 Before the Apple Arcade exclusive Sonic Dream Team had even released, many early players were already calling it one of the best Sonic games of modern times. As it stands, it is probably one of, if not the best Sonic game released in 2023, and considering the year that Sonic has had, that is saying something. This year we've had Sonic Frontiers DLC, Sonic Origins Plus, Sonic Prime Dash, Sonic Superstars, and the wonderful murder of Sonic the Hedgehog in addition to Sonic Dream Team. So for Sonic fans, we've had a lot of good stuff. For a relatively small budget mobile title to shine as brightly as it does, Sonic Dream Team clearly does something right. The question is, what is it doing that very few other Sonic games have done over the past 20 to 30 years? Apologies, by the way, for another video in this format. It is not my favourite, but it's been such a ridiculously busy month slash year that if the video is not made like this, then it's just not going to be made. And also that's why I'm just like literally filming with the backdrop from some of the videos that I do for my day job, because I do not have the space or the time to rearrange the lights and get things set up. Otherwise, I hope that everybody's just okay with that. What's your message for the universe? Hello, I'm still here for you soon. Sorry. So I was having a conversation with some friends in the immediate aftermath of Sonic Dream Team being released, and I said something which I have said before and is a little bit capricious, but I said that at this point I think that Sonic Team are the only people on planet Earth who don't know how to make a Sonic game. You know, I'm being a bit catty, I'm being a bit mean. And in response to that, one of my friends, Tessnakerer, be sure to check his channel out, said, quote, they do know how to make a Sonic game. The issue is they don't know how to make one twice. And that's kind of the point. That there, that is what Sonic Dream Team does that no other Sonic game recently has done. They have made a successful sequel that uses ideas from previous Sonic games, but doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You know, Sonic Team has developed this reputation that every few years they try to dramatically shake things up for Sonic, and in doing so they start again from scratch. And in doing so, they kind of get rid of all of the stuff that they were building upon. And again, they're left with things that are maybe half thought out or that need more development. It's not uncommon to get to the end of a Sonic game and think to yourself, well, that was all right. There was some pretty good concepts in there. It'll be interesting to see what they do next with this. And then what they do next with this is something completely unrelated entirely. So you had the 2D stuff, and then there's Sonic 3D Blast, but then there was the adventure games, and then there's Sonic Heroes, and then there's Shadow of the Hedgehog, and then there's Sonic 06, and then there's Sonic Boom is in there somewhere, Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic and the Secret Rings. All of these games do something very different with Sonic, and none of them really flow from one to the other. Like the ideas that really work in one game are not then carried on into the next. And then in fairness, we did get quite a long stretch where Modern Sonic was all focused on the boost with the Hedgehog engine, all very, very similar in terms of the Sonic gameplay. So you have Unleashed, and you've got colors, and you've got generations. All of these games that feel more or less the same, and that allowed Sonic to for a little while build upon things that featured in previous games, and take out elements that didn't work quite as well, and then add in new things to kind of experiment with the formula. But even with this locked-in formula, it hasn't always felt like Sonic Team understands why certain things are popular in their games. The classic example being Classic Sonic, who was thrown into Sonic Forces because he was popular in Sonic generations, even though it doesn't quite fit the game, and even though the way that Sonic controls in these segments of Sonic Forces doesn't quite feel right either. I think the challenge for Sonic Team for quite a while now has been trying to figure out which of their ideas are actually worth pursuing further. And sometimes they pick the right things, and sometimes they get the wrong end of the stick when something ends up being very popular, or they just end up dropping a mechanic that people enjoy, but that doesn't quite gel with whatever they have in their head that they want to do next. They also, and I know I'm going to get comments for saying this again, but I'm going to say it again anyway, they also do have a tendency to borrow ideas from Zelda games, or at least that's how it feels, because they always seem to be something in these Sonic games that feels reminiscent of something that Zelda did three or four years prior. At the moment we're at a point where Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka insists that Sonic Frontiers is the future of the Sonic franchise, that we're going to be getting more wide open zone games where you can wander around a bit more, you have a bit more freedom to explore, and in that you can soak up the atmosphere, you can bounce off different springs, you can grind on some rails, you can just kind of figure things out for yourself. As far as the direction for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise may go, that's not the worst thing that they could possibly have decided on, but at the same time we're being told yet again that this is the foundation and that the next game is going to build off of these things, and we have yet to see what they actually decide to keep and what they decide to lose from that game. At a time then when Sonic the Hedgehog is going more open world, Sonic Dream Team feels like a little bit of a throwback, or indeed a lot of a throwback, because all of the big ideas from this game have appeared in previous Sonic the Hedgehog titles, both from Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic, from the adventure games, from all of the different eras of Sonic, there's a little bit of Sonic Lost World in there which is just interesting to see. All of these ideas kind of mushed around, turned into something new, as they've created a game that builds on basically everything that Sonic is, rather than trying to pick one specific direction, and indeed rather than trying to forge a new path, looking at what worked before and how it can be updated and modernized, and made to fit with everything else. What's interesting about this approach is that not only does it feel fresh and original to have a Sonic game that is using a lot of ideas, but using them very well, it also retroactively makes some of these ideas feel more coherent as a result. It makes you feel like, oh yes, going back to these games, it does make more sense, because here's what they could have been, and what they were building towards. Here's the baby steps that have then formed Sonic Dream Team. And that's brilliant, because it's always nice to have something which not only is great in its own right, but also makes everything else around it better as well. Now, Sonic Dream Team does not have a Sonic Frontiers-sized budget. That is very clear right from the start. Things open with the delightful 2D hand-drawn animated opening cutscene, and then we get a series of still images. It feels like a comic strip that has been made using the 3D character models from the game, which is essentially the cheapest and the quickest and the easiest way that you could possibly have an intro story for this type of game. And indeed, all of the cutscenes of the game play out in a similar fashion, just a series of still images. I think that's brilliant. I think that's a very good choice on the part of Sega Hard Light, because they had a limited budget, and they decided to focus on the things that matter, and then present the story in a way where it does the job, but they're aware that most people are hitting the skip button anyway. I say this, having been a huge fan of the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog primarily because it is very much a visual novel. So it's not that I'm saying that I don't like story in Sonic games. I definitely do when there's a context and a reason for them, but in a game like Sonic Dream Team, the point is to get to the action as quickly as possible, and if they've decided to cut corners on the storytelling in order to focus on the gameplay itself, I think that's the right way around to do things. Speaking of gameplay, the games that Dream Team reminds me the most of are the Sonic Adventure titles. There's a very heavy emphasis on grinding on rails, the light speed dash makes an appearance for the first time in a very long time, and when knuckles and rues climb up walls, they feel exactly the same as they did in Sonic Adventure. There's also a game mode where you have to search the level for gems, which look identical to pieces of the Master Emerald, albeit in a different color from the Sonic Adventure games. Things are spiced up a little bit more with Tails and Cream and how they fly in this game. It feels very different to Sonic Adventure and completely different to how Tails feels in Sonic Adventure 2, and I think this may be the weakest part of the controls of the game. I don't think that I love flying as either of these characters, and considering that this is the largest departure from anything else in a previous Sonic game, it's interesting to note that the thing that they've tried that's new is the thing that maybe doesn't quite work as well. Otherwise, everything here feels like pieces of other Sonic games that have been brought together into a unified whole for the first time. I'm generally more a fan of 2D Sonic games than 3D Sonic games, and what I think this does really well is bring along some of the level design from a 2D Sonic game into the third dimension for the first time. Even all the way back with the Adventure games, a lot of Sonic levels in particular in Sonic Adventure games are very linear in 3D. You just follow the prescribed path and there's not a lot of deviation and you don't get a lot of choice about how exactly you approach a level. Compare this with a 2D Sonic game where the whole point of the level design is that you can either go up, you can go down. There are various different paths that you can take along the way and different secrets to discover and things to explore with different characters that then bring out different parts of the level. This slightly more varied element of Sonic level design is perfect in Dream Team. You have the choice in a lot of levels whether you want to approach it as Sonic or as Knuckles or as Tails or as their female counterparts and you have the choice yourself as to how you go about that. Do you want to make use of the Lightspeed dash here? Do you want to fly? Do you want to glide over to something and climb up a wall? It's all fairly open and doing it in different ways will take you through the level in a different progression and will also give you the opportunity to explore at your leisure. There are of course some levels that you are locked in with a particular character and when you've got some of the more free and the open levels where you're exploring to find gems there are certain points in the level that can only be reached by one of these characters. You've got the freedom to change character at any point which is a very welcome inclusion but this idea of being able to explore the same one level with multiple different characters who control in a different way is strangely absent from a lot of 3D Sonic games and it works perfectly here. On the subject of multiple characters I do like that things have been very much streamlined here so you have the three core male heroes that we're all familiar with Sonic and Tails and Knuckles and then you've got three female counterparts for them who will control in exactly the same way Amy and Rouge and Cream. It does mean that Amy has yet another different control style and she's collected more than a few just this year alone but at the same time it's wonderful to see this level of inclusion this is something that I personally have been fighting for for a very long time I've been very vocal about wanting to see Amy in more games and seeing Cream back as well is just wonderful it's really brilliant and I'm very grateful that they've gone about it with this way. One thing I also appreciate is that in bringing along all of these old ideas from previous Sonic games they haven't just imported them wholesale they have tweaked them they have altered them to make them feel a little bit more comfortable. There are a lot of moments in Dream Team where I think I'm about to hurtle off a ledge because I've made a slight mistake or miscalculated a jump and the game just kind of plops me where it knows that I was trying to go. This is particularly true around grinding on rails where the game says ah you press the button prompt vaguely near the rail we'll just put you on the rail that's what you were aiming for anyway and it's also true of the lightspeed dash there's a moment of panic almost every time I use the lightspeed dash because I'm not quite sure if it's going to work and generally it does but there is just that second of me thinking oh no did I get it right and part of that is probably a hangover from the adventure games but also part of it as I feel there might just be something in the way that the game is presented where it just it triggers something in me that I'm a little bit concerned but generally it works out fairly well. I think as I progressed through the game they got to more and more points where obviously the difficulty scaled up and I was struggling a little bit more and accidental deaths became slightly more common but at the same time I've never felt like I've been cheated in this particular Sonic game which I have definitely in other games in the past it always feels like the game is fair and where I've made a mistake it's generally my fault the exception to that is the camera the camera in this game sometimes decides that it doesn't want to do what I want it to and it will just do its own thing it's a bit frustrating at times but as a Sonic fan I'm very well aware of how difficult cameras are to get right with this particular speed-based gameplay style and as a result I'm willing to overlook its peculiar quirks certainly for the most part I feel like the game is tremendously well polished it does an excellent job of having a limited scope and of not attempting to exceed that or kind of go further and stretch further than it could do this is a game that knows its limits well and in the Sonic franchise that's not always the case so I applaud it where I see it indeed one of the big criticisms I've seen of this game and it's not really a criticism anyway is it is people saying I wish this game were longer it's quite a short ride and that is absolutely true and I don't think that that is a bad thing because there have been a lot of Sonic games this year and there have been Sonic games indeed for people who love all different types of Sonic experiences and if you want a big long sprawling Sonic game Frontiers still exists I find that the focused tight game that is Sonic Dream Team is a lot more to my personal liking because I know that it's not wasting my time this is not to say that Sonic Frontiers necessarily wastes the player's time but it is to say that just sometimes games can feel the need to feature unnecessary fetch quests or unnecessary challenges or kind of just string things on for a little bit longer for the sake of extending the run time one game that I do feel does this in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is Sonic Colors where I breeze through the first few levels I'm having a great time and then suddenly I'm stuck in some awkward really fiddly platforming stages that don't need to be there they're really clearly just there to make sure that I've slowed down and play the game for more than two hours without finishing it Sonic Dream Team does not mind if you play for two hours and finish the entire thing and in that way I think it reminds me a lot of classic Sonic games where you can finish any of them in about half an hour if you push through that's absolutely not a bad thing given the number of times that I return to classic Sonic games all killer, no filler considering that limited budget I do think that the way Sonic Dream Team is structured really works to its favor so you have a level and then you've got five challenges within that level but all of them feel appropriate none of them feel like they're deliberately slow or clunky or that they're trying to get you to do things that the game is not designed for you've got various challenges of getting to a goal you've got some speed trials you've got some exploration trials they all work and none of them linger or overstay their welcome you'll quickly move on to the next thing boss fights have been a contentious subject in Sonic the Hedgehog games this year so I think that Sonic Dream Team does a very wise thing the first boss fight is clearly just copying Super Mario Odyssey and there's nothing wrong with that because if it works it works subsequent boss fights can be a little bit more fiddly but the fact that there is no live system and the fact that you don't have to start a boss fight all over again if you die means that this is a lot more enjoyable than the boss fights in certain other Sonic games from this year mentioning no names all in all Sonic Dream Team works for me personally because it is a culmination of all of the wonderful things that I have loved in previous Sonic games it is put together in a package that is very well polished that doesn't overstay its welcome that just works as a coherent game in a way that a lot of Sonic Team Sonic games don't necessarily always land is it my favourite Sonic game of the year I really liked the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog so I'm probably going to say that that is my absolute favourite Sonic game of the year and quite possibly my favourite game of the year in general because I just thought it was whimsical fun and I really enjoyed the art and the writing and the whole experience but certainly as a favourite Sonic game like actual Sonic game with actual Sonic gameplay this might just be it not just for this year but for a long time like what's the I guess it was mania was the last time that I enjoyed a Sonic game where you play Sonic gameplay this much sorry if that sounds a little bit convoluted with me separating out the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog into its own little bubble but I hope that you can understand why I'm doing that and why that feels like a very different thing to like a proper Sonic game where you run and jump and collect rings I mean yes you collect rings but you get the point so then yeah Dream Team the best Sonic game that I've played since Sonic Mania not including the murder of Sonic the Hedgehog but at the same time I'm aware that this game is locked on a certain device it is exclusive to Apple Arcade which means that if you don't own an Apple product you can't play the game and with that being the case I would not necessarily say that this game alone is worth the price of admission if you need to buy an iPad or an iPhone to play it one hopes that eventually it will be ported to other systems but even if that never happens there are so many other Sonic games out just this year alone that I feel like there are other games that you can play and you don't necessarily need this one in your life so yes I really enjoyed it yes I think that you will really enjoy it too but no if you can't play it easily I don't think that you should go out of your way to do so at the end of the day there are always more games out there this is true now more than ever there are so so many really wonderful games and it's fantastic that we have a Sonic game that for me feels like it really pulls everything together and makes something coherent out of so many disparate ideas but at the same time if you can't play this you can play something else that is also brilliant the moral of this story is that creativity is a messy process you won't necessarily nail things first time and you might be inclined to try a bunch of different approaches and different techniques along the way to finding the right thing for you but as you're going through this journey every not quite achieved goal every slight misstep every imperfect project does lead you to develop a greater sense of yourself and by the time you're finished everything along that journey even and indeed especially the ways in which you failed help to make you better and make you stronger and make you the more fulfilled person that you can be Sonic Dream Team proves this and hopefully whatever comes next will build on that and I mean that does go some way to explaining the tumultuous journey that this channel has had in the past 12 months as well which is still a work in progress all I can do is my best hello everyone I do really miss talking to you and I hope I get too soon bye that makes it sound like I'm like forcing you off it