Sonic Heroes

While you have three characters on your team, you can only control one at a time, while surprisingly capable AI takes over for the other two. You can switch at any time, and the levels are designed so that you'll have to. There might be a speed section for Sonic, then a series of walls to break with Knuckles, and a bunch of pits to traverse and enemies to take down with Tails. In practice, it's not as cut-and-dried or contrived as I just made it sound. There are often multiple ways to tackle a situation, and the solution is solely up to your skill and discretion.

This is RenderWare?

Even though it's powered by the general-use middleware known as RenderWare, Sonic Heroes is looking uncommonly beautiful. The colors and textures are amazingly vibrant, bringing to mind the bright hues and sunny skies of classic Genesis levels. Water effects are beautifully animated. The characters have a plastic-like sheen. And you can see far, far into the distance, yet the game maintains a constant and fluid 60 frames per second. (At least, that's the case with the GameCube version. We haven't seen the other two, yet.) And the stage design -- wow. It's really insane sometimes, with 360 degree corkscrew rail grinds, inverted neon pinball tables and long, crazy loops to run through. If nothing else, Sonic Heroes is an aesthetic grand slam, a wild ride for the eyes.

Super or Shallow?

After several hours of play I've not yet decided if I like the Sonic Heroes formula. The game is fast and beautiful, and calls to mind many key elements of the classic Genesis games. However, it also strikes me as shallow, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy a whole 20+ hour game of straightforward 3D Sonic. So, this one-man jury's still out on Sonic Heroes, but I can say this: All those SA2 haters who wanted more Sonic and Shadow levels are gonna be in heaven. We'll have more after the holidays.