Game Review of PS3's Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega's mad scientist fighting, super fast hedgehog is back. We first met Sonic way back on the 16-bit Sega Genesis. Though, he's had a few moments of gaming bliss (Sonic Pinball comes to mind) overall the series has fallen flat on its spiky back. Sadly, the new title for the Playstation 3 simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog, is a terrible disappointment.

There are three main stories in this game: one with Sonic, one with Shadow, and one with the newest member of the team Silver. Each hedgehog has their different attributes. Sonic, as you may have guessed, runs super fast and defeats his enemies with his mighty jump. Shadow can drive vehicles, and the new hedgehog can harness the powers of telekinesis. There are a few other characters that you can play as briefly, such as Sonic series regulars Tails and Knuckles, although their isn't really any interesting gameplay mechanics or fun differences involved with using the different characters.

The load times in Sonic are completely ridiculous. You might as well cook dinner while waiting for an action stage to load. Further, the camera hinders any chance of having fun with the next-generation hedgehog experience. There is no way to change it, so you are stuck with what you get. Water and deadly cliffs mean death to your hedgehogs, and these threats are everywhere. Since you can't control the camera, these nuisances give an extra dose of frustration.

The games graphics are filled with glitches, which is so disappointing considering this is a Playstation 3 game. You would expect only the best, but everything here seems rushed by the developers. The overall graphic quality is not much better than early Playstation 2 work, with some high definition textures thrown in for good measure. All in all, everything feels awkward. The frame rate is also a mess. The game is constantly slowing down, and often at times with the graphics on screen are not even that intense. It will leave you scratching your head.

The audio in the game is decent enough, with a strong title theme. Fans of anime will not be disappointed with the cut scenes in the game, with characters fully voiced. During in game action the characters are voiced through text.

Overall, this is a big time stinker. Sega should be very disappointed for releasing such a terrible Sonic game. The series has suffered a string of terrible titles, and so far it looks like help is not on the way. If things don't get better for our friend Sonic soon, he may be joining the video game protagonist graveyard.