Apple Arcade exclusive Sonic Dream Team will be launching tomorrow, Dec. 5. But at least one fan was able to try the game out early and has shared roughly 30 minutes of footage online.
YouTuber SonicWindBlue’s footage covers the game’s opening act, which includes the tutorial, a boss fight, and a handful of cutscenes. The game’s plot involves Sonic and friends being trapped inside of a dream world thanks to Dr. Eggman’s latest scheme, and they must team up with a new character called Ariem to escape.
Judging by fan reactions to the footage, it seems Sega is onto another winner following the critical successes of Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Superstars. People have been quick to praise the more open-ended level design and, in particular, the animations for the cutscenes. Admittedly, the majority involve static screens with no movement whatsoever, but there are a handful of fully animated ones where Sonic gets to be a lot more expressive.
Ironically, some fans are so impressed with Dream Team‘s quality that they’re frustrated it’s locked to mobile. At the time of writing, Sega has no plans to bring the game to other platforms. Maybe if there’s enough demand, Dream Team could make the jump to PC and/or consoles.
As a Sonic fan myself, I’d certainly love to try the game on something other than an Apple device. While I did enjoy Sonic Frontiers‘ moodier atmosphere, Dream Team‘s livelier and cartoonier visuals are appealing and fitting for a game set in a dream world. The levels also appear to offer more freedom of movement as opposed to Frontiers‘, which felt rather constrictive at times. Not to mention Sonic seems to move a lot smoother here than he did in some of Frontiers‘ Cyber Space stages.
The boss fight against the balloon crab admittedly isn’t particularly impressive and looks very easy, but that’s partially because I’m spoiled on Frontiers‘ Titan fights. Perhaps Dream Team‘s later bosses will put up more of a challenge.
