Sonic Heroes: The Movie

Sonic Heroes: The Movie is the third film of the Sonic franchise. It was released on Disney Channel on July 29, 2005.

Plot
Sonic Heroes initially sees Sonic off running around the world looking for adventure. Joining up with his friends Tails and Knuckles, who give him a message from Dr. Eggman stating that he will take over the world in three days, Team Sonic is formed and the classic trio head off to stop Eggman's latest plan. But they are not alone on this endeavor, as other characters from the series form their own teams to find Eggman first. The Chaotix detective agency has been hired by an unknown client to find the Doctor, and they take on the name Team Chaotix. Rouge finds Shadow (who was presumably dead) and awakes Omega unknowningly; after a short fight, Rouge decides they should team up to find Eggman and become Team Dark. Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, and Big the Cat team up to find Cream's Chao Chocola, Big's Froggy, and Sonic, believing this all to be connected with Eggman. The player must control their chosen team to complete each stage, defeat Eggman's robots, and complete boss battles against Eggman himself, as well as defeat the other teams that have formed and stand in their way of finding Eggman first.

As each team reaches the final stage and defeat Eggman, they finally meet together and discover that the enemy they have been chasing is not Eggman, but is actually Metal Sonic (named Neo Metal Sonic because of his new transformed body), disguised as Eggman; the Doctor himself has been locked away, and Team Chaotix discovers that Eggman was their mysterious client. The teams come together to battle Neo Metal Sonic in its large, robotic form (called Metal Madness first, and later Metal Overlord when his transformation is complete), before Team Sonic transforms into its members' Super Forms and defeat Neo Metal Sonic (as Metal Overlord), who returns to his original form. In the aftermath, Team Chaotix chases after Eggman, who is attempting to sneak away in order to avoid paying Team Chaotix their reward. Sonic and Tails leave, and Amy chases them. Rouge says she will look for someone else's treasure, while Knuckles chases after her. Shadow and Omega pick up the body of Metal Sonic, and in the end, Team Sonic goes off on their next adventure.

Development
Sonic Heroes was developed to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. The game's director, Takashi Iizuka, stated that he did not want to make Sonic Heroes a continuation of the Sonic Adventure series, as he was worried only core gamers would buy the title, although this is the last Sonic game to have the "Sonic Adventure" characters and instead decided to create a game that more casual players could adapt to.

Unlike the two previous main series games, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes uses the RenderWare engine so that the game could be programmed and ported easily to the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. Despite being able to port some textures and character models from the Sonic Adventure titles, most work on the title was started anew. Despite the use of cross-platform middleware, Sonic Heroes was Sega's first multi-platform title, and the development team found additional challenges in working with the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, platforms that they had very little experience with.

Soundtrack
Jun Senoue once again returned to provide music for the game, along with the two songs by his band Crush 40. Replacing the individual character songs, playable teams now have team theme songs. The game features once again returning vocal talents Johnny Gioeli, Tony Harnell and Ted Poley, as well as new musicians Kay Hanley, Gunnar Nelson and rock band Julien-K.

The Sonic Heroes Official Soundtrack was released in North America on November 9, 2004. Triple Threat: Sonic Heroes Vocal Trax, which includes the original vocal theme songs from the Sonic Adventure game soundtrack, was released in Japan on February 4, 2004.

Critical response
Reviews of Sonic Heroes were mixed to positive; Metacritic ranging from 64% for the PlayStation 2 version, based on 29 reviews, to 73% for the Xbox version, based on 28 reviews. Game Rankings averages range from 60% for the PC version, based on 18 reviews, to 74.5% for the GameCube version, based on 95 reviews.

Reviewers noted several positive aspects to the game. These included the gameplay style; whilst the transition to 3D has been noted as rough for the Sonic franchise, Sonic Heroes came close to the series' 2D roots. Sound design was also praised, described as "inexorably linked" to the experience and "at least very pristine" with "perfectly implemented" sound effects, running in Dolby Pro Logic II. Graphics design and environments were also highlighted, described as colorful, vibrant and cheery, with consistent art design and an exceptionally vibrant color palette. Framerate was also consistent for the Xbox, GameCube and PC versions, although a drop in framerate in the multiplayer component was noted.

It also attracted several negative criticisms. Often cited were the game's camera control system, described as "uncooperative" and "terrible". Camera control compounded an additional problem regarding the controls relative to the camera's position, such that pushing forward may or may not move the character in the same direction the camera is facing. Falling from the level's platforms into the deep pits below was also criticized. The game's voice acting also came in for criticism, described as "horrendous" and "the biggest misstep in the sound design".

In addition, the PlayStation 2 version received lower average scores. Clipping and graphic faults were cited, whilst the framerate was also lower than the other versions.

Sales
In 2004, Sonic Heroes was the sixth bestselling game in the United Kingdom overall, and a full year after its release, was still at number eight in the all-price chart. By October 2004, the game had sold over one million copies in Europe. The game ultimately sold well enough to enter all three consoles' "best-sellers" lists: Greatest Hits/Platinum for the PlayStation 2, Platinum Hits for the Xbox, and Player's Choice for the GameCube.

Re-releases
The game was also released in a package with Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on Xbox. It was also re-released in 2009 as a part of Sonic PC Collection.