Wednesday 9 August 2006
Now 15 years old, The Sonic series appears to be having a typical teenage personality crisis. His 360 debut starts out cheerfully enough, with the opening level (the Kingdom Valley, similar in appearance to the Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic 2) being standard Sonic fair.
Then, er, Sonic encounters the difficult goth phase. Did someone say... time travel? Seems they did. Sonic The Hedgehog takes place over several different time periods, with three central characters in on the action.
The sight of Shadow the Hedgehog gangsta-ing it up in an armoured tank is as ludicrous as ever, but it's the Silver The Hedgehog parts which go the whole hog.
Silver's antics take place in (sigh) a post-apocalyptic future which has had all the technicolor drained from it. Still, at least Silver adds a new dimension to the game.
Appreciably slower than Sonic, the shiny new hog can use his telekinetic powers to shift objects around, hurling them either in the path of enemies or using them to knock down bridges or create makeshift platforms to get to new areas.
It's this part which does the best job of showing off the impressive physics on display, and tossing huge blocks around - or even smashed-up parts of beaten enemies - is a top laugh.
