Sonic Dream Team – Review

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

In Sonic Dream Team, Dr. Eggman (who this time is as big as a skyscraper) has acquired a machine called “Reverie” that can make dreams come true. Unfortunately, Eggman’s innermost dreams aren’t exactly bright pink, airy and full of tasty snacks and fun gatherings with good friends, but rather messy nightmare mazes full of life-threatening robot crabs and other mischief. 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 this is where Dream Team begins.

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

In other words, speed is crucial here, and unlike Sonic Adventure, it’s more obvious how important speed and pacing are to playability, and so perhaps the developers, Hardlight Games (who have developed all the Sonic Dash games), should have used a little more time for several opportunities to cross various obstacles to avoid getting stuck. For my part, during the playthrough of Dream Team, I’ve been gripped by digital panic every time I’ve stalled, and if it weren’t for the game worlds here being as charming as they are, I would definitely have complained more about this particular one part of this ambitious Apple Arcade game.

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Because the Dream Team is really charming. The tracks are a perfect blend of the most traditional parts of Green Hill Zone and Sonic Dash tracks, and the design is full of character. The story is presented via stills sequences with English voice actors, and while I’m more than happy to skip the whole thing, the presentation is well done and witty without being so convoluted annoying and mobile game-like just to make you “randomly” shell out money for unlocks a loot box.

Dream Team is exclusive to Apple Arcade and thus completely free of microtransactions, which is of course super nice. The graphics are good, the sound is good and the music is very nice, but Sonic Dream Team is unfortunately too short. It ends just when it starts to be really fun, but I have had a pleasant experience from start to finish and can certainly recommend Dream Team.