FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Wed, 1st Nov 2006
FYI, this story is more than a year old

The game is set in Soleanna, the beautiful city of water. In his first adventure set in the human world, Sonic meets a beautiful princess named Elise, whom he quickly befriends, but Princess Elise is abducted by none other than the calculating Dr. Eggman who is working under dark and sinister motives to destroy the kingdom. In order to restore safety and serenity, Sonic must manoeuvre his way through a series of adventures and challenges where he will encounter and interact with a bevy of allies and enemies, and ultimately go head to head against the menacing doctor to thwart his malicious plans.

This anticipated next-gen game for the franchise focuses on Sonic and Silver, a new hedgehog with psychic powers (who Sonic runs into shortly into his quest to save the princess) and the already christened Shadow (from the last 360 game in the Sonic series).

All three characters have their own unique play mechanics to give them distinct handling, making playing each level with each character a worth while experience. When playing as Sonic, the emphasis is on his speed and the ensuing cool moves he makes possible with those red sneakers of his.

The veteran hedgehog has all his key moves and makes short work of the foes in his stylish way. Sonic's homing attack and trademark speed are in full effect thanks to the rendering power of the next-gen consoles. Despite Shadow originally appearing to be Sonic's equal in abilities, the ebony hedgehog now has his own unique abilities that are quite different than his debut.

Besides skating at high speeds, the hedgehog has specialised attacks to deal with mechanoids and a powerful super attack that's powered by “chaos energy”. Let's just say this guy kicks some serious fish-sticks.

New-comer Silver offers a complete change of pace from the speedy hogs by harnessing the power of his mind and using psychokinesis to knock around enemies and warp the environment around him (very cool to watch) and with Silver you will find yourself sauntering around rather than racing up a storm. The visuals in the game are very sharp and the trio of hedgehogs look great as they speed or fly around the manic levels - each featuring distinctive animation that lend them personality.

We appreciate the game's attempt to be different than the previous entries in the series (especially after how Shadow: The Hedgehog failed to hit the mark), and this game will hopefully introduce a whole new generation to the dude with the ‘tude.