
Each team has its own campaign, called a story. The teams consist of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, and E-123 Omega Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, and Big the Cat and Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Vector the Crocodile, respectively. The player navigates using one of the teams, who serve as the player characters. Four groups of three characters from the franchise's history separately team up to put a stop to Eggman's plans.

In it, series antagonist Doctor Eggman threatens to use a weapon to destroy the world and sends out legions of robots. The story is also simpler than those of the Sonic Adventure games. While the preceding Sonic Adventure games for the Dreamcast featured elements of action-adventure and exploration, Sonic Heroes focuses on linear platforming and action, similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog games for the Sega Genesis.
