Team Rose

Team Sonic🌀⚡:

Alignment: Good/Heroes

Team Rose🌹💓:

Alignment: Good/Heroes

Team Dark🖤♦:

Alignment: Good/Heroes (Formerly Neutral/Antiheroes)

Chaotix Detective Agency🟩🔎:

Alignment: Good/Heroes

Team Dimension🌐☄:

Alignment: Good/Heroes

Team Mania🌟💥:

Alignment: Good/Heroes

Babylon Rogues🐤🌀:

Alignment: Neutral/Antiheroes

What do you think? Any thoughts on my characters' new designs?

In the Metarex Saga of Sonic X, Amy Rose, Cream, and Cosmo who were besties could’ve possibly form a starfighter team. They can provide air cover in any battle for Sonic. It been on my mind because of the Metarex Saga and love to see more Cosmo without the Metarex. Especially seeing these three come together more.

Team Rose Squadron:

Amy Rose-Leader-Amy’s Spaceship

Cream the Rabbit-Cream’s Spaceship

Cosmo-Hyper Tornado (though Chris was piloting it in the saga)

Sonic Heroes

Sonic Heroes is the first cross-platform Sonic game, and also the next big sonic game releasing in Japan and Korea in late 2003, and worldwide in early 2004. It was released on all three consoles, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and the newcomer XBOX. Sonic Team was going for something different for their cross platform title. Sonic Heroes moves away from the gameplay of the adventure games and introduces the team mechanic. You will play as teams of three and will switch characters for specific parts of the stage. The character classes are Speed, Flight, and Power. Each team has one of each. We’ll discuss them as we go. The adventure games had six playable characters, but Sonic Heroes has twelve, but this is the least amount of play styles we’ve gotten, as each team plays the same. You play in four campaigns of teams, Team Sonic (I guess they’re used to this ego maniac, so they let the name slide), consisting obviously of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Team Rose has Amy, Cream from advance 2, and Big The Cat returns from SA1. I guess he became friends with Amy. Team Dark has Shadow (who I’ll explain later,) and Rouge from SA2 along with newcomer E-123 Omega, and finally Team Chaotix has the trio from the 1995 game return, Espio The Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Vector The Crocodile. The game’s main theme is “Sonic Heroes” by Crush 40. Also, the opening intro is fantastic.

You’re most likely checking out Team Sonic’s campaign first, so let’s start from that. Sonic is running around when he’s spotted by Tails and Knuckles in the Tornado 2, and they catch up to him. This is the first time Knuckles has appeared in a Sonic game and the Master Emerald isn’t involved. I guess they knew the idea was gonna get stale. Tails hands Sonic a letter from Dr. Eggman. Eggman says he's going to conquer the world in three days, so the three set out to stop him. Sonic Heroes is a very light hearted game with a much more laid back story, so not much happens. Also, this game brought back stages that had nothing to do with the story, like how Sonic went from an emerald colored hill to a chemical plant in Sonic 2. Yeah, I love the level variety, because in the first two levels you’re in a beach and in the next two you’re in a metropolis city. This game also brought back two acts per zone, although the game gives the acts different names. Let’s discuss the speed character. The speed character goes at rapid speed and is the fastest of the team. And the levels were built for a much higher speed when intended to be controlling the speed character, as I’ve seen people put the adventure formula into the game and Sonic is incredibly slow, and it takes 30 seconds to reach a part that would take 3 seconds with the speed in heroes. The speed character can perform a rocket accel, a move that boosts you forward. At the end of each zone there’s a boss.

In Egg Hawk and Egg Albatross, you chase the boss and keep damaging it. This game focuses quite a bit more on combat, with enemies having health bars, which is why they put the power character, who is much slower than the speed character but can kill enemies instantly and is much better at combat. In Robot Carnival and Robot Storm, Eggman throws a bunch of robots on the area you’re standing. And there’s also the team fights. You fight the other teams. After Grand Metropolis and Power Plant, Team Sonic fights Team Rose. Amy is kind of a psycho in this game. She’s a little extra obsessed with Sonic. Some of these team fights make no sense. Amy’s just like “you have to marry me Sonic” and Sonic’s like “okay I’ll throw you off the cliff” and after you beat the boss Sonic says “MARRIAGE? NO WAY!” Another thing to note is that you also have to get ranks for bosses now. These ranks are obviously based on time, if you notice. After Frog Forest and Lost Jungle Team Sonic meets Team Dark again. Due to the laid back story, Sonic’s like “Oh, it’s Shadow! Let’s battle” when he sees the person that died right in front of his eyes, and the teams clash. After Egg Albatross the three find out that Eggman was a fake. After Egg Emperor, the final boss of every team, they find out it was another fake. And then Amy sees Sonic and he runs.

Team Dark’s campaign. We see Rouge infiltrate an Eggman base for treasure, when she sees Shadow The Hedgehog, the character who died in SA2, secured in a pod, unconscious. She is in shock. Speaking of Rouge, let’s discuss the flight character. You’ll use them the least probably, but they can cross big gaps because they can fly for a short amount of time. They can also perform the thunder shoot, where they throw the speed and power character at enemies from a height. They’re also better for platforming as the speed characters are just too fast for that now. You can level up each character throughout each stage so they can use the moves. Back to the story, Team Dark is probably the most interesting story wise. Shadow was meant to stay dead after SA2, but he blasted in popularity and was brought back. But now that his arc in adventure 2 was done, he needed a new arc. So Shadow has lost his memories and doesn’t know if he’s the real Shadow or a cheap robot fake. By the end of the campaign we find out that these android clones of Shadow are being mass produced. As Rouge opens the pod a robot wakes up and goes on a rampage destroying everything. Shadow wakes up and starts fighting the robot. The robot is E-123 Omega, the last of the E-100 series. The original teams that were scrapped included a team with Big, Chaos, and E-102 Gamma. I’m glad they didn’t bring Gamma back, as that would’ve been TWO emotional deaths at the cost of nothing. Instead, they turned Gamma into a killer machine while also introducing a new character. Omega says “must eradicate all Eggman robots!” And begins shooting at Shadow. The two clash, and Rouge tells them to calm down and she listens to their stories. Omega is mad that Eggman locked him up in this room, wasting his potential. Shadow can’t remember anything. So Rouge sees this as an opportunity to form a team, she wants Eggman’s jewels, Omega wants to kill Eggman, and Shadow wants to know his past.

People always ask why Rouge doesn’t just tell Shadow everything that happened in SA2, but I think I know why. Shadow might be an android. The trio make it through the levels, and in Robot Carnival Shadow asks Eggman what his past is. Eggman says that “you have no past to remember!”. Also the team fight with Team Chaotix is ridiculous because Rouge is like “who are those creeps” when they’re just minding their own business. If people who play the 1993 SEGA CD game watched the intro and saw the red eye, then you’d know that Metal Sonic is back in the story of this game, (finally he’s not a cameo!) and comes back for real this time. We’ll really get to him in the Last Story though. Metal Sonic is copying the data of the heroes throughout the four campaigns. He also shapeshifts into Eggman while fighting each of the teams. At the end after they’ve fought the Egg Emperor, Rouge and Omega find an entire army of Shadow android in pods inside the Egg Fleet. Omega says the original must exist somewhere. I think Shadow is probably the real Shadow, and it’s kind of obvious. Why would this Shadow be separated from all the rest? And protected by a robot as strong as Omega? And Metal Sonic says “Ultimate Life Form data copied” when the trio leaves after they see the destroyed robot clone of Shadow. The Shadow mystery is left unsolved in this game, due to the story not being as serious.

Let’s continue to Team Rose. Amy is holding a newspaper by the beach wondering where Sonic is. She holds a paper which shows Sonic stealing Froggy, Big’s best friend, and Chocola the Chao, Cheese the Chao’s twin brother. It’s most likely that Metal Sonic transformed into Sonic and stole the two. Amy, Cream, and Big set out to find the three: Sonic, Chocola and Froggy. Team Rose is the easiest of the four, they start at what is the middle of the stage for Team Sonic. This game brings back special stages for the chaos emeralds, where you have to find a key and not get hit for the rest of the level, then you can try the special stage where you have to chase the chaos emerald before it reaches the end of the level and if you fail you need to do it all over again. It’s a process completely based on luck, but Team Rose is the best for this as they have the shortest levels. Oh yeah, there’s difficulties for each team. Team Rose is easy, Team Sonic is normal, Team Dark is hard with longer levels and more enemies. And Team Chaotix- let’s save them for later. At the end of Team Rose’s story, after the Egg Emperor, we can hear Metal Sonic’s voice as he says “Chaos data copied”. This makes sense. Metal copied the data of Chaos, which has been the strongest being in the entire series, since Chaos consumed Froggy to get his tail back, and Chocola because Chao himself was a mutated Chao. Team Rose concludes as Amy spots Sonic on the Egg Fleet while Cream and Big retrieve their pets from the Eggman fake, who has been destroyed.

Team Chaotix. They’re interesting because they’re returning from the 1995 game. They’re not the same characters from that game, but the designs of those characters were taken and rebooted into the detective agency we know today. Vector and Charmy are chilling in the hut when Charmy bursts in and crashes on Vector’s face. Charmy says they’ve got a new client who wants their services, and then dollar signs appear on the two’s eyes. Sometimes I wonder how a 6, 15, and 21 year old formed a detective agency. Just by hearing the client’s voice you know it’s Eggman, but the game tries to change your mind as you fight Eggman several times (just like the other teams) but if you saw Metal Sonic you’d probably guess who Eggman actually was anyway. Honestly this is the single worst campaign in the game just because of the client’s missions, like finding casino chips, not getting detected by frogs or enemies, saving Chao, in stages that were not built for these missions. Man, just give them different stages at least make them go through the levels in a different order! After Lost Jungle, where you had to save ten Chao, the Chaotix go up to Team Rose and Vector asks politely for Cheese, but before he can finish, because of the politeness Amy says the date is gonna have to wait, so Vector calls her a brat, and Espio asks Cream unkindly for Cheese again, and the teams clash. At the end of Team Chaotix’s story after the Egg Emperor the trio finds the real Eggman locked up. It turns out Eggman is their client (which is no surprise). Eggman says he’ll pay them handsomely once he takes over the world, but the Chaotix tells him he’s got some nerve promising what he ain’t got, and Charmy stings Eggman a million times, and the credits roll.

The music of this game is very good, I like all the team songs besides We Can for Team Sonic. This Machine suits Shadow and Team Dark very well, and that’s just the lyrics, the actual music is an absolute masterpiece too. Follow me fits Team Rose well, We Can does Team Sonic very well, but I don’t like the song very much. Team Chaotix (song) has the same vibe as the actual Team. The soundtrack isn’t as good as, say, the adventure games, but I still enjoy listening to them while playing. Sonic Heroes is quite a divisive game. The reviews were mixed, and you probably either love the game or hate it. It’s the start of when Sonic games started to go a bit downhill. I’d give the game a 7/10 I guess. I think it’s a good Sonic game, just lacking polish and needing more development time. I think the game should’ve come out in late 2004. The biggest complaint of mine is that the four campaigns are basically the same thing four times.

Another mechanic in Sonic Heroes is the team blast which kills all nearby enemies, and can be used once the bar is filled up. An interesting thing is Rouge’s new outfit, which we never see again. I prefer her main outfit, this one is a little too weird or it’s just me. And it’s kinda funny how Amy is a speed character when she was so incredibly SLOW in SA1 and advance. I wonder what this game would’ve been like with a serious story (but I’m fine with the laid back story after writing SA2). This is the last game we had with the original english cast, and I’m gonna say that this cast is great, and it’s sad to see them go away when playing all the games in order for this document. Ryan Drummond as Sonic, William Corkery as Tails, Scott Dreier as Knuckles, Jennifer Doulliard as Amy, Sarah Wulfeck as Cream, Deem Bristow as Eggman, David Humphrey as Shadow, and Lani Minella as Rouge are great voice actors and fit the characters. They would get replaced by the 4kids cast from the TV Show Sonic X.

There aren’t many topics before the final scenario, so let’s head into the Last Story. Once you’ve collected all chaos emeralds and completed the four campaigns if you scroll besides Team Chaotix, you will see the Last scenario with a picture of a blue robot that has its face faded. This is Metal Sonic. The last story picks up straight from the end of Team Chaotix, where Vector asks Eggman who locked him up here. Then we cut to all of the teams and Eggman appearing at the scene, and we see Metal Sonic clearly for the first time. He is in a stronger form of himself called Neo Metal Sonic. (I’ll be calling him Neo) Neo declares that he is the ruler of all living things before exploding part of the fleet and he starts transforming with the data he has collected. Since Metal can speak now in his stronger form we can know some of his motivations. He transforms his body with his own hands because of the fear of being an inferior robot copy of Sonic, and that he just hated being Metal Sonic, and with a world full of robots, he wouldn't really be “Metal” Sonic anymore. Since Neo has collected the data of Chaos combined with the heroes, who are also very strong, he becomes the strongest being in the series so far. Eggman declares that Neo is unstoppable without the Chaos Emeralds, all the heroes pull out all seven of them. With their chances being slim even with the Emeralds, Sonic decides to take Neo all by himself, but everyone wants to help. This is where all that cringe stuff kicks in. Like, throughout that game Sonic’s like “LET'S SHOW HIM THE REAL SUPER POWER OF TEAMWORK” which is cringe. The other teams decide to delay Metal Madness, an incomplete transformation of Neo, while Team Sonic turns super.

Enter boss fight Metal Madness. It’s simple and obvious where his weak spots are. His attacks are also easy to avoid. But this isn’t a bad boss by any means, because even if incomplete Neo looks really cool as a Kaiju (monster). The theme of this boss is really cool, and sets up the vocal theme. Even with the three other teams trying their best, Neo completes his transformation into Metal Overlord. Team Sonic becomes super… kinda. Sonic gets his super form, but Tails and Knuckles just get light balls… I guess they hate Super Tails and Knuckles from Sonic 3. And then you fight Metal Overlord as Team Sonic. What I’m Made Of by Crush 40 plays in the background, and it suits Neo perfectly. It might be my favorite final boss theme (hot take there). Neo says how he can never defeat Sonic and that’s the reason he transformed his body with his own hands, and now Sonic is just a speck of dust to him. You can only damage Neo by using the team blast, which rudely interrupts the vocal theme every 30 seconds, and you have to watch the animation each time. Honestly the gameplay of the boss is dumpster fire and I’d give it a 1/10. Like, it’s so frustrating at parts and when Neo stops time it’s just more annoying, and then if Sonic gets stuck and you have to use Knuckles who isn’t fast enough to get Sonic unstuck and Tails gets stuck before he can even do ANYTHING while Neo controls time. When you defeat the boss, Neo turns back into his form from Sonic CD, Good old normal Metal Sonic. Sonic says he’ll fight anytime again and runs away from Amy. Tails and Amy chase Sonic as Big and Cream say goodbye to Amy while Metal shuts down. Knuckles goes after Rouge after she heads to steal the Master Emerald, and the Chaotix chase Eggman for their money. Shadow and Omega hold up Metal and look at each other. After, we cut to Team Sonic running together for their next adventure, concluding Sonic Heroes.

Score: 7/10

Story: 6/10

Gameplay: 8/10

I updated the list of cast for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The first row (top to bottom)

Sunny Suljic as Sonic the Hedgehog

Griffin Faulkner as Tails "Miles" Prowler

Caleb McLaughlin as Knuckles the Echidna

Ruby Rose Turner as Amy Rose

Maya Le Clark as Cream the Rabbits

Mateus Ward as BIG the Cat

Jaques Chevelle as Shadow the Hedgehog

Storm Reid as Rouge the Bat

The second row (top to bottom)

Kellen Geoff as 123 Omaga

Jaboukie Young-White as Victor the Crocodile

Hudson Yang as Espio the Chameleon

Luxton Handspiker as Charmy the Bee

Casey Simpson as Jet the Hawk

Soni Nicole Bringas as Wave the Swallow

Drew Scheid as Storm the Albatross

Havan Flores as Tangle the Lemur

The third row (top to bottom)

Sophia Lillis as Whisper the Wolf

Jacob Tremblay as Silver the Hedgehog

Bella Ramsey as Blaze the Cat

Charlotte Stent as Marine the Raccoon