It sounds fun but it has scars too as the game is plagued by glitches and freeze-ups, all caused by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The camera jumps around to various angles without any input from the user, resulting in missed windows of opportunity and several ridiculous deaths. Take Tails' segments, for example. Flying around with Miles Prower can be fun for some, but the player has to manually manipulate the camera in order to ensure a safe landing. A finely tuned camera system would already have had an overhead view waiting to guide the player along.
On top of this, the game's frustratingly high difficulty level results in many cheap deaths. In the first level, players must learn wall jumping and try to control Sonic through a high-speed dash. Sadly, some ramps have to be hit at the right moment in order to keep Sonic moving along. Miss it and he's dead. There's no opportunity to just jump up to the platform or take an alternate path. Other stages, such as Shadow's driving segments, some boss encounters, and Sonic's snowboarding further ruin the game with terrible design. Drop offs are nearly impossible to spot, and ramps don't work correctly.
The presentation has its moments. Spectacular CG movies entertain, and some of the stages look beautiful, particularly the multi-leveled ones that blaze by at 60 frames per second. The outstanding music, which includes acoustic and orchestral selections, fit the Sonic theme. Lastly, the voice work winds up being pretty decent, with Lacey Chabert playing Elise and a familiar cast of Sega actors filling the rest of the roles. Sadly, Tails still won't shut up.
Sonic has had a phenomenal run over his first ten years, but the last five haven't treated him so well. This Xbox 360 game continues the downfall of Sega's hero, with a series of visual and gameplay problems that should have been patched in the final stages of development. Perhaps next time, Sonic Team can recall what made these games so great in the first place and give us an experience based on that. For now, players should rent, not purchase, this game to get their Sonic fix.
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