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Sonic Heroes is a 2003 3D platform game in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series. Set six months after the events of Sonic Adventure 2, the story follows four individual groups of characters in their quests to find Doctor Eggman; meanwhile, Metal Sonic secretly manipulates these events. Sonic Heroes features twelve playable characters divided into pre-determined teams of three. Gameplay requires players to switch between team members and take advantage of each's unique abilities to complete levels, and collect the seven Chaos Emeralds in special stages.

The game was produced in commemoration of the series' twelfth anniversary. Sonic Team USA handled development, led by Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka. The team aimed to make Sonic Heroes feel like a standalone game rather than a continuation of the Sonic Adventure games, and built the game using the RenderWare game engine. Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game—produced for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows—and was released in Japan in December 2003, with a worldwide release following in 2004.

Reviewers were polarized by Sonic Heroes, although most agreed it was an improvement from the Sonic Adventure games. Some critics wrote the game was much closer to the series' original 2D entries, and singled out its graphic design and detailed environments and textures as highlights. Others derided it for not addressing the problems of past Sonic games, such as poor camera controls and incoherent voice acting. Despite the mixed reception, the game was a major commercial success and was branded under the Player's Choice, Platinum Hits, and Greatest Hits lines for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2, respectively.

Gameplay
Sonic Heroes is a 3D platform game similar to previous Sonic the Hedgehog games. In the Sonic series platform game tradition, the player must complete a series of levels to advance the story. Players collect rings to protect themselves and earn extra lives. Robot enemies are scattered around levels, and must be defeated by performing jumping on them or other means of attacking. The game begins with a tutorial followed by fourteen normal levels and seven boss fights. While the Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast featured elements of action-adventure and exploration, Sonic Heroes has a greater focus on speed-based platforming and action gameplay. For this reason, video game journalists have written that the game plays much closer to the 2D Sega Genesis Sonic games, rather than the Dreamcast games.

The player navigates through the game using a team of three different characters. There are four teams: Team Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna); Team Dark (Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, and E-123 Omega); Team Rose (Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, and Big the Cat); and Team Chaotix (Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Vector the Crocodile). When the team reaches the end of a level, they are graded based on their performance; an "A" rank is highest, while an "E" is lowest.

Team Rose, Team Sonic, and Team Dark represent easy, medium, and hard difficulties respectively, with the harder difficulties featuring longer stages and tougher enemies. Team Chaotix's levels, on the other hand, are mission-based, requiring players to fulfill a specific objective in order to clear each level. Each team contains three character types: Speed, Power, and Flight, which the player toggles between at any time, also changing the team's running formation. Speed characters can perform homing attacks and light dashes, and can form whirlwinds to climb up poles; Power characters can break through objects and glide on air fans; and Flight characters can temporarily fly in the air and attack airborne enemies. By acquiring certain items or enemies, characters can level up, becoming more efficient when fighting against enemies.

By collecting keys hidden within levels and reaching the end of a level without getting hit, players can enter special stages. In special stages, players dash across a tube, collecting spheres containing boost power whilst avoiding obstacles. There are two types of special stages: Bonus Challenge and Emerald Challenge. Bonus Challenges are optional, simply awarding the player with extra lives. Emerald Challenges task the player with catching a Chaos Emerald before it disappears. If players can collect all seven emeralds and clear each team's story, an additional Last Story is unlocked. The game also features a multiplayer mode, in which two players can race or battle against each other.

Plot
Six months after the battle aboard the Space Colony ARK, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles receive a letter from Doctor Eggman. Eggman claims to have an ultimate weapon that he will use to take over the world in three days. As the team sets off to put a stop to Eggman's plans, Amy, who is infatuated with Sonic, teams up with Cream and Big to help them search for their missing friends, Chocola and Froggy, who were supposedly seen being kidnapped by Sonic. Elsewhere, Rouge infiltrates one of Eggman's bases, where she discovers Shadow, who was presumed dead following the Space Colony ARK incident, and a discarded robot named E-123 Omega. With Shadow missing his memories and Omega seeking revenge against Eggman for sealing him away, Rouge, who wants to get a hold of Eggman's treasure, forms a team with them. Meanwhile, the Chaotix Detective Agency, formed of Vector, Espio, and Charmy, receive a job from a mysterious client who communicates with them via walkie-talkie, which they blindly accept due to needing the money.

As the teams make their way towards Eggman's whereabouts, clashing with each other along the way, many of the characters start having doubts about the identity of their true adversary. Unbeknownst to them, someone is hiding behind the scenes, posing as Eggman and secretly obtaining data from his enemies. After Eggman's final machine is defeated, Team Dark uncovers a series of androids resembling Shadow, Team Rose is reunited with Chocola and Froggy, and Team Chaotix discover that their mysterious client is actually the real Eggman, who had been locked away by his impostor, revealed to be Metal Sonic. Using the data he had copied from his enemies, Metal Sonic transforms himself into the Metal Overlord in order to prove himself as the ultimate being. However, Sonic uses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and, with help from his teammates, defeats Metal Overlord, who reverts to normal. As the heroes disperse, Sonic and his team run off in anticipation of their next adventure.

Development and release
Sonic Heroes was developed by Sonic Team USA in commemoration of the Sonic series' twelfth anniversary. Production was led by producer Yuji Naka and director Takashi Iizuka. Iizuka stated that he did not want to make the game a sequel to Sonic Adventure 2, as he was worried only fans of the series would buy the game. Therefore, the team instead decided to design Sonic Heroes so casual players not familiar with Sonic could adapt to it. The game does include references to the stories of the Sonic Adventure games, but it otherwise features its own style and gameplay.

Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game: in addition to its GameCube version, it was also developed for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Unlike previous games, which had been made using tools built by Sega, Sonic Team partnered with Criterion Software to use their RenderWare game engine so the game could be programmed and ported with ease to each platform. Though Sonic Team was able to transfer some textures and models from the Sonic Adventure games into Sonic Heroes, most of the game was built from scratch. The team found additional challenges in working with the Xbox, a platform with which they had very little experience. The content in all versions is the same, but the PlayStation 2 version runs at 30 frames per second (FPS) in contrast to the other versions running at 60 FPS. Noah Musler of Sega explained that running the PlayStation 2 version at 60 FPS would have caused performance problems, so it was slowed down.

Whereas the Sonic Adventure games had a focus on variety and storytelling, Sonic Heroes has an emphasis on what the developers described as "team action". Iizuka stated Sonic Team had a considerable amount of freedom in designing the game due to this different scope. The Chao-raising system—a staple of the series since Sonic Adventure—was removed because Sonic Team feared it would disrupt the pace of the game. With the Chao's removal, the Flickies were also eschewed. To improve replay value, the grading system was made more difficult. The special stages from the 2D games were also revived to "refresh players' minds" and change the game's pace. Player reactions to previous games had an impact on the design of the game; for example, the team did not include Big's fishing from Sonic Adventure and Tails' shooting from Sonic Adventure 2 after receiving criticism for both modes. The gameplay was made more linear and closer to the style of the 2D games.

The Chaotix, who had previously appeared in the 1995 spin-off Knuckles' Chaotix, were revived for Sonic Heroes. According to Iizuka, the Chaotix were brought back because Sonic Team thought the characters were unique and had never used them. Iizuka also said he did not consider the Chaotix in Sonic Heroes the same team that appeared in Knuckles' Chaotix, claiming to have simply created new characters using the same designs from 1995. The game marks the debut of E-123 Omega in the Sonic series. Cream the Rabbit was created specifically for Sonic Heroes, but was introduced in 2002's Sonic Advance 2 to make the game easier for beginning players. Sonic Team wanted to include as many teams as possible, but time constraints and a desire to keep the gameplay balanced prevented this. The game also features several computer animated cutscenes produced by Vision Scape Interactive.

Jun Senoue composed the majority of the Sonic Heroes soundtrack. Senoue's band Crush 40 performed the main theme, "Sonic Heroes", and the final boss theme, "What I'm Made Of". Other songs were performed by Ted Poley, Tony Harnell, Kay Hanley, and Gunnar Nelson. Iizuka has said that the intention was for the music to return to the roots of the Sonic experience and to be exciting and fast-paced.

Naka declared 2003 "Sonic Year": in addition to Sonic Heroes, a McDonald's Happy Meal toy line based on the Sonic series and Sonic X anime series were launched, exposing the franchise to a new generation of potential gamers. Sonic Heroes was released in Japan on December 30, 2003, two weeks later than Sega intended because the company wanted to ensure there were "no compromises" in the final product. The GameCube version was released in North America on January 6, 2004, followed by the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions on January 27. The European version was released on February 2, 2004. November 2004 saw a release of a Microsoft Windows version. The game was rereleased as part of the Sonic PC Collection for Windows on October 2, 2009, and PS2 Classics line for the PlayStation 3 on February 22, 2012.

Reception
Critical reception to Sonic Heroes was "mixed or average", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers generally agreed the game was better than the previous 3D Sonic games but still below the quality of the 2D games. The PlayStation 2 version's reviews were considerably worse than others; critics noted clipping, graphic faults, and its lower frame rate.

The presentation was generally well-received. Matt Casamassina (IGN) lauded the game's detailed, varied, and realistic character models, and wrote that the environments were colorfully and crisply textured. He also noted the game's realistic and "gorgeous" shading and lighting effects. Though Ryan Davis (GameSpot) thought the graphics were not much of an improvement from previous games—comparing them to "a glorified Dreamcast game"—he still praised its steady frame rate, art design, and vibrant colors. Tom Bramwell (Eurogamer) disliked the shiny models, but was still pleased by the vivid, imaginative aesthetics. He joked it was so colorful, "it even stands out on my GameCube shelf". In regards to the soundtrack, Joe Dodson (Game Revolution) found it upbeat and "somewhat" catchy, offering particular praise for the music of Bingo Highway. Though he found the music laughable and not an improvement from previous games, Casamassina still thought the sound was high quality, and praised its "perfectly implemented" sound effects running in Dolby Pro Logic II.

Multiple reviewers wrote that the gameplay was very similar to that of the Genesis Sonic games. Davis found Sonic Heroes was the closest Sonic Team ever got to recreating the classic 2D Sonic gameplay in 3D. He praised the game for stripping away the shooting and hunting elements from the Sonic Adventure games, and called it "a purer, more action-packed Sonic experience" than previous games. Casamassina considered Sonic Heroes a major improvement from Sonic Adventure, writing "Sonic Heroes does an absolutely sensational job of re-creating the intensely fast and unpredictable looping, corkscrewing stages from the classic games in 3D". The staff of 1UP.com and Russ Fischer (GameSpy) agreed. Many critics called the game's casino level a highlight.

Critics were generally divided over the team-up concept. Fischer argued it was well-balanced and thought it greatly increased the replay value. Casamassina offered similar praise, praising its easy-to-learn, strategic controls. Dodson wrote the system added diversity. However, Casamassina also thought it was not as ambitious as expected and did not change the overall experience. Davis agreed the controls were easy, but considered the large number of teams unnecessary: "no one cares about these peripheral characters... People play Sonic games to play as Sonic the Hedgehog". 1UP found the concept was more repetitive than innovative. Bramwell considered the gameplay original but "boring and obvious" and thought that the controls were clunky and unorthodox.

The game was criticized for not addressing the problems of prior Sonic games. 1UP wrote the problems with the camera and "hit-or-miss lock-on attacks that leave you plunging to your doom" that plagued the Sonic Adventure games were still present in Sonic Heroes and hurt the experience greatly. Davis said although the camera worked well most of the time, coordination between camera position and character movement caused problems, such that pushing forward may not move the character in the same direction the camera is facing. He also wrote that the game suffered from problems with the collision detection and noted all the shortcomings were present in the Sonic Adventure games. Casamassina agreed the camera had not been improved. The voice acting was especially derided; Casamassina joked players should "turn down the volume during cut-scenes", and Fischer compared the voice work to that of Playskool.

Sales
In 2004, Sonic Heroes was the sixth bestselling game in the United Kingdom overall and was still at number eight in the all-price chart a year after its release. By October 2004, the game had sold over one million copies in Europe. Its PlayStation 2 version received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. According to Sega's financial reports, Sonic Heroes sold 1.42 million units from its release to March 2004 (850,000 in the U.S., 420,000 in Europe, and 150,000 in Japan), 1.57 million units from March 2004 to March 2005, and 420,000 units in the U.S. from March 2006 to March 2007. The game was branded as part of the Player's Choice line on GameCube, Platinum Hits on Xbox, and Greatest Hits on PlayStation 2.

Legacy
Sonic Heroes marked the debut of the recurring Sonic character E-123 Omega. In addition, it reintroduced the Chaotix to the franchise, who had faded into obscurity. To celebrate the Sonic franchise's twentieth anniversary in 2011, Sega released Sonic Generations, which remade past aspects of Sonic games. The version of the game released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows contains a remake of Sonic Heroes' Seaside Hill level, and the Nintendo 3DS version includes the Egg Emperor boss fight. Some levels in Sonic Forces (2017) reuse the mechanic of switching between characters as necessary.