RE: Favorite Teams
SCS > 08-11-2020, 10:55 AM
As with pretty much any Sonic anything for me, I have too much trouble picking a solid favorite. I love and appreciate each team equally for different reasons. However, there are certainly qualities I like the most about each team and I feel they all have their strengths and weaknesses in one aspect or another.
Character-wise, I love all of them but have a slight leaning toward Team Rose and Team Dark. This is due to the fact that Cream the Rabbit, Cheese the Chao and Shadow the Hedgehog are characters that are extra special to me in key ways.
I absolutely love Cream's kindness, innocence, and good heart. She is just a precious character, and is always a ray of light and joy in any Sonic media she is in, including the recent IDW comics in which she has been absolutely fantastic. Her unwavering kindness, virtue and good heart even in the face of darkness is truly an inspiration. I love Cheese the Chao for the same reasons, plus the adorable friendship that Cream and Cheese have, and how Cheese mimics Cream's emotional state (e.g. appearing overjoyed when she is overjoyed, or concerned when she is concerned). They are both so cute!
Shadow the Hedgehog, while obviously a very different character also touches me through his strong will and ultimately good heart that prevailed over terrible tragedy and darkness. His backstory with Maria and all that transpired is very touching, as is his conflict and character development across games like Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Battle, and Sonic 06. I do not like his modern depiction at all in stuff like the Boom series or TSR, but he was actually pretty good in Forces. It seems that SEGA has some very misguided mandates regarding him these days which is very disappointing. For me, the pinnacle of writing and character development for Shadow, not including his initial game was definitely Sonic 06, and I would love to see more Shadow content along those lines.
So that is why, character-wise, I would have a slight leaning toward Team Rose and Team Dark, although I very much love Team Sonic and Team Chaotix as well.
Gameplay-wise, my favorite would definitely be Team Dark as they (generally) have the longest and most difficult stages in the game. I always enjoy lengthy and challenging Sonic levels, of which there is a distinct and unfortunate lack of in some newer games. I think there was actually at least one level where Team Sonic had the longer / more challenging version, but I can't recall off the top of my head what it was. Team Chaotix can actually be more challenging in different ways, but it varies based on their particular mission. Overall, Team Dark levels in Sonic Heroes are just the most exciting and challenging in some ways, so I enjoy their gameplay the most.
But in conclusion, I love all the teams in different ways. Team Sonic is really fun because their levels are overall very similar to Team Dark's (only slightly different / shorter for some levels) but have far less enemies, so you can focus less on fighting enemies and more on just enjoying the level and atmosphere. Team Chaotix is really fun as their missions put a very different spin and style on each level, enhancing the freshness of replayability.