A 3D Sonic game that DOESN'T fail?
Yes, you read correctly folks. For the first time in a long time, a 3D Sonic game that isn't boring or painful to listen to. It's far from the best game for the WII but it is in my top 10.
The story, yes story, is that Dr Eggman has kidnapped aliens called Wisps with "Hyper Go On" power, draining them to create a mind control ray, all under the cover of making a space amusement park. Sonic and Tails are of course smart enough to know Eggman is always trying something and go to stop him.
And, that's about it. No plot twist, no new anthropomorphic animal, no confusing plot points and no "hijacking by Ganon" as TV tropes calls it. Don't get me wrong, Sonic Adventure games show that Sonic CAN support a good, interesting plot, your mileage may vary with Shadow the Hedgehog's plot though, this proves they don't need one. This is, as TV tropes calls it, a reconstruction of a Sonic game. Focusing more on the fun, almost Saturday morning cartoon world of Sonic and less on some god or monster of the past Eggman tries to use against Sonic but gets double crossed. Through in some genuinely funny lines and giving Sonic and Tails more screen time together and you're all set for the story.
Speaking of, as of 2010, 4Kids is no longer in charge of doing voice work for Sonic the Hedgehog, with the exception of Mike Pollock as Eggman, the only one I liked as he was the only actor in both the games and Sonic X who was actually trying. We now have VA from Bang Zoom! Entertainment, my favorite dubbing company, doing the rest of the cast. Roger Craig Smith and Kate Higgins as Sonic and Tails. Yes, so far I like Smith as Sonic, though I agree his voice is a bit deep but easier to get used to than Jason Griffith's more sarcastic and "reading script" voice when he began. Bless Higgins for making Tails sound like a boy again. The others are Eggman by, as I said, the sole 4Kids survivor Mike Pollock, Cubot by Wally Wingery and Orbot from Unleashed by Kirk Thorton, who is also the new voice of Shadow. All of them do a good job making their character sound like they have emotion rather than just reading their lines like the dub of Sonic X.
As for the rest of the audio, the music... well, our "dork age" of Sonic has been praised for its music selection, and this is no exception, in fact it is actually better than most since the Genesis era.
As for game play, we got the day stages of Sonic Unleashed with some improvement. The wisps, as you'd expect, are power ups for Sonic, giving him a new form when he uses them. However, while the game play is excellent overall, here is where we have the game's only real flaw. The power ups are mostly great, however there is no way to turn them off when you don't need it anymore or to conserve power. Furthermore, the blue wisp is the only power up that's kind of lame, turning blue rings into block or vice versa. Also, when you've beaten all of the arcade levels and unlock Super Sonic, you can't use the wisp power ups during the Super Sonic mode. So to go on, you need to know the best wisp-less way to the end if you decide to activate Super Sonic game play. Some argue that there are too many cheap deaths or pitfalls. I say "fair enough, but I didn't really have that much trouble."
So yeah, great music, great game play, most of the jokes are genuinely funny. This is a game I definitely recommend.
