Sonic Team also hasn't bothered to do much with the graphics engine that powered the Sonic Adventure games--and now powers Sonic Heroes--so the whole thing still looks like a glorified Dreamcast game, though, to its credit, the levels seem bigger than before. Unlike the GameCube version released earlier this month, both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game suffer from inconsistent frame rates. However, the PlayStation 2 version is easily the ugliest of the three, since it's barely able to eke out 30 frames per second under optimal conditions. When you take into consideration the fact that the PlayStation 2 version also features dumbed-down textures, chopped-up animations, and a general lack of lighting and particle effects (in contrast to the other console offerings), it's easy to see why the PlayStation 2's Sonic Heroes is the least recommendable. It's not a technically exciting game to look at, but what it lacks in polygons, high-res textures, complex particle effects, and bump mapping, it makes up for with consistent art design and a vibrant color palette that lets you know you're playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game, even when you're standing still.
If you're going to give Sonic Heroes a try, do yourself a favor and avoid the PlayStation 2 version
Sonic Heroes plays the nostalgia card heavily in the aural design, which features loads of familiar sounds, from the whirling speed-up sound to the different chimes heard when you pick up or lose rings. Of course, there's also a bevy of classic Sonic tunes. This sort of heavy reliance on old sound elements may seem a little cheap, but these sounds are inexorably linked to the Sonic experience, and ultimately, they still work. In fact, the biggest misstep in the sound design for Sonic Heroes is all of the new voice acting that was recorded for the game. There's a lot of preteen anime-grade voice work here, with Tails' squeaky, cutesy voice being the most ingratiating. However, since every single character will shout one of three or four different exclamations every time he or she executes an attack, you'll learn to abhor all of them in good time. It's worth noting that, in addition to its slapdash appearances, the PlayStation 2 version is also shouldered with sound issues that keep certain environmental effects from being audible.
The occasional bouts of slowdown that the Xbox version suffers from are forgivable, but Sonic Team almost seems to be daring you to try and have fun with the PlayStation 2 version by making it significantly uglier, slower, and generally just rougher around the edges than the other two versions. Nevertheless, Sonic Heroes is the closest that Sonic Team has gotten to doing a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game in the classic 2D fashion. What's most disappointing is that the problems in Sonic Heroes--which include the camera, the controls, and the clipping--are the kinds of things that could be remedied with a few extra months of fine-tuning. In the end, though, it's still a purer, more action-packed Sonic experience than either of the Sonic Adventure games. If you were able to overlook the problems found in those games, Sonic Heroes can be recommended. However, if you haven't already been acclimated to the quirks of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, approach this one with caution.
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