With two solid 3D Sonic games made so far, it was only natural for the series to continue in this new style. Sadly, however, the high quality of the two Sonic Adventure tites wouldn’t carry over into Sonic’s third 3D game: Sonic Heroes. The game is generally fun, but it certainly does have a lot of problems.

This time around there are twelve playable characters, but you always play as a whole team of three at once and these teams are: Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles), Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge and Omega, a new character), Team Chaotix (Espio, Vector and Charmy, some returning classics) and Team Rose (Amy, Big and Cream, who is making her first 3D appearance). Right away, we have a problem with the game. You essentially control one of the three at a time (the other two just follow) and every team has a ‘speed’, ‘power’ and ‘flying’ character and you regularly need to switch between them in order to get through any level. In a hurry, the switching around is awkward and can often unfairly lose you a life. It just feels like a like a bad idea they added to try and make it unique.

Also, each different team has their own storyline and all the stories tie together, but other than a few cutscenes, there’s very little focus on story this time, which is a shame with the last two console Sonic games having excellent stories. What’s also annoying is that with the four teams, you’re essentially going to be just playing through all the same levels (albeit with slight differences) four times. A lot of the levels aren’t that great either, with many sections where you’ll run off a ramp or something and then miss the platform you’re supposed to land on for seemingly no reason. The whole game is full of sections that don’t work properly, which can make things very frustrating, when you keep dying because of things that are out of your control. I also struggle to understand why any of these levels exist within the fictional universe, they all just seem to be for the gameplay and have no real justification.

Remember how I said that you have to do the same levels four times? Well, that will only be the case if you’re really lucky. To actually get to the game’s final boss and ending, you have to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds, and to get all of the Chaos Emeralds you have to find these keys hidden in levels, then not get hurt at all until you win. This alone is pretty hard, but then after this you have to win an extremely difficult ‘special’ stage, The ‘special’ stages have you running through these weird tubes in order to catch a Chaos Emerald (which, for some reason, is flying away from you) and you have to go as fast as you can (collecting speed orbs and avoiding spike bombs) to get it. It sounds easy, but it’s really hard because it’s so horribly glitchy that you’re going to need to try so many times and, to be clear, you have to win a level with a key every single time you want another try at the ‘special’ stage…

So, that’s about it. It’s not all bad (parts of it are good) but it is still quite bad. Probably worth trying if you know you like Sonic, but not if you aren’t very familiar with the series and certainly not as your first exposure to it. Also, I played the Gamecube version of the game and, sadly, the other versions are even worse (in terms of glitches).

Rating: 6/10

Buy it for Gamecube here.

Buy it for Xbox here.

Buy it for Playstation 2 here.

Buy it for PC here.

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With Sonic Adventure being really good, it was only natural that it’d be followed up with a sequel. Most significant about this game is probably the fact that it introduces us to the character of Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow is polarising with fans, but I am on the side that likes him very much. He’s a troubled, mysterious character and a few hints about his backstory are given to us as it goes along. I certainly appreciated this very much.

Sadly, the story has very little to do with its exceptional prequel, but its plot does still stand on its own merits. Eggman has broken into a military base in order to obtain information about the abandoned space colony ARK which his grandfather was involved with because he hopes that he’ll be able to use it on his way to achieving his goal of world domination and building Eggman Land. While there, he runs into Shadow. Sonic, meanwhile, has been mistaken for Shadow and arrested (despite being a world-renowned hero), so he escapes his captors but then has to avoid the military.

Like last time there are six playable characters, but sadly only three different play styles. There are two stories, the ‘Hero’ story and the ‘Dark’ story which, as you may be able to guess, tell the story from either the point of view of the heroes or the point of view of the villains. The ‘Hero’ story has you play as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles; Sonic has regular, speed-based levels, Tails (in his transformed aeroplane) has third person shooter type levels and Knuckles explores giant levels looking for shards of the broken Master Emerald. The ‘Dark’ story has you play as Shadow, Eggman and Rouge the Bat (I find Rogue rather annoying). Shadow plays pretty much the same as Sonic, Eggman the same as Tails and Rouge the same as Knuckles.

I think it’s quite a shame that they made all of the characters match up like that, as it spoils the diversity that the first game had. Notably, the speed levels with Sonic and Shadow run a lot more smoothly than the ones in the last game (barely any glitches) but while this is an improvement, Tails and Eggman feel like worse versions of Gamma (from the last game) and the levels that Knuckles and Rouge have to explore are far too big, they’re huge and mostly without interesting features, making them quite boring. Sonic Adventure 2 also lacks any kind of hub world, which I think is a shame; the levels simply play one after another with cutscenes in the middle. The upside of this is that it allows for a different kind of storytelling and a narrative with a greater sense of tension. On the subject of tension, things get a lot darker this time; for once I actually fond Eggman threatening (I normally just love him as a comical, ridiculous villain).

A Chao Garden is featured again and I believe that it has been improved. A Chao will now change physically depending on who raises it; a Hero character will make Chao look white and angelic, whereas a Dark character will make a Chao look black and demonic. There are more mini-games for the Chao to play and it just feels generally expanded. This time, in order to access it, you just have to collect a Chao Key in the middle of a level, which means you are taken there automatically and so will probably go there more often (prompting you to use this feature more). As always, the Chao are extremely cute.

Like the first game, Sonic Adventure 2 also features an enhanced Gamecube version entitled Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. I have to admit that I’ve actually only played the Gamecube version, but they’re not too different from each other so you shouldn’t worry about which version you get. The game has a small multiplayer mode (where you can race or battle another player) but it’s nothing special and this was expanded slightly for the Gamecube. The Chao Garden can also be linked to the Gameboy Advance Sonic games with this version. The only real downsides of buying that version is that the Dreamcast one had several hidden cameos from Big the Cat, and these were removed (for some reason) from the Gamecube one.

The game may not be quite as good as the first one, but, I still like it very much. Rating: 8.7/10

Buy it for Gamecube here.

Buy it for Dreamcast here.

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Sonic Adventure is the first fully 3D game in the Sonic series and it certainly did very well with the transition. It’s a well-rounded game with a variety of play styles, an exciting storyline and a beautiful soundtrack which really sets the tone.

There are six playable characters, all of whom end up caught up in Eggman’s latest plan to take over the world; this time using a water based creature called Chaos (with a hugely interesting backstory). You can play through as each character (all of which play uniquely) and watch the story unfold from their different points of view (something I like very much).

First, you have Sonic. When you play as Sonic, you get what you’d expect: levels that you can get through by running very quickly. Then you have Tails. Tails’ levels are the same as Sonic’s, but each time you’re racing Sonic and beating him is the goal. You also have Knuckles. Knuckles, after the destruction of the Master Emerald, has big levels to explore in order to find and restore its broken shards. Amy Rose is playable too. Amy’s levels are slower paced and she is always pursued by an evil robot called ZERO. Two new characters were introduced as well, and I like both of them very much. One character is Big the Cat; Big is a fairly comical character and his levels are all fishing based as he attempts to catch his missing pet Froggy. Finally, you have E-102 Gamma, one of Eggman’s robots. Gamma’s levels are slightly slower paced (like Amy’s) and adopt a third person shooter play style. The downside of all of this is that controls can feel a bit glitchy at times (leading to the occasional unfair death) but it’s never a huge problem.

Seeing the story from these six different perspectives was a very good idea, narratively speaking. All the characters are quite likeable and there’re lots of scenes of them interacting. It may be hard to believe from a light-hearted series like Sonic but it can be quite emotional at times. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this game contains one of the saddest scenes I’ve ever experienced in a video game. But it can also be fun and upbeat! I get a lot of enjoyment out of Big and Eggman especially. A pair of hilarious characters there. What’s also nice is that you don’t just go from level to level, all of the levels can be found on a hub world and I certainly appreciated this. Some areas are nice and mysterious, making them prime for exploration, especially when you want to take things slow and not just rush to the next stage.

Another thing I really like are the Chao. This is the first game in the Sonic series to include the Chao which are a race of small baby-like creatures which you can take the time to look after between levels. The Chao are probably the cutest creatures I’ve come across in the world of gaming and I find caring for them in the Chao Gardens extremely fun and rewarding. You find animals in the action levels and then, when a Chao interacts with them, it can copy their abilities and you use this to make them more powerful for a series of mini-games they can take part in. I like it all because it’s enjoyable and because they’re completely adorable.

There is also a slightly enhanced version of the game called Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut, I’ve played both it and the original. DX is essentially the same experience but with minor graphical improvements and two significant additions; the first is the ability to unlock twelve Game Gear Sonic games, which is very nice and the option to do some additional ‘missions’ after the game’s story has been completed. The missions are fun, but nothing substantial. DX is probably the definitive version of the game, but you won’t be missing much if you get the normal edition.

Overall, a fun, varied game (regardless of version). Rating: 8.9/10

Buy it here for Dreamcast.

Buy it for Gamecube here.

Buy it for PC here.

By 2004 the Pokémon series was still going strong. However, when compared to the most recent instalments, the originals were starting to look a little outdated; the graphics were greatly inferior and a lot of features present in later games had not yet been introduced. So we got LeafGreen and FireRed, which brought the first games up to the standard of the Pokémon games on the Game Boy Advance.

The whole world of Kanto is recreated rather beautifully in an art style which I personally feel works fine even by today’s standard and I really enjoyed getting the chance to rediscover everything. The world isn’t a carbon copy either. Some things have been moved around and I don’t want to spoil anything but this game adds a new area outside of Kanto (called the Sevii Islands) which extends the storyline and is a very welcome addition.

What’s more is that this remake has a much greater level of connectivity than the first two games did; not only can you trade your Pokémon with any of the other Game Boy Advance titles, but also with both Diamond and Pearl and the second Gamecube title. For me this is an enormous plus.

Other than that, all the improvements are small things; but small things that culminate in an overall improved experience. For example: your player character can now be male or female, you have the ability to run, the stats of the Pokémon use the updated modern system, the PC system has also been updated and is now hugely more convenient.

There are only two minor downsides to this remake: the first, very personally and subjectively, is that I have quite a nostalgic attachment to the original soundtrack (and certain other elements of the old version) and I don’t quite get the same special feeling when playing this. My second problem with it is the fact that they removed the infamous glitch Pokémon Missingno; I understand that, while cool, Missingno often had very damaging effects on a game, but as this is a remake it’d be nice if they ‘remade’ Missingno in a way so that there’d be no negative effects caused by obtaining it.

I’m sorry I haven’t gone too much into the actual details of the game, but as this is a remake I wanted to focus on what makes it different from the original, to get a full idea of this game you should read my review of the first two, too. But, to conclude, I shall just say that this is a very good game indeed and, if you’ve never played a Pokémon game before, this could be a good starting point.

Rating: 9.6/10

Buy LeafGreen Version here.

Buy FireRed Version here.

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