Sonic Dream Team

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I've reviewed 20 Sonic games over the years. Maybe even 30. I have experienced the vast majority of the titles rolled out from Sega with the blue blur in the lead role and generally speaking, I have had much more fun with the 2D games than the 3D adventures. However, as far as I know, I've never taken part in a Sonic game where the story was anything other than pure filler. I don't think anyone has. It's usually about Sonic and his colourful buddies getting into trouble after the villain Dr. Eggman has come up with some new evil trick, as is the case this time.

In Sonic Dream Team, Dr. Eggman (who is as big as a skyscraper this time) has acquired a machine called "Reverie" that can make dreams come true. Unfortunately, Eggman's innermost dreams aren't exactly bright pink, fluffy and drenched in savoury snacks and hilarious get-togethers with good friends, but are rather messy nightmare mazes crammed with deadly robot crabs and other nasties. Sonic and his friends must jump between these dream worlds to try and stop Eggman and destroy his machine before he goes too far, and that's where Dream Team begins.

When the adventure begins, you can only play as Sonic himself but the further in you get, the more of the game's six selectable heroes (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Rouge) become playable. However, they are less different in terms of gameplay than what I'm used to and in the end it doesn't really matter which one you control. The levels look identical regardless and the challenge is mostly to keep up your speed. For that matter, Sonic Dream Team does it really well. The game is fast paced and the levels are designed to allow you to find a flow between running fast, jumping far and riding the rails. It's when everything stops and Sonic (or any of the others) gets stuck or ends up in a scenario where you have to climb or turn around to redo a particular jump, that this game quickly becomes hopelessly boring.

In other words, speed is vital here, and unlike Sonic Adventure, it's more obvious how important speed and tempo are for playability, which is why perhaps the developers, Hardlight Games (who have developed all Sonic Dash games), should have spent a little more time on more opportunities to cross different obstacles to avoid getting stuck. For my part, during my playthrough of Dream Team, I've been gripped by digital panic every time I've come to a standstill and if it wasn't for the fact that the game worlds here are as charming as they are, I would definitely have complained more about this particular portion of this ambitious Apple Arcade game.

Because Dream Team is really charming. The levels are a perfect mix between the most traditional bits of Green Hill Zone and Sonic Dash courses, and the design is bursting with character. The story is presented via still image sequences with English voice actors and although I'm more than happy to skip the whole thing, the presentation is well done and witty without being so convolutedly annoying and mobile gamey just to get you to "accidentally" shell out money to unlock a loot box.

Dream Team is exclusive to the Apple Arcade and thus completely free of all microtransactions and that is of course super nice. The graphics are good, the sound is good and the music is very nice but Sonic Dream Team is too short, unfortunately. It ends just as it starts to get really fun but I've had an enjoyable experience from start to finish and definitely recommend Dream Team.