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Charming, engaging gameplay and well-designed levels | Review - Sonic Dream Team

2K View2023-12-15

Sonic Dream Team

6.9

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✨Overview

Sonic Dream Team is a 3D platformer Sonic the Hedgehog game designed exclusively for Apple Arcade and available for Apple devices. The game introduces a unique storyline set in a dreamy landscape where Dr. Eggman attempts to exploit a mysterious power for his world-conquering ambitions.

🟩Pros

+Charming clean 3D visuals
+Excellent level design
+Six characters with unique abilities per pair
+Quick bite-sized levels
+Controller support

🟥Cons

-A shortlived experience
-Performance optimization concerns, especially for mid to low end Apple devices.

⭐️Score: 8/10

📖Story and Premise

The dream in the title is not used metaphorically, in this game, Sonic and his gang are literally in a Dream. Dr. Eggman endeavors to exploit a mysterious power — called the Dreamweaver — for his world-conquering ambitions. The narrative unfolds through comic book style cutscenes and is very simplistic, serving more as a backdrop to the action-packed gameplay rather than a nuanced exploration of character motives or intricate plot twists.

🎨Graphics and Art Style

Instead of the 2D side scrolling style of the recently released Sonic Superstars, Sonic Dream Team adopts a more modern 3D style of gameplay, which is a bit surprising considering this is primarily for mobile devices instead.

It features worlds with distinct and visually charming environments. From the tropical Scrambled Shores to the mind-bending Nightmare Maze, the art style captures the essence of Sonic's vibrant and dynamic universe. The character design is equally charming, featuring clean 3D character models. The soundtrack complements the experience, especially when serving as the backdrop to all the boosting and ring collecting that the characters do – exactly what you would expect from a Sonic game.

🎮Gameplay

Sonic Dream Team delivers a fast-paced and smooth 3D platforming experience. Players can boost around the map to navigate faster, gather collectibles, slide through glide rails, and jump over obstacles. There are lots of familiar gimmicks in the maps, such as Bounce Pads and Loops. The camera is in a third-person view, usually positioned behind the character, but it can change from time to time depending on the current situation.

The game introduces additional characters, including Tails, Cream, Knuckles, and Rouge, each pair endowed with unique abilities that can help them reach new places in a given level. These characters not only add depth to exploration but also enhance replayability.

🕹Controls

The touch controls are mostly intuitive, left stick to move that character, plus two buttons to boost and jump. The touch controls are serviceable since this is mostly a casual game, although as part of the Apple Arcade experience, the game also offers proper support for Bluetooth controllers, including Xbox and Playstation controllers, which will offer more precision especially with the movement.

🏁Level Design

Sonic Dream Team features four zones with three acts each. Challenges within these acts yield Dream Orbs, vital for unlocking further zones and progressing through the story. This is a similar mechanic to the recent Super Mario Bros Wonder, in which the progression is not directly tied to the levels, but to the Orbs. It means you can play the levels in a non-linear way, going back to previous levels to gather more Orbs and collectibles. It’s not the biggest game of all and all this can be beat in a day. The checkpoint system is also forgiving, so there’s really no source of frustration in playing it.

The level design is the game at its best, with spaces strategically built to balance speed and exploration. Each zone introduces distinct gameplay mechanics — such as new hazards to avoid like bombs and new ways to travel around like water streams. It’s not a long game, but it’s quality over quantity in this case. The levels themselves are small and bite-sized, which can easily be complete in just over a minute or so.

As mentioned earlier, the unique abilities of the characters open up new opportunities in level traversal and contribute to the game's enjoyable dynamics that adds a little bit of replayability. One area may be previously inaccessible until you unlock the character needed. Sonic and Amy focus on speed, Tails and Cream can fly, while Knuckles and Rouge specialize in wall climbing.

📊Technical Performance

Sonic Dream Team ran terribly on my iPhone 13, exhibiting sluggish FPS performance and occasional stutters, even when set to the lowest setting and 0.5x resolution. Despite these issues, it remains playable, and I encountered no frustration with the performance, given its nature as a casual game, but this raises concerns for the performance on other older Apple devices. Not everyone has the latest iPhones or plays games on Macs and iPads, but this game is evidently geared for the higher end of the Apple device spectrum, similar to recent AAA ports like Resident Evil Village, or perhaps it is just simply badly optimized, for now.

⚖️Conclusion

With engaging gameplay, diverse characters, well-designed levels, and a visually appealing art style, Sonic Dream Team offers a solid Sonic the Hedgehog experience for Apple Arcade subscribers. While the game's short duration and optimization issues certainly leave room for improvement, they do not overshadow the game’s excellent quality. It’s certainly not a killer app that will make you subscribe to the service or make you buy an iPhone, but it’s a great addition to the service for those who have already invested.

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Sonic Dream Team

6.9

Action

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