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Today is a glorious day for our Sonic the Hedgehog fans.
Sonic Dash has landed and it looks amazing!
For those of you just hearing about the title, Sonic Dash is an endless runner comments on the crashes and endless
developed by Hardlight Studios.
Sonic Dash takes place in Seaside Hill. One of the stages found in
Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations.
How does the game stack up?
Let's... JUMP... straight in.
As an endless runner, it's not difficult to see where Sonic Dash gets its inspiration.
The game is in the "Temple Run" style -
a 3D, third-person action game using tap and swipe gestures to guide your hero.
In fact, Sonic fits so unbelievably well in to this style of game, it's hard
to imagine why SEGA waited
this long to bring us a title like this.
Your little blue hedgehog is running, endlessly.
The player swipes left and right to change the lane that Sonic is in.
Swiping up makes the character jump and swiping down not only causes Sonic to
perform a rolling maneuver
but brings you quickly back to solid ground if airborne.
As with all Sonic titles, of course you'll be collecting rings as you go.
These not only act as the primary currency of the game but grant the player immunity from
death should you run in to an obstacle...
...at the cost of all the rings in your possession.
Sonic Dash requires the player to "bank" these between each stage of the game to
upgrade the character when not playing.
Interestingly, the player has the choice of either doing this or risking all the
rings you've collected so far by choosing not to bank them and instead choosing one of
the alternative paths.
By doing this you have the chance to gain bonus rings and see different
sections of the game, like Sonic's iconic loop-de-loops.
During these sections, the camera zooms and gives a more cinematic feel.
The player can still manipulate Sonic during these parts and although it's difficult
to see what's actually going on, it's still a nice feeling collecting a few rings
along the way.
That's pretty much it. Run for as long as you can, jumping, spinning and attacking while
collecting rings and powerups. Endless runner staples like the magnet that will temporarily allow you
to collect all the rings you run past without having to touch them.
There are few major differences between Sonic Dash and its distant cousin Temple Run.
First of all, while the game is on par graphically with Temple Run, Sonic Dash
seems much, much faster.
The sense of speed you get from our little blue-haired friend is pretty damn good and the
graphics look amazing on the iPhone 5's retina display.
As with most endless runners, the game leans heavily towards in-app purchases.
No, you don't necessarily have to spend your cash as both rings and the game's
secondary currency red stars can be earned,
albeit slowly, through normal play.
Even though it's unfortunate that the game industry and mobile gaming specifically are
headed down this path, I generally don't have a problem with it.
Some games however tend to feel a little heavy-handed, almost exploitative and
unfortunately, Sonic Dash is exception.
The cost of the unlockable characters is pretty high. You'll need to be playing a
considerable amount before being able to afford these without spending real-world
world money. Unfortunately, unlocking extra characters does nothing more than
change the skin of the hero.
The gameplay remains exactly the same.
Now the game does grant a few bonus stars here and there, but this seems to be
nothing more than a mind washing technique -
getting the player in the mind frame that these shiny red stars aren't only necessary,
but rare and special.
This ties in heavily with my second gripe.
When the player dies, instead of being able to spend a boost purchased with
primary currency (like with the original Temple Run allowed you to do), you now have
the opportunity to continue your run with expendable continues purchased with red stars.
This will unfortunately allow players who spend a lot of cash to rise quickly to
the top of the leaderboards, which brings me to my next point.
I hate to say it, but the game feels dangerously close to being unfair.
You see, the level design, or more specifically, the layout of the tracks
can be... well... difficult.
It's an all too common occurrence that you'll find a spiky enemy on
the opposite side of a wall
or wall and beam segments packed so closely together that there's really nothing the player
can do except run into an obstacle and bring their run to an end.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is extremely difficult -
this is not a casual runner.
A few of the game mechanics weren't covered very clearly during the tutorial.
The first being where you need to jump a chasm and dash
attack a shark to cross the gap.
The game tells you to jump and tap accordingly, however the speed at which you need
to comprehend and execute this move,
especially the first couple of times, is pretty silly.
Also, the ability to swipe down to return to the ground quickly wasn't covered at all.
Trust me, this is vital during those closely packed together sections I was referring to before.
It also would've been nice to see a tilt-to-move mechanic for a more
visceral experience rather than the changing fixed lanes by swiping,
but for the most part this doesn't hamper the experience too much.
Sonic Dash is an excellent game, no doubt about it -
but it just feels really commercial.
Sure companies need to make money but considering the game will already
set you back $1.99,
it would've been nice to see the game being a little more forgiving.
Hardcore Sonic fans, and fans of the endless runner genre will find a great deal of enjoyment here.
The game is universal so it will run on both iPad and iPhone.
There'll be a link in the description below.
Thank you for joining me folks. This has been Alex for Game Mob, that's www.gamemob.com.