game_title

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

developer

Bioware

release dates

Jap:

UK: 26 Sep 2008

US:

system

Nintendo DS

no_of_players

1

genre

Action

RPG

Well, welcome to Sonic Chronicles everyone! Sonic the Hedgehog's first outing into the RPG genre of video game, and Bioware's first attempt at adding to the extensive series that we now have. I am not a very big RPG fan myself, for example I have never played any of the Final Fantasy series; they just never really interested me that much. However, since this is a Sonic game, I couldn't really stay away.

The gameplay is split into two main areas: battle and free-roaming puzzle solving. Lets start of with the free-roaming exploration part of the game. The Chronicles world is split into six different areas, the names of which any Sonic fan would recognise (Green Hill Zone, Metropolis, Angel Island). Each area has a certain amount of rings to find and a certain amount of Chao to discover (I will get into that a bit later). The artwork in these levels is fantastic! The whole game has a comic book feel to it, and the level artwork is also of this nature; really nice bright, vibrant colors. The level design is interesting as well! As you are exploring the levels you can select a character to use from your team (team of 4 that is) and there are areas of the levels where only certain characters can access. For example, little gaps between platforms that only a flying character could get to. As you play through the story you have to keep returning to different areas to do certain things for the mission you are playing through. All in all this part of the game is generally very enjoyable. You don't find yourself saying "Ugh! I've got to go all the way over there again, FOR THAT!" like you would in say GTA San Andreas because of the size of the gameworld you're in. You're not going to find it repetitive, because if you have to go back to a previous area, it's generally going to be a new part of the area that you are going to, using a different character!

The battle system is first-rate and very well done! It's a turn/round based system. At the start of a 'round' you select what each character is going to do during each turn in the round (each character has two turns each); this can be from either Attacks, POW Moves, Defend, Items, or Flee. They all do exactly what is said on the tin other than POW Moves, POW Moves are like special attacks. These special attacks are gained as the characted levels up, and the attacks themselves have three levels. There are 8 POW Moves to get per character, and what's interesting about them is that with some, you can only use in them battle if you have other characters in your party. This makes the choice of characters in your party even more tricky. The POW Moves are a really fun addition to the gameplay, as to make them effective in battle you must follow some touch screen gestures, otherwise the move fails. There are some great attacks that Bioware have created for this game as well. The in battle presentation and movement of the characters are brilliant, it really has a good Sonic feel to it. This is also true of all the character movement in the exploration parts of the game.

That's the gameplay in a nutshell. However, Bioshock couldn't just do these two things well and come away with a successful Sonic game could they? Us fans need a good story line that follows the history of the series that we have come to love over the years. It was a potential hurdle for the studio, and hurdle that they succeeded in getting over well!

To quote Wikipedia: "Sonic is on vacation after defeating Doctor Eggman some time ago, when he receives a call from Tails, stating that Knuckles has been kidnapped, and that the Chaos Emeralds are disappearing.

The story is split into two acts. The first takes place in Sonic's world, with the team attempting to unravel the situation they are in, whilst also stopping the Master Emerald from being taken. The second act sees Sonic and the team travelling to another dimension in order to stop a new threat to their own world."

It's a story line that fits and works really well! Along the similar lines of the Rush series where you have another dimension that the characters get taken too and a new foe to battle against! I'm not going to divuldge more into this as that would be giving the story away. Your going to have to play the game to find out what happens! ;) All I can say is that Bioware did a fantastic job on it.

Something else to note about the game is the music. Most, if not all, of the music are arrangements of some of our favourite tracks from two great Sonic games (both known for their great OST's!). These are Sonic 3D (both Saturn and Genesis versions) and Sonic CD. This was a great move by Bioware. There are some really great arrangements to listen to. The game had to feature a good soundtrack, simply because of the amount of time the player spends in one area, listening to the same track.

The things I have talked about are all good, and I have only just noticed that I haven't talked about things I didn't like about the game!

There isn't much to be honest, the game ticks a lot of boxes. The only major things to me that stick out as not being good are:

- No great challenge: It lacks that "OMG I need to get S rank or I'll never be happy" factor, then losing a day of your life getting it. The battles at the start of the game are only a real challenge, when you don't have a full team of 4 characters and are a little inexperienced at playing the battles.
- The length of the game: It's not really that long. With extensive playing you can complete it in two days or so. Personally, I don't like getting games over with that quickly, so I stretched it out over a week.

That's it for bad points and that's it for this review! In conclusion, a very enjoyable RPG (that's coming from someone who doesn't play them). The Sonic series was put in the hands of a newcomer and they have not dissappointed. A well done to Bioware is in order. Any Sonic fan with a DS should get this game!

P.S. There is already a sequel being planned!