Sonic Adventure 2

"dAwH!! Das iz krispie graphicz!"

Yes!! Finally! Sonic Adventure 2 is out! When a game like this comes out, it's almost disappointing in a way. It sucks to see such a cool and technologically advanced game come out on Dreamcast, only to know that there are not really going to be any more of them, seeing as the system is going under. It makes you wonder if Dreamcast still has a lot more potential than people are willing to admit it does. Oh well, I digress. Sonic Adventure 2 is simply a really great sequel. It maintains a lot of the elements that made the first game so great, and it fixes almost all the problems that the first game had, too. Unfortunately, it's not totally perfect.

Graphics: 10
These are totally mindblowing. I've never seen anything this good on Dreamcast, and it is very easily comparable to something on PS2. The environments are huge, lush, and extremely detailed. There's even cool little billboards for Sega games on early levels. The characters also look great, they have higher polygon counts than in the first game, and move much more smoothly. There's also barely any pop up, no fog, and the Dreamcast is somehow able to pump out all this stuff at a rock solid 60 frames per second!

Music and Sound: 8
Well, it's better than it was in the first Sonic Adventure. The dubbing is done a lot better for one, and it doesn't sound like it was put together in 5 minutes by kindergartners anymore. The music was a subject of.. well, ridicule in the first game, and they've managed to do a pretty good job changing it so it isn't quite so annoying (J-Pop, URGH!), but still maintaining the general feel. Of course, it can't ALL be great. Knuckles' levels are loaded with insanely annoying rap music, and if you listen to the lyrics, well... they're just bad. REALLY bad. Knuckles' levels also tend to last quite a bit, (More on that later) so that makes it all the more annoying. That doesn't ruin anything, though. The other music is cool, and the sound effects are great, pure sonic. I just love that old school sound of those monitor bubble thingies breaking... ::sniff, sniff::

Gameplay: 8
One thing that makes this game cool is that you can play as either the bad guys, or the good guys. You pick one side at the beginning, and you'll switch in between 3 characters for the game. Each good character has an evil character with very similar moves, so it's the same basic gameplay style, but still cool. Sonic has Shadow (New Dark Hedgehog guy), Tails has Robotnic (That's right!), and Knuckles has Rogue, this new female mouse character. The Sonic/Shadow levels are great, you can blast through like in the old games, or run around collecting all the rings you can. It never really gets old. The Tails/Robotnic levels have the two running around in these bipedal robots, and are very similar to the robot levels from the first Sonic Adventure. You lock onto guys and nail them with missiles. It's pretty cool, a bit slow paced, but also a lot of fun. The Knuckles/Rogue levels are probably the weakest. They're not THAT bad, but you have to find the emeralds, and the stages are huge and the emeralds are hidden. Sometimes, it'll take you over 20 minutes to find them all, and that really doesn't belong in a game like this. All in all though, the gameplay is really good overall.

Overall, Sonic Adventure 2 is a great game. If you're a fan of Adventure games, I highly recommend a buy here. If not, you should at least rent it, because no gamer should go on without playing this great game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/01, Updated 06/21/01