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A tough team for a tough job.

— Tagline

Sonic Heroes (ソニック ヒーローズ, Sonikku Hīrōzu^?) is a 3D platformer video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, released in late 2003 in Japan and Korea, and in 2004 in the rest of the world. It is noteworthy for being the first multi-console Sonic title, following Sega's transition to a third-party developer after the Dreamcast's discontinuation.

The game introduces a team-based gameplay mechanic where players control three characters from a team, each with unique abilities: Speed for high-speed platforming, Fly for aerial navigation, and Power for combat. Four different teams are featured, each with distinct level styles: Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) offers standard difficulty levels; Team Rose (Amy, Cream, and Big) provides beginner-friendly challenges; Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega) includes more challenging levels focused on combat; and Team Chaotix (Espio, Charmy, Vector) involves missions centered around finding specific objects. The narrative unfolds with Doctor Eggman's plan to conquer the world with a secret weapon, with Team Sonic trying to thwart him, Team Rose searching for their missing friends, Team Dark uncovering Eggman's secrets, and Team Chaotix investigating various occurrences for a mysterious client.

Heroes began development in late 2002, led by Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka. The project was handled by Sonic Team USA (later Sega Studio USA), a San Francisco-based division of Sonic Team. The shift to multi-platform development presented numerous challenges, including adapting to different hardware and managing tight deadlines. The team utilized the RenderWare engine to facilitate porting across platforms.

Despite polarizing critics, who praised the style and concept but criticized unsolved problems from prior games and voice acting, Sonic Heroes was a commercial success. It sold over five million copies and was a best-seller on all of the consoles it was released on. As part of the PlayStation 2 Classics program, the PlayStation 2 version was re-released digitally for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network in September 2012 in Europe, and January 2014 in Asia.

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot, ending details or any kind of information follow.

Storylines

Team Sonic

File:Sonic Heroes title screen.png

The title screen of Sonic Heroes (Nintendo GameCube).

Sonic, running around on his own in the desert, comes across Tails and Knuckles in the Tornado 2. They reveal that they have received a letter from Dr. Eggman telling them of a new ultimate weapon that will be ready within three days to help the doctor conquer the world, and that he challenges them to stop him. Sonic, competitive as ever, accepts the challenge. Tails is disturbed by the message and unsure of what will happen, while Knuckles is confident that there is nothing to worry about. The hedgehog, however, tells them that he would not miss this adventure and the three heroes band together once again to foil the doctor's plans.

After traveling through Seaside Hill, Team Sonic comes across Eggman in the Egg Hawk and defeat him. However, the doctor manages to escape. After that, the heroes track him to Grand Metropolis. After liberating the city from his control and escaping the Power Plant, the trio comes across Team Rose, and Amy has her team engage in a battle with them in an effort to make Sonic marry her. After eventually escaping Team Rose, the trio continue their hunt for Eggman. They eventually overcomes the scientist and his robot army in Casino Park with only a day left to spare, and they then follow him to Rail Canyon. Only having before dark to stop Eggman, the trio hurries to the center of Bullet Station, where they destroy Eggman's base and defeat his Egg Albatross. However, they discover that the Eggman they have been chasing is a fake, and that their challenge letter was meant to distract them while Eggman launched his Egg Fleet.

While chasing Eggman through the Frog Forest, the trio encounters Team Dark and is amazed to see Shadow alive and well. After both teams fight to decide who goes after Eggman, Team Sonic pursues the doctor and Team Dark to a spooky castle. After later escaping Mystic Mansion, the trio overcome Eggman's next wave of robot henchmen, before going up to the Egg Fleet. They then infiltrate the Final Fortress and destroy its core. Soon after, Team Sonic finds Eggman in his Egg Emperor. After defeating the doctor, the team sets off a chain reaction that destroys most of the Egg Fleet. With their mission complete, Sonic thanks his teammates before running away when he sees Amy suddenly arriving and chases after him.

Team Dark

File:Chīmu.Dāku.png

Team Dark is formed by Rouge.

Rouge the Bat sneaks into one of Dr. Eggman's bases after hearing that he has accumulated a valuable treasure collection. To her shock however, she instead finds Shadow the Hedgehog, who was thought to be dead after saving Earth, encased in a stasis capsule. As Rouge awakens Shadow, she accidentally activates E-123 Omega who attacks the Ultimate Lifeform with gunfire, thinking him to be an Eggman robot. Upon awakening, Shadow saves Rouge, who in turn breaks up the fight. Afterward, Rouge learns that Omega wants revenge on his creator, Eggman, for sealing him in the base and to prove his superiority of the E-100 Series by destroying all Eggman robots and the doctor himself. Shadow, on the other hand, is suffering from amnesia, being unable to recall anything prior to his release by Rouge. Realizing that the trio's problems involve Eggman, Rouge has the three of them team up to find the doctor and she serves as their leader.

Shortly after starting to search, the trio find Eggman and his Egg Hawk. Although they easily defeat the Egg Hawk, Eggman gets away. Pursuing the doctor to Grand Metropolis with renewed resolve, the trio crush the opposition in the city and escape its Power Plant. Afterwards, they meet Team Chaotix, whom both teams engage in battle over an assumption that Rouge makes about them. After the fight, the trio arrives in a casino city where they meet Eggman once again. Shadow asks about his past, but Eggman remarks that he has "no past to remember". Overcoming Eggman's robot hordes, the trio continue their pursuit of the doctor to Eggman's base at Bullet Station. After destroying Eggman's base, the trio faces the doctor and his Egg Albatross, defeating him. However, the trio sees that the Eggman they have been chasing is a fake, much to Omega's fury. Furthermore, they find nearby remains of a destroyed Shadow Android, making Shadow and Rouge briefly question whether the former is the genuine being or merely a replica. Continuing the hunt, the trio eventually come across Team Sonic, whom they fight to see which one of them can go after Eggman. Afterward, Team Dark continue their hunt through a spooky castle mansion before coming across Eggman again. After overcoming Eggman's robot swarm, the trio venture to his headquarters among the Egg Fleet, where they defeat his Egg Emperor. With Eggman seemingly destroyed, Omega considers his mission complete, but Rouge goes looking for the "secret treasure", only to her shock, find a warehouse full of Shadow Androids in the same capsules Shadow himself was. As Omega prepares to destroy the warehouse, he reassures Rouge, who does not know if Shadow is real or not, that Eggman would need the original Shadow to make the Shadow Androids. She then leaves with Shadow, planning to steal the Master Emerald since her rival Knuckles is preoccupied.

Team Rose

File:TR.jpg

Amy encourages her team to head out to find their lost friends.

The story begins with Amy, Big, Cream, and Cheese meeting each other by chance at the local news publisher. A quick exchange of stories reveal that all four of them are searching for someone; Amy is looking for her missing Sonic, Big is looking for his missing best friend Froggy, and Cream is looking for Cheese's missing Chao twin brother, Chocola. Furthermore, the only clue they have to their friends' whereabouts is a picture of "Sonic" with Froggy and Chocola in the local newspaper. As they ponder about their only clue on the coastline, Amy nearly loses the newspaper to a gust of wind. Cream tries to catch the newspaper but misses and Cheese manage to succeed. But as the strong wind begins to blow again, the pair are blown away. Fortunately, Big manages to catch them in time with his fishing rod. Reconvening, Big and Cream look over the newspaper with longing until Amy encourages them to head out with her to find their lost companions, beginning their adventure.

Shortly after starting their search, the group has a run-in with Dr. Eggman and his Egg Hawk, which they manage to defeat. The group proceeds to follow Amy's hunch to Grand Metropolis. There, after escaping the local Power Plant, they find Team Sonic. Amy, determined to make Sonic hers by force, has her team fight Sonic's, but the trio manages to escape during the fight. Arriving in a big casino city, the group changes tactics: since Team Sonic are hunting Eggman, all they have to do is find the doctor as well. After overcoming an attack from Eggman's robots, the group comes to Rail Canyon. With Big and Cheese sensing that their friends are close, the group head into Eggman's base where they defeat the doctor's Egg Albatross. After the fight however, the team discovers that the Eggman they just fought was a fake (much to Amy's fury), and that Froggy and Chocola are nowhere to be seen. With Amy suspecting that Eggman is behind Froggy and Chocola's disappearance, the group leaves to find the real Eggman. Eventually, they meet Team Chaotix after escaping the jungle. However, they end up fighting the detectives over a misunderstanding. Afterwards, the group enters and escapes a haunted castle mansion before finding Eggman, who once again attacks them with his robots. Overcoming Eggman's robot hordes, the group proceeds to travel to the Egg Fleet, where they find Eggman in his Egg Emperor and defeat him. While their opponent turns out to be another fake Eggman and liquefies, they find Chocola and Froggy rising from its remains and have a happy reunion. No sooner, Amy sees Sonic nearby and quickly chases after him.

Team Chaotix

File:Sonic Heroes Team Chaotix intro.png

The Chaotix about to head out to do their client's assignment.

On a particularly dull day at the Chaotix Detective Agency's office, Vector is sitting at his desk listening to music while Espio is solemnly standing by. Suddenly, Charmy comes crashing into the office with a mysterious package, claiming that they have gotten a job. Inside the package, the team finds a walkie-talkie, with a stranger who gives the team instructions through this device. The stranger claims that if the job he has for them is completed, Team Chaotix will be "rewarded handsomely". Espio is wary of their client, but Vector and Charmy (with dollar signs in their eyes) reminds him that they "never turn down work that pays".

During the Chaotix trio's client's tests of their skills, they run into Dr. Eggman and his Egg Hawk. After making Eggman retreat, the Chaotix arrive in Grand Metropolis, where they clear out the Eggman robots occupying it as their client requests. They then free the Power Plant from the control of Gold Camerons as instructed by their client. After that, they run into Team Dark, whom they fight after mistaking them for their client's adversaries. Afterwards, the client tests the trio's luck and have them look for casino chips in the casino city. Eventually, they meet Eggman again and overcome his robot horde. The trio then follow their client's instructions and infiltrate Eggman's base in Bullet Station where they destroy some capsules, before running into Eggman and his Egg Albatross, which their client tells them to destroy. After their victory though, the trio discover that the Eggman they just fought was a fake, although their client is already aware of this. As the trio are instructed to head to the jungle, they begin to wonder about their client's identity, which Vector is slowly able to piece it together. After making it through the jungle undetected and protecting some Chao from Eggman's forces, the trio meet Team Rose, whom they end up fighting due to a miscommunication. Next the team is instructed to enter a castle to retrieve some keys. Then after escaping a spooky mansion, the trio has another run-in with Eggman and his robots. After defeating Eggman's robots, the trio reach the Egg Fleet, where the client instructs them to infiltrate the flagship and find the keys that will free him from captivity. Along the way, the trio defeats a second fake Eggman, this one armed with the Egg Emperor. Having deduced that their client is in fact the real doctor, Vector busts him out of his prison so he and the trio can talk, and the doctor tells them that he will pay them only after he conquers the world. However, the team immediately discovers they have been scammed and Charmy attacks Eggman as punishment for making promises he will not be able to keep.

Last Story

Back with the Chaotix trio and the real doctor, Vector asks him about who locked him up for trying to conquer the world, something which Eggman is reluctant to say. Soon after, all four teams, along with Eggman, race outside to find Metal Sonic, the true mastermind and deadly doppelganger robot specifically designed by Eggman to destroy Sonic, as Neo Metal Sonic, declaring himself the ruler of all living things before initiating his final transformation, revealing that Metal Sonic had betrayed Eggman to do his own bidding. Having copied the lifeform data from each team during their adventures, Neo Metal Sonic combines them together with the data of Chaos that he got from Froggy and Chocola and uses the debris from the Egg Fleet to become Metal Madness. As Eggman declares Metal Sonic unstoppable without the Chaos Emeralds to help them, the teams reveal that they have collected all seven along their respective journeys. In spite of this, Eggman still tell the teams their chances of victory are slim even with the Emeralds and would take a miracle to defeat Metal Madness. Undeterred, Sonic confidently decides to go up against Metal Sonic alone, only for his teammates to join him. With the others agreeing to help as well by slowing down Metal Madness while Team Sonic gets ready to use their full power, the group of heroes all set out for the final battle.

File:Team Sonic (Sonic Heroes ending).png

Team Sonic heading out for a new adventure at the end of the game.

Though the three teams manage to delay Neo Metal Sonic, he soon completes his transformation and becomes Metal Overlord, becoming even more powerful. Team Sonic then uses the seven Chaos Emeralds to achieve their Super States and manage to ultimately defeat Metal Overlord after a fierce battle in the dark skies, returning Neo Metal Sonic to his regular form. As Metal is in disbelief about how he could possibly lose after achieving such power, Sonic reminds him that he and all his friends are Sonic Heroes. As Amy and the others come running to them, Sonic tells his robot doppelganger that he will be ready for a rematch anytime before running off. Tails and Amy subsequently chase after Sonic while Metal Sonic shuts down and Big and Cream wave goodbye to Amy. Meanwhile, Knuckles goes after Rouge when she heads out to steal the Master Emerald. As for the Chaotix, they go after Eggman as he tries to get away from paying them. Lastly, Shadow and Omega hold up the defeated Metal and look at each other in confusion. Sometime later, as the other teams part ways, Team Sonic is seen running together, heading out in search for their next adventure, with Sonic declaring themselves "Sonic Heroes".

Characters

Image	Character	Biography
File:Sonic heroes 32.png	Sonic the Hedgehog	The world's fastest supersonic hedgehog unrivalled in speed returns once more. Always the drifter, Sonic goes whenever the wind takes him, and lives life according to his own rules rather than the standards of those around him. He's basically easy-going, but when he gets fired up over an injustice, his anger explodes with surprising consequences. Always at the receiving end of this aggression is arch-enemy Dr. Eggman, whose fiendish ploys to take over the world are constantly being foiled by Sonic. Saving the world is a nice distraction, but Sonic is soon off to find his next adventure. Watch out for the patented Light Dash maneuver whereby Sonic hurtles along a path of illuminated Rings, even through mid-air!
File:Knuckles heroes 32.png	Knuckles the Echidna	An egotistical dreadlocked Echidna from the Angel Island, and appointed guardian of the Master Emerald. Sonic may be a drifter, but Knuckles' home is firmly fixed in the mountains. Wild, tough, stubborn and inflexible, Knuckles sees himself as Sonic's rival, perhaps because of his own dreams of a free lifestyle. He's also known as a treasure hunter, and possesses martial arts skills.
File:SonicTailsInHeroes.png	Miles "Tails" Prower	Don't let his docile appearance deceive you. This cute twin-tailed fox is an absolute mecha-maniac with skills rivaling those of Dr. Eggman. Humble about his abilities, he always does his best to help out Sonic, who sees him as something as a cute kid brother. "Tails" can spin his tails like a rotor blade enabling him to fly.
File:SHShadow.png	Shadow the Hedgehog	Created by the renowned scientist Professor Gerald at the peak of his career, this black hedgehog is the dark incarnation of Sonic, matching him in both speed and abilities. Shadow never ages, and can use a technique known as "Chaos Control" to distort time and space using the Chaos Emeralds. Since his fall at Colony Arc[sic] (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle) he was presumed dead, but has since been discovered by Rouge, alive and in suspended animation at Eggman's base. He now suffers from amnesia and has no memory of events prior to his release.
File:Sonic Heroes E-123 Omega.png	E-123 Omega	The last and most powerful of Eggman's E-Series robots. Decommissioned and left imprisoned at the base, Omega was reactivated by mistake as Rouge released Shadow. From that point, Omega decided to destroy all of Eggman's machinery to take revenge for his imprisonment, and to prove once and for all that he is the strongest. His wide arms contain a manner of concealed weapons and machinery making him a powerful force to be reckoned with.
File:Rouge heroes 32.png	Rouge the Bat	Rouge is a professional treasure hunter, forever in search of the world's most precious stones, and part time government spy. Fearless, be witching, and overflowing with feminine charm, Rouge is dedicated to her work, and never leaves a task empty-handed. Her external appearance suggests a careless character, but she is actually calculating and manipulative, basing her actions on potential actions rather than abstract morality or manners. Her powerful wings enable her to fly with ease.
File:Amy heroes.png	Amy Rose	An overly cheerful and slightly erratic girl that poor Sonic just can't seem to shake off. Amy uses her natural initiative and positive attitude to pull the team together, and her weapon of choice, the Piko Piko Hammer, helps her to maintain authority. Despite her clearly defined goal to one day marry Sonic, he treats her as a little more than an annoyance. In his heart he probably doesn't dislike her that much.
File:Big heroes.png	Big the Cat	A huge feline that lives with his best friend Froggy, peacefully in the middle of the jungle. His hobby is fishing, and he always has his favourite rod handy. Big is strong, but gentle, and very easy-going as is reflected in his carefree speech manner. He also does his best to help his best friends. On this occasion, his best friend Froggy has gone missing, so Big sets off to try and rescue him.
File:CreamCheeseSH.png	Cream the Rabbit	A cute little rabbit that takes her tiny Chao "Cheese" with her whenever she goes, and at just 6 years old, is even younger than Tails. Brought up like a princess, she is a little naive and simple minded at times, often getting herself wrapped up into other people's problems. Cream never forgets her manners, and often offers a polite curtsey[sic] before attacking Dr. Eggman, with extreme prejudice. By flapping her huge ears, Cream can sustain flight. She also loves ice-cream cones.
File:Espio heroes..png	Espio the Chameleon	Opinionated and self obsessed chameleon at the Chaotix Detective Agency. He has a militaristic discipline despite being quiet and laidback, and thanks to extensive ninja training, he can face trouble head-on unconcerned by danger. Is that intelligent ninja warrior. His characteristics include a protruding horn, coiled tail, and a stealth camouflage trick that renders him invisible to enemy eyes allowing him to pass by unnoticed.
File:Vector 2.png	Vector the Crocodile	Outlaw detective and head honcho of the Chaotix Detective Agency. He can always find peaceful solutions to problems, providing an aggressive method cannot be found. Despite this, he's the brains behind the detective operations. He'll do almost any kind of work providing the payment is right, but won't get involved with anything dirty. His charitable nature sometimes leads him to take unpaid work, such as finding lost toys for crying children. Vector can effortlessly defeat enemies by crunching them between his powerful jaws, a formidable weapon with a dazzling smile. His trademark is a set of headphones.
File:Charmy heroes.png	Charmy Bee	The scatterbrained funny-kid likes nothing more than fooling around, and making the remaining Chaotix staff look professional. Seen by the others as more of a cute mascot, he's generally good-natured and light-hearted, but when he gets angry he often introduces the source of his anger to his stinging tail. Charmy is neither clever nor powerful, but excels in following hunches and uncovering hidden objects. He is also able to mysteriously warp between flowers. His flying helmet is his trademark.
File:Sonic Heroes Eggman.png	Dr. Eggman	As his name implies, Dr. Eggman is a Doctor that looks like an egg. As well as having an unfeasibly high IQ of 300, Eggman is a romanticist, a feminist, and a self-proclaimed gentleman. Sadly, his charms are often difficult to spot through the abominable laughter that accompanies his maniacal declaration of world domination. Sonic is always finding ways to stop his diabolical plots, but as with great arch-enemies Eggman now sees Sonic as more of a rival than a threat.
File:Heroes Neo Metal Sonic.png	Mystery Monster	A mysterious robot who holds the key to destroy the world.

Gameplay

Sonic Heroes is a 3D platforming video game with similar gameplay elements to Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. The main story of the game takes place in Story Mode, which is divided into four main stories, along with a hidden fifth, final one.

The game introduces several new gameplay elements. Unlike most Sonic games, where players control one character, three characters are available at any time to choose from, as the player may switch the party's leader freely, whilst the other two characters follow behind. Each character has an individual ability: Speed, for clearing stages fast; Power, for breaking objects and combat; or Flight, for reaching higher platforms. Each ability is also represented in the interface by color, with blue for Speed, yellow for Flight, and red for Power. These also have elements associated with them, with Speed using wind, Fly using lightning, and Power using fire. These abilities can be used to solve various puzzles necessary to progress through stages, most notably in Team Chaotix's Mystic Mansion. The player must use these abilities to traverse the fourteen stages. In addition to controlling three characters, the player selects one of the four teams to play as at the beginning of the game. Each team also has a unique Team Blast skill that has major power and additional effect.

As with the tradition, Rings appear throughout the stages, in which the player can collect one hundred of them for an Extra Life, as well as protect themselves from enemy attacks and other dangerous hazards. Should the playable characters take damage, they will lose all of their Rings. And if they are hit without any Rings, they'll lose a life and must try the current stage again from the beginning or at the last Star Post. Additionally, falling into a bottomless pit also results in a loss of a life. After all lives are lost, the player is taken back to the menu screen.

Each stage has a different slightly layout for each team, providing different challenges for each story. The aspects of the stages for each team are as follows:

• Team Sonic: This team and their associated stages are designed to be of medium difficulty, and contain some high-speed sections. This team's secondary missions involve reaching the goal within a time limit.
• Team Dark: This team and their associated stages are designed to be similar to Team Sonic's but to be of a higher difficulty, requiring skill and concentration to endure some heavy battles. This team's secondary missions involve wiping out 100 enemies in the stage.
• Team Rose: This team and their associated stages are designed for younger or less experienced players, with shorter, easier missions that allow them to bypass the more difficult sections of many stages. The secondary missions for this team involve the collection of 200 Rings.
• Team Chaotix: This team and their associated stages provide an entirely different experience than the other three teams but is of medium difficulty, as most are mission-based and are only completed when the mission target is met. Because of this, their stages frequently loop back to the start so that players can scour the stage for anything that may have been overlooked. The missions mostly consist of collecting or destroying stage-specific items, with Chao often being the target for collection. The secondary missions usually add an extra challenge to the normal goal, such as collecting or destroying twice as many targets or completing the mission without being seen by the enemies.

Controls

General

Button formation						Movement
PS2	GameCube	Xbox	PC
			Keyboard (P1)	Keyboard (P2)	Mouse
Template:Left Analog Stick	Template:Analog Stick	Template:Left Analog Stick	[T]/[F]/[G]/[H]	[↑]/[←]/[↓]/[→]	Hold left click	Move
Cross	Template:A Button (GameCube)	Template:A Button (Xbox)	[A]/[SPACE]	[END]	Left + right click	Jump
L2/R2	Template:L Button (GameCube)/Template:R Button (GameCube)	Template:LT Button (Xbox)/Template:RT Button (Xbox)	[SHIFT]/[CTRL]		Hold right click + scroll wheel	Move camera left/right
File:PSTriangleButton.png/Circle	Template:Y Button (GameCube)/Template:X Button (GameCube)	Template:Y Button (Xbox)/Template:B Button (Xbox)	[Y]/[S] // [B]/[D]	[INSERT]/[HOME]	Scroll wheel	Change formation
R1	Template:Z Button (GameCube)	White Button	[Z]	[PAGE UP]/[PAGE DOWN]	Scroll wheel click	Team Blast
START			[TAB]	[ENTER]	Left + right + scroll wheel click	Pause

Formation specific

Some types of skills were used in other games such as Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic Free Riders, Mario & Sonic series, Sonic Runners, Sonic Runners Adventure and Team Sonic Racing.

Speed FormationFly FormationPower Formation

Button formation						Movement
PS2	GameCube	Xbox	PC			File:Formchange pc 017nic.png Sonic	File:Formchange pc 017sh.png Shadow	File:Formchange pc 017.png Amy	File:Formchange pc 017espi.png Espio
			Keyboard (P1)	Keyboard (P2)	Mouse
Hold Square while moving	Hold Template:B Button (GameCube) while moving	Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) while moving	Hold [X]/[ESC] while moving	Hold [DELETE] while moving	Hold right click while moving	Spin
Hold Square > Release Square when teammates gather	Hold Template:B Button (GameCube) > Release Template:B Button (GameCube) when teammates gather	Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) > Release Template:X Button (Xbox) when teammates gather	Hold [X]/[ESC] > Release [X]/[ESC] when teammates gather	Hold [DELETE] > Release [DELETE] when teammates gather	Hold right click > Release right click when teammates gather	Rocket Accel
Hold Square > Release Square before teammates gather	Hold Template:B Button (GameCube) > Release Template:B Button (GameCube) before teammates gather	Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) > Release Template:X Button (Xbox) before teammates gather	Hold [X]/[ESC] > Release [X]/[ESC] before teammates gather	Hold [DELETE] > Release [DELETE] before teammates gather	Hold right click > Release right click before teammates gather	Kick		Swinging Hammer Attack	Shuriken
Cross (mid-air)	Template:A Button (GameCube) (mid-air)	Template:A Button (Xbox) (mid-air)	[A]/[SPACE] (mid-air)	[END] (mid-air)	Left click + right click (mid-air)	Homing Attack
Jump > Square	Jump > Template:B Button (GameCube)	Jump > Template:X Button (Xbox)	Jump > [X]/[ESC]	Jump > [DELETE]	Jump > right click	Blue Tornado	Black Tornado	Tornado Hammer	Leaf Swirl
Hold Square near trail of Rings	Hold Template:B Button (GameCube) near trail of Rings	Hold Template:X Button (Xbox) near trail of Rings	Hold [X]/[ESC] near trail of Rings	Hold [DELETE] near trail of Rings	Hold right click near trail of Rings	Light Dash
Hold Cross (mid-air)	Hold Template:A Button (GameCube) (mid-air)	Hold Template:A Button (Xbox) (mid-air)	Hold [A]/[SPACE] (mid-air)	Hold [END] (mid-air)	Hold left click + right click (mid-air)	N/A		Propeller Hammer	N/A
Homing Attack towards wall > Jump while on the wall						Triangle Jump

Button formation						Movement
PS2	GameCube	Xbox	PC			File:Formchange pc 015tail.png Tails	File:Formchange pc 015rouge.png Rouge	File:Formchange pc 0er.png Cream	File:Formchange pc 015.png Charmy
			Keyboard (P1)	Keyboard (P2)	Mouse
Jump > Hold Cross	Jump > Hold Template:A Button (GameCube)	Jump > Hold Template:A Button (Xbox)	Jump > Hold [A]/[SPACE]	Jump > Hold [END]	Jump > Hold left + right click	Ascending Flight
Ascending Flight + Cross	Ascending Flight + Template:A Button (GameCube)	Ascending Flight + Template:A Button (Xbox)	Ascending Flight + [A]/[SPACE]	Ascending Flight + [END]	Ascending Flight + Left + right click	Quick Ascent
Square with teammates gathered	Template:B Button (GameCube) with teammates gathered	Template:X Button (Xbox) with teammates gathered	[X]/[ESC] with teammates gathered	[DELETE] with teammates gathered	Right click with teammates gathered	Thunder Shoot
Square without teammates gathered	Template:B Button (GameCube) without teammates gathered	Template:X Button (Xbox) without teammates gathered	[X]/[ESC] without teammates gathered	[DELETE] without teammates gathered	Right click without teammates gathered	Dummy Ring Bomb		Cheese Attack	Sting Attack

Button formation						Movement
PS2	GameCube	Xbox	PC			File:Formchange pc 013knuc.png Knuckles	File:Omega Icon.png Omega	File:Formchange pc 013.png Big	File:Formchange pc 013vec.png Vector
			Keyboard (P1)	Keyboard (P2)	Mouse
Moving nearby enemies						Auto Homing
Square	Template:B Button (GameCube)	Template:X Button (Xbox)	[X]/[ESC]	[DELETE]	Right click	Forward Power Attack
Forward Power Attack > Square	Forward Power Attack > Template:B Button (GameCube)	Forward Power Attack > Template:X Button (Xbox)	Forward Power Attack > [X]/[ESC]	Forward Power Attack > [DELETE]	Forward Power Attack > right click	Remote Power Attack
Remote Power Attack > Square	Remote Power Attack > Template:B Button (GameCube)	Remote Power Attack > Template:X Button (Xbox)	Remote Power Attack > [X]/[ESC]	Remote Power Attack > [DELETE]	Remote Power Attack > right click	Volcanic Dunk	Omega Arm	Big Fishing	Vector Breath
Hold Square	Hold Template:B Button (GameCube)	Hold Template:X Button (Xbox)	Hold [X]/[ESC]	Hold [DELETE]	Hold right click	Fire Combination
Fire Combination > Hold Cross	Fire Combination > Hold Template:A Button (GameCube)	Fire Combination > Hold Template:A Button (Xbox)	Fire Combination > Hold [A]/[SPACE]	Fire Combination > Hold [END]	Fire Combination > Hold left + right click	Fireball Jump		N/A
Fire Combination > Jump > Square	Fire Combination > Jump > Template:B Button (GameCube)	Fire Combination > Jump > Template:X Button (Xbox)	Fire Combination > Jump > [X]/[ESC]	Fire Combination > Jump > [DELETE]	Fire Combination > Jump > Right click	Fire Dunk	Fire Launcher	Jump Fire Knock	Jump Fireball
Jump > Square	Jump > Template:B Button (GameCube)	Jump > Template:X Button (Xbox)	Jump > [X]/[ESC]	Jump > [DELETE]	Jump > Right click	N/A		Body Press	Hammer Down
Hold Cross (mid-air)	Hold Template:A Button (GameCube) (mid-air)	Hold Template:A Button (Xbox) (mid-air)	Hold [A]/[SPACE] (mid-air)	Hold [END] (mid-air)	Hold left + right click (mid-air)	Triangle Dive		Umbrella Descent	Bubblegum Descent

Objects

Items

Capsule Car Casino chip Template:Only Castle Key Template:Only Cell key Template:Only Chaos Emerald Container Cage Case (first appearance) Steel Container Unbreakable Container Wooden Container Emblem Engine Core Template:Only Floating Item Box Goal Ring

Hermit crab Template:Only Item Box 1 UP Barrier Fly Charge Template:Only High Speed Invincible Rings (first appearance) Power Core Template:Only Team Blast Ring Template:Only Light spider marking Template:Only Power Core (first appearance) Ring Special Stage Key (first appearance) Sphere Torch (first appearance)

Gimmicks and obstacles

Ball Switch Bingo Bobsled Template:Only Bomb Bumper Bumper wall Cannon Check Point Conveyor Belt Dash Panel Dash Rail (first appearance) Dash Ring Detonator Switch Template:Only Drop Target

Fan Fireball Flipper Flower Template:Only Formation Change Gate Template:Only Giant Frog Template:Only Giant Switch Template:Only Grind Rail Hint Ring (first appearance) Iron ball Jump Panel Kao (first appearance) Laser field Mushroom

Orb switch Template:Only Pole Power Gong Template:Only Propeller Template:Only Pulley Rainbow Ring (first appearance) Slot machine Spring Target Switch Template:Only Trolley Template:Only Vine Warp Flower Template:Only Weight Wide spring

Characters

Playable characters

Team Chaotix Charmy Bee Espio the Chameleon Vector the Crocodile Team Dark (first appearance) E-123 Omega (first appearance) Rouge the Bat Shadow the Hedgehog Team Rose (first appearance) Amy Rose Big the Cat Cheese Cream the Rabbit

Team Sonic (first appearance) Knuckles the Echidna Super Knuckles Miles "Tails" Prower Super Tails (first appearance) Sonic the Hedgehog Super Sonic

Non-playable characters

• Chao
  • Chocola (first appearance)
  • Dark Chao
  • Hero Chao
• Dr. Eggman
• Froggy
• Metal Sonic
  • Neo Metal Sonic (first appearance)
    • Metal Madness (first appearance)
    • Metal Overlord (first appearance)
• Omochao
• Shadow Android (first appearance)

Enemies

• Bomb Flapper (first appearance)
• Cameron (first appearance)
• Cannon Flapper (first appearance)
• E-2000 (first appearance)
• E-2000R (first appearance)
• Egg Bishop (first appearance)
• Egg Hammer (first appearance)
• Egg Knight (first appearance)
• Egg Magician (first appearance)
• Egg Pawn (first appearance)
• Egg Pawn (Casino version) (first appearance)
• Falco (first appearance)
• Flapper (first appearance)
• Gold Cameron (first appearance)
• Gold Klagen (first appearance)
• Gun Flapper (first appearance)
• Heavy-Egg Hammer (first appearance)
• Klagen (first appearance)
• Laser Flapper (first appearance)
• Needle Flapper (first appearance)
• Pumpkin Ghost (first appearance)
• Rhinoliner (first appearance)
• Search Flapper (first appearance)
• Solid Flapper (first appearance)
• Solid Pawn (first appearance)

Stages

1P Play

1. Seaside Hill
2. Ocean Palace
3. Grand Metropolis
4. Power Plant
5. Casino Park
6. BINGO Highway
7. Rail Canyon
8. Bullet Station
9. Frog Forest
10. Lost Jungle
11. Hang Castle
12. Mystic Mansion
13. Egg Fleet
14. Final Fortress

2P Play

Action Race Seaside Hill Grand Metropolis BINGO Highway Battle City Top Casino Ring Turtle Shell

Bobsled Race Seaside Course City Course Casino Course Expert Race Frog Forest Rail Canyon Egg Fleet

Quick Race Road Rock Mad Express Terror Hall Ring Race Egg Treat Pinball Match Hot Elevator

Special Stage Race

1. Special Stage 1
2. Special Stage 2
3. Special Stage 3

Other

• Sea Gate

Special Stages

• Team Chaotix in a "Bonus Challenge" Special Stage.
  Team Chaotix in a "Bonus Challenge" Special Stage.
• Team Rose in an "Emerald Challenge" Special Stage.
  Team Rose in an "Emerald Challenge" Special Stage.

Special Stages in Sonic Heroes are a series of optional levels that take place inside of circular tubes with the playable character running forward. To enter them, the player has to find a Special Stage Key and finish the Mission without having lost it. The Special Stages themselves are divided into two types: "Bonus Challenges", which allow the player to get more points; and "Emerald Challenges", in which the player can get a Chaos Emerald. There are seven Special Stages for both types, which makes a total of fourteen Special Stages overall.

In Bonus Challenges, the player has to gather the most amount of points before they run out of time, this is done by collecting spheres that will add to their score tally. They can also get Power Spheres to fill the Power Dash Meter, with which the player can Dash to gain more speed at the cost of draining the meter. Emerald Challenges play similarly, except that the player has to reach the Chaos Emerald before the gem itself reaches the end of the tube. Obtaining all seven Chaos Emeralds with any team and completing all four stories will unlock the last story of the game.

Bosses

Sonic Heroes features seven main bosses in the four main stories, which are fought after beating the even-numbered stages. Most of these bosses are Eggman's mechs, which vary in difficulty depending on the team the player is controlling. There are also two battles against other playable teams.

No.	Team Sonic	Team Dark	Team Rose	Team Chaotix	Stage before
1	Egg Hawk				Ocean Palace
2	Team Rose	Team Chaotix	Team Sonic	Team Dark	Power Plant
3	Robot Carnival				BINGO Highway
4	Egg Albatross				Bullet Station
5	Team Dark	Team Sonic	Team Chaotix	Team Rose	Lost Jungle
6	Robot Storm				Hang Castle
7	Egg Emperor				Final Fortress

The final story consists entirely of two bosses, fought one after another in the same level: Metal Madness and Metal Overlord. Overlord is encountered with Super transformed versions of Team Sonic, while Madness is fought by the other teams.

Development

Background

During the early 1990s with the Sega Mega Drive console, Sega was one of the largest companies in the video game industry, largely thanks to the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, which became one of the most popular franchises of the decade, despite having intense competition in North America with Nintendo's Super NES console, specifically challenging against the Super Mario series. However, in the 32-bit era, the company suffered from significant losses due to the failure of its Saturn console against its competitors by its heated rival and the newly risen Sony, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, respectively, prompting them to release the Dreamcast in 1998 as a last-ditch effort to stay on the hardware market. Despite critical acclaim, the new console was a commercial failure like its predecessor, and in just January 2001, Sega announced that they would be retiring from the console business and becoming a third-party game developer instead. Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast helped revitalize the Sonic brand's image, which had suffered for years from a lack of major games after Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994) until the release of Sonic Adventure (1998) and Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), both of which received positive reviews from critics.

The decision from Sega to go third-party surprised many developers, Sonic Team included, many of whom fought to make the company's executives change their minds, to no avail. After the Dreamcast's production was discontinued in 2001, Sega mostly released ports of its games to its former rivals' consoles. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, a port of Sonic Adventure 2, was released for the Nintendo GameCube and attracted new fans to the series. Around the same time, Sonic Advance, a 2D side-scroller developed by Dimps, was released for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. This marks the start of a new era where Nintendo and Sega end their once fierce company rivalry.

Conception

In late 2002, Sega decided to make a new Sonic game for all major platforms. Takashi Iizuka and series co-creator Yuji Naka decided to make all versions have the overall same content, with no exclusive features, so that players could have the same experience regardless of the console. The developers then began brainstorming for ideas for the new title, seeking to innovate with a new gameplay style. What would become Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform game in the series. The new hardware that was available allowed multiple playable characters to be controlled at the same time, so the team became interested in making a gameplay based on that idea.

Naka wanted Sonic Heroes to be developed by Sonic Team USA (later Sega Studio USA), a now-defunct subdivision of Sonic Team based in San Francisco, California which had previously made Sonic Adventure 2. This allowed them to interact more closely with the Western market and run tests with American players. Naka and Iizuka served as producer and director respectively of the new installment. Rather than making a "Sonic Adventure 3", the development team conceived Sonic Heroes as a standalone game that is not part of the Sonic Adventure series, one of the reasons for that being they were feeling unimpressed by the amount of numbered sequels that were on display at E3 2003. Additionally, Iizuka felt that such a game would only appeal to core gamers rather than casual audiences and children. The development team was composed of nineteen members and it took twenty months to complete the game.

Gameplay

The Sonic series has been mainly associated with the concept of speed. For Sonic Heroes, Iizuka thought of combining Sonic's trademark speed with Tails' flying abilities and Knuckles' strength and make a unique game combining all of these mechanics at once. Multiple teams, each with three characters, were introduced with similar base gameplay; each team was given their own scenario and gameplay style for more variety.

The Sonic Adventure games were more story-driven and had more variety in gameplay; for Sonic Heroes the developers opted to stick to the team-based gameplay. The Chao features from the previous games, such as the Chao Garden, were not featured to avoid breaking the pace. Neither were the Animals, as the team felt that they would make the player think that a Chao Garden was featured. Conversely, the Special Stages were brought back for the first time since Sonic 3 & Knuckles to refresh the player's mind after the levels.

Characters

With 2003 marking the twelfth anniversary of the release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, it was eventually decided to feature twelve playable characters from the previous games in the franchise. One of these was Shadow the Hedgehog, who, though had seemingly died in the ending of Sonic Adventure 2, was brought back after developer meetings due to his popularity among fans. Team Chaotix, whose members had by then only appeared in Knuckles' Chaotix (1995), was featured due to their dynamic and uniqueness as a group compared to the other teams. However, these characters were re-imagined since the fast action they had in Knuckles' Chaotix made them "somewhat similar to Sonic". Characters like Mighty the Armadillo were not brought to this game for this reason. A new character, Cream the Rabbit, was originally created for this game as a member of Team Rose, but instead made her debut in Sonic Advance 2 to make that game feel more unique in comparison to Sonic Advance, its prequel.^{[citation needed]}

According to Shiro Maekawa, who served as designer and writer of the game, six teams were planned during the early stages of development, with a total of eighteen playable characters; time constraints and a desire to keep the gameplay balanced caused many of these teams to be modified or removed. Originally, four out of six teams were planned to be:

• Amy, Cream, and Rouge
• Chaos 0, Gamma, and Big
• Fang, Bean, and Bark
• Metal, Ray, and Mighty

Conflicts

As the first multi-platform title in the series, Sonic Team USA faced several challenges in development. Until then, the developers had been able to work closely with Sega's hardware teams to make the games they desired, such as the conception of lock-on technology for Sonic 3 & Knuckles and the Dreamcast's capabilities being made specifically for Sonic Adventure. With Sega going third-party, however, they no longer enjoyed such luxuries. Sonic Team partnered with Criterion Games to make use of the RenderWare engine, which allowed for easy programming and porting for each of the platforms Sonic Heroes was released on.

Iizuka remembers the development of Sonic Heroes as the most stressful period of his career, partly due to strict deadlines and mismanagement coming from much of the original Sonic Team still being based in Japan. According to him, some of the developers were reportedly unhappy with the new multi-platform approach. Level design was solely handled by him and Eitaro Toyoda; at the later stages of development, Toyoda became ill, leaving Iizuka to make all of the later stages on his own. He recalls having overworked so much that he lost around 22 pounds (roughly 10 kg) and suffered from insomnia.

Soundtrack

File:Complete Trinity Sonic Heroes Original Soundtrax.jpg

The cover of Complete Trinity: Sonic Heroes Original Soundtrax.

Complete Trinity: Sonic Heroes Original Soundtrax is the soundtrack of Sonic Heroes. It features in-game music on two discs and was released on March 2004. Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax is the vocal soundtrack of the game, which contains the themes of the game and characters and was released in February 2004. Another album featuring the music of Sonic Heroes titled Sonic Heroes Original Soundtrack 20th Anniversary Edition was released in August 2011 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Sonic franchise.

The in-game music was composed by Jun Senoue.

Cast

Role	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor
Sonic the Hedgehog	Ryan Drummond	Jun'ichi Kanemaru
Metal Sonic
Dr. Eggman	Deem Bristow	Chikao Ōtsuka
Miles "Tails" Prower	William Corkery	Ryo Hirohashi
Knuckles the Echidna	Scott Drier	Nobutoshi Canna
Shadow the Hedgehog	David Humphrey	Kōji Yusa
Rouge the Bat	Lani Minella	Rumi Ochiai
E-123 Omega	Jon St. John	Taiten Kusunoki
Amy Rose	Jennifer Douillard	Taeko Kawata
Cream the Rabbit	Sarah Wulfeck	Sayaka Aoki
Cheese	Ryō Hirohashi
Big the Cat	Jon St. John	Takashi Nagasako
Espio the Chameleon	Bill Corkery	Yūki Masuda
Vector the Crocodile	Marc Biagi	Kenta Miyake
Charmy Bee	Emily Corkery	Yōko Teppōzuka
Omochao	Lani Minella	Etsuko Kozakura

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	74.5% (GCN) 60% (PC)
Metacritic	72% (GCN) 64% (PS2) 73% (Xbox) 66% (PC)
Review scores
Publication	Score
1Up.com	C-
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8/10
GamePro	4.0/5 (GCN/Xbox)
GameSpot	7.5/10
Hyper	67%
IGN	8/10 (PS2)
Nintendo Life	6.8/10
Nintendo Power	4.2/5
Official PlayStation Magazine (UK)	8/10 (PS2)
Official Xbox Magazine (UK)	7.7/10 (Xbox)
SURGE	7/10

Reviews of Sonic Heroes were mostly mixed to positive, though this is dependent on the platform; Metacritic averages range from 64% for the PlayStation 2 version (based on 29 reviews) to 73% for the Xbox version (based on 28 reviews). GameRankings averages ranged from 60% for the PC version (based on 18 reviews) to 74.5% for the GameCube version (based on 96 reviews).

Reviewers noted several positive aspects to the game. These included the gameplay style; whilst the transition to 3D has been noted as rough for the Sonic series, Sonic Heroes came close to the series' 2D roots. Sound design was also praised, described as "inexorably linked" to the experience and "at least very pristine" with "perfectly implemented" sound effects, running in Dolby Pro Logic II. Graphics design and environments were also highlighted, described as colorful, vibrant and cheery, with consistent art design and an exceptionally vibrant color palette. Framerate was also noted for being consistent for the GameCube and PC versions, although a drop in framerate in the multiplayer component was noted.

It also attracted several negative criticisms. Often cited were the game's camera control system, described as "uncooperative" and "terrible". Camera control compounded an additional problem regarding the controls relative to the camera's position, such that pushing forward may or may not move the character in the same direction the camera is facing. Falling from the level's platforms into the deep pits below was also criticized. The game's voice acting also came in for criticism, described as "horrendous" and "the biggest misstep in the sound design" such as the infamous line, "What are we gonna do Sonic?" and Tails' "helpless" personality. Also, the third Chaos Emerald (yellow) has proved extremely difficult to get compared to the others. Some reviewers found the controls a negative feature, and the combat heavy sections were also cited as a negative point.

In addition, the PlayStation 2 version received lower average scores. Clipping and graphic faults were cited, whilst the framerate was also lower than the other versions.

In 2004, Sonic Heroes was the sixth best-selling game in the United Kingdom overall, and a full year after its release, was still at number eight in the all-price chart. The game ultimately sold well enough to enter all three consoles' "best-sellers" lists: Greatest Hits/Platinum for the PlayStation 2, Platinum Family Hits for the Xbox, and Player's Choice for the GameCube. The game was also released in a package with Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on Xbox. The game has sold 5.46 million copies worldwide.

Trivia

Characters

• All the characters speak one at a time by team formation during the stages or bosses, for example: first Sonic talks, then Tails, and finally Knuckles.
• Knuckles is the only Power character who uses two hands to operate a pull switch, while the others only use one hand.

File:Rouge winks (Sonic Heroes).png

Rouge winking at the player.

• While selecting Shadow or Omega to be the leader in Team Dark, if the player stops and uses the first-person camera to look at Rouge, she will occasionally turn her head towards the player and wink at them, breaking the fourth wall.
• In the English version of Team Dark's final cutscene, Rouge tells Omega that Shadow is a robot. In the Japanese version, she tells him that she believes Shadow is an android.
  • The Team Dark ending leaves it ambiguous as to whether Shadow himself was the real Shadow or an android, although Neo Metal Sonic's statement of copying the data of the Ultimate Life Form after the Egg Albatross boss fight was defeated strongly implied the former.
• In the opening scene of Team Rose's story, Amy is seen with a newspaper clipping showing a photograph of Sonic carrying Chocola and Froggy. The article on the newspaper appears to be an ad for a Palm OS port of the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• In this game, Sonic's arms are not outstretched behind him while he runs, as he is always swinging his arms.
• Sonic Heroes is the first time Metal Sonic has used a voice actor for dialogue, which is actually Sonic's under many filters. Metal Sonic also spoke in Sonic Pinball Party and Sonic Generations, but both games contained no audio.
  • Metal Sonic speaks again in Shadow Generations as Metal Overlord, having his own individual voice actor for the first time.
• This is the only main series Sonic game released on consoles in which Shadow is playable but does not transform into his Super State, besides the Episode Shadow DLC in Sonic Forces.
• The pose of Team Sonic at the ending of the final cutscene of the game as Sonic declares them as Sonic Heroes is the same as shown in the game box art.
• Cream the Rabbit was originally planned to debut in this game, but Sonic Advance 2's development team decided to introduce her in the Game Boy Advance title as a way to make herself become familiar with players, make its story feel fresh, and specifically serve as a character for beginners, similar to how Team Rose is intended.
• Team Chaotix is the only team without a hedgehog, or any other anthropomorphic mammal for that matter, on the team, seeing as Vector and Espio are reptiles and Charmy is an insect.
• In the opening cutscene of Team Chaotix's story, there are papers pinned on a notice board behind Vector that show concept drawings of the Badniks used in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
• Although the player with any team can obtain any of the seven Chaos Emeralds during gameplay, the Last Story's opening cutscene shows said teams separately have only a few each; Team Sonic got the blue emerald (1), Team Rose got the yellow and purple emeralds (2), Team Dark got the green and white emeralds (2), and Team Chaotix got the red and cyan emeralds (2).
• Amy will sometimes exclaim, "Oh my God!" upon entering a certain section of Bullet Station and Final Fortress or when Team Rose discovers a hidden power-up.
• Sonic Heroes marks where Tails and Knuckles' respective Super States were completely changed to have simple golden invincibility shields rather than their original super transformations seen in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, due to Takashi Iizuka's now established rule of having only male hedgehogs able to transform. This has been met with significant backlash among fans who were familiar with the older Sega Mega Drive games, believing only Sonic was actually transformed during the Last Story's climax. Their classic transformations would return in Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins, however.
• The final boss battle with Metal Overlord in Sonic Heroes is one of the only two times so far in the Sonic series where three Super States are required to defeat the powerful foe, under Team Sonic. The other game with this rare feat is Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), with Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver teaming up against Solaris.

Differences between platforms

• There are few technical differences between each version (as well as bugs) of Sonic Heroes:
  • The PlayStation 2 version does not support progressive scan video and runs at 30 frames per second with some minor instances of slowdown. This version is the only one to contain freely selectable languages in-game, and the player is able to switch the voice and text languages separately (however Japanese voice and text support is absent in PAL releases). The USA version also has the Select and Cancel button reversed. This version supports "Dolby Digital Pro Logic II", with Dolby Digital for FMV cutscenes only, and Dolby Pro Logic II everywhere else. This version also has the most balanced audio mixing, though a small handful of sound effects are either too quiet or absent. The PAL release has an exclusive "TEST" screen for 60hz support. This is also the only console version to receive a Korean release.
  • The Xbox version (and "Originals" release) supports 60 frames per second, but has a few drops throughout, it also has the fastest loading times, contains dual languages dependent on the Xbox system settings, and has a higher video resolution (480p, mistakenly noted as 720p on the cover). This version uses Dolby Digital 5.1 for both gameplay and FMV cutscenes.
  • The Nintendo GameCube version suffers from control issues, having reduced camera rotation to half the speed of the other versions, and analog movement snapping to 8 directions due to the controller’s design, making smooth turning unnecessarily harder. However, this port is able to maintain a decent framerate of 60 frames per second, and has a unique Anti Flicker option, but only has one voiced language available, this being Japanese in the Japanese release and English everywhere else, due to disc size constraints. This version only features Dolby Pro Logic II for the sound. The "NOW LOADING" text during loading screens is also missing in this version. For some reason, characters' eyes also glow in the dark.
  • The PC port that was released months later contains some tweaks to the gameplay. There are only a few differences of its own, such as a new feature that allows the player to switch camera modes between Auto Camera and Free Camera, though this option is not always available. For the most part, it has a higher video resolution than the other versions and features slightly enhanced shading. The downside is that it has problems with certain gamepads, similar to the PC version of Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut. This version only contains one voiced language due to size concerns at the time. This port also suffers from audio mixing issues, but is somewhat remedied with the ability to adjust the music and sound volume, but the sound and voices share the same slider so it doesn’t do much to fix it.
• Big's character model in the PC version is missing its stripes in-game due to a graphical error.
• Metal Madness/Metal Overlord is shiny blue on the Xbox and PC versions, while on other versions he is just blue.
• The Speed Type characters lack the falling animation in the PC version and only lose Rings, making it harder to defeat them in Team Battles.
• Some glitches are only possible for the consoles versions, like the Team Blast glitch.
• In the PC version, Cream's A-Rank line and four of Amy's voice clip files for are empty.
• The PC version's "formation" screens are clear, while in the other versions they are disarrayed.
• In the PC version of the game, the "All" selection in Multiplayer was supposed to play all the courses listed on each type of Multiplayer game mode, but instead it only plays two of them.
• When playing the Xbox version on the Xbox 360, during the Credits, the FMV cutscene audio will play back. This makes the credits roll slower due to the game's frame cap during FMV cutscenes. However, FMV cutscenes may stutter.

Gameplay

• While battling another team, if the player looks at them with the first-person camera, the characters will be doing random things like spinning around in circles or star-jumping. However, they have to be on the platforms to do this, as by flying and looking down, they will only see the character on their foot, and not those on the ground. This can be worked around though if the characters aren't directly under them.
• In Final Fortress with Team Chaotix, the player's mission is to collect five keys to free the client. However, in the last cutscene, Vector opens the door by simply breaking it.
• Strangely, during the Special Stages, there's a slight chance that the player will clip outside the tube and move in an uncontrolled state.
• Getting an A-rank on every level in the game unlocks Super Hard Mode, a mechanic that would be used again in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog's Expert Mode.
• While other Sonic games usually perform slower in 50hz mode, Sonic Heroes was sped up to compensate for it. A 60hz option was added as well. However, while 60hz mode runs like normal on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the GameCube's 60hz mode just takes the 50hz mode and speeds up the game by 20%.
• This is the first main series Sonic game where the Spin Dash cannot be performed since its introduction in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Errors

• Tails incorrectly states, "Look at all those Eggman's robots!", along with E-123 Omega who says "Must eradicate all Eggman's robots!".
• In the cutscene before playing Robot Carnival as Team Chaotix, when Dr. Eggman says "You've made quite of a mess here," the subtitles read "You've made quit of a mess here".
• In the cutscene that plays before the fight between Team Rose and Team Chaotix, Big says, "It's not nice to tease my friends!", but in the French version of the game, the subtitles are mistranslated as, "J'adore taquiner mes amis!" which humorously translates to, "I love to tease my friends!"
• No matter which team the player is playing as, specifically Team Dark and Rose (as they have female members), after Robot Carnival and the Robot Storm, Eggman will say, "Don't get too excited, boys! Those were the easy ones!"
• When entering Final Fortress as Team Sonic, Sonic will say "This must be Eggman's headquarters!" while the subtitles read "This must Eggman's headquarters!"
• A misprint of certain English manuals state that Sonic is only 8 years old rather than 15.
• In Seaside Hill and Grand Metropolis as Team Chaotix, at one point when encountering Eggman's robots, Espio will say, "Are those Eggman's robots?" while the subtitles read, "Are these Eggman's assassins?" or "Are they Eggman's robots?"
• In Grand Metropolis, once at the cannon that leads to a rail section as Team Chaotix, Espio will say, "I'll handle it." while subtitles incorrectly read, "Leave this to me!"
  • This also happens in Frog Forest when the player reaches the section with three Giant Frogs, a bunch of Egg Pawns, and an Egg Knight.

Miscellaneous

• In the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, Sonic Heroes is awarded for most playable characters in a platform game.
• In the PlayStation 2 version, the menu actions of Cross and Circle are switched; typically Cross is select and Circle is back. This is due to the Japanese versions of games doing this, and the American Sonic Heroes simply did not swap the buttons while localizing.
• This is the first Sonic game to have a simultaneous first-run release on more than one console.
• The game's sound test classes some of the levels as "zones".
• A remix of the "Battle: City Area" music can be heard in the Special Stages for the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors.
• Demo versions of the game are featured in PlayStation 2 Official Magazine discs #46 & #55, Xbox Demo Disc #31, and a bonus disc included with Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
• Sonic Heroes was the first Sonic game to support High Definition display along with 5.1 Surround Sound, as these are in the Xbox and PC versions.
• This is the only Sonic game to have its theme song named after the game's title.
• A remix of the Quick Race music can be heard during Cream: Chao Hunt mission in the console/PC version of Sonic Generations.
• The 9/28/03 prototype of the PS2 version showcases a lot of changes that occurred before the final release, such as different graphical effects and unfinished level layouts. Certain features were also cut like the ability to copy data in-game or Korean text being removed from non-Korean releases.. The later 10/08/03 build of the GameCube version adds additional work-in-progress tracks that have missing instruments in some background themes, such as Casino Park's.
• When using the Metal Heroes cheat, the hems at the bottom of Amy and Cream's dresses, along with the buckles on Big's belt, become spiked.
• After clearing the Final story and as the credits begin to roll, the background of the image that displays "Get all A-ranks!" is actually the title screen of the game's beta version.
• Prima's Official Strategy Guide's recommended order for playing the teams is: Team Rose, Team Sonic, Team Dark, then Team Chaotix.
• Sonic Heroes marked the first time that Crush 40 recorded more than one song for a single game.
• In the Japanese version, the characters' lip syncing noticeably does not match the spoken language. This is because the pre-rendered cutscenes were designed with American English in mind, and it would be cheaper to have uniform visuals than to render two separate renditions of the same storyline. This is in contrast with the Sonic Adventure games, where their cutscenes were designed with Japanese in mind, and English would become the standard for the rest of the series.
• An F-Rank was supposed to be in the game, but was scrapped for unknown reasons, therefore, the final game uses "E" as the lowest rank, similar to Sonic Adventure 2.
• The teams and ability formations featured in Sonic Heroes would return in future installments of the series, although the ability to control three characters at once in normal gameplay would not.
  • An exception to this is made in the final boss of Sonic Forces, where the player is able to control three characters all at once, possibly in reference to this game. The "tag" gameplay that is also present in Sonic Forces shares similarities to the three-character team gameplay as well.
• Two different classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects are used in Team Chaotix's intro. When Charmy comes rushing in and collides with Vector, the sound effects "Broken Skid" and "Boom Crash", according to the Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Sound FX soundtrack by Rhino Records, are paired and used in that order. The sound effect library is available.
• Most of the textures come from the Japanese stock image library, this includes the sky background used for the title screen.

Metal Heroes

• Team Sonic with their metal skins.
  Team Sonic with their metal skins.
• Team Dark with their metal skins.
  Team Dark with their metal skins.
• Team Rose with their metal skins.
  Team Rose with their metal skins.
• Team Chaotix with their metal skins.
  Team Chaotix with their metal skins.

• Using these codes allows the player to become metal versions of their selected team in 2-Player Mode:
  • PlayStation 2: Hold Cross + File:PSTriangleButton.png after selecting a level.
  • Xbox: Hold Template:A Button (Xbox) + Template:Y Button (Xbox) after selecting a level.
  • Nintendo GameCube: Hold Template:A Button (GameCube) + Template:Y Button (GameCube) after selecting a level.
  • PC: Hold [A] + [Y] after selecting a level.
• Ian Flynn, the former head writer of the IDW Publishing's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, stated that the metal skins served as inspirations for the Zombots.

Videos

Trailer #1US Commercial #1US Commercial #2Japanese Commercial #1Japanese Commercial #2UK CommercialFrench Commercial

File:Sonic Heroes Trailer-1

File:Sonic Heroes 'League of Superheroes' Nintendo Gamecube Video Game TV Commercial

File:Sonic Heroes short commercial 2

File:Sonic Heroes Japanese Commercial 2

File:Japanese Sonic Heroes Commercial 1

File:Sonic Heroes Commercial

File:Sonic Heroes (Playstation 2) - Retro Video Game Commercial

See also

• Sonic Heroes Puzzle
• "Sonic Heroes" (song)

External links

• Official Japanese website
• Official Korean website Template:Archived
• Sonic Heroes Music Website (archived)

Sonic the Hedgehog console mainline games

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