Sonic Adventure

"After 4 years, Sega's mascot returns in an all-new game on the Dreamcast, but can the Sonic Team deliver another masterpiece after all this time?"

When the original Sonic The Hedgehog game was released on the Mega Drive (Genesis
in the US) way back in 1991, it sent the gaming community nuts. What went on
to be called the Sonic Boom, the original game sold millions of copies, and
spawned an entire series of sequels. Many developers have tried their hand at
developing a Sonic game, and whilst some were good, it has to be said that the
best ones came from Sonic's creators, the Sonic Team. Their last Sonic game
was Sonic & Knuckles on the Mega Drive back in 1994, and finally they're
back at the helm of the blue spiky one in adventure set to rock your world!
Sonic is back baby, and with style!

All the classic Sonic gameplay of yore is back, but with improvements and more.
For starters the game is no longer an all out action game. This time as well
as the action stages, Sonic Team have included some role playing elements in
which to reveal the story, and to the game to pull players into the action,
and make them relate with the characters. These sections are called adventure
fields, and link the action stages to each other and the storyline. Whilst this
is a good addition to the regular Sonic repertoire, you can't help but feel
that it distracts from the main elements of Sonic games which is the fast-paced
action-based levels.

But Sonic Adventure doesn't skimp in this section. The action stages, as they
are now called, are absolutely MASSIVE! There are so huge that you could probably
get lost in them and probably will the first few times around. Instead of having
the original object to race to the end of the level you have different objectives
for each level, like rescuing Tails, or racing Robotnik to the end of the level
to diffuse one of his bombs. These are just a small sample of the objectives
in each of the eleven action stages, and each character has different objectives
too.

Sonic's trademark is speed so you will tend to speed through each of the levels
as fast as you can whilst playing with him. But this leaves huge sections of
the stages uncovered, and Sonic Team has introduced multiple characters to solve
this problem. Each character will travel through different parts of the same
stages to make full use of the huge levels. This has to do mainly with each
character having different abilities and these provide a different type of gaming
experience when going from character to character. For example you will fly
through the levels as Sonic, but with Amy, who is a much slower character, you
will explore the stages more.

But each of the six playable characters - Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, BIG The
Cat and E102 Gamma - have different objectives too, mainly relating to their
respective storylines. Now whilst Sonic and Tails might be out to stop Robotnik,
Knuckles is out to find the missing pieces of the shattered Master Emerald,
while Amy is trying to avoid a robot called Zero, BIG is trying find his lost
friend Froggy and must go fishing to find him, and E102 has a multitude of objectives
taken as orders from Robotnik.

The basic storyline is that Dr Eggman Robotnik has uncovered a creature
known as Chaos who is capable of destroying the world, but in order to do so
he needs all of the Chaos Emeralds, and it's your job to beat Robotnik to them.
This may all sound like standard fair, but each character has their own reason
for being involved and when you play the game as a certain character you will
see the events that happen from their point of view. And since all the characters
meet up at some stage or another you get to see the same scene but from a different
perspective. For example, at one stage of the game when playing as Sonic, you
are attacked by Knuckles but don't know why he attacks you, but when you play
as Knuckles you understand why he had to attack Sonic.

There are plenty of cut-scenes in the game and most of them use the game engine
too as opposed to FMV. This helps to immerse the player into the events of the
game. There are some FMV scenes, but they are few and far between, but they
are some of the best and most realistic looking FMV sequences to date! Utterly
mesmerizing!

Another part of the game is the battle scenarios, which are good but rare to
come across. The battle scenarios with the few bosses there are, are pretty
cool, but one of the cool parts of the original Sonic games was the cool bosses,
so it's unfortunate that this part of the game let down a little.

There are also mini-games that you will encounter within the main game. Most
are just smaller stages, like Sand Hill or the Tornado chase scene, but others
are more like separate games. For example Amy has a mini-game where she uses
her hammer to smash dolls of the games characters to win points, or there is
a roller-coaster racing type game similar to the gameplay of Sonic R on the
Saturn. In fact BIG's whole adventure is basically a mini-game, because all
he does is go fishing for Froggy.

Once you have completed a mini-game through the main game, it becomes available
to play separately in a Trial mode. This also happens with the game's action
stages, but there is now a list of different objectives to complete for each
such as finish the level with so many rings or under a certain time limit. This
adds immensely to the replayability of the game as most of the objectives are
fun, and some are even quite hard.

There is also breeding and raising Chao to do, which is basically a form of
tamagotchi-style gameplay. Basically you have to find the room where the Chao
eggs are kept and once they hatch you must feed and nurture them. To feed your
Chao you will need to collect animals from the action stages that can be found
when destroying enemies. Depending on what type and color the animals you feed
your Chao, it will take on various attributes of each, making for some weird
creatures. Breeding and raising Chao may seem like a waste of time, but you
can enter them into various races against other Chao to win emblems and prove
that your Chao is the best of the best. Another use for Chao is to import them
into your VMU for a mini-game called Chao adventure in which you fight other
Chao. It's not all that amusing, but at least the effort has been put in for
people who might enjoy it.

Another way to earn emblems is to complete the objectives of the action stages
and every time you complete an objective you earn an emblem. There are also
emblems to be found in the adventure fields, and they can also be rewarded for
finding power-ups. There are 130 emblems to collect which adds more to the longetivity
of the game.

During each character's adventure you will need to collect certain power-ups
for each that helps you progress through the game. For example Sonic is given
a speed-shoes power-up near the beginning which allows him to spin-up and follow
a trail of rings, but which takes time to execute. Later on in the game however
he is given a bracelet that allows him to perform the move much quicker, which
become essential later in the game.

The controls are standard Sonic fair, with a button for jump, a button for your
spin-dash attack, and the analogue pad for movement. Now there is also a button
that allows you to pick things up and talk to people in the adventure fields.
As for how well they work, they are very good, but when you're flying around
levels at insane speeds with Sonic, they're barely enough to guide him to safety.

Sonic Adventure has so much graphical splendor and it's absolutely stunning!
This was the first Dreamcast game that really made people in the street stop
and stare through shop windows drooling at how amazing it looked. Every object
has so much detail whilst still running at a super-smooth 60 frames-per-second,
with no slow down at all! And considering the speeds that Sonic is capable of
you can bet that the game looks magnificent whilst flying through levels at
over 200km an hour!

One main problem with the game is the camera angles. Sonic Team have done their
best to make Sonic Adventure as cinematic as a game can be, and whilst it looks
absolutely stunning the way some of the shots are done, a lot of the time you
will find that the camera is in the wrong spot and this can lead to some nasty
incidents. Unfortunately this seems to be a problem with most third-person perspective
games, so it's become acceptable in the industry. But when you end up dying
because the camera is stuck behind a wall and you can't see yourself, you're
not going to readily except this. Of course you can change the view perspective
if need be but it would have been better if it automatically fixed itself.

All the usual sound effects from previous Sonic games are in there, but sound
better because of the superior sound software capabilities of the Dreamcast.
However, instead of the usual thematic music that accompanies most platforming,
and indeed Sonic games, there is now a rock n' roll soundtrack. This is actually
a good move as it suits the style of the game extremely well. Just like a racing
game sounds best with a rock soundtrack, so to does Sonic Adventure, since in
both you are flying around courses at breakneck speeds. Of course there is the
occasional thematic track when it is needed, but the soundtrack is primarily
rock and it all blends together for a perfect aural experience.

Now, Sonic Adventure may sound like the near-perfect Sonic game, and it is too
a degree, but think of it as a prelude of things to come. Sonic Adventure 2
is on the horizon, and judging by the sequels to the original game, it's going
to be one hell of a game. Sure, Sonic Adventure isn't the perfect game, but
it's huge levels, awesome speed, the huge variety of stuff to do, and the breathtaking
visuals and awesome soundtrack make it one hell of a game. If you own a Dreamcast
go out an do yourself a favor and buy Sonic Adventure, and for those who don't
own a Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure may just make you want to go out and buy one.


Visuals: 9 / 10
Absolutely stunning! From the amount of detail on everything, to the speed that
the game runs at you'll be totally amazed. The drunken cameraman is the only
drawback.
Audio: 9 / 10
All the usual sound effects accompanied by a blistering rock soundtrack, that
fits so perfectly into the game.
Storyline: 7 / 10
The usual Robotnik goes after the Chaos Emeralds for an evil scheme of his and
Sonic and co have to stop him, just that it is presented much nicer now.

Gameplay: 9 / 10
Standard Sonic fair with a few new bits here and there. Plenty of variety, with
a good mix of old-school and new-school gameplay.
Lastability: 8 / 10
There are six characters, each with their own adventure, plus lots of mini-games
and different objectives for levels that will keep you coming back again and
again.
Overall: 9 / 10
Sonic Adventure was made to showcase the power of the Dreamcast at launch, and
did so with flying colours. But beneath the eye-candy is one of most entertaining
platformers around, and definitely one of the best Sonic games.

Buy Or Try?: Sonic fans will fall in love with the game, and unless you
didn't like the Sonic games originally, just about anybody will want to play,
if not own, this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/01, Updated 06/26/01