Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a run-of-the-mill turn-based role-playing game developed by BioWare. While this game is leaps and bounds better than some of Sega's latest (and abysmal) efforts with the series, it falls short on delivering the epic experience we have come to expect from a developer with such a superior track record.

Let's first acknowledge what Sonic Chronicles does right. Visually, the backdrops are colorful, lovingly rendered, and beg you to explore every nook and cranny for secrets. BioWare obviously made concessions, with the use of an isometric perspective and the limited 3-D capabilities of the DS, but the result nicely captures the aesthetics of the classic Sonic games.

The battle sequences don't fair quite as well, often sporting unattractive backdrops and some sloppy enemy character designs. It probably would have worked better to stick to 2-D rather than switch to 3-D for these scenes. The sheer repetition of combat also hurts the game in the end. The formula for attack, defense, and item use is ripped straight from the past, without a single noticeable upgrade to make them feel engaging for a modern audience with more sophisticated tastes.

They have, though, faithfully captured the sound. Whether it is the familiar chime when collecting a ring, or a musical score that fills us with childhood memories, BioWare mostly succeeds in creating a new home for Sonic that we can be proud of.

Yet, no game can survive on nostalgia value alone, which makes it heartbreaking that the gameplay side of the game is good, but nowhere near legendary. It gets slightly better the longer you play, but there is no hook to reel in the average player. Battles can be incredibly repetitive, and the menu system using only the stylus (the way you play the entire game) doesn't make things any easier. While some of the POW special attacks you'll learn recreate Sonic and his pals' classic moves, others fall into terrible RPG clichés that never seem to quite fit in.

We had also hoped that the game might have a bit more maturity in its handling or provided an expansion of the Sonic world, but the story and dialogue feel uninspired. This is especially surprising coming from BioWare, whose games have some of the best writing in the business, even if the material Sega supplied lacked depth. It simply feels like a missed opportunity.

The last negative point to note is the underwhelming sense of speed in the game. RPGs, by default flow at a slower pace than an action platformer, but we're talking about Sonic the Hedgehog here. The game attempts to recreate speedy moment s from previous games through having him zip through loops or down ramps, occasionally chasing down enemies in brief battle interludes, but the animation is so slow that any sense of speed is immediately foiled.

None of this is to imply that Sonic Chronicles is a terrible game. It's a mediocre RPG that is wrapped in a delightful exterior intended to warm our hearts with nostalgia, and it succeeds in doing that. It's a lengthy quest for a portable RPG, although we would have loved to explore more areas, and it's fairly accessible to players of all ages. We're afraid that since BioWare rarely works on sequels that this might be the best this ever gets (assuming Sega were to make a sequel), so we'll take what we can get: a decent fresh take on the Sonic franchise that you'll have fun with while it lasts, but that does little to heal the wounds of Sonic's tattered past.