Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"Better than the orginal, but is it pointless if you have the original."

Sonic the Hedgehog makes his GameCube debut, something that was unthinkable a few years prior to this release, as a slightly enhanced port of Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast. The added bonus for GameCube owners is the ability to play against a friend in either a go-kart game, shooting stage, or a split-screen character race through any of the unlocked stages. You also get many different characters to play as and they have slightly different but similar fighting styles. For example, Shadow gets Metal Sonic, Metal Sonic only has his shield move, but it saves him from almost anything and he slides at high speeds. The dark chao has an energy beam that is black instead of Eggmans white. Tikal and Chaos 0 don't have much difference but you won't notice them much because the emerald searching games are not nearly as fun as the others. While this is certainly a nice addition, it's more a natural extension of the main game rather than a feature designed specifically for multiplayer excitement. The real challenge in this game is to get all "A"s in all the levels and defeat all the chao races, which means evolving a dark and light chao. so you get to spend quite a bit of time on this game trying to unlock one level, the 3d Green Hill Zone.

Sonic Adventure 2 introduces a number of interesting things to the series, including the idea of counterparts for each of the main characters in two separate (but similar) story lines. Many times you find yourself intertwined with the opposite character's story and find out the whole story only by playing both of the stories. Not all of the levels are played using one character, with an unexpected variety of play styles in platform action, shooting, and exploring that never quite gels. The main issue is the game essentially undermines Sonic's inherently fast-paced thrills by slowing things down considerably with stages involving Knuckles, Tails, and their "dark" counterparts of Rogue and Eggman.

In a curious design decision, the high-flying Tails is left grounded inside a robotic suit, where he primarily shoots projectiles, hops onto platforms, and glides using limited boosters. These sequences feel more like mini-games than main levels, and shooting enemies is not as fun as bopping them. It all depends on your own interests on this one because many people find it fun and many others find it somewhat of a punishment to play them.

Worse yet are Knuckles' stages (and his counterpart Rouge), where the developers took the most enjoyable character to control on a boring scavenger hunt to rescue three pieces of the Chaos Emerald. The abilities to fly, dig, climb (on any surface), and punch certainly beg for something more than a rote hide-and-seek game. It can get most annoying to have to search continuously with no luck for that one shard you want. These boss battles often consist of trying to hit the opponent but they manage to block so your best bet would be to collect 20/40/60 rings just to get one hit in on your opponent.

Fortunately, both Sonic's and counterpart Shadow's stages offer more of what players expect from the blue blur, with appropriate corkscrews, jumps, loops, and half-pipes to scurry down while collecting gold rings and blasting into enemies. Yet there are still more than a fair share of sequences where you don't feel fully in control, as cut-scenes show off some of the more spectacular jumps or moves, which is unfortunate. It should be noted that the graphics look fantastic on all of the stages, and GameCube owners won't feel slighted at all by the quality of the presentation. The boss battles are a lot easier that in 2 player mode because they never hit if you keep running.

They will, however, grind their teeth at the camera system employed by the game, which simply refuses to show the most beneficial angle as they advance through the levels. While this is less of an issue during Sonic's more linear stages, Tails' and Knuckles' sequences (as well as boss encounters) involve looking all around to shoot at enemies or to find the missing shards. What makes the game so infuriating at times is you cannot move the camera to where you think it should be, so if you miss a jump or need to fly in another direction, you may be locked behind the object the camera's focused on.

Staring intently at a wall or a crate as you desperately tap buttons just to get your character in view is not very fun, but you have little choice in the matter on many of the stages. More often than not, you simply have to lose a life, which you eventually learn to accept as a part of the gameplay. The camera issue was a big problem in the Dreamcast version as well, and it should have been addressed for the subsequent release of the GameCube game. This can be quite a big setback because you are left wasting half of your time trying to get the camera to pan to the left while they kill you before you can even look at them.

What has been enhanced, significantly so, is the ability to nurture and raise your little Chao creatures on the Game Boy Advance. Sonic Adventure 2 takes advantage of the GameCube's ability to interface with the 32-bit handheld by letting players download their pets to the GBA so they can be viewed in full color. The only alternative on the Dreamcast was the extremely limited LCD screen of the VMU, which took away from the cute personality of the creatures. One of the best chao parts of this game is the raising of a hero or dark chao and attaining a new garden. It's really quite amazing when you leave and come back inside your garden to find this tear shaped cocoon and you realize, "Oh my god, it's evolving" (Pokemon players know what it feels like) Even better is the Chaos Chaos that are so ultimate and rare that the chance you will get one without help is slim to none.

In the end, Sonic Adventure 2 for the GameCube is not the impressive debut one would have hoped for after the announcement that Sega would be developing games for Nintendo. The title offers wonderful graphics and some fun levels, the majority of which involve the title character, but the disjointed story line, uneven action, and problematic camera take away from the enjoyment most will have while playing. When it comes right down to gameplay, this sequel fails to deliver the rousing adventure the series is known for.

Graphics:

Sonic Adventure 2 features crisp visuals, colorful settings, and pretty cut-scenes. The strongest aspect of the game is its presentation.
8/10

Sound:

The music is above average, but the voice-overs don't fit the characters.
6/10

Enjoyment:

The first Sonic Adventure had its share of minor problems but it was always fun to play. Unfortunately the changes made for the sequel hurt more than improve the game. The "battle" aspects of the GameCube version are boring, but raising Chaos is fun. Of course we have to have the ending game with Super Sonic and Hyper Shadow, what else would they do?
5/10

Replay Value:

With two separate story lines, the ability to raise Chao, and an assortment of multiplayer modes, the replay value is strong. Players can spend a considerable amount of time earning more badges by revisiting each stage over and over again, but the main fault of the game still applies: it's not as fun as the original.
7/10

Overall:
If you feel the need to replay this glorious game on the Gamecube, then go ahead, it is most definitely worth the $19.99. Don't forget, there are new features. This game is a good buy because it has a high replay value and now goes for quite a cheap price.
8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/06