Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"Aqua's Review- Sonic Adventure 2 Battle"

System: Gamecube
Players: 1-2 {versus only}

Story: 7.5/10 The storyline is the same as most action Sonic games. Eggman terrorizes Sonic's habitat, and Sonic and friends work together to save the day. What's new is the introduction to Sonic's newest rival, Shadow the Hedgehog. His speed nearly outmatches the blue blur, and being able to play as him in this game is one of the reasons to get it. What's confusing is why this game is set in the city instead of the made up South Island. The small additions don't really make up the plain, overused storyline, but you can play as either the Heroes or the Villans in this game and in future Sonic Adventure games.

Gameplay: 6.5/10 Along with Sonic and Shadow, you can also play as Tails, Knuckles the Echidna, Eggman, and Rouge the Bat. Unfortunately, only Sonic and Shadow play the action-packed speed levels. In these levels, you must pass through any objects or enemies in your way and reach the goal ring as fast as you can. Other characters, such as Tails and Eggman, command huge battle legs that can shoot missiles from a distance. Take down enemies to get through levels and reach the goal ring to clear. Knuckles and Rouge must find pieces of the Master Emerald {or Emeralds, in one level} to clear the level. You can also play different missions in each level for each character, such as defeat these many enemies, clear the level in this much time, or clear Hard mode, which is a different variant of the level with harder objects to pass through and more enemies to defeat. These missions increase the replay value of the game, but they also bring it down because you have to play more missions as characters that do not play action-packed stages.

Characters can find upgrades that improve specific actions, such as jumping or attacking. These upgrades are needed to pass through some levels, but it's unfair in multiplayer because the upgrades found in story mode are carried to multiplayer modes, and some characters have more upgrades {to get} than others, leaving a huge advantage on some characters. Speaking of multiplayer, you can play shootouts, gem hunting, or races as any character in story mode as well as other characters that have nothing to do with the story {except Amy} and these characters have different attributes than the balanced story characters. That still does not make up for the upgrade problem.

There are also huge bosses that you must defeat in a certain way, and sometimes, you have to face characters on the opposite team {Hero character faces Dark character, and vise-versa} The only problem is that the character bosses are sometimes too easy to beat at first, but when you rematch them, and if you don't attack them for a while, they use powerful attacks that can only be used in multiplayer, which doesn't make any sense to include, and they make the boss level incredibly unfair. If only Sonic and Shadow were playable, maybe this game would be a little more enjoyable.

Controls: 4/10 Some controls are useful, other controls are disappointing. One completely outraging system is the Action system. The B {or X} button{s} allow you to attack, pick up, throw, put on sunglasses, etc. That seems a lot for one button, doesn't it? Why would they dump all of the actions onto the B button? You can use the X, Y, and Z buttons. In fact, would the C-Stick possibly serve as a good choice? You can use the Y button to scroll through the available actions and press B to confirm the action, but it's frustrating to look for the right action in time. I know SEGA likes simplicity, but when all of these moves are involved, it just doesn't work.

The camera controls never work correctly; you have to rely on the game to adjust the camera correctly for you. I know this is a high-speed action game, but whenever there are times that the character has to look around the stage for objectives, there must be a way to control the camera.

Other than that, Sonic and Shadow represent the best controls of the game. The Homing Attack and Spin Dash are very useful in getting across obstacles or clearing the road at full speed. The lock-on system for Tails and Eggman sucks, and Knuckles and Rouge's movements are very jittery and confusing. Once again, a game with Sonic and Shadow only wouldn't hurt.

Features: 6.5/10 Other than Story mode and Multiplayer, you can also play in the Chao Garden with newborn creatures called Chao. Chao can also be uploaded from Sonic Advance games, and these Chao can be raised in different stats to compete in Races and Karate games. The games aren't really fun because you don't control your Chao; all you do is watch it fight on its own with its given attributes. Three-year-olds may enjoy this, but the older casual gamers wouldn't mind playing this mode.

There are also unlockable boss battles to see who can clear all of the bosses in the Hero or Dark side in as little time as possible. A kart race, which is not really fun, is unlockable, and if you perfect your performance in every stage you can get something that is so amazing but not really fun that I can't even spoil for you! Basically, there are a lot of unlockables, but they don't serve very well to the gamer.

Graphics: 5.5/10 Ugg! U-G-L-Y! Honestly, the worst cut scenes you will ever see on the Gamecube. I guess SEGA was having a bad start showing movie scenes on its first Sonic 3D games because these are the worst Sonic scenes ever compared to the later releases. I expected the scenes to look decent, but these movies are below that. Game play was better than the graphics. In fact, I know you will skip the cut scenes and get right to the game.

Music/SFX: 10/10 A huge masterpiece of songs and tunes is the best part of this game. Even after over five years from its original release, the songs in Sonic Adventure Battle 2 persuade us to listen to the catchy and rhythmic tunes forever. The sound effects are great at its cartoonish, colorful level. If this game were available for $10, I'd get it just to listen to the soundtrack. Fortunately, the game has a soundtrack menu.

Replay Value: 4/10

Overall Score: 6.75/10 A good start off the Gamecube series, although there are some disappointing factors toward the gameplay. Even the storyboard doesn't appeal too healthily for a lot of gamers. The soundtrack is the best feature of this game as it continues to warm the hearts of Sonic and non-Sonic fans and gamers. If this was a Sonic and Shadow game, the score could rise higher, but SEGA needs to work hard on a game like this.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/08

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