I play a lot of video games and I tend to have a lot of opinions about them. I don't always have the opportunity to talk about these opinions, but now I always will!
The format I'll be mostly adhering to shall be as follows:
Spoiler:
Graphics:
My impressions of a game's graphical fidelity and art style. I do tend to heavily favor strong aesthetic styles over realism and detail, so what earns points here is probably going to vary a lot.
Sound:
MOSTLY is going to be about music, which I find incredibly important in most games. However, voice acting where it's applicable, and any particularly noteworthy sound effects will also be covered.
Story/Themes:
I'll talk about the narrative if it exists. My personal enjoyment of it, as well as what I feel the artistic themes are meant to be and how well it conveys them. Expect heavy spoilers from this section, as well as even more subjectivity than the other already highly subjective sections.
Mechanics:
All of the actual playing the game stuff'll go in here. Controls, level design, balance, fluidity, etc., everything that puts the "game" in the game.
Synthesis:
The most important aspect: How well all of that other stuff forms a cohesive whole. Does the music fit the action, regardless of how much of a banger it is? Does the striking visual style make it difficult to parse the events on screen? Is the story contained entirely within an instruction manual and absent from the game itself? It doesn't matter how good all of the individual elements of a game are if they don't harmonize together.
Scoring:
Each category will have its own 0-10 rating, and a final score will be 0-100. I won't be assigning strict weights to the categories, because different games will rely more heavily on different elements. Sound is going to be a lot more important to a rhythm game, Story far more integral to an RPG, etc.
But what's the point of shouting opinions into an empty void? Participation is encouraged! Share your own thoughts, ask questions, argue with me about scoring semantics, whatever strikes your interest, the thread's public for a reason.
I'll be aiming to try to post at least one review every month. Any platform, time period, or genre are all fair game, and I'll note whether I was able to play on actual hardware or had to use emulation.
Feel free to make suggestions for anything you want to see my ramblings about, and I'll get to them as soon as I'm able to play the games in question.
Many say Sonic had a rough transition to 3D. Some say Sonic was never good at all. And yet, Sonic has remained a cultural icon for decades, enduring in popularity regardless of criticism... but that wasn't always guaranteed. 2001 was not a good time for SEGA, with the Dreamcast gasping out its last dying breaths, largely thanks to Sony giving away free PlayStation 2's with the purchase of a DVD player, and it wasn't really clear what would happen to the company, or its IP library. Sonic Adventure 2 marked the 10th anniversary of the Sonic franchise... and quite possibly its end. Of course SEGA was expected to start making games on other systems, but no one was really sure what that would look like, or whether it would work out, including the developers at Sonic Team. As such, Sonic Adventure 2 would be a celebration of, and a farewell to, not just Sonic, not just the Dreamcast, but to SEGA as they knew it. With a dwindling budget and a tight deadline, could they do it justice? Let's find out!
I've played SA2 many times, on actual hardware as well as emulation/ports. This review will be for the original Dreamcast version of the game, as played on a real Dreamcast, in English.
Spoiler: Graphics
As a Dreamcast game, there's still a lot of noticeable polygons, texture resolution isn't amazing, and screen resolution is gonna cap out at 480p. However, the game still looks fantastic. Sonic Adventure 2 encapsulates so much of the style of its era, the characters all have bold colors and distinct silhouettes, all the key art has dynamic posing, and almost every asset in the game has been stylized to match the vibes.
Character designs are largely unchanged from Sonic Adventure 1 for returning characters, and the models do justice to the artwork. Most characters have been made slightly taller/thinner than the previous models, with this being most noticeable on Sonic, who takes on a more streamlined and athletic build compared to his softer and rounder "mascot" proportions. The biggest change to Sonic's design though is the product placement brand deal Soap
TM
shoes! And honestly they look great on him. The traditional Sonic shoes are iconic of course, but the Soap
TM
shoes are a natural fit for the aesthetic and complement the design incredibly well. And then aside from the design tweaks, the model quality has been refined as well. Faces are much more expressive, and hands have been given individual fingers, though they are still a bit blocky. The extra articulation allows for smoother and more varied animations, making everyone feel more fluid and alive.
There's a mix of FMV and real time cutscenes throughout the game, with the FMVs typically being used for more climactic moments. Both generally look good, but I do think the FMV scenes can have a sort of uncanny valley feel to them on occasion. Especially when they're showing human characters, they all have too much detail to just gloss over, but not enough to actually look good, so the result is crowds of dead-eyed clay husks, though there's only a few occasions where it's relevant. This is a much lesser problem in the real time scenes, where the lower detail makes the occasional humans read more like an anime character.
The level environments (almost) all look amazing. You get a lot of abstract/surreal geometry, but it's integrated into the world pretty naturally, creating a striking aesthetic nearly entirely unique to 3D Sonic. There's a solid variety in the environments, with each location feeling unique even when assets are reused between them. The city and space areas both particularly stand out here. However, the kart racing sections do NOT maintain this level of style or quality. They're basically just generic roads floating in a void, connected to nothing, and these stages have a massive pop-in problem that isn't usually prevalent elsewhere. Fortunately there's only two of those in the main game.
Throughout many of the levels you'll also find signs/billboards that have advertisements on them. Some of these are genuine ads for either Soap
TM
shoes, or SEGA properties such as Phantasy Star Online or NiGHTS, while others are in-universe ads for things like Sonic Pizza, Chaos Cola, or Chao in Space 2.
There's also this, which I think it's better I just show you:
Spoiler:
Despite my general distaste for advertising, I honestly love when games do things like this. It adds a bit of flavor to the world, and gives the artists a chance to have fun with things.
As an extra touch, the VMU screen is used to display a portrait of whichever character you're playing as at the time, so if you do ever happen to glance down from the screen, you get some sick art glancing back at you.
Also the subtitles are all in Comic Sans. Make of that what you will.
Score: 8/10
I do love the style, and most of the game does look great, but unfortunately it's dragged down by the handful of parts that break that style being... really bad. Fortunately those flaws are few and far between, leaving the overall game looking incredibly solid.
Spoiler: Sound
ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
GOT PLACES TO GO GOTTA FOLLOW MY RAINBOW
Ahem.
Sonic Adventure 2 has one of the best and most iconic soundtracks in gaming. I'm sure most of you will have already heard the more popular songs, but genuinely every song in the soundtrack is excellent. Some are definitely better than others, but they're all bangers.
Each playable character (and Amy) has a unique vocal theme. Amy's is ported directly over from Sonic Adventure 1, while Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all get remixes of their SA1 themes. Personally, I think the SA2 versions of It Doesn't Matter (Sonic's Theme) and Believe In Myself (Tails' Theme) are straight upgrades over their SA1 counterparts, though Unknown From M.E. (Knuckles' Theme) is a slight downgrade. As brand new characters, Shadow and Rouge get brand new songs, and then Eggman has his instrumental bit from SA1 replaced with the standout track E.G.G.M.A.N., which is easily among the top 3 songs in the game, possibly even #1. These themes will play whenever the relevant character gets up to something, though most of the time the moment won't last long enough to hear the full tracks.
Spoiler: E.G.G.M.A.N.
BGM for the stages generally has a certain style based on which character the stage belongs to, with a few exceptions. Sonic has up-beat energetic rock, including the iconic Escape From The City, another strong contender for the top spot, Tails' is similar, but with a generally brighter sound and more emphasis put on the synths, while Knuckles gets cheesy rap about recent events and the current stage. Eggman gets a kind of industrial sound, Shadow has moody DnB, and Rouge gets jazz. Every single one of these is great, and they've all been written to loop well, though you can absolutely beat the stages fast enough to not need the looping if you know what you're doing.
Spoiler: Escape From The City
Additionally, you'll have some orchestral pieces for a few of the more dramatic scenes, and the cutesy Chao Garden music. None of them particularly stand out among the rest of the soundtrack, but they serve their purpose well.
Spoiler: Chao's Doki-Doki Banana Chips Run Mix
And tying everything together is Live and Learn, the main theme for the game. You get an instrumental version right at the start for the title screen, leitmotifs sprinkled throughout many of the other tracks, building up to the full vocal version for the final boss.
Spoiler: Live and Learn
As for the voice acting, it's the best English cast and performance in the entire franchise for me. Mike Pollock does a great Eggman, and his voice is synonymous with the character now for good reason... but god damn, Deem Bristow lends a greater versatility and genuine threat to the performance that kinda got lost over the years later on. He's easily the strongest of the cast, but really everyone does a great job here. Where SA1's line delivery was often stilted and unnatural, everything flows really well here, and the emotions all land more sincerely. There is still a little bit of awkwardness in the delivery, particularly from Amy, but it generally works regardless. Great work from everyone involved.
Lastly, you may have read or heard that SA2's audio mixing is terrible, the characters talk over their own lines, and things of that nature. This is mostly only the case for Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the GameCube port that would become the basis for the later HD ports, and as such the version most people are likely to be more familiar with. The original Dreamcast version does not have most of these problems, and the few times it does, they're of much less severity.
Score: 10/10
This was never not going to be a 10/10. I know there are those out there who disagree... but those people are incorrect. Or they played Battle.
Spoiler: Story/Themes
When you start the game, you're given a choice between the Hero Story: following Sonic/Tails/Knuckles, or the Dark Story: following Eggman/Shadow/Rouge. All of the same events happen in both, but you do need both perspectives to get a full picture. Dark Story technically starts before Hero Story does, but I think playing Hero Story first is a better experience.
Hero Story opens with Sonic being held prisoner on board a military helicopter, deciding he's tired of playing along, effortlessly breaking free and beating the shit out of the soldiers on board, and ripping off a piece of the hull before jumping down into the city below and using that hull scrap as a snowboard. Sick as hell, establishes the character, and leaves you interested to find out why he was being held captive. Perfect intro, no notes.
Spoiler: I kinda let the summarization get away from me. I do make some commentary, but most of it is just a pretty dense retelling of the game, you probably don't need to read it if you already know the plot
Sonic will actually spend the majority of the game as a fugitive, leading to one of my all-time favorite Sonic quotes: "There always seem to be a lot of police around when you don't need 'em," but I'm getting ahead of myself there. Sonic runs through the city, destroying a bunch of military equipment along the way, and has his fight with a giant mech interrupted by Shadow flexing Chaos Control. Turns out the reason the military's after Sonic is because Shadow stole a Chaos Emerald and the government thinks all hedgehogs look alike. Shadow escapes leaving Sonic behind to get arrested again, and they ship him off to Prison Island, a hybrid military base/high security prison complex, which Tails and Amy immediately break him out of. Tails explodes all of the military shit, while Amy sneaks in and opens the prison. On the way out Sonic runs into Shadow, but the confrontation is cut short by the revelation that Eggman has rigged the entire island to explode, and they need to get to hell out.
Meanwhile, Knuckles has been having his own hijinks, thwarting Rouge as she attempts to steal the Master Emerald, interrupted by Eggman just kinda snatching it with a crane as he passes by, causing Knuckles to jump up and punch it into pieces that apparently scatter a lot further than you'd think they should, and he spends the first half of the game just gathering up those shards on his own.
And then Eggman explodes half of the moon with a giant space laser that bears no legal resemblance to any other culturally significant giant space lasers, threatening to point it at Earth next if the world governments don't all surrender to him. Tails happens to have been holding onto the last Chaos Emerald since the end of SA1, and comes up with a plan to make a fake Emerald that they can shove into the laser to make it self-destruct instead of firing.
Sonic and Tails then proceed to break into negotiations between Eggman and the President of the United
States
Federation, trace the signal to the Space Colony ARK, abandoned 50 years ago due to an "accident," get Knuckles to break into one of Eggman's pyramid-themed bases, and they all steal a normal, unflavored Space Shuttle to fly up to the ARK. Sonic is taking the fake Emerald to the cannon, but is interrupted when Eggman comes on the intercom announcing he's taken Amy and Tails hostage, demanding the Chaos Emerald in exchange for their lives. In one of the best scenes in the game, Sonic goes to surrender the Emerald, thinking that if he just gives Eggman the fake one, that'd work out just fine, but Eggman calls the bluff, trapping Sonic in a capsule when he tries to approach. Tails accidentally confirms Eggman's suspicions by asking how he "knew" the Emerald was fake, and with that settled, Eggman launches Sonic into space and the capsule explodes. Sonic the Hedgehog fucking dies on screen. Tails swears to avenge him and finish the job, and immediately kicks Eggman's ass.
Of course, Sonic isn't actually dead, though they DO sell the moment pretty well. Remembering Shadow using Chaos Control to teleport, he's able to use the fake Emerald to copy that trick, and pops up to jumpscare Knuckles. He goes to ACTUALLY stuff the fake Emerald in the cannon this time, and though Shadow notices and attempts to chase him down, he is ultimately successful, causing the cannon to misfire and the world to be saved.
Taken on its own, the Hero Story is pretty good, and I enjoy it a lot. It has a lot of great character moments, though there isn't really much in terms of actual character growth. I especially think this is my favorite version of Amy, though it is a shame that the plot doesn't really know what to do with her a lot of the time. I appreciate the way they make the stakes feel real and threatening, with the story taking itself seriously, but also still being
fun.
It can be a bit disjointed at times, particularly with Knuckles, but it's usually fine.
But we're not done here yet...
Spoiler: The in-game trailer for the Dark Story that plays after the Hero Story credits roll
The Dark Story opens with Eggman exploding his way through a top-secret underground military facility, supposedly housing a superweapon developed by Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. This weapon is Shadow, who promises to help Eggman as thanks for freeing him from containment. Shadow tells Eggman about the ARK, and its giant laser, the Eclipse Cannon. If Eggman is able to gather the Chaos Emeralds needed to power it, no one would be able to stand against him. It's another strong start, but not quite as iconic as Sonic's is.
I'm going to restrain myself from just regurgitating the plot like I did with the Hero Story, a lot of it would be repetitive anyway. The important bits are that these protagonists aren't actually as aligned as the Hero Story's are. Eggman's seeking to exploit his grandfather's research for world domination, standard stuff. Shadow pretends to be indebted to him, but is actually manipulating Eggman for his own ends. Haunted by memories of a girl called Maria, who was shot and killed during a military raid on the ARK, Shadow just wants blind revenge against humanity. Rouge pretends to just be greedy, agreeing to join on in exchange for getting to keep the Chaos Emeralds after everything's done, but she's actually a government spy sent to dig up Gerald's old research from the ARK.
So while Hero Story is a pretty standard action movie formula with a group of friends saving the Earth from being exploded, Dark Story is a heist/spy movie, with all of the characters maneuvering around each other for their own ends, creating a fresh experience despite the overall plot being largely the same. There's lots of great intrigue here, and the characters are generally have more depth to them than in Hero Story, especially for Shadow, which is good because really the story is about him more than anything else. I also found Dark Story to be more cohesive than Hero Story, owing to them being in constant contact executing schemes instead of the Hero cast's more loose organization leading them to be acting separately more frequently. However, the ending is a bit less of an ending, since you get Eggman celebrating his "victory" while a warning flashes on the monitor behind him, clearly indicating that his celebration is premature.
Both stories are excellent, and ultimately which one is "better" pretty much just depends on what you're in the mood for. And each fills in the gaps that might be seen as plotholes in the other, creating a stronger whole without the pacing being dragged down by having to juggle between all of the perspectives at once.
There's just one more thing though...
Spoiler: Post-credits trailer after completing both stories
Upon completion of both stories, a third option will appear in the menu: Last Story.
Spoiler: More summary, but this one's better I think? Still, if you know what happens already you aren't missing much
After the events of the Hero/Dark Stories, suddenly the ARK goes into lockdown, and every monitor on the colony has an image of Gerald Robotnik in chains. A recording of his final message before execution. The entire Space Colony ARK has been rigged to crash itself into the Earth and self destruct once all seven Chaos Emeralds had been gathered, obliterating the entire planet. Shadow was created by Gerald to be the Ultimate Life Form, and though not originally intended as a weapon... the military saw it as a threat they couldn't control. They captured Gerald, and murdered all of the other witnesses before shutting down the colony with a catastrophic accident as the cover story. Along with all of the scientists killed was Maria Robotnik, the girl from Shadow's flashbacks, Gerald's granddaughter, Eggman's cousin,
and former mafiascum.net listmod
. While captive, he was forced to continue his research under military supervision, but as his grief drove him to madness, he set up the plan to use the ARK to destroy Earth, with Shadow ready to trigger it upon his awakening. In response, he was executed, and Shadow sealed and abandoned for 50 years until Eggman later uncovered him.
Turns out no one wants to be exploded, so all five of the playable characters who aren't Shadow, including Eggman, start working to stop it. The Master Emerald that Knuckles had been gathering the pieces to repair can regulate and neutralize the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, so if they're able to open up a path to the ARK's core and get the Master Emerald there, Knuckles could potentially shut it down. Meanwhile, Amy finds Shadow brooding out the window, and tries to convince him to help. Her speech restores some of Shadow's memories that Gerald had suppressed... memories of Maria still believing in humanity, even in spite of everything, and asking Shadow with her dying words to protect them and give them a chance at happiness. That memory is enough for Shadow to abandon his misguided need for vengeance, and he rushes off to help clean up the mess he made.
Sonic and Knuckles make it to the core, but it's now guarded by the Biolizard, a monstrous prototype of what would eventually become Shadow. Shadow arrives to fight it, while they run to retreive the Chaos Emeralds. It's not enough to stop the ARK though, becauses the Biolizard has teleported outside and fused itself with the colony, manually dragging it into the Earth as a last failsafe to ensure Gerald's vengeance. Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic/Super Shadow, and tag team it from space. After properly killing the Biolizard, the true final boss is inertia, because that's still a really big chunk of metal with a lot of Earthward momentum. So Sonic and Shadow intercept it, and use their combined power to Chaos Control it to the other side of the planet. While Sonic is able to make it back on board... Shadow falls out of orbit and plummets into the planet below.
The surviving cast members then hang out a bit on the ARK, with melancholic reflection on recent events as the credits start to roll. They contemplate the meaning of Shadow's sacrifice and nature, Gerald's true intentions, and Eggman almost seems to be starting a redemption arc. He talks about how growing up he wanted to be like his grandfather, and create inventions to help people. He doesn't explicitly state it, but as he questions Gerald's descent into rage and madness, the subtext is that he's comparing it to his own path through life, and how far removed his own actions are from his original intentions.
It's a satisfying and climactic ending, though admittedly it does rely a bit heavily on the exposition dump at the start. While it didn't just come out of nowhere, there were seeds planted and fores shadowed the whole time, it still feels a bit clumsy in the big reveal. Regardless, it's a solid payoff for the mystery built up during the main game, especially in Dark Story, lots of hype moments, and in spite of being a send-off for the franchise as it faces an uncertain future, left the door open for a lot of really neat things in the future. Basically only one game ever did anything with that potential, but hey, we're just reviewing THIS game for now.
Spoiler: Post credits Shadow memorial image
So, with all the plot summarization done, and my thoughts about it as entertainment... what about artistically?
Well, the main focus here seems to be on grief and redemption. Shadow and Gerald went through the same traumatic events, and they establish a dichotomy in their response to it. While Shadow begins the game focused on revenge just as Gerald was, during the course of the Dark Story we see flashes of compassion that betray his underlying nature. While Gerald in his time only fell further into despair and rage, Shadow was able to find hope and move forward in the end. It's also noteworthy how Tails reacts to Sonic's "death" here. While Maria's death caused Gerald's conviction in himself and his work to waver and break, Sonic's death only strengthened Tails' resolve, and really puts a nice cap on the character arc he went through in SA1.
And during the final sequence when everyone works together, there's no infighting. There's no "Well why should I trust you?" when Eggman and Shadow offer their help. And in the aftermath there's a mutual respect that's formed even between nemeses. They don't jump right back into fighting, there's genuine camaraderie between them, and I find it incredibly poignant how it DOESN'T end with Eggman sneaking off to hatch another scheme, instead with him enjoying the company of everyone and being proud of their teamwork.
Knuckles and Rouge are also a good example of this sort of thing, with Rouge's introduction being her attempting to directly steal from him. That's not part of her government spy thing, that's just because she wants a shiny rock, but throughout the game they build up a respect for each other, and mostly settle their own beef even before the Last Story kicks in.
There's also a common thread of disdain for the Military Industrial Complex, and Sonic does say ACAB like constantly, and it's incredibly based.
And then in the meta sense, as the end of this era of the franchise and of SEGA, it excels. That bittersweet melancholic ending, looking to the future while reflecting on what was sacrificed to get there... It feels right.
Score: 9/10
There's some rough bits here and there, and occasionally it can be a bit on the nose, but overall this is easily my favorite Sonic story, and one of my favorite stories just in general. Could it be improved? Absolutely. Do I trust anyone enough to attempt it? Absolutely not.
Spoiler: Mechanics
Oh, that's right, it's a game we're reviewing isn't it? So the gameplay is split up into three main styles, as well as two less-main styles.
Spoiler: Main Game
Spoiler: Sonic/Shadow
Sonic and Shadow's stages are mostly linear 3D platforming levels where the goal is simply to reach the end.
Inherited from Sonic Adventure 1, both are capable of running, jumping, homing attacking and spin-dashing. Running and jumping are pretty self-explanatory, homing attacking allows you to get a burst of speed mid-air that will either go in the direction you push the stick, or if there's an enemy/item nearby, lock onto that. If there are multiple possible targets, you can aim with the stick and the game will select the one closest to the angle the stick is pointed. A spin-dash is charged up on the ground, then grants a burst of speed in the direction you push your stick, as well as putting you into a ball state, where you can gain momentum with physics and damage enemies you run into, but lose the ability to make sharp turns. The ball state can be cancelled out of at any time by either jumping or pressing B, or will automatically exit if your speed gets low enough.
New to Sonic Adventure 2 are the somersault and grinding. The somersault replaces SA1's instant spin dash, if you don't hold down the button, you'll do a grounded flip that doesn't gain any speed, but will allow you slide under small gaps or break certain obstacles. Grinding will happen if you land on a railing, or certain corners on stage geometry, giving a similar physics-based acceleration to rolling, but along a pre-determined path and you aren't considered attacking. By holding B you can crouch down to amplify the effect of acceleration from gravity, and you can wiggle the stick to lean into turns and preserve your momentum on tight corners.
All of these basic moves are enough to get you going, and are designed to be chained together seamlessly. Generally, the controls are extremely responsive, and Sonic/Shadow will do whatever you tell them to, even if it isn't quite what you wanted. At low speeds, you can basically turn on a dime, near instantaneously adjusting to wherever the stick is pointing. Once you build up speed, the turns will take on more of a curve, allowing you to adjust your trajectory without immediately yeeting yourself of a cliff. When you do want to make a sharp turn at speed, you can either jump and turn in the air, or use a spin dash on the ground. Charging a spin dash will immediately stop you in place, so you can also use it as an emergency brake if you need it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you can get up to some pretty crazy speeds, and chain together all sorts of tricks, and in return the game will give you points. It's incredibly satisfying to pull off, and is just peak 3D Sonic gameplay the whole time.
In addition to the basic moveset though, there are upgrade items hidden within the stages that add new abilities. Sonic and Shadow both get access to the light dash, which will have them follow a trail of rings at high speed, even if there's no ground. This is technically carried over from SA1, but has been streamlined to great effect. In SA1, you'd need to charge up a spin dash for several seconds to then activate the light dash state, and release the button to execute it. Now you just tap the button near rings and it happens instantaneously. If there's ground beneath you at the end of a ring trail, you'll carry the momentum into your run, allowing for rapid acceleration. There's also an upgrade to the somersault, that will add a flame effect, which just allows it to break a wider variety of obstacles. And then the Ancient Light will let you use the SA1 style of charging a light dash to break chains of enemies. This one's a lot jankier, and can frequently end up with you just zooming in circles around an enemy instead, but can be neat situationally. Sonic alone also gets the Bounce Bracelet, the best ability in the game imo. It lets you slam into the ground and bounce back up, slightly higher than your normal jump height because hedgehogs don't need to abide by the laws of thermodynamics. You can use this on inclines and will bounce at an angle, or onto rails to instantly be at full speed. It also breaks all the same obstacles as a somersault. Sonic also gets Magic Hands, which lets you trap enemies in bubbles. It's practically useless, but it is funny.
The levels, as mentioned, are mostly linear, but they do have plenty of alternate paths and shortcuts that can be found, including some that require abilities found in later levels, which incentivizes replaying and optimizing earlier levels for higher scores and faster times. Some levels also have added gimmicks, Sonic has a couple sections where he snowboards down slopes, some time stop shenanigans, and a level with Mario Galaxy style gravity switching mechanics, and Shadow has his own weird gravity level. City Escape is an obvious standout, but all of these levels are great, and honestly reason enough to play the game even if you don't care about the rest of it.
The boss fights for Sonic/Shadow... well they do look pretty cool, but don't have too much going on gameplay-wise. Most of them essentially boil down to waiting for an opening in the pattern and homing attacking, but they're also pretty short and they CAN be cheesed if you know what you're doing. The final Sonic vs. Shadow fight is unique in that you're constantly running along a path of falling platforms, so instead of just waiting around you also have to keep your momentum up. Homing attacking is also not optimal here, with a well aligned light dash or spin dash being far better options. It's refreshing if you know what you're doing, but if you don't... well my first time on this fight took me over 20 minutes. And then Shadow's Biolizard fight is also more involved, requiring you to grind along the body and perform increasingly complex homing attack chains to hit the weak point. That one's probably the best designed boss in the game.
Spoiler: Tails/Eggman
Tails and Eggman both pilot mechanical walkers through their stages, having weightier movement with stronger inertia, and equipped with cannons and homing missiles. The goal is still to simply reach the end of the stage, but things are a bit slower. Instead of chaining together moves and level features to build up momentum, you're expected to have more careful positioning and aim your jumps well, while blowing up as much shit as you can with the missiles along the way. While all the other characters have the traditional Sonic ring system, where you collect rings in the levels, getting hit makes you drop them, and you die if you get hit with no rings, Eggman and Tails have a more traditional health bar. You'll still drop rings on taking damage, and the health bar is refilled by collecting rings, but you're able to sustain a few hits without rings.
Tails and Eggman also have upgrades hidden in their stages, and though most of them are just upgrades to health/weapons, they do also both get thrusters for their mechs, allowing them to glide across gaps, and have more precise air control.
The stages themselves are a somewhat more linear than even Sonic/Shadow's, there's typically just one correct path with side areas tending to just be dead ends or loops. Most of the fun here is derived from just highlighting as many targets as possible and watching all the explosions happen, and yeah that spectacle is good enough honestly. Eggman also gets a neat level on the ARK exterior where the lower gravity from being in space causes his thruster to actually give lift instead of just gliding. The platforming is fairly basic, though the gliding does open it up a bit, and though many people will complain about the stiffer controls, I like them because it makes the mechs feel more convincing, like you're genuinely piloting a few tons of metal around.
For bosses, there's only one proper boss fight, and it's exclusive to Eggman. Tails only has the two Eggman matches. The Tails/Eggman matches are... not great. You just run at each other mashing B until one of you dies, usually the enemy but sometimes you get unlucky, and either way the whole thing's over in less than 30 seconds typically. The one aboard the ARK also has explosive canisters that can do really good damage if the stars align, but it's not usually enough to work around. Eggman's boss is fine. You dodge attacks in a circular arena, taking pot shots with the cannon to expose weak points for the missiles. Pretty much the most basic thing that could be done here, but it does work really well in context, which I'll talk about in the Synthesis section.
Spoiler: Knuckles/Rouge
Each stage for Knuckles and Rouge is actually NOT a linear 3D platforming level where the goal is to reach the end. Instead they're more open spaces that you can freely roam around, sometimes divided into separate sections, and the goal is to find three MacGuffins hidden throughout the area. Usually these are Master Emerald pieces, but sometimes can be other things, like regular Chaos Emeralds or keys. Both of them can run around and jump as normal, as well as glide, climb on walls, swim through water, and have direct melee attacks. To actually find the objectives, you have a hot/cold radar that targets one at a time, as well as monitors scattered throughout the stage that give up to three increasingly specific hints for the current target. Despite being able to only directly track one at a time, all three objectives do exist in the level simultaneously, allowing you to collect them out of order if you happen to stumble across them.
There are also upgrades in these stages, same as the rest. Both characters will gain the ability to dig underground/in walls for items, to break open stronger boxes with the melee attack, and to see "invisible" level features that actually just don't exist until the upgrade is acquired. Additionally, Knuckles can get the Air Necklace, which allows him to breathe underwater indefinitely. While it may seem unfair that only Knuckles gets that one, really he's the only one with significant enough amounts of water for it to matter.
The levels are pretty neat, with each of them having a unique vibe and different methods of navigation. It isn't always obvious how to get places though, and as such these can easily become the longest stages in the game, especially on a first playthrough. This becomes a problem for Rouge's Security Hall, which adds a time limit of five minutes, which is INCREDIBLY tight for this kind of level, and it also happens to be one of the more obtuse stages to figure out. You're pretty much forced to spend lives doing recon and figuring out how to open pathways, and then spend more lives on memorizing the possible hiding spots. It's very annoying until you have everything memorized, but the upside is that by clearing at all under such a strict time limit you're almost guaranteed to get an A rank score. Other than Security Hall, you're able to chill and take things at your own pace with them, and it's generally pretty fun to slowly build up your understanding of the layout and turn 30 minute levels into 3 minute levels at your own pace.
This time, Knuckles is the only one with a real boss fight, and Rouge only gets the two Knuckles/Rouge fights. Those fights are fine, nothing really remarkable about them, as with most of the other mirror matches. Knuckles' boss is pretty interesting though. It's a ghost that you have to run from until you can open up a skylight, causing it to hide as a shadow in the ground/walls, that you then dig up and punch. It's a bit repetitive, but it's pretty creative and makes good use of Knuckles' moveset.
So it should come as no surprise that Sonic/Shadow's gameplay is the most fleshed out and the most fun. But all three offer something unique and interesting, and while I personally wouldn't mind having a full game of JUST the Sonic/Shadow style, the variety is appreciated.
Not mentioned in the individual upgrade sections, is an upgrade that everyone has access to called the Mystic Melody. Once you find the instance for a given character, they're able to interact with the small shrine hidden in each stage, which typically leads to a small side area containing some rings/items and occasionally useful for bonus objectives. Also hidden in every stage is Big the Cat! He's not playable this time around, but every single level has him hidden somewhere within as a visual gag. Usually in a position where he's about to die, but he always pops up in the next level, so clearly he's okay.
Spoiler: Big the Cat about to be crushed by a semi truck
Each stage also has five different missions to complete. The first one is the standard objective given by the story. The others let you squeeze just a bit more content out of each stage, and are the same across all stages. Second is collecting 100 rings, third is finding a chao hidden somewhere in the level (frequently behind a Mystic Melody shrine), fourth is a time limit, and lastly you unlock an alternate "hard mode" configuration of the stage, with certain paths removed/rearranged and extra obstacles added.
Acquiring an A rank on every mission of every level also unlocks a 3D remake of Green Hill Zone! I am not good enough at this game to do that, so I haven't actually played it myself, but it's a fun thing to include as a bonus after you think you've 100%ed everything.
As for the two less-main styles, we have Kart Racing and Chao Garden.
Spoiler: Kart Racing
The Kart Racing is really undercooked, bare-bones stuff. Hero and Dark story each have one Kart Racing stage, where you drive along the track trying to reach checkpoints before a timer runs out, like a classic arcade racer. You can also drift, which happens if you turn too sharply, and pick up some boosts along the way. An interesting quirk of the physics here is that while drifting, your top speed is uncapped and you can accelerate indefinitely. You can also spin the car around backwards if you drift up against a wall, which is always fun. The timers are pretty generous, so it's pretty inoffensive at least, not likely to cause any progress roadblocks.
Outside the story there's a couple extra tracks you can race on if you like, and there's a multiplayer mode. You can also download extra tracks from the internet if you have your Dreamcast online, which... is a bit more complicated than it used to be, but is still doable today. In total, there's 8 playable tracks, which is honestly kind of a lot for a game mode that otherwise feels like a tacked-on afterthought. The abstract nature and the ability to download tracks makes me wonder if maybe a Trackmania-style editor was planned and scrapped at some point? They did actually accept fan-submitted designs to be converted into downloadable tracks, though I can't find solid information on if ALL of the DLC tracks were from those submissions, or just one. Either way, it's neat, even if the racing itself is lackluster.
Spoiler: Chao Garden
The Chao Garden some people might argue is actually a MORE main style, but I never really had the patience to put much time into it, despite it being really neat. Hidden in each stage is a box containing a Chao Key, which will grant you access to the Chao World upon completing the stage. You can also access it freely from the Stage Select menu. Within the Chao World is an entire virtual pet raising game, where you can hatch and raise chao to participate in minigames. Chao start as an egg, and then once hatched, their appearance and stats can be altered by interacting with them in the garden. In the normal stages, you can collect Chaos Drives and animals, which either drop from defeated enemies or are found in hiding spots throughout the level. When you enter the garden, recently collected items will be dropped into the garden with you, and you can then feed them to your chao. Each chao will has an alignment on the axis of Hero-Dark, with the starter chao beginning at neutral. Being nice to a baby chao with a Hero character (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles), will gradually shift their alignment toward Hero, while being nice to them with a Dark character (Eggman/Shadow/Rouge) will shift it toward Dark. Conversely, if you're abusive to a baby chao, the alignment will shift in the opposite direction of the character you're abusing them with. As the alignment shifts, the chao will take on either angelic or demonic traits, for Hero and Dark respectively. Eventually, the baby chao will evolve into an adult chao, with an appearance determined by its alignment, as well as which stat you focused on with the animals/Chaos Drives you fed it, leading to a wide variety of possible shapes. Additionally, when animals are fed to chao, they can grow animal parts to match, or adopt certain unique behaviors. You can also breed chao together to create a child with a combination of their traits. Most chao will be mortal however, and will die after enough time passes. However, there are two ways to challenge mortality. If a chao is happy enough when it would die, it will instead revert back to an egg and reincarnate, retaining some of its traits and alignment. It is also possible to convert a chao into a Chaos Chao by jumping through some extra hoops, granting them a fancy new model, immortality, and also infertility.
There is a TON of depth here, going well beyond any other virtual pet system I've seen before or since. Sure, Digimon have complicated evolution trees, but do they gradually morph in real time as you influence them along multiple axes and splice them with animal DNA? I'd really love to mess around with it more, but... it does take literal hours to actually get anything done in here. Time only passes while you're actively in the garden, and there really isn't that much to do at first. As you get more chao and develop them, it does get more involved, but as with many other virtual pet games, my love of the concept and potential gets overshadowed by my inability to get past the early tedium.
There are also actually three unique Chao Gardens, and each of them can hold up to eight chao, making for a total of 24 per save file. By raising your first Hero Chao, you unlock the Hero Garden, basically Chao Heaven. Rasing your first Dark Chao will unlock the Dark Garden, basically Chao Hell. The difference is mostly aesthetic, but alignment will slowly shift toward the alignment of the garden a baby chao is kept in over time if you aren't counteracting it.
Once you've raise your chao a bit, the main thing to do with them is Chao Race. Eight chao will compete in a race that tests each of their stats as they navigate various obstacles. While it's mostly a wind 'em up and watch 'em go type deal without any direct control over the chao you submit, you can cheer on your chao, giving it a temporary speed boost at the cost of a chunk of its stamina. There are several courses of escalating length and complexity, each emphasizing different stats. Winning races can earn medals for the chao, and toys for the garden that they can interact with. It takes a significant amount of work to get chao to the point where it's actually viable to win these, and as such I personally haven't managed to do more than a couple of the Beginner tracks, but there is definitely a satisfaction to be had by watching your little chimeric abomination of a dude run through the courses, and the opponent chao offer a good showcase of what's possible to create.
There's also the Party Race mode, which allows for a multiplayer race. In what could potentially be the only instance of eight player (local) multiplayer on the system, you can have eight people all racing their own chao, with each trigger cheering for a designated chao.
Exclusive to the Dreamcast version of SA2* though, is Chao Adventure 2. If you weren't aware, the Dreamcast VMU (memory card) can be removed and used independently of the console itself, basically like a Game Boy. You can pick a chao out from the garden and designate it for use in Chao Adventure 2, letting you take your chao with you and continue to raise it. There are small minigames to play that will reward you with stat increases and fruits to bring into the full Chao Garden. By connecting your VMU to another, you can also trade or breed chao between them. You could also use this to move chao between save files, enabling you to bring chao from your garden to visit a friend's, perfect for Party Race competitions or just showing off designs. It's honestly a shame that this sort of thing didn't catch on, because it does add a neat potential social aspect that could have been fun with other games, but with the whole concept of memory cards being rendered obsolete in the very next generation, I guess there wasn't much of a chance for it.
*The GameCube version of Battle replaces Chao Adventure 2 with the Tiny Chao Garden, requiring you to also own a Game Boy Advance, and the separately sold cable to connect it to the GameCube. As this review is for the Dreamcast version, I won't go into detail on the Tiny Chao Garden here.
But wait! There's more! Sonic Adventure 2 also has a two player multiplayer mode!
Spoiler: Battle Mode
Each of the three main gameplay styles can be played against a friend, with one taking the Hero character and the other the Dark character.
Sonic/Shadow get a straightforward race through one of three randomly selected stages from the story: Radical Highway, Green Forest, or Sky Rail. First one to the goal wins, and you'll play to the best of 3 before being prompted to rematch or quit. There are couple of changes from the single player gameplay that makes this a little bit more interesting though. The most obvious is that there's two people here, and you can attack each other. Usually it's not worth it, keeping your forward momentum is better, but if you happen to be running by an opponent who has no rings, murder is always an option. The nature of the shared world also means you can hog rings and items, and an interesting quirk is that when you die you respawn at the most recently activated checkpoint... regardless of which player actually activated it. If you're in the lead, you might intentionally jump over the checkpoints, risking your own progress to avoid helping the opponent. And if you're far behind when you hear the checkpoint noise go off, it may be worth jumping off the nearest cliff to respawn closer to the opponent. There's also special abilities that can be activated every 20 rings you collect. You can give yourself a temporary speed boost, perform an infinite range attack on the opponent, or freeze time for 10-ish seconds, based on which multiple of 20 you have. The attack is avoidable by performing a somersault with the correct timing, but if your opponent is mid-air or otherwise in a position where that isn't possible, it's a near guaranteed hit. The time freeze nominally lasts for a 10 second countdown, but by mashing buttons and wiggling the stick, you can speed up the countdown, getting out of it as quickly as two or three seconds.
It's a ton of fun, and though I do wish you could select a specific stage to play, and that all stages were playable instead of just those three, there's plenty of room for flexing skills and shenaniganery here, and I have vastly more hours in this than I do any of the other multiplayer modes.
Tails/Eggman get to do their boss fight but it's multiplayer now. It's... not great. Like in singleplayer, you just run at each other mashing B and hope it works. There's very little beyond luck that matters here, and it doesn't last long enough to even build up a tension for the reveal to matter. There are also three stages, but they don't really matter. It's still a box that you shoot each other in, just different backgrounds.
Knuckles/Rouge will have their own race to hunt down Master Emerald pieces in Wild Canyon, Pumpkin Hill, or Meteor Herd, curiously all Knuckles stages, with no representation from Rouge. These work largely the same way as they do in singleplayer, with the winner determined by who finds two pieces first. Hint monitors are present, but you'll probably want to avoid using them here, because the hint will appear spread across both screens, and your opponent will almost certainly read it too. There's also the same 20 ring special system in play here. This one seems like it has decent potential, but since the treasure hunting stages don't really have as many hazards, and checkpoints don't exist, a lot of that kind of risk/reward with opportunity attacks and checkpoint management that adds depth to the Sonic/Shadow races doesn't exist here. It's still fun, but I find myself constantly drawn back to Sonic/Shadow instead.
Additionally, getting A ranks and completing missions in singleplayer will unlock alternate characters and costumes for use in the multiplayer. You could also download Halloween and Christmas themed outfits by going online on the relevant holidays. Though nowadays you don't have to wait on a calendar for them, you just have to put in the work to get your Dreamcast connected to the modern internet.
Score: 9/10
There is a Lot of game in this game, and while there is the occasional jankiness, most of it is top notch stuff, and the vast majority of what isn't is optional. Tons of variety and replayability, smooth and intuitive controls, and it's just plain fun. Shame about the Kart Racing though.
Spoiler: Synthesis
Sonic Adventure 2 does an amazing job at presenting itself as a cohesive experience, even in spite of it functionally being like five different games stapled together. The decision to split the story between Hero/Dark instead of by individual character as in SA1 was probably one made out of budgetary concerns, but was absolutely the correct call regardless. Similarly, the lack of hub worlds is also a necessary sacrifice that turns out to be a huge boon instead. This keeps the story's pace quick, matching the urgency of the plot, and avoids excessive repetition. The trailers at the end of each story do a great job at keeping the momentum up and getting you into the next story. They're cheesy and goofy, but really do add a lot to the presentation. And there's one more I didn't have the opportunity to show you earlier...
Spoiler: Trailer for Hero Story that plays if you complete Dark Story first
One of the most important things SA2 does to keep the story and the gameplay flowing is how it handles cutscenes and loading. You do have to load in between stages, and the FMV scenes will require a bit of loading as well... but they try to be clever about where they put that loading. When there's a realtime cutscene that leads directly into a level or a boss fight, they don't load and play the cutscene and then load and play the game, they load both and transition seamlessly. This isn't always possible, as sometimes the cutscene is too complex to fit in memory alongside the stage, but it is a frequently done trick, and the transition from character banter to gameplay is MUCH better when it isn't interrupted by a loading screen.
A particularly neat moment I'd like to bring up is the Egg Golem boss fight. This is the only boss that appears in both stories, excluding the mirror matches, but it's handled differently in both. The Egg Golem is a giant Egyptian-styled statue that Eggman shoves at Sonic to protect his base. In the Hero Story, you play as Sonic, and its weak point is a control module on the head that you destroy. In the Dark Story, you play as Eggman, and Sonic defeats it in a cutscene. Without the control module, it goes berserk, and you need to ACTUALLY destroy it with Eggman's weapons. The fight itself isn't anything special, in either case, but it's elevated by the connection between the stories, and facing the same enemy with different perspectives and solutions.
The finale has a similar thing, where you play a massive stage with segments from each character in sequence, each section affecting the others. It's a great way to showcase the new coordination and teamwork, and gradually opening up the area for the other characters to progress is incredibly fulfilling for the moment. Plus, the VMU display that previously would show a portrait for only the currently active character is now cycling through everyone.
There's also a fully voiced journal-style recap from whichever the next character you're going to play as is if you quit in the middle of a story and return later. It's a convenient and fun way to keep you refreshed on things if you have to take an extended break, and for the Last Story where you're playing as everyone the recap gets to be done by Amy, which is a nice touch.
The Stage Select is put over a map, showing the in-universe locations of each stage, giving an added sense of place that wouldn't be there from just a straight list.
The Chao Garden also enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the main game, the loop of gathering collectibles to feed chao adding an extra incentive to replay and explore levels on top of the ranking and mission system already present, though if you're playing through the story finding a Chao Key and chilling in the garden for a while when you're supposed to be stopping the apocalypse and fleeing from the cops is a little bit disruptive to the pacing. This is compounded if you happen to be low on VMU space and you also get a big flashy warning that there isn't enough room for chao to exist.
The character specific music styles also do a lot of work here, keeping the vibes intact... mostly. I did mention during the Sound section that there are exceptions, where the music will just default to Sonic's style, and while it isn't a HUGE deal, those few exceptions do undermine the really cool idea of having the music separated that way.
And I do have to complain about the Kart Racing stages though. I can accept a highway with weird abstract pathing and loop-de-loops in the middle of a city filled with construction sites and advertising. That's part of Sonic's aesthetic and I wouldn't want to give that up. But a highway with weird abstract pathing suspended in a weird sky void with no visible infrastructure? There's surrealist environments, and then there's just a lack of environment entirely. It's genuninely distracting how it jumps from that to a cutscene of suddenly being on a city street, in a game that otherwise goes out of its way to present a coherent world.
Score: 9/10
This was a difficult 9 to give, because while it almost manages a 10 in a lot of ways... the potential for the Chao garden to kill the story pacing, the occasional soundtrack mismatch, and the Kart Racing ruining my ability to see the world as as an actual world do prevent me from granting that score. Honestly I almost knocked it to an 8, but I figure I already gave the Kart Racing enough shit in the Graphics section.
And with all of that considered, the final score will beeeeee.......
Spoiler: Final Score
93/100
It's a damn good game, an excellent finale to SEGA's original run, and of great personal significance to me. It isn't quite perfect, no matter how much I like to pretend it is, but it gets pretty darn close. It shines in all the ways that matter most, and it's a miracle they managed what they did under the development circumstances. If you haven't already played it, you absolutely should. Ideally on a Dreamcast, but if you don't have one,
go buy one
the ports aren't bad enough to ruin the gem beneath their scuff, and it's still worth a go.
Last edited by Radical Rat on Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Maybe the real Mafia was the friends we made along the way
Well, got it done just in time for my birthday! This got a good deal longer than I was expecting it to, and I know there are a few more things I couldn't quite squeeze in.
I'll probably need to get better at trimming things down for future reviews, I wanted to be exhaustive enough for people who haven't played the game to understand, but I do think the balance between explanation and opinionation ended up being a bit too heavy on the explaining.
Regardless though, this was a lot of fun to write, and I'm looking forward to doing more. I haven't decided on May's review yet, but we'll get there when we get there. It probably won't be this long though.
Maybe the real Mafia was the friends we made along the way
In post 3, Radical Rat wrote:
2001 was not a good time for SEGA, with the Dreamcast gasping out its last dying breaths, largely thanks to Sony giving away free PlayStation 2's with the purchase of a DVD player
This is a really weird way of saying PlayStation 2s can play DVDs.
Happy birthday!
"Yeah after a point it felt like Aureal was the only one talking sense despite being a goose so I just followed."
-furtiveglance
In post 3, Radical Rat wrote:
2001 was not a good time for SEGA, with the Dreamcast gasping out its last dying breaths, largely thanks to Sony giving away free PlayStation 2's with the purchase of a DVD player
This is a really weird way of saying PlayStation 2s can play DVDs.
Happy birthday!
It's historically accurate! The PS2 played DVDs at a time when DVD players were just entering the mainstream market and were still pretty expensive. This is why the PS2 had such crazy sales numbers, because families looking for a DVD player would find a cheap one, and it would even play games as a bonus.
Maybe the real Mafia was the friends we made along the way
Added a poll since I have two games I'm considering for the next one. If you've got a preference, toss a vote in, otherwise I'll just flip a coin for it at some point during the coming weeks.
Maybe the real Mafia was the friends we made along the way
ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
GOT PLACES TO GO GOTTA FOLLOW MY RAINBOW
My first experience with this song was seeing the name of it somewhere, being told it was a meme, finding THIS on Youtube, and genuinely believing that this was the actual version of the song
ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
GOT PLACES TO GO GOTTA FOLLOW MY RAINBOW
My first experience with this song was seeing the name of it somewhere, being told it was a meme, finding THIS on Youtube, and genuinely believing that this was the actual version of the song
I actually considered linking a SiIvaGunner rip for Live and Learn as a joke here, but I was afraid of putting people off of the real thing.
Maybe the real Mafia was the friends we made along the way
