Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a game I’ll always remember very fondly because it was given to me out of the blue as a kind gift from a good friend. So, really, the game got quite lucky, because if it weren’t for that pleasant context, I’d probably not think of it fondly at all.

Ha! I am exaggerating a bit, but in all honesty Sonic Chronicles is very much a mixed bag. It’s a first for the Sonic series because it’s an RPG (rather than a platformer) and since the Super Mario series’ RPGs were always fantastic, I went into this with high hopes. Maybe too high.

As is common for DS games, this game is controlled entirely with the touch screen. This is good and bad; it makes walking around the world frustrating, as it can be hard to make Sonic go where you want him to (boundaries are unclear), but on the other hand it gives the RPG battles a fun and unique edge. Having said that, once I got further into the game and the battles got longer, I got tired of the touch screen controls and wished I could just press buttons.

Speaking of battles, later in the game, these go on far too long when it comes to random encounters. Towards the end, I was running away from literally every single enemy because I couldn’t be bothered to waste five minutes fighting an insignificant enemy. Annoyingly, a large number of later enemies can ‘counter’ a lot of your attacks too, which means that if you hit them they don’t get hurt, you do, and sometimes they regenerate health as well!

But let’s talk about the game’s positives. While the story is a little hard to summarise, I loved the game’s writing. Many memorable Sonic characters appear and are playable. While there is no voice acting, you get to enjoy all of the usual comedic Sonic dialogue in text form. I was especially pleased when I found out that Big the Cat is playable in this game. I shan’t comment on how he is involved with the story, but Sonic Chronicle‘s might just contain my favourite appearance of Dr. Eggman (who I already love). Shadow, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and several other characters also appear in big roles. Also, I won’t spoil it, but I found the ending side-splittingly hilarious; what’s worrying is that I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny or not!

But then, another negative is the game’s absolutely terrible soundtrack; it’s droning, monotonous and fails to create any kind of atmosphere. Rumour has it that the ‘real’ soundtrack was accidentally lost shortly before release and so they had to rush out another one, and judging by the quality of the finished product, it wouldn’t be a surprise! The bad soundtrack gives you a certain feeling as you play and probably makes everything feel even less fun than it already is.

Ultimately, I am happy I played Sonic Chronicles. The writing was often delightful, there are lots of references and connections to older games and at times it was genuinely enjoyable. But if you do want to play this game, just don’t forget that it does have quite a few significant flaws! Rating: 7/10

Buy it here.

This game is the sequel to the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. I have to say, I didn’t really like the first game and so I was quite cautious going into the second; I wasn’t expecting much and I just hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.

It turns out that I actually enjoyed this game! Though in many ways it’s very similar to the first, the formula has been refined to such an extent that it is no longer bad. Most importantly, it felt a lot fairer.

Story-wise, Eggman has been up to his old tricks again and has encased lots of innocent creatures inside evil robots. In this one he’s also building some kind of space station too. Sonic doesn’t head out to stop Eggman by himself this time, instead he travels with his friend Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, the two-tailed fox who would go on to become one of the main characters in the series. Tails is pretty cool and you can choose to be him or Sonic as you play through (though it is mainly just an aesthetic change).

But it’s in terms of gameplay that I was most pleased with this game. The idea of Sonic is that he can run fast and the level designs in this game actually allow for this kind of gameplay; there are no cheap traps or hazards which make you have to go slow for ages. I’ll admit, not every level is about running, but some of them are. There’s a good amount of variation and the levels stay fun. Mystic Caves was my favourite level, a really nice ‘spooky’ location which had a great atmosphere and was lots of fun to play through. Other highlights include Aquatic Ruins and Oil Ocean. The last couple of levels are pretty tough, but I suppose I can forgive that since they come at the end.

This game also introduces multiplayer options: you can either do a two-player race (one person Sonic, the other Tails) which is okay, but a bit bland, or you can play through the story co-operatively! Whenever you start playing single player mode, Tails will be CPU controlled, but at any time a second player can pick up a controller and play as Tails! The screen follows only Sonic, so Tails can get left behind, but he also cannot die, which means he is perfect to use for exploring!

On the whole a very enjoyable experience, if a little short. It’s exactly what the first game should have been, and if you’re looking for an introduction to retro Sonic games, go for this one over that.

Rating: 8.1/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

For years Mr. Pants was the loveable mascot of Rare’s website and he’d make little cameos in their games (such as being seen on television in Banjo-Tooie) but he never really took the centre stage. That is, until 2005 when It’s Mr. Pants came out and he got a game all to himself!

It’s a puzzle game and now that I come to do it, I realise that it’s really hard to describe what you do in it. In each level you’re presented with an image made up of several different coloured blocks, none of which will be squares or rectangles. You are then given several blocks of your own to add to the image, and you have to fit them together with the existing blocks to create complete squares or rectangles so that they can disappear. You can’t place two blocks of the same colour on top of each other, but you can cover a block of one colour with a block of another. You win once everything has vanished.

Does that make sense? It’s quite easy to grasp once you’re playing it, if not. Believe it or not, this game becomes very, very hard and would become downright frustrating with the later puzzles were it not for one thing: Mr. Pants himself. Throughout each level Mr. Pants chimes in with supportive comments like “Super!” and “Great!” and I found him very charming. Every time you lose a level, and this will happen a lot, he’ll say “Attempt two!” when you start again and on and on until he’s saying “Attempt forty-eight!” and “Attempt one hundred and three!” and if that’s not just hilarious I don’t know what is. If it ever gets too hard, a friendly lightbulb named Helpo will chime in and tell you the correct position to place your current block. You might think that spoils the game and never use it, but you also might consider him a lifesaver and use him often! I know I did.

What’s the incentive for completing puzzles? Well, every fifth puzzle completed you’ll be rewarded with a picture of some aspect of Mr. Pants’s life. You see his son Toby and his lover Mrs. Pie and several other characters who are all presented in the childish hand-drawn art style. The images show things like Mr. Pants become a super hero or visiting outer space and I love them all. Plus, as you go further, some of the puzzles make references to characters from the Banjo-Kazooie and Conker games, which is a nice treat for Rare fans.

Ultimately, this is a very simple game; there are a few variations on the main playstyle (like a marathon mode) and all of them yield different unlockables, but while there are literally hundreds of puzzles to solve, it’s still a fairly minimalistic title. Some may find it lacking, others may consider it a nice way to pass a few minutes (I enjoyed doing one puzzle every Sunday). Whatever you feel about it, the game is full of the classic Rare charm; Mr. Pants is hilarious and loveable and the whole game has a superb, jolly soundtrack. It’s not something to sit down and enjoy for hours, but it’s a curiosity that’s definitely worth your time.

Rating: 7/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)