Sonic Adventure

"Chaos theory."

For gaming icons that had made their claim to fame on classic consoles, the transition to a full three-dimensional environment was an exciting and important moment in their respective franchises. For some, the result was an experience as invigorating as their 2-D predecessors. For others, it was complete and total disaster. Unfortunately for Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, he happened to fall into the latter category. Not only were his high-speed runs turned to jagged glitch runs, but a new cast of characters with zero relation to Sonic whatsoever was introduced. Sonic Adventure was a game that showed off the true, unfulfilled potential of the Sega Dreamcast. Unfortunately, the substance was almost nowhere to be found.

For centuries, the Master Emerald has remained in its shrine atop Angel Island. Knuckles the Echidna, sworn protector of the gem, is destined to guard it for eternity, lest the balance of the universe would fall apart. In enters Dr. Eggman (a.k.a. Robotnik) who seems to have discovered a living force inside the Emerald – Chaos. Eggman plans to raise this liquid life form to achieve its ultimate power by feeding it the seven Chaos Emeralds. While walking through the streets of Station Square (We're not in Mobius anymore for some unexplained reason.), Sonic the Hedgehog is suddenly assaulted by this oozing menace. Unaware yet suspicious about Eggman's ambitions, Sonic rounds up his mechanic friend, Miles Tails Prower, and his ditsy stalker, Amy Rose, to stop Chaos before havoc wreaks. Consequently, this unbalance has caused the Master Emerald to be shattered, leaving Knuckles on a quest to retrieve the fallen shards. In addition, Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma have related missions of their own.

Each character tackles their own designated stages with their own individual abilities. Each stage is connected to one of the three main overworld locales. As you may have imagined, Sonic's stages are about one thing and one thing only – speed. Probably the only stages in the game I really enjoyed playing, the goal of Sonic's stages is to reach the final destination at breakneck speed, destroying drones and spin-dashing across spring boards along your way. Sonic collects rings to keep his health up, just like in the Genesis classics, as he speeds through loops and outruns obstacles chasing in the foreground. The homing attack enables you to dash and destroy airborne enemies consecutively without touching the ground, but the technique is flawed in the way that it's difficult to control which direction you're attacking. Sometimes, Sonic will even unintentionally go into a homing attack. The Light Dash allows you to transport across strands of rings, often across chasms and the like. However, the game's sensitive controls will not always land you directly where it intends, sending you plummeting to your doom. Still, despite these flaws, Sonic's stages are easily the most enjoyable aspects of the game.

Tails' stages are basically Sonic's stages for pre-schoolers, and nothing more. In other words, Tails goes through the exact same stages as Sonic does, except only through a portion of it, with less hazards and enemies. Even the final stages have no real challenge to them whatsoever. Tails' ability to fly is awesome, no doubt, and he can even propel himself through rings to shoot him further in the stage, but what's the point if the stage is already simple enough? Needless to say, large potential was wasted here. Sonic Team has attempted to give him some sort of mechanic character to enable to engage in short flight missions where the goal is to shoot down Eggman's airships, but it's basically blind shooting the entire time, with minimal challenge. Tails' boarding stage is fun, but it still makes one yearn to utilize the fox's true potential without the use of fancy gizmos.

Even gamers who crave collecting and seeking out every one of a game's secrets are likely to be put off by Knuckles' stages, which feature three shards of the Master Emerald being randomly scattered throughout the stage, and the goal is to seek them all out. A trusty gem radar at the bottom of your screen helps you locate them by flashing a certain color when you draw near. These shards can be hidden atop high alcoves, inside enemies, or even in plain sight. Naturally, these treasure hunts are extremely tedious, and this is coming from someone who thinks Donkey Kong 64 is one of the greatest games ever created. Most disappointingly, Knuckles has a vast assortment of cool moves that are exclusive to his character that all go to waste. He has the ability to glide over large canyons and climb walls without breaking a sweat. Knuckles is also incredibly versatile physically, able to punch through solid metal with ease. Yet for some unfortunate reason, the spunky red echidna has been shafted by the equivalent of housework chores.

Amy the Hedgehog, Sonic's psycho stalker, has taken on the responsibility of protecting a seemingly-innocent birdie from Eggman's henchmen. In particular, a green robot named Zero who resembles some sort of rotating garbage can seems to be particularly interested in retrieving this creature. Amy's stages are more platform-based than any of the other character's, focusing on climbing ledges and reaching the goal more than simply pure speed. The problem is Zero, who is, without a doubt, the biggest pain in the ass in the entire game to contend with. He follows you throughout the stage, attempting to pummel you and snatch your little Birdie. You'll have to constantly evade Zero and pummel him yourself with your Piko Piko Hammer (which can also be used for bouncing to higher ground). This can be incredibly annoying, seeing as how there is basically no safe spot from him, and if you whack him too many times, he'll turn completely invincible. Not to mention that Amy's stages tend to drag on forever needlessly, and Hot Shelter in particular lasts up to 15 minutes to complete (without dying).

E-102 Gamma is one of Eggman's stray robots who faces a constant struggle in whether to assist Amy or his former master. His stages involve shooting stuff with auto-lock lasers and missiles. Generally, each of his stages has a time limit, though none of them are necessarily very strict. Shooting other robots restores points and seconds to your clock, and by racking up combos (by locking onto multiple objects at one time), your point values will increase exponentially. However, like Tails, Gamma's stages suffer from a severe lack of any challenge. His first few stages last no more than 30 seconds each, with minimal hazards, and even his final rounds are incredibly short-lived. Most of Gamma's stages have a boss battle where he must “rescue” another robot (a.k.a. by destroying them. The game's terminology makes no sense whatsoever.). These also, however, are very minimal in terms of depth and longevity. The shooter stages in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle are much more complete. If you're a story whore, however, Gamma's missions will keep you satisfied, no doubt. It's surprisingly emotional for a being of wires and circuits.

But of course, you could make a game about a talking stick, and Big the Cat's infamous fishing stages would make it look godly. His pet frog, Froggy, has been possessed by the tail of Chaos, and Big has to rescue him by chasing Froggy to various locales and fishing him out, only to lose him again each time. Simply put, these stages are an excellent alternative to insomnia relief. As big, you'll wander around a small stage looking for the perfect place to cast your line. Positioning the angle is annoying enough; actually reeling him in is an entirely different story. You'll have to constantly tug the opposite direction to prevent your catch from getting away. If you lose your catch, you lose a life for some stupid reason. This is especially frustrating seeing as how you'll often your line will be caught behind a rock due to the numerous glitches. That's all there really is to Big's stages. He has no means of attack other than random placement of his lure. Quite pathetic, and let's not even mention his voice…

The opening cinema is one of the most drop-dead gorgeous in-game movies of this generation, featuring stunning water effects and individually rendered shards of glass raining from the sky. Is there some reason why compared to this intro, the entire rest of the game looks like a watercolor? Each of the characters has various jagged edges to them, something which was much more excusable in the previous generation. Fortunately, the game's soundtrack happens to be its yin. The guitar riffs used in the majority of the game's songs are incredible, and set the mood nicely. While traversing an active volcano, an upbeat and ominous riff will symbolize your ascent of the mountain, while a much more serene jazz will sound while tediously fishing for crap at the Emerald Coast. The voice work, of course, happens to be the yang. Sega has a fairly consistent track record of hiring the absolute worst in the industry. Sonic has an irritable redneck accent to his voice, while Tails sounds like he'd just sucked a hot air balloon clear of its helium. And for civil purposes, I shall remain silenced on Big the Cat.

Sonic Adventure is a failed transition into the 3-D world for everyone's favorite blue hedgehog. The game is incredibly unpolished, with tedious tasks, a horrific camera, and an absolute glitch-fest. The overworld system is a nice idea, but the sloppy execution made the system fall flat on its face. And the extra's just are not worth coming back for. Sonic's stages (and to an extent Gamma's) are really the only stages which provided any sort of entertainment whatsoever, which is a fairly minimal percentage. I would not say the game is as bad as Sonic Heroes or Shadow the Hedgehog, but for a Sonic game, you have to have higher standards. If you're looking for a modern-day Sonic fix, either give Sonic Adventure 2 a whirl, or better yet, the classic titles.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/26/07