After the overview, Noah answered our questions in a spin-dashing Q&A. Sonic has always been about speed, right? There were a few side games, but other than that the series' main draw has been its lightning-fast gameplay. So it was no surprise that the first question asked was about Sonic Heroes' speed. Noah comments, "The GameCube version and the Xbox version run at 60 frames per second (fps). The PS2 version runs at 30fps. You might ask why that decision was made. We wanted to have the PS2 version to be consistent, as opposed to try to force it to do 60fps and then sacrificing the graphics, [causing] slowdown, or an inconsistent frame rate. "That said, all the content in the PS2 version is exactly the same as the Xbox and GameCube versions. So if you have only a PS2 you're still getting a pretty great game." Noah wanted to make it clear to everyone that even with all of the exciting changes, Sonic Heroes is still a true Sonic game. "[Sonic Heroes] is more like the classic Genesis titles where you zip through the levels as fast as you can. That's what your goal is. You hop on the enemies of course, or avoid them as necessary. And there is also that depth of exploration that you can get by stopping and taking a look around you and zooming off in another direction."

Hoping to make the game better, Noah assured us that Sonic Team listened carefully to what gamers had to say about their previous titles. "They get tons of mail everyday. They've heard that people didn't like the Chaos emeralds. They heard that people weren't overly into the shooting game, or fishing for that matter. "You know some people really liked 'em and it's cool that Sonic Team tried to do something new, but they knew that what people really loved was racing down a hill on a snowboard as Sonic. Or going through those first two levels [in Sonic Adventure] where you get to adventure and you're actually zooming through the world, and that killer whale is chasing you, and the boards are breaking up -- that's the kind of thing that people really enjoyed about the game. So they made this entire game to capture that essence of Sonic, that speed. And taking Sonic into an entirely different direction to make Sonic Heroes new and fresh is this idea of team gameplay." Noah tells us that younger gamers looking for some multiplayer action will be intrigued by what Sonic Heroes has to offer. "The multiplayer features are games for two players. There are seven different games that you can unlock. There's a racing game where you can ride on the karts that have been introduced in Sonic Heroes. There's a collect-all-the-rings game. You battle against another team, and the goal of course is to end up with the most rings at the end of the game." Regarding the visuals, Noah says that Sonic Heroes was developed using RenderWare in order to achieve similar graphic quality across all three platforms. "The original Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were built using proprietary tools that Sonic Team developed. There are some textures and some character modeling that they were able to use from the original Sonic Adventure game, but for the most part they had to build it from scratch. "What I think it has given the game is a more consistent tone, and they've been able to optimize the speed and pace of the game. It's faster than the previous Sonic games [and] the levels are larger. On average they're about five times larger than any of the stages in Sonic Adventure 1 or Sonic Adventure 2, so the scope of the game is much bigger. The color palette on all of these game systems is much wider than what we had available on the Dreamcast."

Announcement Note: Noah tells us to look for a new game announcement from Sega by the end of the month! In addition to the information provided, GameZone asked Noah some questions to learn more about Sonic Heroes. Could you go into detail about the controls and how players will control three characters simultaneously through each of the worlds? NM: Like all Sonic games Sonic Heroes was designed to be friendly to hardcore gamers and casual gamers alike. It's relatively simple but offers depth, and the depth comes from the switching of the characters. Switching characters is really easy -- it's just like toggling two buttons. So in this case you use the X and the Y buttons on GameCube controller; X will switch to the one character and Y will switch to the other. It's as easy as that, and you can do it on-the-fly. Since it's just one simple button press, if you see an obstacle coming at you and you know you're going to need to switch to your power character (when you're using your flight character), you can instinctively switch.

In the early stages there are helpers scattered throughout the stage. If you get to a point on the path of the stage that definitely requires the use of a power character, Sonic Team has included these triggers that will switch the player automatically. You can switch out of the formation and go back to the previous character, but these triggers are designed to help the player along. How do the levels compare to Sonic Adventure? Are they tropical like Sonic Adventure, or are they more traditional like the original Sonic games? NM: I think there's a real mix there. I wouldn't say it's tropical like Sonic Adventure, although the first stage would be the equivalent of Green Hill Zone. It definitely has that tropical vibe -- there's a beach there, there's water that you zoom across and over -- but the levels are really diverse. When you get the game and you start playing you're going to find that there's the Green Hill Zone-style level, but there's also a huge cityscape-style level. There's a very classic and old-school Sonic casino level where you're bouncing around the sides of what looks like a giant pinball machine. That's a really fun advanced level. There's a level that's soaring over what looks like a Grand Canyon setting where characters are skating on rails. It's kind of what we did in Sonic Adventure 2 but it's taken to a whole other level. One of my favorite levels is a very cool haunted house that you get to much later in the game. There's also a really fun and funky jungle level. I wouldn't say it's tropical but there are crazy creatures that you haven't seen in any other Sonic game.

Another thing that was brought back for Sonic Heroes is the idea of the Special Stage. That was a real key component of the Genesis games, finding whatever items were necessary to unlock the special stage at the end of the course. It kind of simulated this 3D experience on the Genesis in 2D. Now you can actually play the special stages by gathering keys in each of the levels and holding onto them till the end without losing a life. That will unlock a special stage. It's kind of like when you were playing the Genesis games back when you were a kid. You'd get there and it'd be this intense 3D rush of experience, but in your mind you were always imagining something else. Now you can really experience what your imagination was holding there for you in Sonic Heroes. How are the levels set up? Is the main goal to get from point A to point B? Are there important items that must be collected before new levels can be accessed? NM: Like most of the Sonic games in the past there are multiple goals. There are Sonic emblems that you collect. This is something that has stayed true through all of the 3D Sonic games. You can go through the stage as fast as you can, and if you get the best time or complete a certain goal, then you're gonna unlock that goal or get a ranking for it. But then you can also go through and try to collect as many rings as possible. As I mentioned there are keys hidden throughout the stages, and those keys will unlock the special stages for you. So there are multiple goals within each stage.

Another thing that I want to emphasize is because it's a team-based game, if you play through with any of the other teams, each team has their own individual goal. In particular Team Chaotic is mission-driven. They still maintain that sense of speed that you'd expect from a Sonic game, but their goals are a little bit quirkier, the gameplay is a little bit different, and the levels are set up in a way that gives that impression if you play as Team Chaotic as opposed to Team Sonic. How does the story play out? Are there any voices-overs and were they done by the same actors who worked on the previous games? NM: All of the voices are from the previous games as far as the characters that were in the previous games. Some characters, like the ones on Team Chaotic, haven't been in the game since the Genesis era, and they didn't really speak in the 16-bit days. The story plays out through cut scenes interspersed through the stages. Each team has their own set of cut scenes, and each story links together, so if you play through with all of the teams, then you're going to see the whole story. How does Sonic Battle (for Game Boy Advance) differ from Sonic Heroes or any of the other Sonic games? NM: Sonic Battle is a fighting game. I'd actually put it closer to Sonic Fighters, which was released in Japan. Basically you can go head-to-head against a friend or against a computer opponent and engage in a battle. Thanks to everyone at Sega for having a wonderful conference call.