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Along with everybody’s favourite sanitary
engineer Mario,
 SEGA’s super-fast blue hedgehog was always very
likely to feature in Wii’s Launch Line-Up. Sonic has graced many
systems since SEGA’s transformation into a software publisher and
the Next-Generation of Nintendo hardware is no exception. So how
does the spiky blue one play with Wii’s revolutionary controller?
Under the working title of Sonic Wild Fire,
this new Sonic title is very different from the one currently in
development for the
PlayStation3 and
Xbox360. Sonic Wild Fire plays like a hybrid of a Racing
game and a Platform title much like Sonic Adventure for the
DreamCast, and for the most part, seems to pull-off this strange
marriage very well. If the E3 demo is anything to go by, the
Adventure elements are out and the game is played at breakneck speed
with small slower paced Platforming breaks throughout. The game does
seem quite linear though, with the player only controlling Sonic’s
position on a pre-determined track and jumping and attacking as
 necessary. This however paves the way for some incredibly fast
gameplay, something Sonic fans are sure to enjoy.
While the game may not be anything radically
different, the control obviously is. The Remote is held horizontally
and a gesture down causes Sonic to move forward. Twisting the Remote
backwards makes Sonic back-pedal and turning it left or right causes
Sonic to move in the corresponding direction. Jumping is governed by
pressing the 2 Button. Enemies are locked-onto automatically and
attacking is done by shaking the Remote back-and-forth whilst
airborne. Shaking the Remote while at ground level causes Sonic to
dash forward at an insane pace, provided that the player has filled
the Wild Fire Meter through collecting white balls along the track.
Despite the simplicity of the controls, controlling Sonic is a lot
harder than it should be, mainly due to some poor Remote
calibration. The Remote needed to be turned quite far in each
 direction to move Sonic, which left gameplay feeling quite distant
and less than engaging. Hopefully this will be sorted for launch
because Sonic Wild Fire looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Sonic Wild Fire
was also one of the prettiest games on Wii at the show. Liberal use
of Blur-Effects ensures a great sense of speed and despite all the
on-screen madness, there were no dips in Frame-Rate. In comparison
with the competition, Sonic Wild Fire did not seem
particularly inferior to most of the Xbox360 launch games, although
only time will tell if the technological lesser Wii can compete with
the other Next-Generation powerhouses. |
