Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut

"Grows on you"

I have to say, I am biased when it comes to this game, as when I first got it it was my first Sonic game. Regardless, this thing practically blew me away when it was originally released for the Dreamcast, with levels which made Super Mario 64's levels look like kiddy climbing frames. The main genius which sets this apart is the amazing amount of freedom you actually have for a Platformer. The free manuvourability Sonic gets from using his spindash attack adds to the trademark speed, meaning you can sequence break many times in the game, much like a Metroid game, except in smaller bursts. The situation is, do you take a long and twisting path from point A to point B or do you skillfully jump the whole thing? Do you run down that path slowly and steadily, or do you throw caution to the winds and spindash the length of the route? And this is only the Sonic levels! The Tails levels are races, and actually promote the use of sequence breaking in order to reach the end of levels, in one of his levels it is possible to finish the entire level just by flying and never touching the ground, but the question is, is it actually faster to do that rather than using the miriad of speed boosters and springs available on the true path? Then come in the Knuckles sections, while people find the long and tedious Treasure Hunts boring, they begin to forget the sheer wonder of where they take place. People may think the Tick Tock Clock or Tall Tall Mountain levels are large in Super Mario 64, but they dwarf areas like Red Mountain, this is combined with a character who allows you to explore EVERYTHING! Knuckles is known for his ability to glide and climb and these abilities are put to strong use in this game, making Knuckles the most manuvourable character in the game, and one of the most in ANY Platformer game, save for possibly Spiderman. The other characters in comparison aren't as much fun to play as, though unique, thus stopping the game from getting 10/10. The camera controls aren't the best, but people ALWAYS forget that the camera is only never a problem in Mario because the fat plumber isn't whizzing through fantastical sights (when he does in Mario Galaxy, its rarely controlled) or gliding and climbing his way around a massive mountain range, if anyone can manage that without spoiling the camera in a game, I'd be impressed. The thing about most platformers is they follow set paths, if you've been through a level once on them you might as well scrap the game, because every single time you play it you'll be seeing the same damn things no matter how many times you play it, this is how I feel about Mario anyway. Sonic Adventure DX is a game to discover more about as you play it, and because of this its hard to put down. The Gamegear minigames aren't really terribly fun, but there is still a fairly strong sense of achievement when you win them, save for some of the worse games like Sonic Drift.

The next strong point in Sonic Adventure DX is how it manages to incorporate several genres into a pretty neat combination. The Sonic stages could be considered your regular platformer, the likes of Mario and others, Tails is more of a strategy game revolving around whether to fly or not to fly, Knuckles is an exploration game that could be related to a Tomb Raider or something similar, Amy Rose is a kind of urgentplatformer because of the ever-persistant invincible Zero which could be made a good bit more intimidating (9/10), the 3rd person shooter style of Gamma's levels have the robot blasting as many things in sight as possible, and the infamous fishing simulation known as Big the Cat combine together with a story that is more in-depth than it appears. When a player looks behind what is shown, imagining what everything means instead of just taking things for face value, a storyline emerges that puts many RPGs to shame, including some Final Fantasies-this is because originally Sonic Adventure was going to BE an RPG. Also some of the minigames involve other genres, such as Time Attack racing and On-Rails shooting. This series of genres comes together as what may appear to be a mixed up mess, but turns out to be a very solid combination.

The music is the icing on an already delicious cake, as every track is as hip as they come, from the dark and evil-sounding techno tracks of Eggman's base to mysterious Indiana Jones-esque ambiences representing a trap-laiden inside of a humongous temple, yet each of the tracks are a delight to listen to with the exception of one striking individual known as Fakery Way, NOT for the faint of heart!

Overall I feel that Sonic Adventure/DX is one of the best, if not THE best Platformer games ever made, the novel feel of the beginning, leading to many twists and turns of the middle, while ending with a satisfying blast of action, all have you coming back for more, also like in Mario games the challenges of this game are optional (while you have only 3 for each level compared to Mario's 7 or 8, the challenges are a lot more varied) and the game doesn't throw you right back at the beginning if you fail to beat a level in 2 and a half minutes, as is the case with all future 3D Sonic games; this sacrifices challenge for accessability and playability.

Sonic Adventure is a massive quality world, which has remained in my imagination for nearly 10 years.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/09

Game Release: Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut (EU, 06/27/03)