Sonic the Hedgehog returns in dark plot

SONIC the Hedgehog is an icon of gaming, but the character’s latest game has a few surprises.

SONIC the Hedgehog is one of the defining symbols of the 1990s, with his spiky blue style, red running shoes and insatiable lust for gold jewellery.

Making his debut on the Sega Mega Drive in 1991, Sonic immediately became an icon not just for Sega, but for video games as a whole — an honour he shared with Nintendo’s Mario The Plumber, who’s been flying the gaming flag since the era Stranger Things was set in.

After a while, Sonic sort of dropped off the radar and so I hadn’t given him a great deal of thought (besides enjoying his cameo in the movie Wreck-It Ralph) until I was at the EB Expo on the Gold Coast recently and saw there was a new Sonic game out, entitled Sonic Forces.

Developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, Sonic Forces opens with Sonic’s arch-nemesis Dr Robotnik (confusingly called “Dr Eggman” in the game for complicated reasons I had to look up on Wikipedia) invading the planet and beating Sonic before taking over completely.

Sonic gets carted away to an off-planet prison and his friends form an underground resistance cell which fights back against Dr Robotnik and his robot minions, breaking Sonic out of jail and fighting to reclaim their home world.

You can create your own character for the game, which is a nice touch.

It’s a surprisingly dark plot for a game that involves vaguely anime-esque animals, especially because the world is so bright and colourful. But it’s not something you have a lot of time to dwell on as you speed about the levels collecting rings, fighting enemies, leaping on to platforms and inevitably mistiming jumps and falling into spike pits.

The switch between 2D and 3D elements is well handled, but the controls don’t always feel as ‘bouncy’ as I’d expect from a platformer game about a hypersonic hedgehog and some of the levels are a bit confusing too.

Overall it’s fun but not particularly inventive.

Overall I found Sonic Forces to be an unremarkable game. It’s generally well done, but it doesn’t leave any lasting impression either. The voice acting is terrible (as in, 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-level bad), but the gameplay is solid, combining 2D platformer action with 3D components and all the speed Sonic is well known for.

You can create your own character for the game, which is a nice touch, but I was surprised just how short Sonic Forces was — it can be turbo-spun through in about three to five hours (depending how good you are).

It’s fun — not particularly polished or inventive — but there’s nothing unsuitable for younger gamers in there, so in that respect it’s not a bad family-friendly title.

It’s always nice to see Sonic in things, so it might be worth considering if it pops up in one of the post-Christmas sales, but otherwise there are no shortage of amazing games out there at the moment which might be a better first stop for your entertainment time and dollars.