Mobile Gaming Month: Sonic Dash

Having recently picked up a smartphone after many years of resisting change, I've had an opportunity to delve into the mobile gaming market and experience everything that games based on swiping, tapping and tilting phones have to offer. While I refuse to play game that are based solely on a pay-to-win model, anything with legitimate gameplay is up for review and I'll be judging on each game's fun factor, features and replayability.

Game: Sonic Dash
Platform: Android
Developer: Hardlight Studio
Release Date: 26th November 2013

Featuring similar gameplay elements to some other mobile games, it'd be easy to say that Sonic Dash is at the very least derivative but in a market where there's limited control options and gameplay types (at least to a degree), it's necessary to judge games on their individual merits and only take points away from games which are complete clones.

The objective of Sonic Dash is for players to control a character from the Sonic franchise, running as far as they can whilst collecting rings, avoiding obstacles and beating bosses. Essentially it's like one endless stage from a 3D Sonic game, which sounds like a more interesting prospect than it actually is for much of the gameplay.

Each time players hit jump pads at the end of sections, their rings are banked. Once Sonic hits an obstacle, the turn is over and players receive the number of rings they've banked to be added onto their total. With these rings, upgrades and items to help turns last longer can be purchased as well as new characters to play as, and Sonic wallpapers for the player's mobile phone. Rings can also be purchased for real money, but it's never completely necessary and is only advertised to the player if they're seeking more rings.

In order to increase player's scores each turn, there are also multipliers which increase as challenges are completed. Currently there are 20 levels of challenges, for a maximum score multiplier of x20. A daily challenge which consists of running far enough to collect 4 puzzle pieces also helps players to collect score-increase items, alongside a daily spin minigame.

Moves available to players in game include swiping to change lanes, jumping by swiping upwards, rolling by swiping downwards, and tapping to perform a homing attack when it's available. As players collect rings, their Dash meter increases until it's full at which point players can perform a dash for a limited distance, which can be increased through upgrades.

Boss battles are a nice change up in gameplay; players must first dodge projectiles from behind, then avoid obstacles placed in front of them, before taking to the air and defeating the boss by performing homing attacks. Two bosses are featured in the game; Zazz from Sonic Lost World and Dr. Robotnik from many of the Sonic games.

Graphically the game looks very impressive, with detailed stylistic graphics which fit well with previous iterations of the Sonic series. There's sometimes issues with the game freezing after Sonic hits an obstacle, but they're infrequent and don't generally affect gameplay sessions. Musically, the pieces featured are bearable, with Zazz's boss battle theme being a particular highlight.

Overall Sonic Dash is good fun for playing every now and then, with a good difficulty curve as the distance travelled increases. The upgrades and items aren't integral to the game and so the paid element doesn't encroach too far, though if you're looking to unlock everything the game has to offer, it might take quite a while of playing, if you're not intending to spend any money. For the casual player and Sonic fan, it's a worthy distraction though.

Rating: 70/100
Grade: C