The classic platformer tries its hand in RPG-land.
Sonic is back (with a brand new edition), and this time he’s teaming up with former enemies in order to save the world from evil robots and space creatures.
Story
Sonic Chronicles contains 10 chapters, which begin with Sonic and his friend Amy Rose, and continues to include a cast of up to nine others. The game opens with a mission to find Knuckles, who has been kidnapped. At first, Sonic & friends also believe that Doctor Eggman is in cahoots with the Marauders, but he later joins the team as an ally. After Knuckles is found, the focus turns to capturing the stolen Chaos Emeralds, which have been dispersed to several races around the galaxy, and must be collected in order to stop the main villain of the game - Ix. The entire story takes place half on one colony, and the rest is spread out over a set of different colonies.
Although the of the story of the Chaos Emeralds is complete, the ending leaves a bit to be desired… or perhaps it leaves an obvious window for a sequel.
For the most part, the 10 Chapters of Sonic Chronicles are a breeze.
Gameplay
Sonic Chronicles almost exclusively uses the stylus controls, with very little options to use anything as far as buttons go. There is zero D-pad use (even for just moving around the map), but you can use the trigger buttons to tab through conversation. Throughout the game, Sonic and three characters of your choice run around collecting rings, Chao eggs, doing side quests and traversing the land. Each character has a special ability, such as Sonic’s tuck-and-roll and Tail’s flying, which are necessary in order to get to different parts of the map.
Collecting gold rings in a Sonic game? Never saw that one coming.
During exploration, it is of course likely that you will encounter some baddies. Battle mode is fairly simple, containing typical turn-based RPG elements like attack, defend, flee and using an item. The other option is to use a POW move, which is a special move and requires a series of taps and swipes of the stylus. Some POW moves requires all taps and swipes to be completed perfectly, while others will still work without perfection. It took a little bit of practice to get the timing on these down just right, but once you do, it is pretty simple. For at least the first half of the game, POW moves and items aren’t even necessary. Until Chapter 7, hardly any strategy was necessary in order to defeat even the level end bosses.
Sonic's on a roll!
Visuals
I was plesantly surprised to see the graphics were some of the best I have seen on the DS. Although “cute”, the use of color and animation were well used - no complaints in this area at all. The cutscenes are few and far between (just how I like my RPGs), and Powerpuff Girl-esqe in nature. They are quick, comic book cut outs, and over within 10 seconds. There are only a few longer movie like scenes, but for the most part it is all gameplay.
Sides quests give you useful items and sometimes other characters to join your team.
Audio
The soundtrack was pretty BA. Even the characters start to jam if you let them sit idle long enough. With a mix of happy-go-lucky platformer music, and some catchy rock/techno battle music, the audio keeps itself shockingly fun and interesting.
Lifespan
For the casual player, this is likely a play once and get rid of game. There are elements that you can complete after beating the game, such as going back to collect all the rings, collecting all the Chao eggs, and completing any side quests that were missed along the way. After beating the end boss, you keep all your players, level and POW moves that were achieved throughout the game, so going back through the earlier zones would be a breeze. Unless you are someone that needs to complete the game 100%, there isn’t much of a replay value, and even if you are, after all that is complete…. well I don’t know what happens because I was uninterested to go back and collect all the coins.
Leveling up offers new and/or improved POW moves.
Recommendation
Sonic Chronicles is a fun, easy game, however, it is not a must have. If you are a Sonic fan, I would definitely check it out. If you are a short run-time RPG fan, I would check it out. If you are looking a challenging game with an intricate plot and lots of visits to GameFAQS, I would skip it.
Sonic Chronices: The Dark Brotherhood
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Sega
Find: Amazon - Gamefly - Goozex
All reviews are based on retail code unless otherwise noted.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Gotta love good ol’ Sonic. I think this is another must for my DS!
April 1st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I just haven’t been into Sonic since the old school days.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:26 am
Me either WITA, but this game was good. You don’t have to have previous knowledge or anything. I wouldn’t buy it, but if you have access to give it a chance (via blockbuster/gamefly) play it.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 am
It’s very cool that Bioware got involved in a project like this. I’d like to see them and other AAA developers bring new, high-quality twists to other classic franchises.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:12 am
interesting , i do like the art style and i agree with Mr. Haley here. Seeing them step to the left and try something other than the norm is something i think we would all like to see the big devs do.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I had an interesting time with this title, but it being on the DS really limited my ability to enjoy it. Eyestrain is killer and RPGs on such a small screen are tough for me to manage
But I did really enjoy what I’ve played of it