Sonic Adventure was a very important game for Sega fans for a number of different reasons. Sega failed to give their previous console a main line Sonic title, and this new one was a launch game for their new platform. Where their last console struggled technically compared to the competition the Dreamcast blew the other two systems out of the water. Sega was back, baby. Finally. We all know now that the Dreamcast was not sustainable for the company, but at the time it looked like they were starting a new chapter where they took back the market they lost. I was a year late to the party, but Sonic Adventure was the first game I purchased for the console. It completely blew me away. I decided to revisit this game, and while it isn’t as flashy or impressive as it once was it’s still good.
The story here is similar to that of just about every other Sonic game before it. Dr. Robotnik (or Eggman as they finally consolidated the names between the Japanese and English versions here) is bent once again on world domination, but this time he has a new biological weapon at his disposal. This blob is called Chaos, and it can change its form at will. It feeds on the chaos emeralds and becomes more powerful with each new one it absorbs. It’s up to Sonic and crew once again to stop Eggman from his dastardly plans to enslave all animals and take over the world. This time we have full voice acting on all of the cut scenes, and some areas based on real world locations such as New York City and the Amazon rainforests.
It’s Sonic, and so you need to not take the scenario too seriously. The scenario gets the job done and does a nice job of introducing the old and new characters to the fray. For the gameplay Sonic Team tried to re-create a lot of what made the two dimensional games great. While there’s a camera to deal with now (and believe you me, it’s unwieldly) most of the classic action is here.
Sonic has his trademark speed which was fine when you could only go left and right, but three dimensional space it’s a little difficult to manage because you sprint by default. To account for this Sonic Team designed most of his stages to be linear so you can run fast and not worry about missing too much. To make things easier Sonic’s jump spin attack now automatically targets the nearest enemy which is smart thinking on the developer’s part.
The thing is, Sonic Team apparently knew how much their fans liked to play as other characters as per Sonic & Knuckles so they brought that element into Sonic Adventure. Not only can you play as regular franchise characters such as Tails, Knuckles, and Amy but they introduced a few new faces to the mix. You can now play as a giant cat named Big, but also a gun touting robot E-102 Gamma. Initially Sonic is the only one you can choose but as everyone is introduced in the story they too become playable and you’ll need to complete everyone’s scenario in order to complete the overarching story.
What is nice is the fact that the gameplay differs wildly between each different character. As Sonic your goal is simply to reach the end of a stage or defeat a boss, but the others have their own goals. Tails’ stages have him in a race of sorts where he has to beat a rival character using shortcuts that take advantage of his flying ability, Knuckles must search for pieces of the master emerald (using a radar to indicate their locations), Amy’s stages are based more on puzzle solving, E-102’s are more action centric, and Big the cat has to catch fish. Yes, catch fish. The latter of these doesn’t make much sense, and it’s not particularly fun, but at least they included some gameplay diversity.
Unfortunately this is the game’s biggest weakness. Sonic and Tails stages are actually quite a bit of fun and the developer should have focused on these instead of spreading out to others. I dreaded playing as Knuckles because the hunt for the master emerald pieces can be frustrating and tedious. Amy’s scenario is okay, but it’s nothing special. The same goes for that of E-102 but I at least enjoyed the heavier emphasis on action here. Big the cat on the other hand is just filler. Catching fish can be fun in video games (lord knows I spent hours in Ocarina of Time doing it) but it isn’t fleshed out enough here. You just have to grit your teeth and get through it because the final boss fight (after you’ve completed everything else) is absolutely worth the pain.
The stage design is actually really well done and has a great amount of variety. You can tell that Yuji Naka really put his heart and soul into restoring Sega to their former glory here. It’s clear though that he didn’t have enough time to fine tune the engine however. You’ll find glitches aplenty, and some can be really frustrating. If you touch a barrier at the wrong angle you’ll be thrust right out of the stage and fall to your doom. It’s annoying and tells me the game should have spent more time in the oven. It’s not quite game-breaking, but it’s close.
Sonic Adventure was one of the showcase titles for the Dreamcast. When I first saw screenshots in magazines I was absolutely blown away with the high poly characters and the textures. They still look good to this day, but they’re hardly groundbreaking anymore. The scene with the orca breaking through the boardwalk was absolutely next level when this game came out. Now it just looks kind of silly. What does matter significantly is that the framerate keeps up with the action even when Sonic is ripping through the stages. We now know it’s not blast processing, but I’m going to say blast processing just because I loved the old Genesis ads so much. What I love mostly now is how colorful the game is, and its art style is incredible.
I own the soundtrack to this game. That should speak loudly about the music. It’s absolutely incredible. Sonic Adventure had the benefit of being released before Sega decided to make the titular character faux punk rock, and so it harkens to the classic Sonic music we all know and love. It’s bouncy, with a lot of instruments, and it’s pure bubblegum pop. That’s the Sonic I know and love, and this is simply the best soundtrack in the entire franchise.
Sonic Adventure is a mixed bag but a good game overall. It hasn’t aged as well as I had hoped. The franchise mechanics just weren’t, and still haven’t been, translated well into the three dimensional realm. Running fast sounds nice when you’re a 2D platformer, but it doesn’t work nearly as well when you have full freedom. Also, Sega made a big mistake by including so many playable characters. It feels like padding, and the other scenarios range from good to bad. I almost feel bad that this game might be judged poorly by modern gamers, because at the time it was really something. It represented the wishes of all Sega fans, and the hope they all had for the future. Sonic Adventure is still one of the most important games for the Dreamcast, and it has sentimental value for me.
