That blue blur that several of us grew up with is coming back in an all new platform video game called Sonic Forces. The game is being developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. At Twitchcon I had a chance to get a hands-on with a demo of the game.
This is our Sonic Forces Hands On preview
I’ll admit that the last Sonic game I played was more than likely on a Sega game console, so getting to sit down and play him again brought back a few memories. The game features four different playstyles with Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, Avatar play and Modern Sonic/Avatar. Modern Sonic’s stages are based off of three-dimensional movement. Going around collecting rings, spinning into bad guys and being able to chain attacks with the lock on ability. Classic Sonic is what you would expect from older Sonic games as a 2d type side scrolling platformer. Going faster and faster to collect rings and spinning over obstacles. In Avatar gameplay players have the ability to make their own character in the Sonic Universe. You can choose from up to seven different races like Wolf, Bird or Hedgehog, etc. With each race having a unique ability. You can further customize your character by choosing from different Wispins that each have a different effect and ability making certain areas easier for certain Wispins.
Playing the classic mode felt like I remember of most Sonic games. The controls were solid and the action was fun. Modern Sonic took me a bit to get used to, but after learning to lock on and chain attacks I was having a blast. The Avatar gameplay is what I was most interested in. I used the lightning Wispin. It was like having a whip made of lightning that I could use to destroy enemies and the special let me barrel through things with a shield on me that blew up enemies. You can customize your avatar to a degree with possibly more ways coming later. There will also be costumes that you can get for the game as well, I was told that Persona 5 costumes would be coming soon.
Overall the controls felt responsive in all the modes I tried, which is what you want for a platformer. Sonic Forces felt fun to play and I could see myself picking this up later. The added touches of being able to play two different sonics should keep the game fresh, not to mention having your own character in the Sonic Universe now. It releases on November 7th for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Switch.
