Joystiq impressions. Not much new, but:
And most characters team up with another specific member for a combined attack.
I have been saying for ages now that it's taken the rest of the genre more than a decade to catch up with Chrono Trigger.
Oh, except:
Before wandering through the world, I picked a team of Sonic and three other characters, building my own party.
Oh hey, a four-man party. Haven't seen THOSE that often since...before Chrono Trigger.
And finally:
I get nervous when a big franchise is loaned to another company, wondering how much control Sega is retaining. Hopefully Bioware has been trusted to have its run of the Sonic universe.
Having spent years on a mailing list with some of the creative team from the Sonic the Hedgehog comic, I can vouch that's EXACTLY the thing people should be worried about. Sega has editorially kept Sonic on a tight leash, basically raising a big fuss any time he was portrayed as anything but a one-dimensional representation of what 8-year-old boys think is cool. 'TUDE FTW.
Course, in fairness, Bioware tends to assign personality to the PC through huge dialogue trees, and keep the supporting cast simple. (Note: do not own 360; have not played Mass Effect yet. Correct me if things have changed since KotOR.)
EDIT:
More thoughts from Parish.Gamers with little patience for the likes of Big the Cat and Amy Rose will derive great pleasure from blowing them off with a snarky retort.