GC 2008: Hands on with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on DS

There are at least half a dozen untapped licences that deserve RPG-loving developer BioWare's expertise, and to tell the truth, Sonic has never really felt like one among that number. The thing is, after just a few minutes with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood on DS, the overall impression is that it feels right.

It's a significant achievement, especially considering that the licence has often felt at odds with its iconic blue lead in the majority of the Sonic games released in the last five years, many of which were placed in the considerably more comfortable climate of the platforming genre.

Sonic was always a game about the atmosphere of the levels and the attitude of the characters; a ying to Mario's yang. It's a tenet that Sonic Chronicles captures almost effortlessly, in spite of the occasionally cutesy tone.

The fundamental ingredient here, beyond the careful treatment of the licence, is simplicity. If a particular stylus action feels like the logical thing to do to in order to navigate a section of terrain, then it's usually the right one. The turn-based combat is similarly unfussy, with a list of commands such as attack, defend and special, which can be used freely each time your turn comes around.

Initially, it seems like it may be too transparent an approach, but when the abilities of whichever characters you are travelling with are factored into battle, it becomes clear BioWare has not compromised the depth typically associated with its games.

Visually, it could be argued that though everything is beautifully animated and Sonic's physiology is truer to his 16-bit incarnations than it has been for far too long, the palette has a pastel spectrum, which bears little resemblance to the luridly bright Sonic games of yore. It's not really a criticism, though – in fact, some of us are rather fond of the look – and it's only worth mentioning in light of the obvious lip service that's been paid to the licence in other aspects of the presentation.

Our hands-on time was reasonably short, meaning that there is still a chance that Sonic Chronicles could be undone by a poor story or cheesy dialogue. That, however, is not the expectation for a company with BioWare's track record and though we'll admit some of us winced when they first heard about a Sonic RPG, our time with the game at Leipzig left us buoyed about its imminent release.