Sonic Heroes

Sonic Heroes is a 2003 3D platform game in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series. Set six months after the events of Sonic Adventure 2, the story follows four individual groups of characters in their quests to find Doctor Eggman; meanwhile, Metal Sonic secretly manipulates these events. Sonic Heroes features twelve playable characters divided into pre-determined teams of three (but in Minami Luna's remake as Sonic Heroes HD, it features eighteen playable characters). Gameplay requires players to switch between team members and take advantage of each's unique abilities to complete levels, and collect the seven Chaos Emeralds in special stages.

The game was produced in commemoration of the series' twelfth anniversary. Sonic Team USA handled development, led by Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka. The team aimed to make Sonic Heroes feel like a standalone game rather than a continuation of the Sonic Adventure games, and built the game using the RenderWare game engine. Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game—produced for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows—and was released in Japan in December 2003, with a worldwide release following in 2004.

Reviewers were polarized by Sonic Heroes. Critics praised the game for focusing on fast gameplay and wrote it was much closer to the series' original 2D entries; for these reasons, some called it an improvement from the Sonic Adventure games. The graphic design and detailed environments and textures were also considered highlights. However, it was derided for not addressing the problems of past Sonic games, such as poor camera controls and incoherent voice acting. Despite the mixed reception, the game was a major commercial success and was branded under the Player's Choice, Platinum Hits, and Greatest Hits lines for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2, respectively.

Gameplay
Sonic Heroes is a 3D platform game similar to previous Sonic the Hedgehog games. In the Sonic series platform game tradition, the player must complete a series of levels to advance the story. Players collect rings to protect themselves and earn extra lives. Robot enemies are scattered around levels, and must be defeated by jumping on them or by other means of attack. The game begins with a tutorial followed by fourteen normal levels and seven boss fights. While the preceding Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast featured elements of action-adventure and exploration, Sonic Heroes has a greater focus on speed-based platforming and action gameplay. For this reason, video game journalists have written that the game plays much closer to the 2D Sega Genesis Sonic games, rather than the Dreamcast games.

The player navigates through the game using a team of three different characters. There are six teams: Team Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna); Team Dark (Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega); Team Rose (Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit and Big the Cat); and Team Chaotix (Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee and Vector the Crocodile); Team Sol (Blaze the Cat, Silver the Hedgehog and Marine the Raccoon) (remake only); and Team Babylon (Jet the Hawk, Storm the Albatross and Wave the Swallow) (remake only). When the team reaches the end of a level, they are graded based on their performance; an "A" rank is highest, while an "E" is lowest.

Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Dark and Team Sol represent easy, medium and hard difficulties respectively, with the harder difficulties featuring longer stages and tougher enemies. Team Chaotix and Team Babylon's levels are mission-based, requiring players to fulfill a specific objective in order to clear each level. Each team contains three character types: Speed, Power and Flight, which the player toggles between at any time, also changing the team's running formation. Speed characters can perform homing attacks (which allow them to lock onto enemies and objects) and light dashes (which allow them to dash across lines of rings) and can form whirlwinds to climb up poles; Power characters can break through objects and glide on air fans; and Flight characters can temporarily fly in the air and attack airborne enemies. By acquiring certain items or enemies, characters can level up, becoming more efficient when fighting against enemies.

By collecting keys hidden within levels and reaching the end of a level without getting hit, players can enter special stages. In special stages, players dash across a tube, collecting spheres containing boost power whilst avoiding obstacles. There are two types of special stages: Bonus Challenge and Emerald Challenge. Bonus Challenges are optional, simply awarding the player with extra lives. Emerald Challenges task the player with catching a Chaos Emerald before it disappears. If players can collect all seven emeralds and clear each team's story, an additional Last Story is unlocked. The game also features a multiplayer mode, in which players can race or battle against each other.

Plot
Six months after the battle aboard the Space Colony ARK, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles receive a letter from Doctor Eggman. Eggman claims to have an ultimate weapon that he will use to take over the world in three days. As the team sets off to put a stop to Eggman's plans, Amy, who is infatuated with Sonic, teams up with Cream and Big to help them search for their missing friends, Chocola and Froggy, who were supposedly seen being kidnapped by Sonic. Elsewhere, Rouge infiltrates one of Eggman's bases, where she discovers Shadow, who was presumed dead following the Space Colony ARK incident, and a discarded robot named E-123 Omega. With Shadow missing his memories and Omega seeking revenge against Eggman for sealing him away, Rouge, who wants to get a hold of Eggman's treasure, forms a team with them. Meanwhile, the Chaotix Detective Agency, formed of Vector, Espio, and Charmy, receive a job from a mysterious client who communicates with them via walkie-talkie, which they blindly accept due to needing the money. Blaze and Marine are sitting in their house. Then Silver knocks on the door, and Blaze answers it. They hug, then Silver tells Blaze he's travelled to the past because something bad has happened: The whole island is empty. Marine comes out, but there's no sign of life anywhere. Blaze thinks it's the work of Eggman Nega, and Marine gets angry/sad, and Silver asks to help them, and Blaze replies yes. So the three head off on their long hourney to find their friends. Jet was sitting in his base chair one day, when Storm breaks in, and shows him and Wave that Eggman's on the run again. Wave said they'll tap up their hoverboards, but Jet disagrees for the job. He says "It's not a race. I bet we can try if we let our feet be on the ground for once!" Wave gets shocked, but Jet says the others will do that, so they should try. Wave still says she'll bring them, in case they need to fly across areas. Storm gives the newspaper, and says a "doomsday" is in order. Jet then gets ahead, and lands the ship. Then, the team rush out, leaving their ship behind.

As the teams make their way towards Eggman's whereabouts, clashing with each other along the way, many of the characters start having doubts about the identity of their true adversary. Unbeknownst to them, someone is hiding behind the scenes, posing as Eggman and secretly obtaining data from his enemies. After Eggman's final machine is defeated, Team Dark uncovers a series of androids resembling Shadow, Team Rose is reunited with Chocola and Froggy, Team Chaotix discover that their mysterious client is actually the real Eggman, who had been locked away by his impostor, revealed to be Metal Sonic, Blaze then thinks her actions to find Eggman Nega were worthless, and while Silver tries to cheer Blaze up, Marine finds the Coconut Crew and Jet realises his efforts to come this far were futile, but Wave said they accomplished a feat she thought wouldn't be possible for them: travelling long distances on foot. Using the data he had copied from his enemies, Metal Sonic transforms himself into the Metal Overlord in order to prove himself as the ultimate being. However, Sonic uses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and, with help from his teammates, defeats Metal Overlord, who reverts to normal. As the heroes disperse, Sonic and his team run off in anticipation of their next adventure.