The Media Man Reviews: Sonic Heroes (ft. TCH2)

Happy 32nd Birthday Sonic the Hedgehog!

Yes folks, today marks another anniversary for the famous blue blur. Released on this very day in 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog become an instant smash hit for SEGA and over the course of those 32 years, we've had many more games with Sonic as well as expanded media such as manga, comics, TV shows, anime and as of recent, TWO hit movies! It's been quite a ride for the franchise over the years with plenty of ups and some embarrassing downs but we're here to celebrate one of those ups for Sonic's anniversary this year.

For this anniversary we're covering one of my all-time favourite Sonic games...Sonic Heroes.

Released in Japan in December 2003, released in January 2004 for the US and February that same year for Europe and other countries, Sonic Heroes followed on from the Sonic Adventure games as they made the jump to 3-D. It was released for the PlayStation 2, the Xbox and the PC and was met with mixed reviews from critics. The fandom seems mixed on it too with some loving it and some hating it, especially those that feel Sonic Heroes "started" Sonic's dark age in the mid-2000s. For me, I have IMMENSE feelings of nostalgia for this game for it was the first Sonic game I ever really played and it's this along with Sonic X that got me into the franchise back in the day. I have so many fond memories of gathering together with my brothers and watching my older brother play the game in his room. Such happy times for us...

But enough reminiscing. Is Sonic Heroes actually as good as I remember it or am I just blinded by nostalgia? Let's find out. But I'm not alone for this one. I'm here once again with my friend and fellow Sonic fan, Thomas Holmes!

(But when Thomas enters, he's too busy playing Sonic Heroes on a handheld device.)

Media Man: "Ahem!"

(Thomas looks up.)

Thomas: "Oh, sorry about that! I have immense nostalgia for this game too. It was my first Sonic game as well. Anyways, greetings and salutations, and so on."

(He switches off his console and sits down.)

Thomas: "Ready to show the fans the real super power of teamwork, Media Man?!"

Media Man: "As always, my mate..."

Section 1: The Story

This was arguably the biggest story ever told in a Sonic game at the time, and probably still is even after all these years.

The story sees four teams each consisting of three characters who are all connected together in one big adventure that sees them going up against Dr. Eggman and his Egg Fleet as he plans to conquer the world. But soon it turns out Eggman ISN'T the real villain here and the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of twelve Mobians as their final assault comes into play...

The best way to sum this up is that this was the Sonic equivalent of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame...despite coming out years before those films did. XD But in all seriousness, it's very much like those movies in how it sees all the hero characters introduced at this point teaming up to stop a single threat. Sonic and friends are basically the Avengers while Metal Sonic is Thanos is what I'm saying.

So how is the story overall? Honestly, I like it but I have to agree that it does have some teething issues here and there. We'll talk about the flaws and finish off with what we liked about the story.

Thomas: "To be honest, I don't have too many problems with the story myself, but I might as well acknowledge the problems fans had with it, just to be fair.

"Firstly, this game has some REALLY cheesy dialogue and music, which was kind of a thing in the early 2000s. This means whether you like this game or not really depends on your tastes.

"Secondly, when Shadow returns, no one seems too shocked about it, considering the last time they saw him, he was plunging into Earth's atmosphere. The only hint of surprise is Knuckles teasing Tails about Shadow being a ghost at the beginning of Hang Castle.

"Thirdly it seems the game wanted to have the revelation that Metal Sonic is the real villain. This is however undercut by Metal Sonic appearing in the metal in two separate cutscenes."

Media Man: Yeah, it's weird how they try to play Metal Sonic's reveal here as a twist yet those cutscenes and even the game's OPENING reveals him right off the bat. Like why is it played off as a big reveal if they give it away so early on?

Another issue the story has for me is that there are four cases where the teams end up fighting each other and it's forced as all hell. Team Sonic vs. Team Dark kinda makes sense but Team Rose fighting Team Sonic? Shouldn't they be teaming up together, not fighting each other? And Team Rose's fight with Team Chaotix starts off awkwardly with Vector being reasonable by saying to Amy "Excuse me miss, I was wondering if you could help with something" and Amy responds with "If it's about a date, it'll have to wait." What kind of response is that? Did Amy seriously think Vector was going to ask her out on a date or something? Vector's never shown any interest in Amy beforehand so where did that response even come from? Them fighting because Espio demands they hand over Cheese which causes Cream to naturally assume Team Chaotix took Chocala (whom Team Rose is searching for) makes perfect sense so why didn't they open with that instead of that forced as hell line from Amy? THAT should've started the fight.

Team Dark vs. Team Chaotix is no better either. Rouge just starts on them completely unprompted despite the fact they're not doing anything at the moment. Personally, I don't think the teams should've fought each other in the game and the story shouldn't have had to contrive these forced set-pieces to get them to fight each other.

Also the pacing is real off with the game. Eggman's letter says "In three days, I'll conquer the world!" Yet when we get to Rail Canyon, Tails acknowledges that they have until sunset. Really? How did time pass so quickly over the course of the game? The whole "three days" thing really was unnecessary to include and just opens up plot holes that could've been avoided.

So yeah, the story does have its issues. But when it delivers, it delivers and the best example of what it delivers on is scope. The story just makes everything feel big and epic for how large the scope is. I mean this is TWELVE big name Sonic characters teaming up to fight an enemy like nothing they've faced before with Metal Sonic proving to be a bigger threat than even Eggman! No Sonic story has ever felt this grandiose before or after this game came out and it still feels exciting every time I play through it.

Thomas: "Exactly! Honestly, the only other time something like this was done was in Sonic 06, and... yeah, it didn't do nearly as well. Kudos for concept though...

"The variety in level designs and their sheer size also helps the scope of the game, but we'll talk more on that when it comes to gameplay.

"As mentioned, while the game's dialogue and music can be cheesy, there's still a certain charm to it. In terms of the former, it's likely thanks to the voice actors who do great jobs (for the most part); with the latter, like with the levels, it's the variety, as well as the lyrics for the songs and how each set fits in.

"Another thing worth noting is that each team has their own specific reason for going after 'Eggman':

"Team Sonic- Sonic, Tails and Knuckles - are out to stop Eggman from conquering the world; no more, no less.

"Team Dark - Shadow, Rouge and Omega - have their own individual reasons: Shadow, who is now an amnesiac, wants to learn who he is; Rouge wants Eggman's treasure; and Omega wants revenge for being abandoned by his creator.

"Team Rose - Amy Rose, Cream and Big - are out to find people they care about - Sonic, Chocula Chao and Froggy, respectively.

"And Team Chaotix - Espio, Charmy And Vector - are serving an anonymous client who wishes to pay them handsomely."

Media Man: Quite so. All the teams feel organically included with their own reasons to be going on this big adventure and it all culminates in them teaming up to find Metal Sonic. They could've easily just thrown them all in here with no reason to include them other than fan-service but no, they put in the effort to think up ways they could all make it into the story and make their inclusions feel natural. It's not like future Sonic games where they don't handle it quite as well as Sonic Heroes did here.

The story is certainly not amazing by any stretch, but it makes up for its shortcomings with its large scope, epic scale, natural inclusion of all its heroes and for truly feeling like a big event for the Sonic world that takes us along for one exciting ride. It's the most epic that a story in a Sonic game has ever felt and no game will ever capture that feeling again...

Section 2: The Characters

There's twelve playable characters here but it shouldn't take long to go over them all.

Going through the teams, we have Team Sonic which consists of Sonic (voiced by Ryan Drummond), Tails (voiced by William Corkery) and Knuckles (voiced by Scott Drier). They're pretty much the main characters here and likely the first team that everyone starts with. As characters in a story, I'd argue they're probably the least developed of the teams as there's nothing really about them as characters to talk about in this game. They're just the heroes here to stop Eggman, nothing more. They're still their usual likeable selves of course and Sonic and Knuckles can have some fun banter at times but compared to the other teams, they're easily the most one-dimensional of the groups and we don't really get anything new plot or development wise with them. It's a case of "What you see is what you get" and for a game like this, that's enough I say so no problem.

Thomas: "Yeah, they may not be the most developed, but you don't always need development to be awesome!

"Next, we have Shadow, Rouge and Omega of Team Dark (voiced respectively by David Humphrey, Lani Minella and Jon St. John). As mentioned earlier, they each have their own reasons for pursuing Eggman - Shadow for his identity crisis, Rouge for riches and Omega for revenge. Despite these differing goals, and Shadow and Omega's initial fight, they still agree to work together and prove a surprisingly effective team. Their banter is also fun to watch, with Shadow's snarky and dry sense of humour, Rouge's sassy dialogue and Omega's consistently serious demeanour. Notably, this arc of Shadow seeking answers would be continued in his own spotlight game.

"Amy, Cream and Big (voiced by Jennifer Douillard, Sarah Wulfeck and Jon St. John respectively) comprise Team Rose. They have a common goal of finding someone - Amy wants Sonic (as usual), Cream seeks Cheese's twin, Chocula, and Big yearns for 'Froggy'. I personally don't like Amy's portrayal in this game; she seems more concerned with essentially forcing Sonic to marry her (if her dialogue is any indication) than actually stopping Eggman. To be fair, though, she does get her priorities straight when dealing with Metal Sonic at the end. Cream is her usual polite and adorable self and proves herself to quite brave, what with being willing to go to all kinds of crazy and scary places, even if most child protection services would seriously object. Big… he's alright, but not much to write home about."

Media Man: That's certainly true on all accounts.

This game along with Sonic X painted Amy Rose's character for years to come and it wasn't until the 2010's era when she gradually started to grow out of the "crazy Sonic fangirl who wants to marry him" persona with Sonic Frontiers especially adding some much needed depth to her character as we saw so yeah, looking back on this game really doesn't feel great for Amy Rose. As Thomas said, Team Dark are great and though Shadow gets no real closure here, that would come in his own game but that's another story...

And finally we have Team Chaotix, consisting of Espio (voiced by Bill Corkery), Vector (voiced by Marc Biagi) and Charmy Bee (voiced by Emily Corkery). They provide much of the comic relief here but also prove they can be serious whenever necessary. This game feels like their best portrayal in all of Sonic media for me as they're not just the comic releifs like in other media and Vector especially proves he's not as dumb as he may seem with him knowing straight away that their mysterious client was really Dr. Eggman the whole time. They don't get a lot of development either but their story does have a lot of funny moments, especially when Charmy crashes into the room with a package for Vector. Priceless! XD

And then we have our villains. At first it seems Dr. Eggman (voiced by the late Deem Bristow) is behind all this but in actuality, it's his treacherous creation Metal Sonic (voiced by Ryan Drummond) who has become Neo Metal Sonic. This guy was one of THE villains of my childhood thanks to his deep booming voice, imposing design and just how cool he looked whenever he was onscreen. Metal Sonic is on top form here as this scheming puppet master who is pulling the strings behind the scenes to get all the data he needs to become unstoppable. It really feels like he could've won in the end and it's what makes him such an intimidating, memorable villain. I just wish the game didn't try to make it a twist so he could've had more screen time. Also what makes the twist funnier for me is that Sonic Heroes was my first time playing a Sonic game and was also my INTRODUCTION to Metal Sonic so for a newcomer like me, the twist just didn't work because I didn't even know who he was at the time! XD But that's down to my experiences, that's not the game's fault. This game gave us THE best depiction of Metal Sonic in all of Sonic media and I wish we could go back to this Metal Sonic instead of making him a generic Eggman grunt nowadays.

Also, may I comment how genius it was for them to give him the same voice actor who plays Sonic in this game? Who's more fitting to play the robot clone of Sonic than the guy playing Sonic himself? ;)

Thomas: "And yet, they still had distinct voices. ;)

"The character portrayals in this game are hit and miss, but the hits far outweigh the misses, thanks in no small part to the brilliant voice acting (except for William Corkery as Tails; no offence). This incredible and diverse cast means there's something for all fans to enjoy!"

Section 3: The Gameplay

"Now it's time to get into what really makes this game stand out from the others: how it's played!

"The entire gimmick of Heroes is team-based combat. You play as three characters at the same time with each team, and you can switch between whoever leads at almost any time. Each member provides a unique sets of manoeuvres, with their own formation and corresponding colour:

"Speed (blue) for Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Espio: with the other two behind the leader, this formation allows for rapid level coverage, propelling into enemies, using tornadoes to swirl up enemies or climb poles, jump between walls and hone in on enemies with Homing Attacks.

"Fly (yellow) for Tails, Rouge, Cream and Charmy: while carrying the other two members, the player can ascend over obstacles, cross large gaps, and stun enemies from a distance with Thunder Shoot.

"Power (red) for Knuckles, Omega, Big and Vector: running side by side, the team can deal some serious damage against enemies - especially larger ones, smash through environmental obstacles, fling themselves at enemies like cannonballs, and glide through the air."

Media Man: Each level you're in will require each member of the team to perform a specific task in order to move on. For example, you won't be able to do the entire level with just Sonic or just Tails or just Knuckles. You'll always need either one of them to get through the level and luckily, signs will pop up to tell you which member of the team you need at that point in time to keep the pace going.

Also as you start each level, your characters will have average attacks that do damage but nothing too spectacular but as you destroy robots, you'll get coloured orbs that drop out and depending on the colour you get, your character will level up to become stronger. The maximum amount of times this can be done is three and once you're at level three, all your characters are at their strongest and do the most damage possible. Power characters on level 3 especially can really devastate enemies. But be warned, you will lose these power ups if you die at all so make you you stay alive! It's rather easy to do so too since the Homing Attack isn't the most accurate out there. I've lost count how many times I've died because my character Homing Attacked and missed what I was aiming at...

Another thing to note about the team based structure of the gameplay is of course the Team Blasts. As you destroy enemies, collect rings or use Thunder Shoot, your blast gauge fills up and once you've filled it up, you can use a Team Blast. All Team Blast destroy multiple enemies at once or if you're in a boss fight, inflicts heavy damage to the boss. Each team's blast works differently too with Team Sonic's letting Sonic use the Light Speed Attack, while Team Dark's slows time down with Chaos Control, Team Rose's levels them up and makes them temporarily invincible and Team Chaotix's can gain rings for each enemy they destroy. Team Chaotix's Team Blast gets RIDICULOUSLY broken when you're in the Robot Rampage levels for this very reason, making them the best team to use for those levels.

Also to make the gameplay experience unique, each team has its own difficulty level. Team Sonic's is middle-of-the-road, Team Dark is Hard Mode, Team Rose is Easy Mode and Team Chaotix is mission based with an emphasis on completing objectives which can involve collecting things, sneaking around without being seen or destroying a certain number of robots. Team Chaotix tends to be the most tedious to do at times since you have to find a certain number of objects and if you miss so much as one, you have to start all over again which can really rank up the E ranks. Team Rosie REALLY emphasises the fact it's easy mode by having shorter levels and the ability to momentarily become invincible after using their Team Blast. As a result, I tend to find Team Sonic and Team Dark the most satisfying to play as they're not too easy and lack the tedious aspects of Team Chaotix's gameplay.

Thomas: "This allows players to exercise various skills while playing, and it also means that each player will have their own preferred gaming experience.

"Then, there's the Special Stages, which are optionally accessed by collecting a Special Stage Key and retaining it to the end of a level. There are two types: Bonus Challenges, where you just get more points, and, more importantly, Emerald Challenges, where you have to chase down a Chaos Emerald and catch up to it before the end of the stage. Winning all the Emeralds is crucial to unlocking the Last Story."

Media Man: The only downside to this is that when you find these keys to unlock the Emerald Challenges, you need to make sure you don't get hit, otherwise you lose the key which often necessitates a restart. That just feels like unnecessary difficulty to me and can make the game more frustrating for some if they're especially clumsy and have a hard time avoiding being hit. I wouldn't have done that myself if this were my game.

Thomas: "Finally, there's the boss fights, which there are seven in each story, except the Last Story, which has two."

Media Man: The boss fights I imagine for many people are where some of the team formula starts to feel repetitive because all four teams have the same seven bosses. You get the Egg Hawk, one of the four teams, Robot Carnival, Egg Albatross, another of the four teams, Robot Storm and Egg Emperor. It's that same copy-paste formula where for all four teams, you fight an Eggman machine, one of the teams and a horde of robots. The bosses themselves are pretty easy for the most part. Egg Hawk is an absolute cakewalk (as it should be, it's the first boss fight so it shouldn't be hard), the opposing team battles are basically spam attacks and just hope you knock everyone out the arena before they do, the Robot Carnival and Robot Storms are simple swarm battles where you have to destroy all the robots as quickly as possible (VERY easy with Team Chaotix), the Egg Albatross is a little trickier thanks to Rail Canyon not being the most stable arena ever and the Egg Emperor is a powerful boss fight that can be tricky at first but easy to do once you get around it. The bosses aren't the most unique or hard out there but they can be fun to do all the same.

For the final boss, you have Metal Madness and Metal Overlord. For final bosses, they're pretty damn easy to beat and that's a shame because a final boss should be hard to beat. Metal Madness at least forces you to play strategically for when its colour changes, certain teams can't hurt it and it'll even try to immobilize your other members so you can't attack with them but again, it's easy to do once you get around it. Metal Overlord is literally just "counter attack, fill up the gage and spam the Team Blast until it dies". Not exactly challenging for a final boss, am I right? Though we do get an awesome song playing over the boss fight with Crush 40's extremely epic "What I'm Made Of" roaring in the background the whole time so it makes this fight feel epic at least.

Thomas: "Indeed it does. Metal Overlord may be the most challenging boss, but it's totally worth the experience with the dialogue and the music!

"The team-based gameplay is what makes Sonic Heroes stand out from any other Sonic game, and frankly, it's something SEGA ought to think about revisiting some time again. Hopefully, when that happens, the bosses will be a bit more challenging, but no less fun."

Section 4: The Graphics

"Given this game came out in the early 2000s, it's not surprising that the graphics are a tad dated."

Media Man: Aye, this game ain't no Sonic Frontiers in terms of graphics, but of course it won't be. This game came out two decades ago! As is, the graphics aren't horrible at least and even make the game feel nostalgic to look at as you play through it.

For the character designs, this was well in the Advanced era when Sonic and friends had their redesigns to fit the jump to 3-D with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy all sporting said modern designs while Team Chaotix are also given the treatment with this game being the first time we see the modern designs for Team Chaotix. Needless to say, these new designs gave Team Chaotix a great new look with Espio's ninja aesthetic further emphasized, Vector looking much stronger and Charmy having more details to his design. Though as some have pointed out, he REALLY shouldn't have a stinger as male bees don't have one...

Along with Team Chaotix, Metal Sonic gets a brand new design as well as he takes on his new form, dubbed "Neo Metal Sonic". I honestly wish this was Metal Sonic's default design from here on out because it looks so awesome. He looks much more intimidating thanks to being much taller than before and the sleek design of his new body makes him look like a well-constructed killing machine. He also somewhat has a wizard-theme going on with this design too with the top spike on his head vaguely being like the pointy hat of a wizard and the waist cloak he wears being evocative of a wizard's robes. Though he really could've done without the "elf-shoes" design for the feet as they just looked silly. XD Still, this game was Metal Sonic looking his best and I only wish we could've seen more of it in action but thanks to the story's confusing decision to present Metal Sonic as a twist, we were robbed of that.

Thomas: "It ultimately fell to comic books and fan art to keep this awesome design alive, and we're so grateful they did.

"There's also the Metal Madness/Overlord design, which we get a sufficient amount of time to enjoy. Similar to Neo Metal Sonic, he continues to invoke a fantasy vibe, this time as a massive metallic dragon that can shoot fire from one hand and ice from the other, and he eventually grows wings for an epic battle in the sky. Easy though it might have been, it was still one of the coolest bosses in Sonic history, in my opinion.

"Just a shame Tails and Knuckles didn't get awesome Super forms for that fight - just shields. Weak.

Anyways, moving on the levels, these have been the most significant legacy left by Heroes. Each team goes through 14 levels, discounting the bosses, and they are arranged in pairs with an overarching theme:

Seaside Hill and Ocean Palace - beaches and ruins

Grand Metropolis and Power Plant - urban and industry

Casino Park and Bingo Highway - gaming and pinball

Rail Canyon and Bullet Station - military and railways

Frog Forest and Lost Jungle - flora and nature

Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion - castle, magic and ghosts

And Egg Fleet and Final Fortress - sky and warships."

Media Man: These levels are among some of the most memorable and iconic to come out of the Sonic franchise with some recent games featuring call-backs or levels based on some of these areas with Seaside Hill especially getting much exposure in other Sonic media.

The levels themselves are well-designed with a clear path forwards with some places where you can wander off and explore just for fun and you have clear layouts of where you're supposed to be going and where every place you jump or fly to is supposed to take you. The habitats are all unique from one another and can be nice to look at too, especially Seaside Hill, Ocean Palace, Frog Forest and Lost Jungle. The levels all have their own unique features too such as Rail Canyon with its charging demonic looking trains, the Forest and Jungle levels with their frogs whose rain manipulates plant-growth and has a giant alligator to run away from at the end, the casino themed levels with their pinball games and way of traversing through the area and the Egg Fleet where it's all about moving from one ship to another. The Egg Fleet is especially cool to look at with its marine theme going on in the designs. The ships look like an army of aquatic wildlife about to lay waste to its enemies and its such a cool image that even Archie Sonic included this version of the fleet in its universe. Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion also deserve a mention for how surreal they can be with some areas flipping you upside down and you're in a new area of the castle. It's easily the kind of mystical trick you'd expect in a haunted house like setting.

As cool as many of these levels look, they do have a few design flaws to them. The casino levels are easy to get lost in as you're just stuck on a pinball machine getting place to place and thus it can be hard to do in enough time to get an A rank and sometimes you might end up with a team mate stuck trying to get off the pinball machine while the rest are out there and waiting for them to get back. Also as mentioned with Team Chaotix's mission based gameplay, it can be easy to miss what you're looking for and have to start again because the item might be too well hidden in these levels for you to see at first. That as a result can make their levels the most annoying to do and the designers could've done with making it a little easier to find these items at times.

Thomas: "Yeah, it's very easy to struggle with Casino Park and with Team Chaotix.

"Also, the cinematic graphics do look a bit too smooth, and apparently, there's a glitch during the Last Story with Amy's eyes and Rouge at one point looks like she's gliding when walking. But as mentioned, this was the early 2000s.

"The graphics in Heroes might be dated in some areas, but the level and character designs have really stood the test of time! It's worth playing the game just to check them out!

Section 5: The Music

"Sonic has always boasted some of the coolest music ever put to console, and Heroes arguably has some of the most memorable.

"Starting with the level themes, each stage's background music is just as variable as the levels themselves, ranging from relaxing yet fast-paced with Seaside Hill and Frog Forest, to bustling and industrial with Grand Metropolis and Power Plant, to eerie and chilling with Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion, to epic and intense with Ocean Palace, Egg Fleet and Final Fortress!"

Media Man: There's a lot of memorable tunes to be sure in this game. I personally really love Ocean Palace's theme, Egg Fleet's theme, Egg Emperor's theme and Grand Metropolis's theme. Metal Madness is also a standout tune for how sinister it sounds. The use of sombre, screeching violin music really ranks up the intensity for the boss fight and almost sounds like a theme song for a horror movie villain as a result.

But it's not just the theme tunes that are great, the songs are as well. We have the titular Sonic Heroes theme performed by Crush 40 which has that proper kickass feel an opening theme should do and it makes us eager to play the game as a result. The lyrics go well with the game and Crush 40's vocals are just the cherry on the sundae here.

The same can be said for their other song, What I'm Made Of. This is THE best song EVER used in a boss fight! Change my mind, you'll fail miserably. =P The lyrics once again match the scenario we're in for the song is about Metal Sonic (and also Sonic) showing what they're made of in this duel to the death. With its kickass rock guitar music and Crush 40's killer vocals, this song makes what's a pretty mediocre boss fight suddenly seem like the most epic thing ever and I love listening to it whether I'm playing the game or not.

Thomas: "It's easily one of the most epic boss themes in video game history, and it too has been referenced in future material. :)

"The other themes are incredible too. Team Sonic's 'We Can' celebrates the joy of teamwork and how it makes all accomplishments even better. Team Dark's 'This Machine' has a soft, dark industrial-rock motif that befits the antiheroes comprising the team. Team Rose's 'Follow Me' has an upbeat pop-rock beat to it that I'm sure can lift fans' spirits. And Team Chaotix's eponymous song is a real head-banger with an incredible chorus."

Media Man: It'll stick in your head for WEEKS after hearing it! The lyrics are great too. They kinda sound like the Chaotix themselves wrote the song to big themselves up and portray themselves as total badasses who will mess you up real bad if you get on their bad side.

Sonic Heroes has a great soundtrack, but that's not saying much because a Sonic game having a great soundtrack is about as commonplace as seeing a Pikachu in a toy shop somewhere. This I feel is among the best soundtracks ever produced for a Sonic game with just about every tune being memorable as hell and a real banger to listen to...

Overall

Sonic Heroes may have its flaws, but they're not enough to take away the fact that this is one of Sonic's best games ever and I only wish we could've had more of its kind. The story is fun if cheesy at times, the climax is epic, the characters are fun to play as, Neo Metal Sonic is a chilling villain, the gameplay is unique if a little repetitive and the soundtrack slaps real hard! I call this my second favourite Sonic the Hedgehog game behind Shadow the Hedgehog (yes, I unironically call Shadow the Hedgehog my favourite Sonic game. Bite me! XD) and I still feel it's THE best Sonic game I've ever played in my life. This is the standard I hold all Sonic games to though I'll admit that is the nostalgia talking a little as well so forgive me if I seem a little biased. Overall though, Sonic Heroes holds up well and I'll treasure the memories I made with this game always...

Thomas: "I couldn't agree more, Media Man. I too will treasure this game always. Here's to hoping that someday, SEGA brings its team-based gameplay back, so fans can once again show evil the real superpower of teamwork!

"Until next time, all. And remember, WE'RE SONIC HEROES!!!"

(And he blasts off through the roof.)

Thomas: "Sorry!"

Media Man: It's fine. I'll just send the bill your way when this is over...

And that's it for our review on Sonic Heroes. I hope you enjoyed the review and as usual, feel free to share your comments down below. Do you like this game? Do you not like it? Do tell.

I'll close off by just saying Happy Anniversary Sonic the Hedgehog and I'll see you all again next week when I cover 10 more facts about Disney to close off the month. See you then everyone!