Sonic Adventure

"Sonic. He can really move! Sonic, he's got the attitude! Sonic, He's in a Radical game!"

When Nintendo brought out the Nintendo 64, they made a 3D platform game with Mario. These began as the latest Platform game crazes, only games like Megaman and Wario, Mario's evil clone. When Sega was releasing the Sega Dreamcast they brought out Sonic Adventure, the Dreamcast's launch platform game, but this became nothing like a 3D platform game like Super Mario 64, it was a more of a 3D corridor platform game (Think Crash Bandicoot) which was a 3D version of the old Sonic Games. Sonic Adventure was not the 3D explorer everyone hoped for, but Sonic Adventure is still a fantastic game, and one of the fastest games on the planet! Sonic came back, better late or never with a lot of friends up for Playable, joining him was Tails the fox, who's real name is Miles Prower (Say it fast and you get Miles Per Hour), Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose who is Sonics Girlfriend, Big the Cat and E102 GAMMA, a robot. Sonic Adventure has a fair share of characters, so you won't get board of playing as Sonic all the time.

Storyline - 10 : Sonic Adventure has several characters who you get to play as, I have listed them as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big and Gamma, each one has their own individual stories, and have a different role. All of them are linked to another character in some way, like Tails is always following Sonic. There are unplayable characters, who play a major role in the story, like Dr. Robotnik, who is now known as Egg Man, Tikal, a strange girl and Chaos, a strong and strange force. Each character has a different story, I will explain each one. Sonic fights a strange being called Chaos, and he has to stop Chaos and Dr. Robotnik from doing their evil deeds. Tails wants to follow Sonic, but learns he has a task of his own, and tries to overcome his fears of not been with Sonic. Knuckles meets Chaos on Knuckles' floating island, Knuckles finds out that the Chaos emerald is missing, and the floating island is crashing into the ground, Knuckles goes off to find the emerald pieces. Amy finds a bird who is a target for one of Dr. Robotniks prized robots. Big the Cat loses his best friend Froggy, knowing he is in danger, who goes out to rescue him. And finally, E102 GAMMA follows tasks from Dr. Robotnik, but then decides to rescue his family. Some of the stories are long, and some maybe short. Every now and again in the story, a Character finds a mysterious orb which transports them to a mysterious place. Are all the stories linked together? If so how?. There are a lot of surprises in store in this great game, which won't fail to leave you in shock!. Sonic Adventure truly deserves a well earned 10 for Storyline!

Sound and Music - 9 : Sonic Adventure kicks off with an awesome song, which fits in with a brilliant FMV. Each playable character, with the exception of E102 GAMMA (The Robot) has their own song, which is a different type of music, like Knuckles' song is in a form of Rap, Amy Rose's, Tails' and Big the Cat's songs are pop, and Sonic's is more of metal. Characters songs do have words to them. I said above, that everyone but E102 has a song, he doesn't but he does have a great theme song, which puts in a sad atmosphere and has a ''Soul'' effect of music. You won't really know the artists who sing these songs, but I am beginning to think that Ant and Dec, the presenters from Britain’s Saturday Morning TV show, SMTV sing Big the Cat's song. Unlike Sonic Adventure 2, the levels in Sonic Adventure don't have songs, they just have music. Though it is just music, it is very great music, which fits in with levels, like a party tune for the Emerald Coast and a slow and steady rhythm for levels which are related to ancient times. Sonic Adventure does have voice acting, and I like everyone’s voice (especially Big the Cat's) apart from Sonic and Tails. Sonic's voice isn't how I expected it, The Sonic voice from the cartoon should be the one in the game, and Tails sounds like a baby, which is a shame because Tails is trying to prove he is not a baby, Maybe the kid who played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode One : The Phantom Menace would of been a great voice actor for him. The Sound effects in Sonic Adventure are great, some might of been recorded from the old games. When a character grabs a ring, it makes a brilliant CHING sound, and when you destroy a BadNik (A robot menace) a great Sound effect occurs then. The song is near perfect, they just need to sort out words for E102 GAMMA and the voices for Sonic and Tails.

Graphics - 9 : The graphics on the amazing Sonic Adventure are outstanding. The character detail is awesome, even the emotions on the characters faces are perfect. All the characters look brilliant, just like any should be, especially Knuckles, who looks as awesome as ever. Some parts of some of the level's are based on real places, like the stair case on one level is based on a Japanese Temple staircase. The amount of detail is really that good. The backgrounds are awesome, you will see things happening in the water, fish swimming in the background and sometimes a glorious sun set. It is a shame that there are a lot of Glitches and dodgy camera angle's in the game, sometimes you can't see what you are doing, and on some rare occasions, the walls are replaced with black walls when you are too close, but that is excusable for one of first launch games on a new machine.

Gameplay - 10 : Like the other Sonic Games, this is VERY FAST! and most proberly the fastest game on the planet which is not a racing game. There are SIX characters in Sonic Adventure, each one has their own individual goal to complete the levels. Sonic has to get to the end of the level in a ''Speed'' type of mission, he needs to get to the end of the level and grab a chaos emerald, rescue somebody or have something else to do. Sonic is the second fastest character (I won't say who is the fastest, it'll spoil your fun) and has a lot of moves with him, like a roll, a speed roll which was introduced years ago. Sonic also has a homing attack, which when Sonic jumps, press A again and he will attack the nearest enemy. Sonic will learn many more moves as he goes on his adventure which will help him in his quest. Tails, Sonics best friend does not have as many levels as Sonic, but Tails' levels are fun, He must race Sonic across the levels and grab the chaos emerald or the objective first. Tails is not as fast as Sonic in running terms, but Tails can fly and find shortcuts. Flying is always fun, especially with Tails. Tails can attack enemies with his Tail, and he can get power ups to help his abilities reach the max. Knuckles has to explore huge levels look for emerald pieces. Knuckles has to look high and low, in and out and just about anyway. Knuckles is armed with the ability to Glide, climb walls and punch, he has a radar, which he uses to find pieces of the Master emerald, which makes his quest a lot more easier. Like Sonic and Tails, Knuckles can get upgrades to give him new and improved powers.

Amy Rose, Sonic's girlfriend is one of the slower characters. Amy is armed with a novelty hammer, which she can use to hit enemies or jump higher with. The hammer will play a role in her quest, helping to get out of danger. Amy will get power ups to make her hammer much more lethal. Amy's objective for the levels are to escape an evil robot called ''ZERO'' and she must solve tricky puzzles to open rooms and exits for Amy. Oh, I forgot to mention, Amy is the only girl on the team. E102 GAMMA is a robot, created by Dr. Robotnik and is built with some great gadgets like a lock-on cannon, and there is some more GAMMA can collect. Gamma's levels involve getting or destroying something, he needs to complete a level and destroy the objective, E102 is fast, but not as fast as the likes of Sonic and Tails. Last, and least in many peoples opinion is Big the Cat. If you like Fishing, you'll love Big's levels. Big is in levels looking for a pool of water, then he must fish. You will fish for Froggy, a Frog, but on the way you can catch fish. The fishing bit is hard, and takes a lot of practice. Big only has one power up, and that’s to make him better in water, and the other ''Power-ups'' are upgrades to lure and your obscure fishing rod.

There is a lot of Mini-Games in Sonic Adventure, like plane flying, where you must play as Tails in his plane and shoot enemy aircrafts down, ''Whack-A-Sonic'', where Amy must user her hammer to hit as many Sonics as possible to get a high score. There are other mini-games, like Sega's version of pinball and snowboarding. Sonic Adventure does have a lot of mini games, and there is even a racing game where players must jump in a dodgem / bumper car and race. One of the most involving mini games is the Chao garden. The chao are little creatures who Sonic and Co. have to look after, like feed them fruits and play with them. If you have a VMU (Visual Memory Unit) memory card with a little screen in the middle, you can download your Chao on to that and play a little portable game on your VMU, and play games on it, and even get fruits and make your Chao stronger.

Super Mario 64 had 120 stars to collect, Banjo-Kazooie had 100 Jigsaw Pieces to collect and in Sonic Adventure, there are 130 emblems to collect. The emblems are much like a badge, and you get one every time you complete a level in the game, or do a task like get 150 rings on Emerald Coast. The emblems are sometimes hard to get, but once you have all 130, you will be classified as a true Sonic Adventure fan.

Challenge - 5 : Sonic Adventure has several stories, and it won't take you too long to complete them all. There are some tricky bits, which may take a lot of practice and skill. Boss' aren't that hard in Sonic Adventure, they might prove a challenge at first, but they become very easy once you have worked out a plan. Chao raising is hard but very rewarding, and if you are willing to get all 130 emblems, you'll be in for a hard time.

Replaybility - 8 : there are several stories to complete, but they won't take the average player that long to beat them. Chao raising is hard and will take a lot of time and patience, and some of the mini games are very addictive, wanting you to come back for more. Today, I have started Sonic Adventure for the 6th time.

Overall - 10 : A brilliant launch game by Sonic Team. Sonic Adventure deserves a 10 in its own right, it maybe short, but the graphics, sound and gameplay are all brilliant. Every Dreamcast owner needs this game!

Pros

Its Sonic!
Six playable characters (could they be more....?)
Great Graphics and Sound
Brilliant Story

Cons

May not take long to complete...

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/01, Updated 08/04/01