A breath of fresh air for die-hard Sonic fans

Throughout the 2000s, weve gotten some pretty great sonic games, but their gimmicks occasionally slow them down a bit (the werehog from sonic unleashed, RARELY the guns from shadow the hedgehog, etc.) do they make them bad games? Certainly not. Its just that overly dramatic critics like IGN whine and whine about them and give the games a bad name. Well, as the title implies, Sonic Dash is a breath of fresh air for sonic fans who hate listening to critics go on and on about how "bad" the games are. With a wide arsenal of characters, (a rarity in sonic games these days!) Sonic Dash really stands out. Only two characters can be bought with real money, the rest of them bought with in game currency or won in a wheel of fortune-esce manner. The characters include Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Blaze, Silver, Rouge, Cream, Espio and Classic Sonic, the last two of which you buy with real money. The environments are what youd expect from a sonic game: grassy areas, temple areas, beach areas, etc. The goal is simple: dodge hundreds of obstacles and get hundreds of rings. Of course, there are enemies and other objects to rack up points with, too! However, there still lies a major problem in Sonic Dash, and thats the missions. These missions are one of the few ways to get nearly enough red star rings to purchase every character. Ive owned the game for months and Im still missing a bunch. Anyways, some objectives are simple: defeat an amount of enemies or get a number of combos, now thats okay. Objectives like those let you challenge yourself with the games many mechanics. Most of the missions, however, are like hell on earth. For example, you must run as certain characters for certain distances. At the least, characters cost 45 red star rings, and by completing that mission and about 2 more at a time, you get (at most)... 5 red star rings in return?!! If youre going to make a reward system, at least make the rewards worth working for. This makes both mission completion and unlocking all the characters an absolute chore. Of course, daily rewards and the occasional red star ring during your run help out, but its still roughly an eighth of what you spend returned to you, and it doesnt end there. The game also forces you to use a certain number of power-ups that cost...you guessed it... red star rings!! This is yet another way the game slows itself down. This also further proves the fact that the games reward system is a steaming pile of wasted in game currency. And if you want to skip these missions, you have to spend even more you-know-what. If you want to prevent yourself from going crazy, wait till your birthday or Christmas and ask for gift cards so you can just buy the friggen things. This doesnt make Sonic Dash a bad game, however, because the rest of it is absolutely wonderful. With the exception of a rather strange ring multiplying system, Sonic Dash plays and looks great. Unfortunately though, none of the playable characters differ in any way, but what can you expect from and endless runner? Although, one of Knuckles midair poses looks like hes grabbing... something. The rings, enemies and obstacles are laid out pretty well, but some obstacle layouts are incredibly tedious and near impossible to avoid. Also, its sad that many objects, possibly even the rings, are just 2D textures.

In summary, Sonic Dash is a great endless runner with an extremely broken mission system that ruins the fun of 100% completion, but its nothing to rant about (with the exception of this review). All the missions are completely optional, and you dont have to pay attention to them unless you get sick of playing as sonic. I definitely recommend this game for any sonic or endless runner fan. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do!

RetroMarioGamer about Sonic Dash: Fun Endless Runner, v3.7.3