Sonic Dash Review

Out of all the many, many franchises that have embraced the Endless Runner genre, Sonic the Hedgehog has to be the most appropriate. After all, his early games were all about sprinting from one side of a level to the other as fast as possible. It's a natural progression to move to the Endless Runner genre that mobile gamers have seemingly lapped up eagerly in recent times.

Sonic Dash is that game and it's fun, but utterly lacking in anything we haven't seen before. Think Temple Run with a Sonic twist and that's exactly what we have here.

Dashing through various levels that are reminiscent of Sonic games, Sonic Dash does, at least, look utterly gorgeous. With no discernible slowdown on the iPhone 5, the landscapes are crisp and pleasant to gaze at (briefly, anyway, as players will be too busy focusing on running to truly take it in). Controls are of the swipe variety, just like Temple Run with a swipe up initiating a jump and a swipe down causing Sonic to roll. There's a dash move too, which is activated once a certain number of rings are collected, thereby causing an invulnerable Sonic to go flying through the landscape for a short time.

It's all pleasantly fun, but far from unique. There are brief moments of variety, such as jumps that require the player to swipe up then tap on an enemy to home in on it, or the ability to bank rings after a certain time, but it's far from amazing. There are classic Sonic moments such as loop the loops to run around and, of course, typical enemies to destroy, but the actual gameplay is pure Temple Run.

Upgrades can be unlocked through spending rings, plus it's possible to unlock Tails, Knuckles and Amy, but it's all just new skins on an overly familiar format. There's some fun to be had here for fans of the hedgehog, but nothing that redefines the genre in any way.