How Sonic Heroes could've been better.

Well let's look at another so-so Sonic game that had a good idea but could've been better.

Sonic Heroes

sales it was quickly ported to the other consoles and I feel bad for those Sonic X watching kids whose first Sonic experience was the buggy PS2 version of Heroes.

Heroes did get some things right. Namely the tone. Where the previous two Adventure games were going the deep serious story and quasi realistic settings route, Heroes went back for the look and feel of Genesis games at least in terms of tone. The levels are colorful, the story is pretty minimal in the "Eggman is doing something evil. Go stop him." Though there was that weird attempt to explain Shadow's retcon back into the series with plot convienient amnesia and sadly setting it up for his horrid solo outing. But looking at the tone and feel. 2 act stages with boss fights, no hub world and putting the Emeralds back in special stages rather than being the plot device. Also ditching the stupid stuff like Emerald hunting, mech shooting and frog fishing because all four teams control the same meaning they all go fast which is probably another reason most fans give this a pass.

Also of the newer gimmicks added to games, the Team Based gameplay had a lot of potential giving the annoying pals something more worthwhile to do that wasn't slow.

So what did it get wrong?

First and foremost, the bad attempt at padding in forcing you to play the same game four times. Had they just focused on the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles combo in a single story it would've been way better. Team Chaotix is the worst with their slow, tedious collect-a-thons and by the time you start their story, you just want the game to be done. They could've had the other teams but let players switch between teams at will with slighly different abilities and just have them all have the same story of stopping Eggman's evil. Amy and co could still be looking for Froggy and Chocolat (Cheese's one time sibling?).

Also the levels are very linear and it's one major aspect they're missing to truly capture the feel of a Genesis game. Once you go through a stage, there's very few reasons to return to a stage once you S-rank it. Then of course the pain that is the special stages. Not only do you have to find stupid keys and you can only get an emerald in Act 2, but there's no restart if you screw up the Special stage and the whole "chase the Emerald" was a pain. Though the 3DS Generations did a better job with this setup though I think the whole reason for them using that Special stage was to show off the 3D effects.

And another big problem with Heroes: ENEMIES WITH HEALTH BARS. Nothing kills the pacing of a Sonic game more than foes that won't quickly die. It would be like Mario having to stop a goomba 16 times to move on. This also leads to you spending more time as a power character just because they can kill it faster. Seriously bosses should take some hits and maybe toss in the occasional mid-level mini boss that takes 2 or 3 hits and this annoying speed killer persisted through Next Gen and Unleashed.

So in the end I would not be opposed to Sonic Heroes 2. But it would need serious changes like more branching level design, more focus on speed rather than combat.

To save them from embarrassment, I'd wished Chaotix wasn't in there. Or take out Vector replace him with Mighty and not make them detectives. But it's too late for that now... I pity these guys...

Yeah, I enjoyed the game but it really could have used some changes and I think you nailed all of them.

Pretty much what Ktulu said. I find Heroes underrated but I hate how frustrating some of the design choices were on the player. Why do I need to hit this enemy so much to advance? Why do I have to restart an Act 2 in order to go for the emerald if I mess up? Why do I need to collect **** as Team Chaotix? 

It's a shame too because honestly pre-Colors I think Heroes had the best damn music of the entire modern Sonic series. IMO, Jun's best work.