I am not at all ashamed to say that I'm a really big fan of Sonic '06!! I've played plenty of Sonic games, and I'm able to see the good in all of them, but Sonic '06 was the first Sonic game I played that felt big and exciting. The multiple playthroughs of Sonic '06 I had watched before playing seemed to have trimmed a LOT of stuff out, whether it was so their videos would be more fast-paced, or they just thought that a lot of the content in Sonic '06 didn't really need much coverage. This led to me playing the game knowing roughly what to expect, but still seeing plenty of new stuff, some of which pleasantly surprised me! That is why I think you should absolutely play at least a bit of Sonic '06 before reading through my thoughts on it in this shrine, if you have a way to! I am being completely honest when I say I had a great time with the game!
So, Sonic '06's storyline revolves around various different aspects, but mainly Solaris the sun god, Mephiles The Dark, Princess Elise of Soleanna, the seven Chaos Emeralds and how using Chaos Control can now be used for time manipulation, and of course Dr Eggman and his quest to take over the world. The game plays around with far higher stakes than in any other Sonic game before or after, and at plenty of points it absolutely FEELS more intense, too, whether it's because of the largely orchestral soundtrack, or the fact that Sonic and his friends are tampering with space, time, and powerful beings beyond comprehension.
You take control of three main characters: Sonic, Shadow, and a completely new character, Silver. Each character has their own completely different story that links up with the others in a very clever way, where you start a level with a certain mission in mind, often told to you by a secondary character in the story. Within levels you can sometimes meet up with another character, who you will then control, using their unique abilities to solve a puzzle or get to another area you weren't already able to get to.
I've heard a few people praising the way that Sonic '06 handles characters and the pace of levels, and I have to agree with them on that, but I don't often hear people talking about how great the levels in Sonic '06 are. While it's certainly a PS360 game when it comes to textures and models, Sonic's Tropical Jungle, for example, truly surprised me the first time I experienced it, because that level is absolutely gorgeous! Shoutouts also go to literally every other stage, too; the developers made sure that nearly every version of every level had some sort of cool setpiece or gimmick that made them unique!
Music is also a part of Sonic '06 that plenty of people love, but that's a given for almost every Sonic title, huh? Like, even when I was being shot at for thirteen minutes in Silver's Kingdom Valley, I was still thoroughly enjoying the music, and the same goes for Crisis City, and honestly Sonic's Aquatic Base, too. The aforementioned Tropical Jungle has really beautiful, chill music, I love the drums, spooky strings and insane slap bass in Radical Train's theme, I adore how adaptive Crisis City's music is and how many segments it has, and White Acropolis' themes are super fun; "Snowy Peak" is perfect for snowboarding, and "The Base" is great for NOT driving a buggy, but instead knocking down spotlights by homing attacking your way to the top of them.
I love all of the character themes, too. I listen to His World fairly regularly, and I always think to myself that having cussing in a song and then censoring out the cussing for the actual game that the song is used in is such a Sega thing to do. All Hail Shadow is a classic, you've gotta love Crush 40, and Dreams Of An Absolution is really brilliant and very Silver. My only complaint about character theme stuff is that My Sweet Passion never shows up! It would have made for a great gag in one of Amy's scenes if her theme had a cameo in there somewhere, I think it has great comedic potential (Plus, it's just a great song).
I have to say, I really adore how the characters are portrayed in Sonic '06. While not good by any means, I love how incompetent everyone is, and how that incompetence is the only thing that keeps the story moving. There's such an abundance of fan-favourite characters in Sonic '06, and it's fun to see them interacting with one another in proper cutscenes; keep in mind, before Sonic '06, the majority of Blaze's interactions with the main cast were in Sonic Rush, a DS game that had simple text cutscenes and very few voice clips, it was going full visual-novel mode.
I love the voice acting, too! All of the cutscenes feel like parts of a school play that nobody is particularly interested in, so they end up saying their lines incorrectly or just forgetting them. The way that cutscenes seem to hold on stuff that's not important really adds to this feeling, too. It's great! Everyone's dorky voice acting always makes me smile.
I think it's really wonderful that Sonic Team did not have nearly enough members, time OR experience to refine the character models or mocap animations enough for Sonic and friends to look any better than, like, a cross between shiny plastic action figures and real humans in bizarre costumes. It gives the cast a really strange and uncanny look, one that's honestly really interesting and unique. Sonic Team sorted their stuff out after Sonic '06, which was good, but Sonic '06 really stands out, whether you think that's a good or a bad thing.
It's time for the character appreciation section!!
First up, Princess Elise! Just getting it out of the way, I think her romance with Sonic was... Strange. But I've kept the idea in mind that Sonic Team were sorta lost at this point, and were also under huge time constraints while making this game in particular. And as we all know, an easy way to keep a plot """"engaging"""" is to introduce a love interest! I think THAT cutscene, and the preconceived notion that plenty of people have about her (that being, she is annoying and useless) really set in stone that plenty of people do not like Princess Elise!
As for me... I think she's actually really cute! I like her hairstyle and outfit, (and the fact that she's not particularly girly, unlike plenty of other princesses in media) her voice acting, while still awkward, is also very cute, and I think the idea of her containing a dangerous, otherworldly being (or spirit, or whatever) inside of her for so long is, while pretty sloppily executed, pretty interesting and compelling nonetheless.
There's also Silver! He obviously had multiple chances later on in the series to sorta redeem himself, unlike Elise, but I think his appearance in Sonic '06 is my favourite. I really adore his voice acting - while everyone's voice acting is bizarre and bad, his is particularly overacted and dramatic in a really funny and adorable way. I think he also has a KILLER design, and he fits in so well with the pre-existing characters.
His psychokinesis and hover abilities are really cool and implemented in really fun ways, but... Man was Kingdom Valley painful! And Tropical Jungle. The ball puzzle was easy as hell to bypass, though, so I'm not complaining about that, and Silver's story was overall pretty fun to make my way through anyway!
Then there's Amy Rose! Amy's one of my favourite Sonic characters, so even if her abilities in Sonic '06 leave much to be desired, I still had a blast playing the small sections of levels where she's playable... Except for End Of The World. We don't need to talk about End Of The World.
Like everyone else, I thought that her invisibility thing was really strange and unexpected, and if I recall correctly, I don't think I even used it in the game because it's pretty useless. But I think Amy's voice acting is super cute, and seeing her tag along with Silver as they both search for Sonic, then her stepping in and protecting Sonic after Silver attacked him... Fun times!
I really like Shadow's stages because it's fun to break them with the vehicles! Like, I encountered a weird bug in his version of White Acropolis where destroying the towers through means other than the buggy prevented the game from realising that they were broken, stopping the door from opening? Absolutely sick! I really love Shadow's Radical Train - if you know how to ride the motorcycle without driving off the cliff, you're going to have a fun time! I didn't have much trouble with the hovercraft in Kingdom Valley, unlike other people playing this game. There is a collapsing tower that was kinda frustrating, but it's okay.
I'm also a huge fan of Sonic's mach speed segments!! I really don't mind the controls, I think they just add to the "uncontrollable" feeling. And how the themes for these segments reuse some motifs and melodies from the main levels' themes, but not everything? Brilliant! My favourite segment is absolutely in Wave Ocean, but the other ones are also very good. I loved running on waterfalls in Kingdom Valley.
I have to say, I think every secondary playable character in Sonic '06 is great in their own way. I like flying around as Rouge and throwing bombs at everything, (That also goes for Tails' segments, too!) I have no recollection of Omega's gameplay except for shoot and hover, but that's okay! My opinion on Knuckles' gameplay was kinda soured by his section in Flame Core, but he's alright. Ooh! I really like Blaze, I think she's great. I like her firey double-jump, and I enjoyed playing her version of Wave Ocean very much.
But yeah, I love Sonic '06 with all my heart! Despite being a fundamentally flawed game with plenty of issues that make it near unplayable for most, there are so many things about this game that I adore. I'd love to purchase this game physically one day, despite currently not having a functioning console that will actually run it; I'd just love to see it sitting on my bookshelf, wedged between my copies of Shadow The Hedgehog and Balan Wonderworld. I'm weird and that's great. Have a good day :)