Sonic demo is craptastic

If Sonic creator, Yuji Naka, knew that this is where SEGA wanted Sonic to go, it's no wonder he left the company. The Sonic demo, if you haven't played it yet, is bad. Really bad. Believe me, I am a Sonic fan. I write for 360 Fanboy it's true, but I am a SEGA fanboy at heart. Thus, it hurts me even more to tell you that the demo is just not very good. It's not unplayable, but parts of it are close. Read on for more.

First, the elephant in the room: the camera. To answer the question, no, it hasn't been fixed. The same camera issues that have plagued all of Sonic's 3D adventures are present even in this short, short demo. It stays too close to Sonic. So close that you often can't even see the enemy that your about to jump on. Sure, you can control it yourself, if by control you mean pan left and right. This is just shoddy, 32-bit camera design, folks. It made sense before all consoles had two analogue sticks, but why in God's name would you limit camera control to merely panning left and right? Half the time you can't even see where you're going to land! Why any game lacks FPS style camera control in this day and age is a mystery to me.

Second, the controls. Again, we see the same issues that have been present since Sonic Adventure. When running at full speed, even the slightest nudge on the left stick sends Sonic careening in another direction, often causing Sonic to fall to an unexpected death. The homing attack is back. Created to solve the problem of hitting enemies in a 3D space, the homing attack presents its own problems which are only exacerbated by the camera. It works great as long as there is an enemy or interactive element near by. However, if there is no enemy, Sonic merely jets off in whatever direction he's pointing. Oftentimes, he just happens to be pointing directly off of a ledge. Again, untimely death is often the result. To make matters worse, you're often homing in on enemies that the camera won't let you see. So, you might think you're homing in on a robot, only to rocket off in the opposite direction and, again, fall to your death -- beginning to see a pattern here?

Look, it's not terrible, but it sure as hell doesn't live up to the hype SEGA has put around it. If anything, it is blessedly short. You can whiz through the single level in under sixty seconds if you're so inclined. I want to love this game, and I'll still probably rent it, but if you want a real Sonic experience, you're probably better off waiting for the original to hit XBLA.