Approaching the big 40, I find myself sitting comfortably in my arm chair playing Sonic’s latest adventure on the Nintendo DS. It feels like I have grown up with Sonic; he has been a big part of life from my early 20’s to now and has given me both gaming pleasure and despair. The early games on the Megadrive were exhilarating, colourful, addictive and mind numbingly fast. Through the years though, the Sonic franchise has lost its way and has failed to deliver the thrills it once did.
When the Star Wars gaming franchise went through similar troublesome times, Lucasarts looked to established development teams to bail them out of their quandry. The likes of Ensemble produced Galactic Battleground based on their successful Age of Empires 2 engine and RPG veterans Bioware developed Knights of the Old Republic based on the successful mechanics they introduced in such titles as Baldur’s Gate.
Sega must have been looking on and taking note as the Canadian developer Bioware have been commissioned once again to come to a franchise’ rescue.
It was with a little trepidation that I started playing Sonic:The Dark Brotherhood; fingers were crossed that Sonic had returned to form as we see our intrepid hero entering the virgin territory of the role playing game genre. With 18 years of experience behind them, Bioware thankfully has to a degree pulled it off.
Of course behind every game there has to be a story of sorts and historically within the Sonic games the narrative behind the mission settings has been week. For this quest our spiky blue friend has been summoned back into business due to the Chaos Emeralds having been stolen by Egg….erm, make that Marauders – robotic machines who have plans of questionable intent for the planet.
The game is split into two distinct parts. One sees the player guiding their team around the map with the stylus the other is concerned with battle. Your team is represented on screen by your currently selected character, which to start with is Sonic. A map of the explored area is updated in real time on the DS’s non-touch screen. Those areas not explored are concealed by a Fog of War. As you explore the map, further friends from the Sonic world are bumped into and join your cause.
Each has their own unique specialist skill that can be called upon by selecting the required character and pressing a circular icon on the playing area when prompted to do so. For example, Sonic (whose special skill is the Sonic dash) may find himself at a ravine that he himself cannot cross.
