is a 2003 platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega. The player races a team of series characters through levels to amass rings, defeat robots, and collect the seven Chaos Emeralds needed to defeat Doctor Eggman. Within each level, the player switches between the team's three characters, who each have unique abilities, to overcome obstacles. Sonic Heroes downplays the action-adventure and exploration-based gameplay of its predecessors Sonic Adventure (1998) and Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) in favor of returning to the linear style of Sega Genesis-era Sonic games.

Heroes was the first multi-platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, produced for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Microsoft Windows. Sonic Team USA's Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka led the game's 20-month development. The team wanted Sonic Heroes to appeal beyond Sonic series fans and so designed a game that did not depend on the continuation of its predecessors. The team revived elements not seen since the Genesis Sonic games, such as special stages and the Chaotix characters.

Sega released Sonic Heroes in Japan in December 2003 and worldwide in early 2004. It was a commercial success, with 3.41 million copies sold by 2007, but received mixed reviews. Critics praised the focus on fast gameplay and similarities to the series' original 2D entries, a choice that some considered an improvement from the Sonic Adventure games. Reviewers also highlighted its graphic design and detailed environments and textures. However, they felt it did not address the problems of previous Sonic games, such as the camera and voice acting.

Gameplay

Sonic Heroes is a 3D platformer. While the preceding Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast featured elements of action-adventure and exploration, Sonic Heroes focuses on linear platforming and action, followed by fourteen normal levels and lasted 20 months. The majority of the development team had worked on previous Sonic games. Iizuka did not want to make a sequel to Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), as he worried it would only appeal to Sonic fans. Interested in returning to gameplay similar to the Genesis games, Sonic Team decided to design Sonic Heroes so casual players not familiar with Sonic could adapt.

Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game: it was developed for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Xbox. Unlike the Sonic Adventure games, made using proprietary software, Though Sonic Team was able to transfer some textures and models from the Sonic Adventure games into Sonic Heroes, most of their work started from scratch.

The Chaotix, who had appeared in the 1995 spinoff game Knuckles' Chaotix, were revived for Sonic Heroes because Sonic Team thought they were unique and had never used them. Iizuka said he did not consider the Chaotix in Sonic Heroes the same team from Knuckles' Chaotix, claiming to have created new characters using the same designs from 1995. The game marks the debut of E-123 Omega in the Sonic series. Sonic Team wanted to include as many teams as possible, but time constraints and a desire to keep the gameplay balanced prevented this. Jun Senoue composed the majority of the soundtrack. His hard rock band Crush 40 performed the main theme, "Sonic Heroes", and the final boss theme, "What I'm Made Of". The theme songs for each team were performed by Ted Poley of Danger Danger, Tony Harnell, Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo, Julien-K, and Gunnar Nelson of Nelson. Iizuka said that the intention was for the music "to return to the roots of the Sonic experience" and be exciting and fast-paced. Sega released Sonic Heroes in Japan on December 30, 2003, two weeks later than intended, to ensure there were "no compromises" in the final product. The GameCube version was released in North America on January 6, 2004, followed by the Xbox and PS2 versions on January 27. The European version was released on February 2, 2004. A Microsoft Windows version was released in North America on November 16, 2004, followed by Europe on November 26 and Japan on December 9. The game was rereleased through the Sonic PC Collection for Windows on October 2, 2009, and the PS2 Classics line for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on February 22, 2012.

Reception

Sonic Heroes received generally "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.

The aesthetics and sound were generally well received. Although GameSpot thought the graphics were not much of an improvement from previous games—comparing them to "a glorified Dreamcast game"—they still praised its steady frame rate, art design, and vibrant colors. Eurogamer disliked the shiny models, but was still pleased by the imaginative aesthetics. In regards to the soundtrack, Game Revolution found it upbeat and catchy, offering particular praise for the music of Bingo Highway. Although they called the music laughable and not an improvement from previous games, IGN thought the rest of the sound was high quality, and praised its "perfectly implemented" sound effects running in Dolby Pro Logic II. Levi Buchanan of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "when Sonic is in charge, Sonic Heroes is a pure action game. It's an enjoyable throwback to the Genesis era, when Sonic was all about speed, running circles around Mario, collecting rings while Nintendo's plumber searched high and low for his shape-altering mushrooms. And for gamers who have been numb in the thumb long enough to remember those heady days, the return to form is most welcome. (Especially after those underwhelming Dreamcast Sonic Adventure games that Sega ported to the GameCube.)" Reviewers called the casino level, Bingo Highway, a highlight. GameSpy argued it was well-balanced and thought it greatly increased the replay value. IGN offered similar praise, praising its easy-to-learn, strategic controls.

The game was criticized for not addressing the problems of prior Sonic games.

Sales

Sonic Heroes was a major commercial success. By October 2004, the game had sold over one million copies in Europe. The PlayStation 2 version received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. According to Sega's financial reports, Sonic Heroes sold 1.42 million units from its release to March 2004 (850,000 in the U.S., 420,000 in Europe, and 150,000 in Japan), 1.57 million units from March 2004 to March 2005, and 420,000 units in the U.S. from March 2006 to March 2007, for total sales of at least 3.41 million. By the end of 2004, it had been branded as part of the Player's Choice line on the GameCube, the Greatest Hits line on the PS2, and the Platinum Hits line on the Xbox. Their next project was Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), a spinoff starring Shadow set shortly after the events of Sonic Heroes. In 2008, after working on a few more games, the division was merged with Sonic Team in Japan. In a 2017 series retrospective, USgamer ranked Sonic Heroes among the franchise's bottom half of games. They wrote that the system of switching between characters was unwieldy and annoying, but still interesting because it made the game feel like a puzzle video game. They also praised the design of E-123 Omega.

Sonic Heroes marked the debut of recurring Sonic character E-123 Omega, Sumo Digital cited it as inspiration for their game. while the Nintendo 3DS version includes the special stages and the Egg Emperor boss fight. In the game's remaster, Sonic X Shadow Generations, the Rail Canyon level and Metal Overlord boss fight return. Stages from the game have also appeared in various Sonic spinoff games, including Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009), Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012), the mobile game Sonic Dash (2013) and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (2025).

Notes

References

  • Official website
  • Official minisite