First Look: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

The Dark Brotherhood is the first Sonic the Hedgehog role-playing game (RPG), the first time Sega has put a Sonic game in the hands of such a well-regarded developer like Bioware, and the first time Bioware has made a game for the Nintendo DS.

Bioware, of course, is one of the finest RPG developers around, the creators of Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, so Sonic is surely in safe hands for his first RPG.

While at the Summer of Sonic event (read about it here) I managed to get some first impressions of the game.

One thing it is worth noting is that what most RPGs have in common is they are particularly unsuited to pick-up-and-play gameplay. Sonic games are usually quite the opposite, but this isn't your average Sonic game.

You can't jump for instance, which seems like a somewhat bizarre omission for a platform game hero. At least, I couldn't figure out how to jump - there may still be a way!

Control is entirely stylus-driven, much like Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, with Sonic moving in the direction the player points or drags.

There may be no jump, but at key areas a little bubble for 'jump' comes up to allow Sonic to climb the scenery. There are also bubbles for 'talk' when he's near characters, and even one to make him do certain stunts like loop-running.

The graphics are very lush and hand-drawn, so it all looks very pretty. Sonic never gets very fast though, which is a shame, and I didn't get to do a loop.

The battles are not random, fortunately (I'm hoping random combat will be banned from all RPGs from now on).

Upon starting a battle, it all goes a bit Final Fantasy, with a neat line of enemies versus a neat line of heroes in a sort-of turn-based battle.

It also becomes completely incomprehensible for anyone just getting stuck in with only a few minutes to learn it.

Basic attacks are easy - just click 'Attack' then point at whatever you want to die, but 'POW Attacks' (isn't that a Mario thing?) are trickier.

You select the special attack . and then the menu comes up again. Huh? You have to click 'Attack' again apparently. Don't even get me started on the stylus-driven exercises to perform one of these POW attacks properly.

Similarly, if you want to use an item, you have to click on it, then whoever's getting it, then on 'Defend'. If you click 'Attack' here like before, the item won't get used. A bit needlessly complicated, isn't it?

If the enemies are about to die, they may try and escape, at which point you have to chase them. Here the camera goes 2D (yay), but Sonic runs automatically and you just touch him with the stylus to initiate a jump.

Apart from collecting the odd ring and avoiding boxes, there doesn't seem to be much to do here, at least not yet.

If you catch the robots, you can finish them off and get XP to level up, as well as more items - the usual RPG fare.

Then I met a hard alien who butchered me before I had a chance to heal. Sigh.

Like most RPGs, Sonic Chronicles requires a bit of sit-down time, explaining how it all works and what everything does.

While this feels a bit in opposition to proper Sonic games, I'm willing to put in the time because I trust Bioware to cook up something special. I know I'll be getting it for sure.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is released on September 26th, by the way.

Chris 'The Tingler' Capel