Sonic fans and people who enjoy the fighting genre should definitely try this game, even though it has a few faults.
Generally, the game fights somewhat like a 3D Street Fighter game, although the controls are not nearly as complex. You have your punches, kicks, blocks, jumps, special moves, etc. It is all very fun, especially with the eventual slew of Sonic characters that are unlocked during the game. All of them play, at the very least, pretty well. However, it would not be surprising if a player enjoys using one or two specific characters and never playing as any others except during the story mode.
Speaking of the story mode, it was set-up in a very enjoyable manner. Basically, the story itself pertains to Sonic discovering a mysterious robot named Emerl. First, it start out with Sonic’s adventure with Emerl (pun intended), and then other characters’ stories are gradually unlocked. The variety of perspectives piece Emerl’s chronicles together quite nicely. Plus, it is imperative to mention that Emerl can be used in fights, and can be customized using various cards that can be unlocked during story mode. This is a fairly large motivation for playing.
So, it seems as though this game is near-perfect, no? Well, if it was, it would not have been given an 8.0! The problem with this game is that it gets boring somewhat fast. As mentioned before, the controls are very simplistic when compared to other fighting games out there, and it is easy to take advantage of the special moves in order to obtain near-flawless victories. This could potentially be a turn-off, as many players out there do desire a challenge every once in awhile. Plus, once story mode is beaten, there is not much motivation to play that mode again. So all you have left is Battle Mode, which is pretty good for awhile. But, it is still limited due to the simplicity of the controls. It seems as if this game targeted a younger demographic than what may be expected. Despite this, in the end, this mode is an absolute riot when played with friends.
This game does impress me, as what it does is done very well. However, the game’s replay value is somewhat limited due to its easiness. Overall, this game would definitely appeal to a massive audience, but it would surely impress Sonic fans and younger people for a significantly longer amount of time.