What was Sonic Team thinking when it developed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360? A lot of pride and hard work went into the game's storyline, which definitely strays away from the typical route that Sonic games usually take. But this ambition wasn't present with the game developers and testing teams. Unfortunately, this game kicks Sonic into the doldrums.

Here's the plot: Sonic comes to the rescue of Princess Elise, the leader of the peaceful town of Soleanna. On the night of celebrating the town's heritage, Dr. Robotnik and his robotic army lay siege, seeking out the Chaos Emerald in order to raise an unspeakable, fiery power. This pushes Sonic to give chase and attempt to stop him before he can unleash the Flames of Destiny -- which will destroy Soleanna and put the world in his control. In the middle of all this, a strange, silvery hedgehog begins chasing after Sonic, insisting that he's some kind of relic known as the Iblis Trigger. Shadow also gets involved, looking for a score to settle.

The game goes beyond the routine "let's stop Eggman again" formula and that's a good thing. It's just too bad that Sonic Team didn't match that effort with quality gameplay. Several flaws plague the experience, most notably the damaged momentum within each stage. There's a series of fun, arcade stages to be explored, including a beautiful mountain level, some wild runs through the desert and along the ocean coast. However, before Sonic can get to these, he has to navigate through the town of Soleanna, talking to many locals and seeking out answers.

This RPG element serves no purpose. Having to buy special moves from a storekeeper way across town makes no sense since Sonic had these moves in previous games. Furthermore, the useless side missions seriously irritate. For example, Sonic talks to five different guards in the city to determine who can open a gate for him to continue his pursuit. Does this even make sense? Sonic also finds townsfolk in need of useless assistance, like an old man who needs shoes tested or kids demanding to be chased down. These missions have an insanely long loading time too. Finish mission. Enter loading screen. From there, the townsfolk remind Sonic of the mission, and then more loading time is presented. After the mission, more loading time, then a reward, and then more loading.

Thankfully, the ability to play as different characters somewhat boosts the game's quality. Players take control of Sonic for the first part of the game, and then gain access to Shadow and Silver. Shadow hasn't been improved much since his disappointing current-gen release from last year. His guns have been holstered, and he's forced to drive around in sluggishly controlling vehicles for a majority of the game. Silver has a fascinating telekinesis tactic, being able to launch objects and weapons at enemies, but it grows stale. Tails also gets involved, but controls even worse. He's got lame flying abilities and shoots off bursts of ring power to take out enemies.