I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve reviewed 20 Sonic games over the years. Maybe even 30. I’ve experienced the vast majority of titles released by Sega with the blue blur as the protagonist, and in general I had a lot more fun with the 2D games than the 3D adventures. However, to my knowledge I’ve never played a Sonic game where the story was more than just filler. I don’t think anyone did. Usually, Sonic and his ragtag group of friends get into trouble after the villainous Dr. Eggman has come up with an evil new trick, which is the case this time.
In Sonic Dream Team, Dr. Eggman (who this time is as tall as a skyscraper) acquired a machine called “Reverie” that can make dreams come true. Unfortunately, Eggman’s innermost dreams aren’t exactly bright pink, fluffy, and filled with delicious snacks and fun meetings with good friends, but rather nightmarish mazes full of deadly robot crabs and other nastiness. Sonic and his friends must jump between these dream worlds to stop Eggman and destroy his machine before he goes too far, and this is where Dream Team begins.
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At the start of the adventure, you can only play as Sonic himself, but as you progress, more of the game’s six selectable heroes (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and Rouge) become playable. Gameplay-wise, however, they’re less different than what I’m used to, and in the end it doesn’t matter which game you control. The levels are identical and the main challenge is to maintain the speed. Plus, Sonic Dream Team does it very well. The pace of the game is fast-paced and the levels are designed to help you transition between fast running, long jumps and riding on the rails. When everything stops and Sonic (or one of the others) gets stuck or ends up in a stage where you have to climb or turn around to repeat a particular jump, this game becomes hopelessly boring.
In other words, speed is crucial here, and unlike Sonic Adventure, the importance of speed and rhythm to gameplay is more obvious. Therefore, perhaps the developers at Hardlight Games (who developed all of Sonic’s Dash games) should have invested a little more time and more opportunities to overcome various obstacles in order not to get stuck. I, for one, was gripped by digital panic every time I stopped during my playthrough of Dream Team, and if the game worlds here weren’t as beautiful as they are, I would certainly have enjoyed this particular part of this one more ambitious Apple Arcade game.
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Because Dream Team is really charming. The levels are a perfect mix of the more traditional parts of Green Hill Zone and the tracks of Sonic Dash, and the design is bursting with character. The story is presented through still sequences with English voice actors, and while I’m happy to skip the whole thing, the presentation is well done and clever without being elaborately annoying and befitting a mobile-only game. I understand “accidentally” spending money to unlock a loot box.
Dream Team is exclusive to Apple Arcade and is therefore completely free of microtransactions, which is nice. The graphics are good, the sound is good and the music is very nice, but Sonic Dream Team unfortunately falls short. It ends just when it’s really fun, but I enjoyed the experience from start to finish and would definitely recommend Dream Team.
