Sonic the Hedgehog (Demo) preview

You know a franchise has lost its appeal when you can barely be bothered to download a free demo anymore, but that's the state Sonic is in these days. Despite its better judgement, Gamestyle took the blue one's latest game for spin... and then immediately regretted it.Oh dear. What happened? How have Sega managed to repeat every single problem with Shadow the Hedgehog again? Did they think dressing it up in next gen jazz would magically hide its shortcomings? This is beyond bad - it's comically awful. After clearing the (mercifully short) demo level, Gamestyle had to fire up the Dreamcast to remind itself that 3D Sonic games could actually work, once upon a time.Let's look at the problems for a minute. The level takes place high in the air, upon floating platforms surrounded by sheer drops into nothingness - you fall off, you die - but to get anywhere, you need to rely on Sonic's homing attack, a move that automatically locks onto anything close, be it enemy, spring platform or other target. If there is nothing to lock onto, or Sonic isn't close enough to it (both scenarios are impossible to know for sure by the player), Sonic will simply dash forwards or sideways or whatever way he's vaguely facing. Considering 95% of the level contains nothing to stand on, this obviously leads to him falling to his death like an over-zealous lemming.Once again, it's a complete lack of control that makes it feel so detached and hopeless. Springs, ropes and grind rails send you flying in the only direction the game wants you to go, and any attempt to deviate sees you falling to your death. Like some twisted, sadistic quick-reaction test, you also have to have your finger on the boost button, ready to speed through lines of rings suspended above nothing (or, again, fall to your death). There is a route through the void, of course, but it's not something you'll learn until umpteen falls of doom. Watching the attract video showing exciting scenes from the rest of the game, it's clear it can look very impressive if it's being played by someone who designed it - someone who knows exactly when to boost, when to jump, when to slide - but conveying this over to the player has been a total failure.So far, Next Gen Sonic shows a complete lack of competence and creativity. Oh sure, it looks pretty enough, and there's a few nice physics effects such as crumbling brick work, but generic enemy robots, realistic-looking human characters, misplaced rock music themes and controllable vehicles show a catastrophic lapse in vision. And again, a new character who looks like a slightly deformed version of Sonic and apparently has magic powers. You couldn't make it worse if you tried - even if you locked yourself up in a room back in 1991 and devoted a decade and a half to making the absolute worst possible vision for a future version of Sonic, it wouldn't be as bad as this is looking right now. This is Sega's premier mascot; the very notion of it lowering itself to this level is unbelievable. And it's too late to change it now - it's rotten to the core.