"IT'S NO USE!"

...those who have read my title today, and have played Sonic 06 before, have just wet themselves in fear. That's right, people, today I'm reviewing Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) for PS3! ...why is everyone running in fear?

Ok, first off, the obvious question: Why am I reviewing it NOW?! It's six years old! Well, I just got my PS3 two weeks ago, so this is the first time to REALLY play it. Also, as everyone knows, this game is LOATHED by most of the Sonic community, and in fact, the entire gaming community, too! So did I like it? ...let's talk about it...and WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

First let's talk about the story. In a nutshell it's: Eggman has kidnapped the Princess! Save her, Mar-I mean, Sonic... Oh, and we're throwing in the destruction of time and sun gods, too. However, there IS a lot more to the story. Really, the main theme of the story is living in the present. Confused? Let me explain further by looking at each of the episodes.

First episode we'll look at is Silver's. Silver is from the future, and an apocalyptic one at that. All his life he's been fighting the flames and wishing he could go back and stop the apocalypse from happening. Suddenly, a being called Mephiles appears and offers Silver the chance to go back and kill the one "responsible". This will, according to Mephiles, prevent the apocalypse from happening. So Silver agrees and tries to find the "Ibliss Trigger" so he can kill him. Silver finally finds Sonic, the "Ibliss Trigger", and attacks him. However, Amy stops Silver from finishing off Sonic. Silver is confused, and starts questioning whether it's right to kill off someone who's innocent in the past that will one day grow up to be guilty. (The "Would you kill baby Hitler" question, in a sense.) Shadow shows Silver the past, revealing Mephiles to be a liar, and helps Silver see that he needs to not worry about the past. Be mindful and learn from your mistakes, but don't fixate on it. Silver than returns to the future and figures out a way to stop Ibliss THEN. Silver's story is about not dwelling on the past, and concentrating on what you can do NOW to help the world.

Next we'll discuss Shadow's episode. Shadow has a shorter episode, but he just had his own GAME before this, so that's ok. Shadow, who comes from the past remember, starts off working with GUN, having learned what Silver did in the previous game. Due to some slippery fingers, Shadow and Rouge release Mepphiles, who takes the form of Shadow. Mephiles shows them the future, and reveals that eventually the people will blame Shadow for what happened to the future and imprison him as punishment. In a WONDERFUL nod to continuity, Shadow doesn't even think about Mephiles' offer to have Shadow help him rule the world. Shadow just tells him he's crazy and fights. Eventually, though, Shadow finds out that one of his closest friends, Omega, will ultimately be the one who will betray him and imprison Shadow. Shadow seems conflicted, but is reminded that there will always be people standing beside him. At the very end, Mephiles surrounds Team Shadow, and tells Shadow that it's pointless, that humans will eventually turn against him, and asks him why he keeps fighting for people that he knows will turn against him. Shadow simply answers "If the world chooses to become my enemy...I will fight like I always have!" and fights Mephiles. Now this phrase is kinda hard to interpret. It COULD mean that Shadow is a loner, and that hell fight anyone that fights him. But I think it means that he doesn't care what will happen in the future, that he won't worry about it. If the world turns against him that he'll STILL fight to defend it. Sure, he may fight off those that attack him, but he'll never turn his back on the world. And, n fact, this draws an excellent close to Shadow's story arc! In Sonic Adventure 2 he's trying to destroy the world because of what happened in the past, and is enjoying it. However, he's reminded that Maria didn't want him to destroy the world, and decides to save the world...only because Maria wanted him to. In Shadow the Hedgehog, he's lost his memories of Maria (Minus the one where she DIES.), and has to find out whether he's really good or evil. Also, he has to learn to let go of the past, and to live in the present. In Sonic 06, he learns that he can't worry about the future, he needs to do what he thinks is right.

Sonic's Episode now...he doesn't learn anything, really. Sonic's episode is really about Elise coming to terms with her own dark past and future. Sonic is the anchor firmly in the present. When he's thrown into the past or future, he just worries about what's going on in the present. Sonic doesn't need to grow, though. He's an observer...

The final episode...oh boy...the finale...well, there is some great Drama, and you can really see how far Shadow, Silver, and Elise have come...then the kiss happens. I'm sorry, but I did NOT like the kiss. It had no point, really. However, the ending is possibly worse...and possibly great. From a Sonic and Elise perspective...WOW! The world is even better! From my perspective..."Wait, so now all the growth Silver and Shadow did...NEVER HAPPENED?!" It has that Mario 2 (USA) ending vibe...

Ok, then. Let's discuss the gameplay. It is VERY Sonic Adventure like! Honestly, this game WAS Sonic Adventure 3, but more on that later. Shadow's gameplay, though, was weak. They try to find a balance between Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the hedgehog...but it falls flat, in my opinion. Silver's gameplay was fun...but a bit slow. Honestly, though, the worst gameplay was either Sonic's speed up stages or the snow boarding. The speed up stages were annoying, and the fact that they were at the end of the levels did not help...the snowboarding was just badly designed...REALLY badly designed. The other characters you play as sometimes were odd...Blaze wasn't bad, Tails and Rouge were annoying to attack, Amy was weak, Knuckles got stuck a lot for some reason, and Omega wasn't as much fun as in other games with him.

Put the REAL problem with this game lies in glitches and loadtimes. For almost EVERYTHING you have a minut and a half load time. It's especially annoying during town challenges. You will tell them you want to try the challenge, it loads, he gives a sentence of instructions, load, about a 30 second challenge, load screen, he congratulates you, loading, and THEN you are back in town! It's like that with bosses, too! And the glitches...oh man, this thing needed a few more months of testing! Seriously!

And now...the writing and acting...this game has some TERRIBLE acting! Honestly, some of the worst! The writing isn't that good, either, even i the story is good. Yes, there ARE some good lines, but the acting and other writing don't work that well...though that might have been intentional...I'll explain later.

Now the music and graphics...AWESOME! Despite some questionable choices for character models (That Eggman model will haunt my nightmares...), the graphics are EXCELLENT for 2006! Even now, they don't look bad at all! And the music...I love this game's sound track! His World is one of my FAVORITE songs of all time! All Hail Shadow is always great, of course! The remix for sweet dreams was a nice touch, too. Dreams of Absolution is...not my favorite, but has some great parts. Elise's theme...is a love song. Sorry, not really my taste... And the level music is great too!

Now it's later...time to talk about this game's connections to the Sonic Adventure series, and why I think this game IS Sonic Adventure 3! First off, this game has three stories. The first Adventure game had 1 story (With five sides to it.), Sonic Adventure 2 had two stories, so this has the natural progression of 3 stories! Also, the main theme in the Sonic Adventure series is human error causing the wrath of gods. Adventure had Knuckles tribe in the past anger Chaos, Adventure 2 had Gerald Robotnik get revenge from beyond the grave using his prototype Ultimate Lifeform (AKA god...which had Chaos DNA, by the way), and this game has Solaris, which was both already existing, but enhanced too much by the Duke. Not only that, but the natural progression of stakes is also at hand. Adventure had an angry neutral god destroying a city, 2 had a god programmed to do one evil thing about to destroy the earth, and this game has a truly evil god of destruction trying to wipe out ALL TIME AND REALITY! Also, this game has an adventure field like the first game, and the hokey acting and writing from the other 2 Adventure games returns here (Neat nod to the first two or laziness? You decide!). Some other neat references to the Adventure series includes Shadow getting his OWN Shadow in the form of Mephiles, Mephiles' eyes looking like Chaos', and my personal favorite: Wave Ocean having the whale from Adventure and Crisis City starting off on a board like City Escape. Really, this game WAS Sonic Adventure 3!

So in conclusion, this game is incredibly flawed. It has some broken controls, features talked about in game that they don't include, bad acting, bad writing, glitches up the wall, LONG load times, and worse yet: THE STORY DIDN'T EVEN HAPPEN! And yet...in the end...I had fun. Is it a good game? No, it sadly isn't. But I see the gem the team was TRYING to reveal for us, and I see how good it could have been. And honestly, it is STILL a Sonic game. So I say that if you LOVE the Adventure series, camp and all, try this game out. It's like 15 bucks at Gamestop, and is actually sorta fun if you look past the flaws. This game is not my favorite Sonic game, but it isn't my least favorite either. It's just sorta mediocre, and I think that's one of the main problems people had with it initially. It was the 15th anniversary, and this game was going to be the greatest love letter to Sonic ans EVER! ...but due to time restraints they had to rush out a mediocre game. It's sad, but it happened. And like this game tells us, we need to stop dwelling in the past, don't worry about the future, and live and enjoy the present that we're in today. So I PROUDLY give this game a 8/10.

I am the R2 Dude, and this IS The R2 View!