Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"Makes mincemeat out of Sonic Adventure DX."

The 2-D Sonic games are classics. But when the time came for everyone to move on to 3-D, Sonic had it rough. He starred in a game called Sonic Adventure, a game which didn't feel like Sonic at all. It was a lackluster, chopped-up piece of gaming hardware which introduced many new types of gameplay, most of which being incredibly tedious. Was Sonic truly dead? A few years later, Sonic Team created a sequel, aptly named Sonic Adventure 2. Alas, the mistakes were cleared! Less than a year later, after the Dreamcast's death, the game was ported to the Gamecube as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

Story: 9/10
Depending on which side you're choosing, the storyline will vary. The Hero side story begins with Sonic escaping from the military organization known as ''GUN''. However, why he's being chased is unknown until he comes face-to-face with a black look-alike. The impostor introduces himself as Shadow the hedgehog, who claims to be the “Ultimate Lifeform” who can use to power of the Chaos emeralds to move at warp speed. As it turns out, Dr. Eggman (Robotnik) had released Shadow from a military base and let him escape, but the military forces believe it's Sonic, so they're trying to track him down. Sonic gets caught and is taken to Prison Island where Tails and Amy must come to his rescue. Sonic and his friends must figure out who Shadow really is and what Dr. Eggman is up to this time. The Dark story begins with Dr. Eggman breaking into Prison Island in hopes of releasing the “Ultimate Lifeform” that his grandfather created and locked away. With the help of a Chaos emerald, Eggman is able to release Shadow, who offers to accomplish any task Eggman desires. Eggman has secret plans aboard the mysterious space colony and requires the power of the 7 chaos emeralds (as always) to carry them through.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
You have a unique option in this game. You can either play as the good guys or the bad guys. Depending on which team you choose to play as, you'll have different stages and storylines. There are three main types of play in this game. Depending on the character you control, you'll either participate in speedy platform stages, unique shooters, or treasure hunts. There are three types of gameplay modes in the adventure. Sonic and Shadow run on high-speed action stages, like a 3-D version of the Genesis stages. The goal is simply to reach the end unscathed. Many obstacles encountered along the courses include bottomless gaps, rails that you must grind, and of course, a surplus of enemies. Each stage has several checkpoints which you can restart from if you die. You will also learn new moves as you progress, like the light dash which lets you blaze across a path of rings. Speaking of rings, they're basically your health. When you're hit by an enemy, you lose all your rings. But if you get hit and have no rings, you die. Tails and Dr. Eggman ride around in walking robots and shoot stuff. Like Sonic and Shadow's stages, the goal is to reach the end. Many obstacles require you to lock-on and fire at with the B button. You can also lock-on to multiple enemies at one time. The more enemies you hit, the more points you will receive. As you progress through the game, you will receive several laser upgrades and hover options, which help you blow up bigger objects and float across gaps. Next are Knuckles and Rouge's stages. They participate in treasure hunts and are required to find 3 emeralds or keys which are hidden randomly throughout each stage. This is fun at first, but as you progress to harder and more spacious stages, it becomes rather annoying. A special radar helps determine how close you are to each hidden object. Rouge and Knuckles can also climb walls and glide over gaps. Sometimes, you are required to dig for certain objects as well.

Aside from the main action stages, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle also features the Chao system, like its predecessor. Chao are like virtual pets. Once you hatch them from their eggs, you raise them by feeding them fruits and nurturing them constantly. You can achieve animal playmates and chaos drives for them by finding them in the action stages by destroying enemies, etc. Depending on how you treat them and who you treat them with, they will become good or bad. Once they grow big and strong enough, you can enter them in races and wrestling matches for emblems and other such prizes. One of the new additions in the Gamecube version is the Hero and Dark gardens. These can be unlocked once you raise a Chao of the hero or dark type.

Multiplayer: 8.5/10
Multiplayer mode is a new addition to the Sonic Adventure series. Just like in one-player, you can choose to do a race, a shooter, or a treasure hunt. The only differences are minor tweaks in the stages and the fact that you're competing against somebody else. Also, you can play as characters that you can't play as in single-player! These include Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Tikal, Chaos Zero, and more. The races are probably the most fun multiplayer modes. But the shooter competitions, unfortunately, don't last very long and the stages are very small. The treasure hunts, on the other hand, are surprisingly fairly decent in multiplayer.

Graphics: 9/10
Many of the textures in this game are pretty dang solid, to say the least. But the really cool designs don't come until the later stages. Fairly decent use of lighting throughout the game. Only minor backdraw is the character models, which could have been polished a bit more.

Sound: 10/10
AWESOME!!! The tunes are rock-out fntastic! Also, many of the tunes in this game have lyrics to them as well, which can be a tad distracting, but in a positive fashion. Great soundtrack, nevertheless. As for the voice acting, it's rather horrid with some characters, like Sonic (who has a slight southern accent) and Tails (who sounds like an 8-year old), but it's not as bad as in Sonic Heroes. Knuckles sounds good, as does Shadow.

Replay Value: 8/10
The first time you play through the story mode, you likely won't breeze through it. Then again, it's not going to take you over a month to beat. Fortunately, there's some redeeming value. After you beat a stage the first time, you can play further missions on that stage. These missions are fairly challenging, and getting the ''A'' Rank oin all of them can be a pain. These will definitely take you a while. Replay value is slim, though, aside from multiplayer.

Challenge: 9.5/10
Like I said, getting all 180 emblems is VERY challenging. A few missions in particular, like the timed mission in Crazy Gadget, will take you at least a hundred tries before you successfully pass them, and probably even more when you're trying to receive A ranks. The story mode itself still provides its fair amount of challenge. There's also a few secrets here and there that should keep you occupied for quite some time.

Final Verdict:
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is probably the best of the 3-D Sonics. It contains high-speed action, an excellent soundtrack, challenging missions, an innovative multiplayer, and an extensive Chao system. This is the way the first Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes should have been done.

Rent or Buy?
Buy, particularly if you're a Sonic fan. This is barely edged out by Mario Sunshine as the best platformer on the Gamecube.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/04, Updated 10/26/04