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We start with this quote from Professor Gerald Robotnik.
If you don?t remember Professor Gerald, you can?t be blamed, he was in all of 5 minutes worth of Sonic Adventure 2 and then pretty much never mentioned again. He is Dr. Eggman?s grandpa and is responsible for making Shadow the Hedgehog. For that, he is a terrible person.
Anyway, on to the present. Dr. Eggman is trying to take over the world again?
We open on fighter jets attacking Eggman. Man, don't remember having that kinda backup in a Sonic game before.
And apparently Eggman's latest scheme involved stealing a SHIELD Hellicarrier from the Avengers.
Again, damn! They are doing some damage (and Eggman doesn't really seem to be firing back at all)
Oh I guess that's why
And so Tails yanks out a bunch of wires. Pretty anticlimactic compared to fighting a giant robot or escaping an exploding ba-
DAMN!
Whoa.
Well at least we made it out alright.
What? Did they just straight up kill Eggman? Sonic has a signal watch? Sonic has a watch? Whatever. Here's that whole scene in video form with what Chronicles calls music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHYfXa4Q6x0
What? Did they just straight up kill Eggman? Sonic has a signal watch? Sonic has a watch? Whatever.
Anyway, I do like these pretty title cards that come up at the start of each ?chapter? of the game.
Let?s see what our watch wants:
: We?re in big trouble, Sonic. I don?t know if you heard, but Knuckles has gone missing. And so have the Chaos Emeralds!
As you can see, we have ~dialogue options~ because this is a Bioware game. The Sonic head is the ?Fuck this, let?s get the game rolling? choice, while question mark options serve to get more chatty and flesh out the plot/world. We?ll be clicking them whenever possible.
: Knuckles was fighting against the Marauders when he disappeared. We?re not really sure who they are, but they?re big trouble!
: Please, Sonic. I?ll tell you more when you get here!
: Why would they take the Chaos Emeralds?
: The Chaos Emeralds are powerful gems, Sonic. Someone who knows how to use them could do just about anything with their power!
The winking Sonic dialogue option appears when we have the option to be snarky. Because being dismissive of your friends? concerns is WAY PAST COOL.
: Without knowing who the Marauders are, there?s no telling what they?ll do with the Chaos Emeralds. We have to stop them!
: Right. Let?s go!
NO GIRLS ALLOWED
: Well, you know how she is. She wanted to meet you halfway and make sure you got here safely.
: I?ll wait for you in the workshop. With you on the team, I know we?ll save Knuckles!
: Let?s go!
Finally, some PLAYING in this game. Let's add some music to set the tone:
Welcome to Hell 
. Chronicles' music is panned pretty much across the board as far as review sites go. Rumor has it that the game had an entirely different soundtrack but due to some sort of copyright issue, BioWare was forced to scrap it at the 11th hour and replace all the overworld themes with stuff like... this to make launch. Things like the battle themes were supposedly unchanged, but the sound quality is still piss-poor, so it makes one wonder. Back to the game:
The game starts you on top of this ring. Which is weird in my opinion, but whatever, it's just something I wanted to note. Anyway, we run a little to the left and we find
?this. And now, a quick rant about the controls. The game controls entirely through the touch screen. You drag Sonic around the screen, he controls poorly, and then we have action commands here. To hop up small ledges, you tap the context-sensitive jump button. To run through loop-de-loops, you tap the dash symbol.
weeeee
Okay, you can press L or R to perform the action commands, but? why L and R? Why not just let me move through the screen with the goddamn d-pad, Bioware? It?s a hassle, and it makes the game physically frustrating to play for extended periods of time.
Anyway, back to the game. If we walk back behind the loop-de-loop when we?re through it, we find?
?an egg! We?ll see what this actually is later. Moving to the west, we find?
?an old man! Oh, that wasn?t near as good a find as the egg? Oh fuck me that speech bubble means we?re gonna have to talk to him aren?t w-
: Oh! Hey! You?re Sonic the Hedgehog!
: What are you working on out here?
: Oh, I won?t burden you with that, Sonic. I?m just an old man trying to chop some logs.
The thumbs down icon would let us turn down the sidequest. But why would we ever turn down easy experience points? I cut out a little bit of extra dialogue where the old man explains action commands 5 seconds after the game explicitly explained in case somebody?s playing this game after a head injury. Anyway:
: The wood is just right there. Thank you so much!
This sidequest is pathetic. You walk over to the woodpile, hit the action button 3 times, and then walk back. Badda-bing, badda-boom. The silly part is that Bioware didn?t really animate Sonic doing anything when he?s chopping, so it looks like he?s just using his Force powers to be a lumberjack. Look:
: I won?t keep you any longer. Take this? I?m too tired for even POW Candy to help me!
Jesus, how depressing does that sound. ?Not even candy eases my constant suffering, Sonic.?
: Nice job, Sonic! It?s always good to take a little time and help people out!
: Let?s get going. We have a lot of work to do!
Nifty. Wasn?t there a box a little bit to the north of the old man?s woodpile? Let?s loot that!
Man, item boxes look weird in this game. Anyway, speaking of items, since Sonic doesn?t really eat anything in his games, Bioware pretty much invented all the consumable items in the game whole cloth to stand in the stead of mushrooms and such, and some of the later power-ups get pretty inventive (by which I mean weird). However: there are no chili dogs to eat in this game! What a missed opportunity.
Moving further south, we come to this little dock with a red button. Stepping on it turns the button green and pulls a raft over to us. (Also, there is a checked off star above Sonic?s head because we did that sidequest. It just? hovers there for a bit)
We step off the raft, move 2 inches and? Sonic stops to talk to Tails.
On a side note, it may seem from the way I've been writing, like I hate all the talking in this game, but I really don't. It's just the beginning part here that drives me up the wall. It has sooo much dialogue at the start, and we were sooo close to progress?
So yeah, this is Green Hill Zone, by the way. You wouldn?t know unless you?d checked the map. You remember the part in Sonic 1 when you ran past the old man chopping wood, right?
: Good times? Like Eggman turning our animal friends into robots and pitting them against us?
: Yep! Good times!
: Well, I wouldn?t take too much time sightseeing, Sonic. We have to save Knuckles!
: Don?t worry, Tails. What could go wrong in Green Hill Zone?
Ha ha! What indeed?
HAHAHAHA Jesus Tails, this is why no one respects you.
: I?m on it!
Enraged Armadillo
HP: 30
Special Attacks: None
Difficulty Level: 1/5
Notes: Armadillos are a joke, plain and simple. They don?t have a lot of health, they aren?t very fast, and they don?t hit very hard. The only reason they pose even a slight threat is because they don?t have any special attacks. Also we are Level 1 and our Defense stat is pretty low.
Okay, let?s go ahead and do a combat tutorial. Since this is babby?s first fight, it consists of clicking ?Attack? and clicking our target. Then:
Sonic?s basic attack is his spindash from every game since Sonic 2. He does it 3 times a turn (because he is fast, you see). In Chronicles, characters get multiple actions per turn based on their speed. So for example, Sonic gets 3 moves while Tails (who will of course be a playable character later) gets 2. Unfortunately, no matter how much you level up your speed, you never get more moves. Anyway,
I beat the armadillo. And hey, whaddaya know?
? A prize! Chronicles gives out prizes after every single fight, generally crappy stuff like Health Seeds and POW Candies. You have to really blow at this game to run out of Health Seeds. Also, note our sweet, sweet XP.
: Be careful out there, Sonic!
Finally, movement! Also, you?ll note there?s another egg to our right. I grab it real quick, then head south and
FUCK
: Sonic! What happened?
: Someone?s trying to block my way.
: Why would someone do that? I?m getting a bad feeling about this, Sonic.
: Don?t worry, Tails. I?ll find a way through this.
: Good luck, Sonic!
Man if only this platforming icon could JUMP? I mean, it?s not like they?re that high and HEY suddenly the camera jerks away from me:
Well speak of the pink haired devil.
Alright, weird transition, let?s move on?
It usually doesn?t matter which of the question mark dialogue boxes you pick actually, the early ones in the game usually all lead to the same information, generally by having the next dialogue ?choice? be the same options as last time, just with one less choice.
Anyway, you see which one I?ve picked, let?s continue.
: Oh, I?ve been just wonderful! Dexter is so sweet. He always buys me flowers, and he is always nice to me, unlike SOME people I know.
: Oh yes, my Dexter...
: When can I meet this ?Dexter??
: Oh, he doesn?t live around here. And he?s very busy, you see. So I?m not sure when he could meet you.
And Amy Rose finally hits rock bottom, inventing a fake boyfriend.
: I?m not exactly sure. The animals around here are usually so cute and nice, but they attacked me on my way out here!
: Tails says the Marauders got him, but no one knows who they are.
Yes, there?s no time to waste!
Wait what. The game stops you here to have Tails to tell Sonic that sometimes he can be a little impatient, so maybe you should take some time to not speed through dialogue so much and appreciate these dialogue options that the writers went to the trouble of giving you. The game stops you regardless of if you?ve sped through the conversation with Amy or if you talked to her about literally everything.
ANYWAY, once you get done with that:
: Tails? workshop is still in the northeastern area of Central City. Let?s go!
: Just don?t get any ideas! I have a boyfriend now, you know.
After that little infodump, we get back to playing the game and collect another egg. Almost immediately after collecting the egg, our previous egg hatches.
It?s a Chao! You may remember them from the Sonic Adventure series. I?ll talk more about them later, but all you really need to know is that Chaos (What?s the plural on ?Chao?? Is it like ?deer? where the plural is just the same word?) in this game work like equipment/gear in other RPGs. Also they hover behind Sonic and Company in battle. That?s really the only reason I showed this, just so nobody will be confused why a tiny ghost is haunting Sonic.
Moving down, we trigger yet another cutscene.
: Hey, that looks like a security drone! I wonder what it is doing out there!
: NEMESIS DETECTED. MUST ALERT COMMAND.
: Oh no! I don?t know who ?Command? is, but if the drone alerts them, we could be in big trouble! You have to smash it before it gets away!
: Gotcha. This?ll be fun.
Sonic runs up to the drone and?
Welcome to the running minigame. The drone?s trying to get away, of course, so we gotta catch ?em. The meter on the top screen is the chase. If the drone?s red line reaches the top of the screen, it gets away and you lose.
Touchscreen gimmicks! You have to tap Sonic to make him jump the box. Failure to do so will make you fall behind and lose a little health. Not that falling behind is a concern here, since this a tutorial, and is thus un-losable. There will be boxes in the path of each character. This is easy now, but can make this minigame bitch to handle when we get a full party.
Speed boosters are the only way to actually catch up to enemies. If you catch the red line, you win and then enter the battle. Oh, and occasionally there are rings in midair you can jump for. Finally let?s wreck a fucking robot!
Sentry Drone
HP: 20
Special Attacks: None
Difficulty Level: 1/5
Notes: Drones are also chumps, though less so than armadillos. They have less health, but attack harder, so if they attack you in a big swarm, you can lose a good chunk of health if they get a bunch of shots in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoibipuCCBs
Not a good debut performance, Amy. A funny thing about combat in this game is since most characters? attacks involve them running right up to the enemy, a ?missed? attack results in them just getting SMASHED backwards like they got with a baseball bat.
Alright, since that went a little fast (alright very fast), I?ll break down how combat works too.
You have several options:
Attack is exactly what it says it is. Short, sweet, and to the point.
POW Moves are your special attacks. We don?t have any yet, but we?ll get some when we level up. They eat your POW meter (the blue meter at the top) every time you use them.
Defend is, again, exactly what it says. One other bonus to it, though, is that every turn your character defends, they regenerate some POW points.
Items are around in case you need healing. More often than not though, you?ll just be regenerating your POW points because you?ll be using those a lot.
Flee is? well, it?s running. You don?t want to do this, not only because IT IS COWARDICE, but because to flee, you have to play that dumb running minigame again, only with the enemies chasing you.
You choose your action (obviously Attack in this case), then your target, then it's go time. If, for some reason, you want to choose your other party members? actions first, then you can hit the arrows on the side.
Something you may notice is how the top screen promptly filled up with attack icons immediately. This is one of the things that bugs me about Sonic Chronicles? fight system. If you want to do anything other than attack or defend in a turn, you have to do it first. You can?t mix things up, like Attack-Item-Attack or anything. The reason this is a real pain in the ass is hard to get across in screenshots, but suffice it to say it is very annoying and I hope I can convey my annoyance with it to you.
After the fight the characters turn around and do a victory pose (Amy?s got cut off in the interest of I don?t give a shit time) and you get graded and get stats.
AND CANDY!
: You said stop it. You didn?t tell me to keep it in one piece!
: Whoever sent that drone probably knows you?re here, Sonic. You had better be careful!
And we?re off to the races again.
Oh look, an armadillo. This one's special though, because it's an actual, non-tutorial, random encounter armadillo! Beautiful. We are gonna murder the fuck out of it.
Oh, and he?s got a posse too. Wasps are dicks, but very weak. Much like in real life!
Wasp Swarm
HP : 15
Special Attacks : Buzz Swarm
Difficulty Level : 1.5/5
Notes : Wasps swarm you. They are dicks. Also, even though they have the least HP so far, at the start of the game when you?re a low level, they?re pretty adept at dodging your attacks. You?ll notice they actually have a special attack. It does a fair amount of damage and it poisons you. I couldn?t get one to do it for this update though.
What I could do is a get a better image of Sonic and Amy?s post-game victory pose.
It?s? pretty weak. Anyway, after a sound thrashing, we get an Antidote, which cures status effects and 50 XP and HELLO
We leveled up! Stats in this game are easy to understand and automatic, except for the one bonus point you get per level to assign where you want to feel like you have a sense of control. What we really want is right here though
Here?s where the fun?s at. POW moves come in many exciting varieties, and you get 5 points towards buying them per level. You can burn them all and get level 1 of every attack, or conserve them and upgrade several attacks to their most powerful. I?m gonna be giving Sonic the level 1 Axe Kick here. It?s generally a good idea to give every character a move they can do on their own so you can mix and match teams later. One thing you want to keep in mind for this game is that your party will be changing a lot, so using any points on a move that requires another character means you better be committed to having that character around, or you?re screwed out of a move when they?re gone.
Anyway, once we?re done there, we move on collecting all these rings
Then plundering this item box?
...to get the sweet reward of...
Prune Juice. 
I told you we?d see some weird power-ups. Anyway, we could go straight down and close out the area, but instead I get adventurous and head up the rock hill to the left and find this little fella
Well, let?s get it on
Wild Boar
HP: 45
Special Attacks: None. Well, okay, GameFAQs swears up and down they have something called Parry but I have never gotten one of them to use it.
Difficulty Level: 2/5
Notes: Boars are pretty much just Armadillo 2.0s. They have more health, take more hits, and hit harder. In fact, with Sonic only at level 2 and Amy still at level 1, they can be a significant threat. Although still not much of one, now that Sonic has POW moves.
In fact, let's see that new POW move in action!
I love that Bioware thought "It's a special move right? We should do something with the top screen. Character art? Character art."
Well, alright, now that we?re done with that, let?s move south a little bit and?
Is that?
Wheeee
Well, that was fun.
We collect all these rings, fight the armadillo here, and keep moving east.
We keep moving past this ruin with some sort of mysterious symbol indicating that maybe we could go up it. If only there were a Sonic character that could climb shit! We grab the chest there (just another POW Candy and a Health Nut) and come to a little rock formation. Time for some parkour!
Now that?s how you grab an egg in style, son.
After jumping down off that cliff, that boar ambushes me. It?s a quick, easy fight, and not too notable except for two things:
Oh BioWare, you and your (literal) crazy items? and the other thing that happens :
Amy finally levels up! Good for her. We give her the Low Blow move, both because of the basic reason I said before of all characters needing a solo move, and because pretty much all of Amy?s other moves SUCKING. Most of her best attacks are actually other people?s good attacks that happen to be combo attacks involving her.
Anyway, getting back to the game, we get moving and find another rock formation to jump on to the right.
The chest just has the usual Health Nut.
Going further down and to the right we hit the shore and?
?what is that? I?ve looked long and hard at it and I can?t figure it out. Is that plane wreckage? I just don?t know.
Over to the left of? whatever that is? there?s this hill full of rings
and at the end of the rainbow?
Bet you didn?t see that coming. Amy gets the gloves because she hits harder than Sonic, and we move on along.
(Feel free to contemplate how in the world Amy carries that hammer with boxing gloves on)
Finally, we reach this bridge and the end of Green Hill Zone. (Where?s the signpost?) 
The game stops to warn you to save at this point.
: Sonic! It?s a Marauder!
: I?m not here to answer questions. Shade sent me here to stop you.
: Who is Shade?
: Sonic, this Marauder is one of the strongest foes we?ve met yet! Are you sure we?re ready to fight him?
The game chimes in for one last ?Hey, maybe you should save here? message, in case you missed the one that popped up literally seconds ago before you stepped on the bridge.
: Maybe you should explore Green Hill Zone and make sure we?ve got everything you need to beat him!
?TUDE LEVELS SPIKING
: The Marauders are powerful, Sonic. Much more powerful than a few armadillos and boars!
And wasps, Tails! Did you see me beat up those wasps?
BRING THE HEAT
: Good. Shade told me just to stop you, but I?d much rather knock you out.
Wait a minute, how were you gonna stop us without knocking us out before? Whatever, let?s kick some heads and listen to that ?snicker- lovely boss music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPHwFb6JwM
Marauder Scout
HP : 80
Special Attacks : Stasis Grenade.
If you don?t hit the prompt to dodge it, it?ll put your character to sleep for multiple turns, allowing every attack to hit. It?s a real bitch, but luckily the prompt to dodge it is really easy. I must confess though, my first time playing the game, I missed it so many times, I barely scraped through the fight.
Difficulty Level : 3/5
Notes : This scout actually has 10 more HP than others we?ll be seeing. And we will see others. Oops spoiler alert I guess.
Hitting a couple of high points of the fight:
You can actually start fights multiple ways other than the standard way I?ve been showing in the other videos. If the opponent?s speed is much higher than yours, or if they sneak up on you, it shows up as ?Ambushed? on the bottom and the opponent gets a free shot in. The "TRAPPED" just means I can't run. It'll always show up in a boss fight.
Also, you?ll notice that the Marauder is leeching my health throughout the fight. Also, the asshole?s stealing my POW points. YOU DON?T EVEN USE THOSE YOU PRICK. 
Since I move through menus fast and there?s no real cursor to see what I'm clicking on, I figured I should show you that I?m healing Sonic since I was kinda dumb and went into the fight half-cocked. Also, because there's no animation for healing or dodging it produces the funny effect of making it look like this Stasis Grenade attack that I dodge heals me.
Oh and since it just popped up, here?s what Amy?s Low Blow attack looks like since I showed off the Axe Kick:
BONK
And one more thing you may have noticed
Unlike our animal pals from earlier, these guys don?t leave bodies. Weird.
That's what I was just saying!
: I?m detecting an energy signature, like he teleported away!
: Well, that?s just not fair!
: Please hurry and come to my workshop, Sonic. We have to find Knuckles, quickly!
I love this Sonic face. He?s just so pissy for no apparent reason. Jesus, Sonic, what crawled up your ass? Are you mad that Amy got the kill shot on the bad guy? Do you secretly really not want to see Tails? It?s great.
Anyway, we finally move down the bridge and?
And so Sonic takes off for Tails? workshop at Central City with an Indiana Jones-style line on the map.
What will we find in Central City? Will Sonic & company find Knuckles? Will we uncover the secrets of the Marauders? Will Central City have shitty music? Tune in for 1 out of 3 of these things next time on Sonic Chronicles!