, and disciplined Espio the Chameleon; their headstrong music-loving leader Vector the Crocodile; and the air-headed flying ace Charmy Bee. Notably missing is Mighty the Armadillo, who appeared in Knuckles' Chaotix.
Team Chaotix is a detective agency. One day, they receive a mysterious package with a walkie talkie in it. An eerily familiar stranger gives the team instructions through this device and claims that if the job he has for them is completed the Chaotix crew will be handsomely rewarded. Espio is wary of the job, but Vector, with dollar signs in his eyes, reminded him of Chaotix's number one rule, "We never turn down work that pays!"

★ The team name is a reference to Knuckles Chaotix, the first game they appered in.

Reception

Reviews for Sonic Heroes generally are very positive; most professional reviewers cited the enjoyable sense of visual style the game had (which harkens back to the classic Sonic games of the early-1990s), although have noted its shortcomings as well, including:

★ The poor camera system. However, the majority of reviewers rated this game favorably despite this.

★ The control scheme is either too precise or not precise enough depending on the speed of the character's movement. This is what most of the complaints stem came from.

★ The game's control scheme, combined with the common "bottomless pits" obstacles in the game, have resulted in many players backlash for what many deem to be named "unfair deaths."

★ Unlike the Sonic Adventure games, Sonic Heroes did not have nearly as many unlockable bonuses as any other sonic games, and most of the ones the game did have were for the two-player mode only.

★ The PlayStation 2 version has clipping and graphic faults during gameplay, barely able to run 30 frames per second, making it the worst of all three releases; it consistently rated much less than the Xbox and Nintendo GameCube versions in both professional reviews, fans and interviewers' ratings.
Sonic Heroes had good sales though the PS2 and Xbox versions released after the Gamecube release, entering all three of the "best-sellers" lists: Greatest Hits (Platinum in Europe) (PS2), Platinum Hits (Xbox), and Player's Choice (GameCube). The estimated sales are 3.50 million copies from the PS2 release and 2.50 million from the GameCube release. ''Sonic Heroes'' was also released in a package with ''Super Monkey Ball Deluxe'' on Xbox. In 2004, ''Sonic Heroes'' was the sixth bestselling game in the United Kingdom overall, and a full year after its release, was still at number eight in the all-price chart.^[1]

Reviews

Reviews were fair. Game Rankings gave the game 69.2% for the Playstation 2, 74.1% for the Gamecube, 74.4% for the Xbox, and 60% for the PC.

Voice actors

This is one of the final Sonic games in which the English voice actors from the ''Sonic Adventure'' games recorded their voices. These English Voice Actors, along with their Japanese counterparts, are shown below:

Role	English Voice Actor	Japanese Voice Actor
Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic	Ryan Drummond	Junichi Kanemaru
Doctor Eggman	Deem Bristow	Chikao Ōtsuka
Miles "Tails" Prower	William Corkery	Ryo Hirohashi
Knuckles the Echidna	Scott Dreier	Nobutoshi Canna
Shadow the Hedgehog	David Humphrey	Kōji Yusa
Rouge the Bat	Lani Minella	Rumi Ochiai
E-123 Omega	Jon St. John	Taiten Kusunoki
Amy Rose	Jennifer Douillard	Taeko Kawata
Cream the Rabbit	Sarah Wulfeck	Sayaka Aoki
Big the Cat	Jon St. John	Takashi Nagasako
Espio the Chameleon	Bill Corkery	Yuuki Masuda
Vector the Crocodile	Marc Biagi	Kenta Miyake
Charmy Bee	Emily Corkery	Yōkō Teppōzuka

References

1. An Unlikely Hero

External links

★ Sonic Heroes official site

★ Sonic Heroes at Sega.com

★