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At first glance, Sonic Chronicles doesn’t seem like such a hot idea. A Sonic the Hedgehog RPG might have sounded pretty cool 10 or 12 years ago, but nowadays it’s hard to name a franchise that’s run itself any further into the ground. Sonic used to be synonymous with speed and style. A decade later, he stands for mediocre camera programming and terrible, terrible fan artwork.

A Sonic RPG developed by BioWare, though, changes the equation entirely. You get the feeling that the people who put this together have been waiting a while for the opportunity. Just because most of the company’s catalog is grim, serious stuff – like Baldur’s Gate or Knights of the Old Republic – doesn’t mean they don’t have a fun, cartoony game in them as well.

Sonic Chronicles is that game. It has a lot in common with old favorites like Super Mario RPG, and in all the right ways. There’s a learning curve to climb up – some of the game’s twitchier elements are a little tricky, and console gamers may take a moment adapting to BioWare’s style of storytelling – but the effort is definitely worth the reward.

Ready, Steady, Go

This isn’t what you’d call an action-RPG, although it’s an RPG with action gameplay in it. Sonic and up to three partners do a little basic platforming on the overworld map, like their counterparts in Xenosaga or Final Fantasy X-2, and you’ll have to be quick with a stylus if you want to master the game’s combat system.

Battles are turn-based – both sides stand toe-to-toe and act in a pre-determined sequence. There’s a fun obstacle course mini-game when Sonic needs to chase down a fleeing enemy, though, and pulling off special “POW Moves” requires matching a set of stylus motions on the screen. It’s a bit like playing a quick game of Elite Beat Agents, and while picking up the timing can prove frustrating at first, there are rewards for getting the hang of how the system works. Stringing together perfect POW Move combos deals out extra damage and racks up bonus experience points as well.

Once you’re at the top of that learning curve, combat in Sonic Chronicles is almost addictive. At the very least, it’s never boring. As characters build up their speed statistics, they gain the ability to make multiple actions in a turn, so there are lots of options when it comes to preparing for each round of combat. The stylus interface makes it easy to tap in all those commands, though, and battles unfold quickly once you get your plan of attack together.

Character development can be perfectly simple if you like it that way. As each member of the party gains a level, they get the chance to distribute points between their stats and develop new POW moves. If you don’t feel like micro-managing the party, just hit the “Auto-Level” button and they’ll progress along what the game decides is the best path for a particular character to follow. BioWare picked some interesting roles for different characters to fill -- Amy Rose, though it might surprise you, is the team’s heavy hitter in combat, while Tails has a wide selection of healing and support skills.

Ah, Green Hill Zone

Of course, there’s more to do here besides fighting and raking in experience points. The overworld map looks like a traditional top-down RPG world, but it’s more interactive than most – different characters can use different abilities to clear obstacles and venture into hidden areas. Knuckles can climb sheer surfaces, for instance, while Amy Rose bashes through barriers with her giant hammer and Sonic zips up and down ramps and through loop-the-loops. That last one’s always fun to watch, even if you don’t have complete control when he’s at top speed.

Besides being fun to bounce around, it’s a nifty game world just to look at. It’s bright and colorful, just like any other Sonic game, but the background colors are slightly softer than usual, which lets the characters stand out a little bit more. The only trouble is that the perspective sometimes makes it hard to work out which areas are accessible from which direction, but the large-scale map on the top screen (gradually revealed as you explore more and more of each area) usually answers the question of exactly what path leads where.

Most areas have lots of random supporting characters to talk to, and because this is a BioWare game, chatting with them isn’t a completely passive experience. Nearly every conversation has optional questions to ask, and different forks to explore with different responses – some of these lead to new bits of information, while others just add an extra punch line. The game has a fun, breezy sense of humor, and though most of the jokes will make sense to anyone, there are some sly in-references for fans who’ve been around a while. (Tails and Sonic have two very different perspectives on what some might call their “good old days.”)

Left in the Dust

Those good old days are long gone now, and cynics might say that they weren’t that great in the first place. Either way, Sonic Chronicles proves there’s life still left in the Sonic franchise. It would have been a pretty good RPG without a bunch of famous characters in it, but the characters add plenty of visual charm and personality to the game. It still seems strange to find BioWare in charge of a Sonic the Hedgehog revival, but there’s no sense in arguing with success.

Article Written By: D.F. Smith