Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is coming dangerously close to being the video-game equivalent of Spinal Tap - a former icon blissfully unaware that he's so out of touch, so far fallen from grace, that he's become a laughing stock. With his next-gen debut, the blue blazer has literally become a parody of himself. Plus, his game sucks.

Sonic 's action stages are plagued by a sassy renegade camera, virtually no exploration, loose control, boring combat and rudimentary collision problems. Argh.

You do get to control two more hedgehogs in the game, which at least changes the gameplay a bit. Shadow bombed in his solo game last year, and his clunky, vehicle-centric stages here fare only slightly better, making him Batman to Sonic's predictable Superman. Silver is the new blood, with telekinetic powers that toss the level's contents around and show off one of the game's few complimentary aspects: its physics. But his levels plod along at a glacial pace.