Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"Chopped Hedgehog. Anyone?"

Back when Nintendo was releasing classics like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, a company named Sega was getting buried by the competition. Sure, it held some decent titles, games that would usually warrant the purchase of some oddball console. But it lacked a mascot. Nintendo had a fat plumber and a guy dressed in green to make people remember the system. Sega didn't. Although the thought of having either of those two isn't that appealing to anyone, people still remembered the system due to their hideous personifications. So on the eve of its disaster, some bub saw a hedgehog. To make it fit in with the ongoing theme of hideous looking characters, they made it blue. Then they defied gravity and decided that that hedgehog should be able to travel at the speed of sound. Sonic the Hedgehog was born, and Sega finally had that character to plaster across its doomed systems.

Many years have passed since that fateful day. The Sonic franchise has had more then its fair share of classics, spouting out masterpieces such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sure, the developers massacred a bunch of titles to go along with that success over the last couple of years, but fans still had hope of a day when the blue blur would come back to its former glory, possibly regaining its place over that evil plumber named Mario. Then Sega died. It wasn't surprising, they were going down that route anyway. They just couldn't keep up with the rising costs, Sony's newly acquired dominance, and the realization of that big black box called the XBOX. So they died off the console scene, choosing instead to start developing games. And while that meant that although the hog wouldn't appear on a Sega system, he wouldn't die. Right before Sega kicked the can, though, they released Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast. A couple of years later, and here we are on the Gamecube with none other than a rehash of the not so widely played game, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

Probably the first thing fans of the series will note is also something that many people were shocked at – you're not just playing as Sonic. In the past, game companies have made games starring Knuckles and Tails, sure. But the main story always followed on one main track with main missions to go along with the theme. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle throws that right out the window. Not only does it allow the player to choose between two stories, Hero and Dark, but it also gives separate paths to differentiate the two. Right from the start, it's fully apparent. After watching a beginning cut scene to introduce your particular story, you're off playing as one of the game's main heroes or villains. Both stories share common affinities with each other at certain points, but only by playing both can you manage to read between the lines of what the other left out.

You'll also want to play both stories for one very big reason. Just as you'll be getting different scenes to go along with your evil binges, you'll also be getting something that few other Sonic games actually do – different stages. For every mission that you do, you'll be introduced to one of the three characters from each story side and an objective. That objective will dictate what you're forced to do as the mission goes on, such as getting to a certain point or annihilating a certain baddy. For most of the Sonic and Shadow stages (the fast dudes), you'll simply have to get from point A to point B. Don't think it's easy, though. Over the past couple of years the Sonic franchise has become well known for one big reason – it's speed. Over the course of every speed stage you'll be flying across dangling loops, bouncing on tree tops, and even snowboarding down the side of a space shuttle launch tower. Talk about frenzied blasts.

That's not all, though. Just as the speed characters each have their own stages to go gallivanting across, so do your other two team mates. Tails and Eggman, the two technical characters, get to hop into mechs and blow through a variety of areas. The mechs have a number of options available, from shooting off bullets to hovering across chasms. If an enemy gets up close, you can blow their head off with a short range punch move. Mech stages generally have you going from point A to point B, but unlike the speed characters, there are usually a couple of items that you have to seek out and destroy. To top it all off, the third set of characters, Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat, have to go on a treasure hunt. Seems a spat between the two annihilated the Master Emerald, and its pieces are now scattered across a variety of terrains. If the two wish to ever restore and protect or sell the emerald respectively, they'll have to find them. The treasure hunting stages have the pair going across a variety of terrains, but the overriding feature resides – they're going after that emerald. All three character types have their stages split decently evenly among them, making sure you'll get your binges off if you're partial to a specific type.

Although the constant shifting of characters can keep things fresh on occasion, however, one nagging problem got incredibly annoying as the game progressed. Two out of the three of the character types were garbage. The only semi-interesting levels came from the speed characters, and they happen to have the least level opportunities to take part in. The rest of the game got split between horrendously long treasure hunts and mech stages that fail to do anything other then move around for a bit, blow something up, and go on to the end of the stage.

To compensate for this problem, the developers decided to give you the opportunity to gain a couple of skills as the game progresses. There's little challenge in finding them, but all of them manage to be quite nifty as the game goes by. While Sonic and Shadow can gain the ability to jump with a fiery twist, Tails and Eggy manage to have longer health bars and a stronger bullet shot. Knuckles and Rouge find it within themselves to bore through solid rock. The possibilities opened up by the finding of these skills manages to give the game play a bit of a twist if you are willing to do a bit of back tracking, but the reward to do so is little, if anything at all.

For those of you who do want to go back, the most you'll find are a couple of rings and probably the biggest incentive to do it in the first place, the Chou pets. Located at the end of each stage and on the world map is a little button that leads to the Chou Garden. The garden itself houses one of the game's pride and joys, a Chou. Throughout the course of the game you'll gain the ability to find little animals and energy capsules. You'll also be wondering what you should be doing with them (common sense says they won't be on the bottom of that bar forever). Well, you're Chou uses them to customize itself. As your Chou grows and obtains the benefits from these little things, it'll take on the appearance of the animal that you've feed it the most of and gain its abilities. Those abilities serve to help it in Chou races. Located at the back of the Chou garden is an arena that gives you the ability to race Chous. How you've customized your Chou dictates how well it will do in these races. For instance, if you've managed to feed it a bunch of marine animals, it'll be faster in the water. If you gave it birds, then it'll be able to fly and glide for a longer period of time.

And although Chou raising is completely up to you, there ain't much more you can do in this game. Sure, to its credit Sonic Adventure Battle 2 is a long, decently fun plat-former. But after you've beaten a stage once, and on a weird chance went back to collect what was left in it, there really is no reason to play it again unless you really like it. And trust me, you probably won't. To make matters worse, in every stage that you play you'll find one big problem – the camera. Unlike some other games that allow the camera to shift to the easiest vantage point possible, the game developers decided to put a crow bar in the wheel while it turns. Because of that, you'll find that it usually stalls right on the side of your character, which usually is one of the worst places possible for something like that to happen in this game. Turning it is no fun either, so good luck with that.

To try to make up for its atrocities (and trust me, they truly are horrific), the developers made a good attempt at including a solid track of music and graphics for your viewing pleasure. Actual artists singing do most of the music, which is rare in any game, while each level has a different track. The graphics are colorful on all fronts, and pixilation is down by a ton. Frame rate goes by at a good clip, while production values make a solid appearance.

Unfortunately, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as a whole is anything but solid. Fans were optimistic for this game, and I was myself when it first came out. But problems from the past seemed to still want to hang on, and the level design was once again all to boring. The camera managed to murder things, and the idea of different stories seemed a bit forced. It was a shame, too. Unlike other Sonic games, this one had a real chance for success. It's a shame it failed. Miserably. Sega, please stop killing my blue buddy. Because you know, I may not be around for the next chopping session.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07, Updated 12/23/09

Game Release: Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (US, 02/11/02)