Sonic the Comic: The Official Game of the Comic

System – Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
Genre – 2D/3D platformer
Players – 1
Publisher – Sega/Sonic Team
Price – £39.99 RRP
Reviewer – Megadroid (Edited by Jamie J)

It's finally here, Boomers! After seven long years in the making, a staff of hundreds, and a more turbulent history in development than any other videogame, Sega's masterpiece 'STCTOGOTC' is finally about to be released! Naturally, your humble droid has secured the exclusive review before any other major publication or gaming site. Frankly, it's good to know I still have such sway in the gaming industry, although not entirely surprising of course. All the mainstream gaming sites were vying heatedly for this one like a room full of humes fighting over the last rich tea biscuit, but your faithful Megadroid said no, not on my watch, buster. So I kicked down doors and ruined careers in order to bring you this sacred exclusive. Journalists fled in fear, tears streaming down their greasy faces to land poetically on their carefully-maintained rolodexes causing all the entries to blur together in an unkempt fashion. I'm fairly sure I pile-drived an IGN staff member at some point, but it's kind of a blur. A crazy, heroic blur. Oh right, the game!

At the great risk of using more than a little hyperbole, it's clear even from the first few minutes that this is a special game. It's simply a rich tapestry of vision and passion the like of which have never been seen before. It makes all Sonic games seem like a mere practise run, a tentative testing of the water before the big plunge. This, for many people is the Holy Grail of gaming and it's easy to see why. It expertly weaves together elements of action, adventure, platforming, brawling, and even RPG elements. Better still, it does it with an unbelievable sense of cohesion that will make long-term critics of Sega and Sonic Team choke and splutter horribly on their sour grapes before being carted off to A&E.

The game begins with that staple of STC lore: The Special Zone, as in a faithful adaptation of STC #8, Sonic recaps his origin to a fascinated Porker, Tails and Johnny Lightfoot, only to be hurled six months into Mobius' future by an enslaved and unwilling Omni-Viewer. At the dawn of Robotnik's full-scale dominion of the planet, the gang begin fighting a long series of progressive battles and missions, liberating each Zone of Mobius, returning to stave off frequent Robotnik invasions and meeting new recruitable STC mainstays along the way.

With a world map and a wealth of objectives reminiscent of the Mass Effect series, players can follow smaller plot threads in any order they like, with frequent major story arcs cropping up once a certain number have been completed. The game's central hub starts off inside the Emerald Hill Base, and later becomes the rickety Bob Beaky Caravan as the gang are inevitably forced out of their base by the evil dictator. From the hub world players are updated constantly by the Kintobor Computer as mission objectives become available, and the hub is usually populated by familiar characters as they go about their daily business and spout random, Kitching-esque dialogue. The story is amazingly told and even more of an emotional rollercoaster than Valve's Half-Life: Episode III.

Voice acting is largely fantastic, and forgoes Sega's usual Sonic cast for a more highbrow and mainly British VA selection. The story sticks to the comic with a loving faithfulness, in particular the main arcs, although time is given to certain Lew Stringer and Mark Millar storylines as well. The visual style, one of the game's most talked about features is an absolutely beautiful kind of hand-drawn animation similar to Sega's own Valkyria Chronicles, but darker and with a more industrial slant that merges the best aspects of STC artists Richard Elson and Nigel Dobbyn. Music is a similarly beautiful, orchestrated affair with a fantastic central theme.

The missions themselves are enormously varied and never dull. About 80% of the time we play as Sonic and the game is a dizzying rollercoaster of action, timing, cheeky one-liners and a compulsive feeling of variety in how you approach fights in a fully interactive environment. There are also a series of mini vignette-style chapters where we play as the other cast members and these are as beautifully-made as the main game. As Tails we grab our sword and Enchanted Armour and venture in the dark fantasy-themed Nameless Zone, the game taking an action RPG slant as we do battle with Goblins. As Knuckles we brawl with scores of robots and string together combos in a game type that recalls the recent Batman games. With Amy Rose it becomes an explorative adventure game that occasionally delves into a tense shooting gallery where you are rewarded for defeating as many troopers with as few arrows as possible, carefully lining up trick shots with a trajectory line. As Shorty the Cybernik we participate in explosive aerial combat and shooting. References to the comic litter the experience large and small, from an escort mission with Tantrum the Mouse, to a Parappa-style Fabian Vane mini-game. All in all, it's a sumptuous gaming cake filled with all kinds of delicious filling that will take even the most ardent gamer upwards of 30 hours to conquer. There's a vast wealth of content here that even rivals Activision's hot new shooter, Brothers of Men of Honourable Duty 2: Bureaucratic Warfare.

Overall, STC: The Game is a fantastic achievement on Sega's part, and a glorious tribute to the comic. I might be biased here, but it's almost certainly this droid's favourite game of all time, even better than Sega's own masterpiece Shenmue III: Ryomaggeddon. Putting it simply, it's a must buy for fans of Sonic, the comic, and just gaming in general as I'm sure it's depth and beauty will even convert non-Sonic fans.

Graphics: 100
Gameplay: 100
Lifespan: 100

Raves: Heaven on a disc. Buy three copies.

Graves: Having to occasionally stop playing to void my weak mechanical droid bladder and supervise the humes, plus the wait for the assured sequel will be difficult.

OVERALL: 102%