Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"A good remake of the Dreamcast game and worthy of the Sonic title."

Introduction
Last year in around July, Sonic Team released a jumbled up screenshot of a mystery game they were working on for the GameCube. Several speculations were made about it, including a NiGHTs sequel or perhaps a new Sonic game. Then, at Spaceworld 2001, Sonic Adventure 2 for the Nintendo GameCube was revealed to the public, showing off Sonic's Green Forest zone. Since Sega said that it was extremely easy to port games to the GCN from the DC, they had the game out in Japan by Christmas, and it launched over here before Valentine's Day. For the first time in the history or video games, Sonic debuts on a Nintendo home console-and he's here to stay, whether you like it or not.
Graphics
Tuned up from the original, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle uses GameCube's power very well, depsite being ported from an inferior system. While running along so fast with Sonic, the graphics never turn into blocky figures. They stay as smooth as ever, and during one of the cutscenes showing station square, all the people there have highly detailed faces and bodies, are nicely rounded off. The GUN robots that attack our heroes so much can sometimes clutter up the screen and still look perfect, without dropping the framerate a bit. However, the graphics are the last thing you'll notice when playing through the levels, unless it's a Rouge or Knuckles level. However, you'll also find that Sonic Team skimped on the graphics in some sections, like the background a lot of times. Nevertheless, Sonic games have never been about graphics, and if you want die-hard visuals, play Luigi's Mansion or Wave Race: Blue Storm - this is a Sonic game.

Gameplay
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle offers three different types of gameplay for the main game: light speed action levels played by Sonic and Shadow, shooting levels as Tails/Eggman, and ''hunting'' levels as Kunckles or Rouge. The Sonic and Shadow stages are straight from the 2D games: fast-paced action. You'll go through loops, grind rails, bash enemies, and bust walls as the two hedgehogs, and this is where the game truely shines. The shooting levels are well done, and somewhat keep up the pace of the Sonic/Shadow stages. Usually, beating the Tails/Eggman stages take little skill: most of the time you can lock on to everything in the room and fire away. This allows you to run through them like Rambo, and keep the game at a fast pace. The hunting levels with Rouge and Knuckles slow the game down so much, it's unbearable. You'll start crying at points in the storyline when the stage appears for either Knuckles or Rouge, and when you can sense it coming, you may go as far as to turn your game off and save it for a boring moment. This is really a killer because Knuckles is so kick ass in this game with the Metal Claws and the Sunglasses upgrades. The worst of these hunting levels is by far Secruity Hall, where you must find 3 Chaos Emeralds in 5 minutes. About a minute and a half per Emerald, right? Well, it usually takes a lot longer, and they're not always in the easiest places. However, the Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman stages really cancel out these hunting stages, so don't let them stop you from playing the game.

The multiplayer is vastly improved from the Dreamcast version; you can now select the hidden characters right off the bat. Racing stages let you pick from Sonic, Shadow, Metal Sonic and Amy, while you can choose from Tails, Eggman, Light Chao Walker or Dark Chao Walker in shooting stages. Hunting stages let you use the famed Tikal from the echidna tribe and Chaos Zero from SA1 along with Knuckles and Rouge. You can also participate in Chao Races and Chao Karate, along with a kart racing game which you can use any of the six characters in. Completing the Hero or Dark Story will earn you an extra multiplayer stage, which include some of the best zones from the main game. A lot of emphasis was placed on the multiplayer of this game.

Sound
There are only two companies' games that I will buy for music alone: Rare and Sonic Team's. Just pop in Jet Force Gemini or this game, and you'll instantly love the tunes. Some of the best tunes in this game are City Escape(the first zone on the hero side), Sonic's Theme, Eggman's Theme, Metal Harbor, and the final boss battle(which contains Live and Learn, SA2:B's theme song). You'll instantly rush onto the internet to download these MP3s, and pray that Sega decides to release the soundtrack wherever you live. The hunting levels with Kunckles have raps to them, and while the first Knuckles rap is pretty bad, the Pumpkin Hill and Aquatic Mine songs are pretty good.

Replay Value
After finishing a story, you can select to do time attack on that story's boss stages and to select a scene to start from and play the story through. This along with the multiplayer game and the Chao Garden(s) will last you a long time. You'll need to successfully raise a couple of Chao to gain some emblems, which are another reason to keep playing. There's 180 emblems in all, obtained by completing missions assigned to each stage. After you get all 180, something retro will happen, but it's not my place to spoil it for you.

Conclusion
If you don't have the Dreamcast version, this is an absolute pick-up, particuarly if you have Sonic Advance and a GBA. If you own the Dreamcast version but have Sonic Advance, you may want to get it for the updated contents and for Chao raising. If you have the Dreamcast version but do not have Sonic Advance and/or a GBA, don't touch it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/08/02, Updated 05/08/02