Sonic Adventure

"Sonic lovers don't miss out!"

The first major Sonic ever since, the Genesis ''golden age'', Sonic Adventure. Sonic Adventure is set-up a little differently from Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. The whole game doesn't revolve completely around Sonic but, six different characters each with their own unique styles (Big, Amy, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and E102 Gamma.) Sonic Adventure also brings a fun new add-on named ''Chao Adventure.'' This is where you raise chaos, in a chao garden. A chao garden enables you to hatch, raise and interact with those cutey wutey chaos. You can also race chaos and play with them on your VMU. I hope you enjoy this review.

The number one story in this game is that, Dr. Robotnik is trying to collect all 6 chaos emeralds in order to make chao become indestructible and take over the world. However this time they're 6 different characters and each of them have their own little mini-stories

Sonic: He is trying to stop ''Eggman'' from getting all the chaos emeralds. So he is trying to get them first!
Tails: Once again, he is basically Sonics sidekick he is also trying to help get all the chaos emeralds out there.
Knuckles: He is basically trying to find his life story but he is also looking for Chaos emerald pieces to get to the floating island.
Amy: She is helping a bird find his family, while trying to stay out of trouble
Big: Trying to protect his friend Froggy by fishing or picking him up.
E102 Gamma: Trying to help all the animals Dr. Robotnik has imprisoned.

An extremely fun game. Unlike other Sonics this one isn't on a complete track. You don't HAVE to do all the levels in an order. You can have mini-sidetracks. This game starts off really easy but then, it gets harder like all of these games. In my opinion, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and E102 Gamma are all really fun to play with but, Amy and Big are both really boring and sometimes may make you not want to play =/. The new chao system is also really fun. I would put my chao in my VMU and play before I go to bed some nights. I'd suit them up for their races and such. I played this game twice and both times we're really fun. But, you only need to beat it once because nothing special happens when you beat it again. Unless of course you get ALL 130 emblems then you get a nice surprise. Also if you just plain old beat the game, you can still snow board, race and even gamble!

This game makes good use of every single button. Better watchout though, you got to memorize it for every character so don't think your Sonic when your really Tails. Sometimes the control can be fuzzy as in when you try to jump onto the ladder but you miss horribly even though you were 2 feet away. Boy oh boy the camera is extremely annoying sometimes where it goes to the point where you can't even see your character, and you have to guess where to go next. You may get set off track because Sonic is so fast and Big is so slow, but you'll get used to it. The only major flaw is the camera..Yuck.

The sound is overall better than any other Sonic and most games. You have the classic jump sound, and sounds when you run. You can hear the sounds from where Tails flies all the way until Big goes to fish with his fishing rod. The music in this game is great and sometimes I play the ''Lost World'' level just to hear it. I love the music in some levels and there is no real ''annoying'' music per say. Another cool feature that Genesis could never do is now you can listen to the music in the options menu and adjust it or even play different music. Each character has a new voice, and I have to admit some are extremely annoying *cough tails cough* and Amy and Big both can get on my nerves. Other than that great job Sonic Team!

The graphics, well the graphics are great. Finally Sonic is unleashed into a true 3d world. It even has some cinema scenes which are extremely pretty to look at. You can see every leaf on palm tree (yes, palm trees have leaves.) You can see peoples shadows and big tall buildings in the background. Each main character is chiseled/detailed to perfect, you can see every single one of Big's whiskers. The levels are very detailed and in one level you can even see little rocks fall off cliffs! Sometimes though if your running too fast you can go through things and yes that is a glitch. Like how tails can float down through speed highway and fall to an untimely death. But great graphics and a great step-up from your other 3d worlds like, Sonic-R and Sonic 3d Blast.

Overall, this game was a pleasure and it is a definite buy! You can still find it at Electronics Boutique and some other really in deep video game stores. If not just order it off the internet, because, if you don't have Sonic Adventure in your Dreamcast environment your missing out on ALOT.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/03, Updated 01/24/03