Sonic Dream Team delves into the psyches of Eggman and Cream
Sonic the Hedgehog has a new game coming next month that combines his high-speed 3D platforming gameplay with the replayability and discovery of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Sonic Dream Teamdeveloped by Sega’s Hardlight studio, also features a unique setting – the vivid dreams of Dr. Eggman – and an all-new character to the Sonic-verse.
Sonic Dream Team, which Polygon played at a hands-on preview event earlier this week, borrows from a variety of influences. Its levels are inspired by skate parks, with grinding rails, half-pipes, spinning walkways, and Christopher Nolan’s impossible architecture. beginning. The levels are a brightly colored distillation of Dr. Eggman’s dreams, filtered through Sonic’s friend Cream the Rabbit.
Skate park inspired levels Sonic Dream Team They are designed so that players will play them multiple times, with multiple goals in mind. In some of the levels I played, set in the dream worlds known as Scrambled Shores and Dream Factory, I was tasked with finding keys to open new paths, reaching a goal within a specific time, or tracking down a hidden object. The level structure will change depending on the objective, and players are encouraged to revisit the levels again and again. The levels are full of hidden collectibles, including blue coins and red stars scattered throughout.
Karim is playable solo and in 3D for the first time in a long time.
Photo: Sega Hardlight/Sega
Some collectibles and areas can only be accessed by certain characters. Sonic the Hedgehog is playable, and his girlfriend Amy Rose is similarly playable with Misty Blue. Tails, Knuckles, Rouge the Bat, and Cream the Rabbit can also be unlocked and played with. Knuckles and Rouge can slide and climb walls, allowing them to reach locations other characters cannot. The same goes for Tails and Cream, who can fly around the levels briefly.
The good news is that for players who want to collect everything in a level, they can switch between any unlocked character mid-game. The only caveat is that they have to be motionless while doing this; You won’t be able to fly as high as Tails and then switch to Rouge mid-flight, for example.
Sonic Dream Team The developers say the game is not focused on combat. Instead, enemies spread across levels are designed to help players maintain their momentum, lunging and ramming into them using character-boosting attacks. The developers want to put players in a state of flow, where they can chain jumps, slides, and speed boosts together to get through levels seamlessly. The hope is “a lot of replayability” with Dream TeamShort session levels, where players shoot for 100% completions and faster and faster times.
Some of Dr. Eggman’s dreams are darker than others
Photo: Sega Hardlight/Sega
There is also an overarching story in Dream Team, narrated through in-game audio scenes. Dr. Eggman, Sonic’s venerable bad guy, discovers a dream catcher-like device called Reverie, which Sega describes as “an ancient device with the power to bring dreams into the real world.” Sonic and his friends are helped to understand Reverie’s powers by Ariem – a play on REM sleep – who is introduced in Dream Team as its guardian. Arem, an anthropomorphic sheep, is an original creation of Sonic Dream Team And it was created by Hardlight and Sonic Team artist Yuji Uekawa.
Sonic Dream Team is coming to Apple Arcade and will be playable on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. I played the game on a Mac Mini at a recent hands-on event using a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller and found the game controls to be quick and intuitive. Hardlight has done a good job of making Sonic’s very fast-paced gameplay readable, mostly thanks to the cooperative camera. I didn’t have much fun playing it on an iPhone with a touchscreen, but I’ve never been a fan of virtual gamepads on screens.
Sonic’s new standalone adventure arrives on Apple Arcade on December 5. It is unclear whether it will come to other platforms, but in the foreseeable future, Sonic Dream Team Exclusively to Apple’s gaming subscription service.
Read more
“Writer. Friendly troublemaker. Lifelong food junkie. Professional beer evangelist.”