Sonic Adventure
Reviewed by Nathan Tsui
INTRODUCTION
Sega has done it before. In 1991, Sonic Team had brought
forth their first game, and Sega, an only moderately-successful
company, was given life, and for the first time in their existence,
Sega was on top. 1995, the Saturn. Sega needed a savior. Sonic
Team offered NiGHTS Into Dreams and kept Sega alive, if not
very damaged. Now the year is 1999, and Sega is in need of a
reviver yet again. Sonic Team has come to the rescue for the
third time. The hibernation of the 'hog has come to an end.
When I turned on the Dreamcast I had rented from Hollywood
Video, I knew I was witnessing something great. The instant
the incredible opener for Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition
played, I sat mesmerized, watching the clear, incredibly
realistic images of a city being flooded. It took me a split
second to realize the city was Dreamcast-generated and not a
real recording. I got chills down my spines as I saw Sonic
running through the forest towards the city, going straight
into a confrontation against his only fear: water. That's
the intro. Now for the review.
GRAPHICS: 10
The BEST ever seen on any platform or PC! These are better
than a Pentium III 500 with Voodoo 3 3500 graphics
accelerator! It took me a while to realize that I was
playing the game, and not watching a movie. There are no
polygons visible on Sonic, except on his hands, and I can
forgive that. There are some really beautiful visuals in
this game. You have to see it to believe it. The killer-
whale chase scene in the Emerald Coast Zone will absolutely
knock you flat! All I could do was stare while Sonic sped
down a dock with this mondo whale right behind him. Some
other graphical highlights in this game include the Tornado
section of Windy Valley, the Goin' Down section of Speed
Highway, and the extremely cool-looking Snowboard sequence
of IceCap. You can even see Sonic's spines waving in the
wind in certain levels, and the characters' breath in the IceCap Zone!
SOUND: 10
I really enjoyed the BGM of this game. Each level had a
perfectly matched soundtrack to go along with it. The music
is really top-notch and real CD quality stuff. The sound
effects are exactly the same as the old 16-bit Sonic games,
but less "harsh", if you know what I mean. The sound when
you blow up a badnik, however, has been changed from an old
"boing" to more of an explosion. On top of that, each
character has his own theme song, and some of them are
pretty cool. Sonic's theme, "It Doesn't Matter" totally
rocks. I like it so much I figured out how to play it on the
piano! Even old Robotnik has his own theme! As for the voice
acting, it's also top-notch stuff. Sonic sounds just like I
thought he should. Tails' voice in my opinion is the worst
in the game. Knuckles sounds OK too, but sometimes his voice
sounds too close to Sonic's . Amy sounds like she should, as
does E-102 the robot. At first Big's doofy voice annoyed me,
but after playing the game for a while, I really began to
love it! Especially when Big climbs ladders: "Duh-duh!"
Hehehe! Robotnik probably has the best voice acting in the game.
GAMEPLAY: 10
I actually got that same old exhilarating feeling of the old
2D Sonic games again... *sniff* Sonic is so freakin' fast
that you will not believe his blazing speed! I was playing
Sonic R against a friend the other day; he was complaining
that the game was too fast to control Sonic while I was
complaining that the game was too slow compared to Sonic
Adventure. This game is really huge. There are six
characters to choose from, and one hidden character. You can
play as Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles
the Echidna, Amy Rose, Big the Cat and E-102 'y'. Sonic's
game is by far the longest and most fun, where you have a
lot of levels to speed through and lots of bosses to mash.
Knuckles' game is really fun, where you have to find three
Emerald Shards. Tails' is kinda boring, 'cuz all you do is
race someone (usually Sonic) to the finish. Amy's game is
rather boring and sometimes frustrating because this giant
robot chases you throughout the whole game. I actually had a
whole lot of fun with Big. I thought Big's game would be
boring from what I had read, but fishing for me was very
enjoyable! E-102's game is also pretty good. All the
characters handle very well, and are easy to learn how to
control. There's even a Tutorial Mode in the game to show
you how to use each character!
REPLAY VALUE: 10
There are tons of mini-games and little diversions in this
game, on top of an A- Life system (fashioned after the
A-Life system from NiGHTS, only this one is more advanced).
Some mini-games include pinball (I got 999 rings in NiGHTS
pinball and only lost 1 ball; see if you can beat that!),
snow and sand- boarding, bumper-car racing, a Bi-Plane
shoot-'em-up, and much more! Plus six different characters
each with their own unique set of moves and abilities! You
will not get bored with this game!
OVERALL: 10 out of 10
This is the most fun I've had in a long time. Most
videogames aren't even fun any more... they have become
basically epics in which the goal is to beat the game. With
Sonic Adventure, it's an action-packed ride all the way! I
really look forward to buying this game and discovering
every single secret!
RECAP
The Sonic Team proves that they can deliver yet again with
this gem of a game. This is a total must-have for any fan of
the original Sonic games, or even just the platform genre,
and this game alone is enough to convince me into buying a
Dreamcast, although I had made that decision a long time
ago. If you're getting a Dreamcast, buy this for sure! If
you're not, then I recommend that you serious y re-consider
that decision. Sonic the Hedgehog is BACK!
OR
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