Sonic Dream Team (Computer)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): December 5, 2023
- Release Date (EU): December 5, 2023
- Release Date (JP): December 5, 2023
- Publisher: Sega
- Developer: Hardlight
- Genres: Platform
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
Game played in a MacMini M2.
Casual Sonic at its best.
Let's start by talking about the elephant in the room: Apple Arcade. Apple has a history of trying to be the cool kid on the gaming block, with a 90's "don't care attitude", from the Pippin to the iPhone 4's marketing against the PSP and now the Apple Arcade service. Perhaps this kind of attitude pairs well with a character such as 3D Sonic but has damned Apple's attempt at the gaming scene as rather unsuccessful - well, not really if you consider the iOS casual gaming market. Perhaps by realizing where Apple's gaming strengths were, Arcade game investments (perhaps sponsorships for exclusives) have shown a niche quality that marries both the simplicity of casual gaming and the design complexity of AAA games.
We've seen the marriage in games like Sakaguchi's Fantasian (that I plan on also making a review of whenever I can convince myself to finish that game - more on that then), Animal Crossing clone(-ish) Hello Kitty Island Adventure and here in Sonic Dream Team. And Sonic Dream Team really masters that concept.
SDT isn't a hard game. It's not meant to be. Quite the contrary. It's clearly meant to capture the engagement of casual players, particularly young players. We can see this from the game plot, starring Cream the Rabbit, the 6 year old kid from Sonic's gang as the second protagonist of the game, to the consistent low difficulty level by design. Even the stakes are low: there are unlimited lives and if you loose, you start right back before where you were when you lost and you lose nothing that you have collected up until that point. There are some parts that spike the difficulty level a little bit, but those are mostly reserved for the post-game and weekly challenges that contribute only to player's score and to finish a digital trophy collection.
Nevertheless the game never fails to make the player feel engaged, even for the experienced player. The lack of difficulty is more than compensated by the suberb level design, requiring the player to be constantly on the lookout of what action it has to take in the next second or two. This is quickly abstractable to muscle memory, if not already there from the beginning from players already familiarized with Sonic games. The attaining of this kind of proficiency to the point of becoming second nature does make the gameplay have a much faster pace and rewarding the player with a sense of accomplishment that you may argue if it's illusionary or not, but in the end that's irrelevant.
Let's get back to our pet elephant that is Apple Arcade. The fact that its' games have to be designed to run simultaneously on MacOS, iOS and tvOS makes it so the games have to be limited both in file size and power demandingness. Hardlight understood how to tackle this. The visuals details aren't complex but they are beautiful, with strong colors and simple elements. The first area of the game and its use of inflatables is a great example of that.
There are only 4 areas, with 4 levels each, excluding the bosses. However, for each level there are typically 8 missions (usually including 2 post-game ones). Each level reuses the same area assets (with the occasional shift in color palette) and each mission reuses the same level structure (with occasional small changes or playing area restrictions).
The first (main) mission of each level isn't time constrained nor does it reward the player with fast completion. It is also where all the optional collectibles are which provides the player with all the incentives for exploration. The following missions vary between time trials (both phased and not), additional untimed platform challenges and treasure ("dream shard") hunting (also untimed) that is reminiscent of Knuckles and Rouge's levels from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, but that here serve a more relaxing purpose.
Speaking of Knuckles and Rouge, there are 6 playable characters or, to be fair, 3 pairs. There is a male and a female counterpart for each type of character that are unlocked at the same time and have no difference in gameplay. Sonic and Amy fill the speed type character with the Speed Dash ability; Tails and Cream fill the flying type, and Knuckles and Rouge that fill the gliding/climbing type. I wish each character had their own advantages and disadvantages instead of only being a skin to their counterparts, but it is still a plus over not having the variety at all. There are specific levels for each type and levels where all types can and even occasionally - particularly towards the latest levels - must be used with a character switching mechanic that is available right after the second pair of characters is unlocked.
This last mechanic is reminiscent of Sonic Heroes and simultaneously gives a glimpse of what could have been a better thought mechanic in said game. Perhaps an idea for a successor. There are other specific mechanics reused / reminiscent of other games. The treasure hunting missions were one of them, another is the gravity shift that is reused fromSuper Mario Galaxy Sonic Lost World.
The music is mostly upbeat and catchy and the voice acting is great, with the exception of Rouge's, IMO. I believe that trying to tone her down from the weird femme fatale a Sonic anthropomorphic character has mostly been designed to be, by removing the sassiness from her voice, ended up sexualizing the character even more in a weird and unintentional way.
The plot is simple, with only an interesting choice of allowing a kid to make a difference or protect her from danger. My only pet peeve with the plot is the insistence of dumbing down Knuckles for weak comic relief instead of following the path of SA and SA2. Cutscenes are voiced over but mostly made of static panels, fruit of the Apple Arcade constraints - it's a bit of a downer contrasting the game's fluidity but it's tolerable.
On a final note, I'd like to express my concerns for preservationism. I doubt the game hasn't developed without an exclusivity deal with Apple Arcade and Apple has a long history of bad retro-compatibility. I fear it'll eventually be lost in time, locked in an Apple environment that will become deprecated as soon as Apple ditches x64 support, like it has with x86 and PowerPC before - or as soon as the game stops updating to support whatever new API version requirements Apple imposes - or even as soon as the Apple Arcade programe is terminated, whatever comes first.
We've seen the marriage in games like Sakaguchi's Fantasian (that I plan on also making a review of whenever I can convince myself to finish that game - more on that then), Animal Crossing clone(-ish) Hello Kitty Island Adventure and here in Sonic Dream Team. And Sonic Dream Team really masters that concept.
SDT isn't a hard game. It's not meant to be. Quite the contrary. It's clearly meant to capture the engagement of casual players, particularly young players. We can see this from the game plot, starring Cream the Rabbit, the 6 year old kid from Sonic's gang as the second protagonist of the game, to the consistent low difficulty level by design. Even the stakes are low: there are unlimited lives and if you loose, you start right back before where you were when you lost and you lose nothing that you have collected up until that point. There are some parts that spike the difficulty level a little bit, but those are mostly reserved for the post-game and weekly challenges that contribute only to player's score and to finish a digital trophy collection.
Nevertheless the game never fails to make the player feel engaged, even for the experienced player. The lack of difficulty is more than compensated by the suberb level design, requiring the player to be constantly on the lookout of what action it has to take in the next second or two. This is quickly abstractable to muscle memory, if not already there from the beginning from players already familiarized with Sonic games. The attaining of this kind of proficiency to the point of becoming second nature does make the gameplay have a much faster pace and rewarding the player with a sense of accomplishment that you may argue if it's illusionary or not, but in the end that's irrelevant.
Let's get back to our pet elephant that is Apple Arcade. The fact that its' games have to be designed to run simultaneously on MacOS, iOS and tvOS makes it so the games have to be limited both in file size and power demandingness. Hardlight understood how to tackle this. The visuals details aren't complex but they are beautiful, with strong colors and simple elements. The first area of the game and its use of inflatables is a great example of that.
There are only 4 areas, with 4 levels each, excluding the bosses. However, for each level there are typically 8 missions (usually including 2 post-game ones). Each level reuses the same area assets (with the occasional shift in color palette) and each mission reuses the same level structure (with occasional small changes or playing area restrictions).
The first (main) mission of each level isn't time constrained nor does it reward the player with fast completion. It is also where all the optional collectibles are which provides the player with all the incentives for exploration. The following missions vary between time trials (both phased and not), additional untimed platform challenges and treasure ("dream shard") hunting (also untimed) that is reminiscent of Knuckles and Rouge's levels from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, but that here serve a more relaxing purpose.
Speaking of Knuckles and Rouge, there are 6 playable characters or, to be fair, 3 pairs. There is a male and a female counterpart for each type of character that are unlocked at the same time and have no difference in gameplay. Sonic and Amy fill the speed type character with the Speed Dash ability; Tails and Cream fill the flying type, and Knuckles and Rouge that fill the gliding/climbing type. I wish each character had their own advantages and disadvantages instead of only being a skin to their counterparts, but it is still a plus over not having the variety at all. There are specific levels for each type and levels where all types can and even occasionally - particularly towards the latest levels - must be used with a character switching mechanic that is available right after the second pair of characters is unlocked.
This last mechanic is reminiscent of Sonic Heroes and simultaneously gives a glimpse of what could have been a better thought mechanic in said game. Perhaps an idea for a successor. There are other specific mechanics reused / reminiscent of other games. The treasure hunting missions were one of them, another is the gravity shift that is reused from
The music is mostly upbeat and catchy and the voice acting is great, with the exception of Rouge's, IMO. I believe that trying to tone her down from the weird femme fatale a Sonic anthropomorphic character has mostly been designed to be, by removing the sassiness from her voice, ended up sexualizing the character even more in a weird and unintentional way.
The plot is simple, with only an interesting choice of allowing a kid to make a difference or protect her from danger. My only pet peeve with the plot is the insistence of dumbing down Knuckles for weak comic relief instead of following the path of SA and SA2. Cutscenes are voiced over but mostly made of static panels, fruit of the Apple Arcade constraints - it's a bit of a downer contrasting the game's fluidity but it's tolerable.
On a final note, I'd like to express my concerns for preservationism. I doubt the game hasn't developed without an exclusivity deal with Apple Arcade and Apple has a long history of bad retro-compatibility. I fear it'll eventually be lost in time, locked in an Apple environment that will become deprecated as soon as Apple ditches x64 support, like it has with x86 and PowerPC before - or as soon as the game stops updating to support whatever new API version requirements Apple imposes - or even as soon as the Apple Arcade programe is terminated, whatever comes first.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Superb level design;
- Simple and easy yet rewarding;
- Beautiful visuals.
What I Didn't Like ...
- Apple exclusivity (especially from a preservationism perspective);
- Apple Arcade (subscription service) exclusivity;
- Static panels in cutscenes.
10
Gameplay
Superb gameplay.
9
Presentation
Beautiful graphics, especially considering the resource limitations the developers had.
7
Lasting Appeal
There is some replayability due to weekly challenges but motivation for it ends by finishing the trophy collections, unless playing them for the sake of playing.
9
out of 10
