Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360)

I bought Sonic hoping for a modern platform game for the family.

We lasted an hour and a half before giving up with the game.
Totally disappointed.

Buggy camera, found we could end up going through solid objects, nothing to strive for. Obviously not designed by the same people who made Sonic for the Sega (bless its cotton socks).
No challenge or anything to strive for. The game obviously didn't have a director to make sure it had a plot and direction. I've seen cheesy teen movies that had better plots!

If you're hell bent on buying this game, go rent it first before buying... That's my advice.

All of the 3D Sonic games have been underrated by nearly every reviewer, but none so viciously as this one. I won't be a fanboy and say that this game is faultless, and I won't slam it just because suddenly it's become "cool" to bash Sonic, but I will give an entirely honest opinion of this game.

Number one: Camera issues. This is one of the main things that people bring up when discussing this incarnation of Sonic, but in response I say "What camera issues?" The right stick controls the camera and sure, it's not exactly lightning fast, but the camera always looks where you tell it to look and doesn't ever flip out and do something weird which causes you to fall off - something that nearly every other reviewer says.

Number two: Loading times. I have never experienced such nasty loading times as in this game. In the main levels it's fine, no problem, but in the side missions... it's just painful. You get the mission, then loading screen. Then two lines of dialogue (which is WRITTEN, not even spoken), then another loading screen. Whenever I play a mission I play my best - because I know that if I don't, I have to sit through FOUR loading screens (one to load the "mission failed" type dialogue, one to load the city, and then back in) to start again. This is just plain wrong. In the middle of a "proper" level, if you die, you INSTANTLY go back to your last checkpoint with no problems. How come the side missions can't do that? The loading times are the only major problem with this game. Seriously. But you have to just lump it if, like me, you think the rest is great.

Number three: Voices. As you all probably know, the voices since the Adventure games have changed. For the worse. Tails is painful. Knuckles sounds like he's desperately trying to be how he used to be, but failing - which makes it worse. Shadow isn't bad, but he's still not like he used to be. Guh. Bad, bad voices. Apart from Eggman's - that's actually an improvement.

Number four: Character speed. Sonic's fine, Silver's fine - Silver's supposed to be slow. But Shadow, I think, is slower than he should be. That's just me. And I miss the yellow glow that his shoes had in Sonic Adventure 2. I've never played Shadow the Hedgehog so I don't know if they glow in that, but I think they should. The other characters for the most part are an interesting change, but Tails can quickly get frustrating.

Number five: Storyline. This is the best storyline Sonic's ever had. Bar none. Although the whole retconning the entire story at the end is a bit "and they woke up and it was all a dream." I can't decide if I really like that bit, or if it just annoys me.

The gameplay in this game is just like the other 3D Sonics, but better. Silver's especially fun. Shadow's vehicles are pointless, granted, but you don't HAVE to use them apart from on about three occasions. Shadow feels powerful on his own, which is nice, because he's supposed to be. The oft-slated-on-Amazon mach-speed stages for Sonic are just like the Wii game - which gets rave reviews. So I don't know what people are talking about when they badmouth them. They're damn hard, but apart from that...

If you like platformers, and you can bear loading times, buy this game. I love it. And the music is awesome too. Especially Crisis City and the final boss - which is quite typical Sonic fare. I think, without the loading times, this could have been the best Sonic game ever, bar none. Sadly, with the loading times then Sonic 3 & Knuckles retains that title, with Heroes coming second (despite Heroes' abysmal storyline) and Adventure 2 third (the duller stages let it down).

I bought this game and was expecting awesome flowing gameplay, improved graphics and an easier way of playing from sonic adventure 2. The graphics i feel are superb for a game like this, i mean you cant make a game like this look too real otherwise it would get rid of the cartoon element of it. The gameplay overall is good, but the characters can become difficult to control at times due to the cameras movement, yes they can be rectified by the trigger buttons but they dont always help. Loading screens will annoy a lot of people on this game but you can get used to them, and the game does flow when they are not around. The levels on this game are cool, and remind me a lot of the 1st title on the dreamcast, sonic adventure, which was a great sonic game, probably the best 3d game. Sonic the hedgehog does live up to a lot of expectations for me, and i hate it when people slate a game for a few poor reasons, i would definitely recommend this title to anybody.