Play Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood Online

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood came out for the Nintendo DS in 2008, developed by BioWare, a company better known for its sprawling PC role playing games. It was an interesting experiment, a turn based RPG landing on a system dominated by faster paced platformers and touch screen novelties. Seeing Sonic and his friends in this kind of game felt unusual, a deliberate shift from the high speed action that defined the series.

You control a party of characters from the Sonic universe, navigating the world screen by screen from an isometric perspective. The main goal is to track down the missing Knuckles and stop a new enemy group, the Marauders. Exploration involves tapping the stylus to move and find items, while combat is turn based, using a system of timed touch screen inputs for attacks and special moves called POW moves. You recruit various heroes to your cause, each with unique abilities for solving environmental puzzles on the world map. The pacing is methodical for a Sonic game, and some of the later boss fights can be surprisingly difficult. It feels like a slow, thoughtful puzzle box wearing a very fast hedgehog's skin.