Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic is back and ready for action, and he's brought along a new friend for his next-gen debut.

After years of disappointing installments and broken promises, Sega looks to be going back to their roots with the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Sonic the Hedgehog. We recently had the opportunity to play through the latest build of the game and so far the results are looking quite promising. While the game is still in early development, we're wagering that once it launches, you may just be picking bugs out of your teeth - it's that fast.

Sonic's latest adventure centers on a mysterious new world, one ruled over by a beautiful human princess. For ages, the kingdom has protected a mysterious jewel that is encased in a necklace that hangs around the princess's neck. Unfortunately for her, the jewel is a powerful Chaos Emerald. Dr. Eggman, hearing of the existence of the Emerald, soon attacks the kingdom, hoping to harness the power of the jewel for himself. Sonic, hearing of his arch-rival's evil plans, rushes out to save not only the damsel in distress, but also the entire kingdom.

The demo level we played featuring Sonic was a fast-paced lesson in speed. The world around him is filled with interactivity, including series trademark bumpers that send the hero hurtling through the air, as well as rails that you can grind, and even portions of the land that can be destroyed to open up new paths.

Are those the new Kobe's?

Are those the new Kobe's?

The game is making heavy use of the Havok physics engine, so everything from enemies to errant debris flies about in a pretty realistic way. One portion of the level had Sonic using his homing attack to slam in to a group of four enemy robots, who in turn hurtled backwards in to a brick wall. The bricks from that wall exploded in a fountain of destruction. Needless to say, that sort of realism is a first for the franchise, but looked incredibly impressive in action.

But, this time around Sonic will be getting some help from a new ally. Silver is a mysterious hedgehog from the future, a creature that has the ability to control the world around him using only his mind. The Silver level we played was much slower than the Sonic stage, but there's method to Sega's madness. While Silver can run fast, he's more adept at picking up objects in the environment and tossing them as weapons. With a quick button press, Silver can pick up any objects in his vicinity, and using the analog stick you can direct the path that the objects will travel when you throw them.

The level we played was littered with boxes and crates, which made quick work of standard enemies. But, we did face off against some foes that required a bit more power. One robotic foe shot missiles at Silver, but using his psychic powers, we caught the missiles in mid-air and tossed them back at their sender. The entire "mind over matter" system is quite similar to the offerings in Midway's title Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, but with the actual controls made a bit simpler to keep them accessible to younger gamers.

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