Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

"The best Sonic game ever?"

When the Gamecube first came out, there were only two games that I wanted, and I would be happy. Super Smash Bros of course, and Sonic Adventure 2. I got both of them thank God, and I have yet to play a Sonic game that compares to Sonic Adventure 2. All of the recent Sonic games, just don't feel as great and well though out as Sonic 2 is. Sure Sonic DX was cool with the whole free roaming, and Shadow brought with it a whole new experience to the Sonic world, but no other game truly felt as, great as SA2:B. It was the first game to give us truly, a 3-D game experienced, that didn't have Sonic running up and down a straight line, or being restricted from things.

Sonic Adventure 2 was great, because it was fun to play. From the very first starting mission, you were thrown into the outstanding action of it. As soon as you see Sonic grab that piece of metal, you said, “What's he doing?” And then the street boarding came. It was so cool and so new; I didn't know what was happening. I was memorized, because I had never seen Sonic actually running, with a view from behind him, let alone boarding down a busy street. That first level will forever stay in my mind as one of the top ten greatest Gamecube experiences ever. But that goes for the rest of the game to. Adventure 2 takes the action to a whole new level, as where the 2-D games just felt like you were doing the same thing in a different light.

And as soon as you were done grinding down the streets, in came the actually running. Battling was done very simple in SA2:B. Just jump up in the air, and land on your enemy. Or you could hit him while in a ball, or do dash attacks in midair. It was a nice change to the normal jump on the head and keep running formula. And there are multiple upgrades to find within each world, and everyone helps your character and makes them even better. I thought it was a very helpful and well done mix to things. Enemy's will come in not so many different forms really though. The main enemy's for every level are big robots that run and shoot things out of their arm, or hovering space ship looking things that shoot slow but powerful balls at you.

But, Sonic is not the only person to play as. In fact, you will be playing with characters like Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman. And even two new characters to the series, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Rouge the Bat. All have their own story lines and missions to complete through out the story, and the way they all end up intertwining is very cool. SA2:B starts as Sonic. He is being brought to a military base by an organization named GUN. He escapes their helicopter, and now has to escape from the city. Tails is trying to research everything for Sonic, so he knows why GUN is after him, and Knuckles is trying to find the Chaos Emeralds, which he seemed to misplace again. After a while though, the trio team up to stop Eggmans new plot to take over Earth.

Speaking of the main antagonist through almost every Sonic game, you can also play as Dr. Robotonik. But along for the ride is Rouge, a bounty hunter who is after the Chaos Emeralds, and becomes semi-part of Eggmans group, and Shadow, Sonics equal in pretty much everyway. Only he is evil and he has a reputation, for destroying anything and everything in his path and everything along those lines. Eggman is set on taking over the world, and now that he has acquired an orbital space ship over earth, and Shadow, the odds are in his favors.

You can play through both light and dark sides, and both are very interesting and cool. It's actually a pretty long game, and will have you replaying over and over again, *cough* Sonics first level *cough*. And if the story mode didn't give you enough fun, then take a break and go to the Chao garden, where you can raise your very own Chao's to compete and win competitions, or just love them and make them happy. It was one of the coolest things about Sonic Adventure 2, and will make you instantly amazed as your Chao's grow and become stronger and more grown up. Or you can take it to the race track, and race using one of the 6 main characters.

The voice acting for Adventure 2 is the best for any Sonic game ever. No doubt about it. All the characters sound outstanding. Sonic sounds just like I thought he would, and Tails doesn't sound all to kiddy in this one. This was the first time I had ever seen Shadow, and just the tuff hardcore gruffness of his voice, made him seem everything that the game made him to be. And the soundtrack to SA2:B, is superb. The first time you hear Escape From the City on the first level, you will remember it for life. The music is amazing and goes great with the game. I never felt like it was different than the environment, or what was happening. And attacks also sound realistic. I couldn't believe when I first heard the grinding of Sonics board on the city pavement.

But, the one part where Sonic Adventure 2 stands out is its graphics. The game looks amazing. From the sparks of fire and light that come from Sonics metal board, to the enemy blast, even to the simplest things like walls or cars. All of the characters look absolutely amazing, and fully in detail. Look at Sonic for example. His green eyes seem to be real while watching some of the cut scenes, and his blue fur and red shoes a in rich detail and life. Everything was done exceptional, and no flaws here either.

If I did have a problem with Sonic Adventure 2, it might have been from Knuckles and Rouges missions. They were very boring and just like chores rather than anything. I also didn't like how some of the enemy's some of time, not always, but some of the time seemed to hurt you when you attacked them. I saw this maybe once or twice in my whole gaming experience with it, and is very minor. And how while doing a mid-air rush attack to an enemy it would miss the target and make you die. I also find a few small camera issues here and there, but nothing to make the game feel bad for anything.

Sonic Adventure 2, is probably one of the few must haves for the Gamecube. I don't think it deserves anything less than perfection when it comes to Sonic Adventure 2. Sure it could have been mad to weed out a few mistakes here and there, and it is not perfect, but it is certainly the best Sonic game ever created in my opinion. I feel as if the Sonic series is starting to go in a great new direction, now if we can only make a decent sequel. But the game looks great, sounds great, and it's super fun to play. The story is much more evolved in SA2:B and was more in depth than previous games, which is to be expected. It's certainly one of the best games for the Gamecube, and still proves to be tons of fun after all of these years. It's a must have for all Gamecube owners for sure, and runs pretty cheap now a days. If you feel the need to rent it, go ahead, but you will just be prolonging the wait. Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the best, If not the best, Sonic game ever, and provides games with a brand new way to experience Sonic like never before.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/06