Sonic Heroes Console Differences

This is from memory, but I know for sure that the PS2 version ran like shit. Lower framerate, blurrier textures, that sort of thing. I played a demo of it after owning the GCN version, very obvious difference.

I also played a demo on the Xbox. I think the only difference I noticed was an extra special effect in the background when I did a Team Blast?

 

I don't know about that, but the Xbox demo has a massively different level layout for Seaside Hill.

 

All I know is the PS2 version sucks ass and you should avoid it. The PS2 was a much weaker console than the Gamecube and Xbox and Sega didn't optimize the game. Perhaps they were still bitter from when the PS2 helped kill the Dreamcast?


I wonder if Sonic Heroes will ever get a Steam release?

 

I made a similar thread two years ago, but it doesn't seem like anybody knows this stuff for sure. :v:

 

I actually own the Xbox version! Only differences I've noticed between it and GameCube (from gameplay videos) however, is that the Xbox version has slightly different loading and saving screens, and it's strangely also missing some SFX in Casino Park/Bingo Highway. Gameplay-wise it seems identical to the GameCube version, though there's probably some version-exclusive bugs I don't know about.

I haven't seen the layout for the Xbox demo, but in the final game, the layouts are the same compared to the other final releases.

EDIT: OK, @ Morph: just looked at your old thread and checked the Options menu - there's no language setting in-game for the Xbox version either, in case you were still wondering.

 

In the Gamecube version of Mystic Mansion at the last section (with the colours representing team abilities) the background was animated in high res multiple layers; it had low res textures that were animated in a much less complex manner on the PS2. I remember it being incredibly noticeable.

 

I had the Xbox demo, and I'm sure the the demo was for Sea Gate, rather than Seaside Hill. Seaside Hill is identical for all versions in both the final and the demo IIRC. I had the game on PS2, then got it when I upgraded to GameCube too. Played the Xbox version round a friends too and did look out for differences at the time.

That also makes sense as the game was built for the GameCube, then ported to Xbox and PS2 - it uses the RenderWare engine so it can accomplish this easily.

 

I have the demo released as part of Official Xbox Magazine (forget which number), and it has the same layout as the PC Trial version, which is significantly different to the final, particularly towards the end:

(of course, there's probably more than one demo)

EDIT: Disregard everything I wrote. It's the same as the final.

Turns out I wasn't misremembering the demo, I was misremembering the released version. Wow.

 

This might help, though it's more for speedrunners than common folk.

 

The Gamecube version only one voice-over language option, presumably due to disk space. I remember being sorely disappointed back at release when I couldn't change the English to Japanese (we all have/had the phase, shut up), but my friend who rented the PS2 version could. I have three of the four versions now (well, five versions if you count the PS3 download in Europe; is it just as bad as the PS2 version?), all but XBOX, and I've played through each. I couldn't tell you any major differences though aside from the fact the PS2 version is undoubtedly the worst, and I still prefer the GCN version to the PC version due to convenience. Heroes PC also stretched to fit my screen, which I wasn't a fan of. I don't remember being able to fix that, and my search for a widescreen mod, or the means to do it myself, turned up empty. It's been a while though, so maybe I'd have more luck now.

 

The demo of Seaside Hill that came with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! definitely had some differences compared to the final, though.

 

As a PAL Gamecube owner who always switches to 60hz when prompted, does this mean I've been playing the game 20% faster than regular NTSC players?
Am I hardcore now?

So I guess I should be playing in 50hz to match the speed of the NTSC/NTSC-J releases?
(I've heard of PAL releases being slower, but never the opposite )

This is quite a new twist for me. I wonder if Shadow the Hedgehog has the same effect running at PAL60?

We've all been there man. In fact, considering the dialogue in Heroes is so constant and with it's quiet moments few and far between (glad to see Sonic Boom has adopted this wonderful habit), I think being able to change the Voices would've been a nice alternative to the Mute Button.

 

WSGF has mods for just about every standard fullscreen resolution you can think of. Minus the lack of repositioning of the score/time/rings, it's astounding how little would need to change for a "professional" widescreen release of the game

 

There's an easy way to see the speed difference. Go and try Team Blast as Team Sonic on 50 and 60htz, and see the difference in the speed of the animation VS the audio. It cuts off about a second before it should on 60htz.

 

Wow. That's actually kinda interesting. Might actually go back and do a 50hz run now to see if feels less, er, fast? Might be a good thing in Heroes' case. Carelessly running into pitfalls is what I do best in that game.

 

I've always taken great delight in comparing multiple versions of the same game, and as such I played all four version quite a bit back in the day. While I didn't play them all start to finish, I noticed quite a number of differences. The Gamecube was the target platform for development, being that Sonic Team had more familiarity with it, and the PS2 and Xbox versions do suffer as a result.

The Xbox version is missing a few visual effects, mainly shader effects. The orange wibbly energy type stuff that's featured prominently in the power plant level is rendered as just a flat orange colour in the Xbox version. Likewise, the pathways in this level which propel your characters forwards are missing their animations, which were also a shader effect. Oddly though, the water in the first level is rendered correctly, and that is most certainly a shader effect. Why they were able to get that one working and not the others, I'll never know. There are also some sound irregularities in this version. Certain sound effects either don't play, or play at completely the wrong volume. The "ding" sound when a character connects with a spherical bumper in the casino level seems to be missing, for instance, and if memory serves, the ring sound effect when Tails throws a ring box plays so quietly that it may as well not be there. The game also suffers occasional frame drops here and there, but generally holds at 60 frames per second.

The PS2 version has all of the above issues, and many more. All shader effects are replaced with either animated textures or flat shading, including the water in the first level. Character shadows are now circular blob shadows instead of soft shadows. The game is locked at 30 frames per second instead of 60; still perfectly playable, but less pleasing to the eye. Loading times, while not bad, are significantly longer than the Gamecube and Xbox versions. I can't say for certain, but the game may even be running at a lower resolution; it just looks rougher, jaggier.

The PC version, due to the nature of PC hardware, is hugely variable in terms of performance. If your PC can't run the game at 60 frames a second, the game slows down rather than skipping frames. The user must manually enable an optional 30fps cap to make it run at the right speed. Fortunately, on modern PCs, this is rarely an issue. All in game visuals are a match for the Gamecube version as far as I recall, though I don't remember if all the sound effects play correctly. I seem to remember the FMVs being particularly low quality for this version however; I assume they had to be compressed to fit onto the two CDs the game was distributed on.

The Gamecube version really is the way to go, but as previously stated, PAL gamers beware! You MUST put the game into 50hz, or else it will run too fast! This stems from a silly oversight by Sega. Many Gamecube games get around the 50hz problem by simply playing the game as normal, but skipping every sixth frame that is displayed. This results in a game that plays at the correct speed, but looks and feels a bit stuttery. Sonic Heroes implements this, but due to an error, still performs this frame skipping when the game is set to 60hz. It's probably very easy to fix with a small patch, but when the NTSC version is so easy to get hold of, there's likely no demand for such a patch. So let's just think of it as a challenge mode, for the truly hardcore Sonic Heroes players.

***

While I'm dredging up memories of past Sonic titles, I also remember a number of differences with Shadow the Hedgehog, a game which had a similar triple format release (no PC version this time). Again, the Gamecube version was the target platform, but this time around, the three versions are much more similar to one another. The Gamecube and Xbox versions are actually near identical, with the same graphical effects and framerate. Any differences are so minor as to be inconsequential, and are likely just quirks of the different rendering hardware; the Xbox using an Nvidia GPU, and the Gamecube an ATI GPU. The Xbox version is, however, missing the co-op feature, for reasons that completely elude me.

The PS2 version fares better than the PS2 version of Heroes, but is still the version to avoid if you have the choice. I don't remember the differences in as great detail as I do Heroes, but there are a number of small visual differences (I seem to remember large rocks in the first level being grey in the Gamecube and Xbox versions, but red on the PS2?), and a very questionable framerate. It targets 60 frames per second if I recall correctly, but frequently falls well short of it.

I also remember a great deal of differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Sonic '06 and Sonic Unleashed. But I'm going to go ahead and guess I've talked enough. >.>