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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

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Written by: Cali_Love

Sonic is fast! That statement has stood the test of time. Sonic has been the fastest videogame character to ever grace any videogame system. This is Sonic’s latest game in his adventure series (the other on Dreamcast), and his first time not being on a Sega system. Ironically his first game off a Sega system is on Sega’s long time rival Nintendo, Mario’s turf. So how does this game stack up? Can he give the fat plumber a run for his money on his own system? Read the review to find out. By the way, I never played the SA2 version on DC (except the packaged demo in PSO), so I won’t be comparing the 2 consoles, but I will compare the first game with this one.





Sonic Team received many complaints about the adventure mode in the first Sonic Adventure game. Fans complained it slowed down the game, and sometimes would lead to the player not knowing what to do next (I got lost a few times). So Sonic Team scraped that, and now has made it idiot-proof. You play your action level, after the level is competed you're transported to the chao area, a place where you can raise your chao. Then you see another clip of the story. Then you're set in another action stage. So the action is ongoing, old fans won't need to worry about being lost because luckily Sonic Team is a developer that listens to its fans.





The story can be played from either the hero side (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) or the dark side (Shadow, Rouge and that fat-ass Dr. Eggman). Both sides have similar characters on each side. Sonic and Shadow have lightning fast speed, Knuckles and Rouge are the treasure hunters, and Tails and Eggman are the mechanics. Of course the hero side is trying to stop the dark side. The story intertwines together very well. The story is actually really good for this type of game. It’s very solid, and it's not just “Lets go save the princess” and have no explanation for saving the princess. So having a great story in this game helps fuel your motivation to beat this game with both sides. The game is also a lot more satisfying if you play both sides, because if you don’t play both sides then you won't fully know the whole story.





Gameplay is a mixed bag. Let's get the 2 really big things out of the way. THE CAMERA SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did Sonic team learn nothing from Sonic Adventure? What where they smoking when they tweaked this camera? “Yo guys let's make it as hard and frustrating as hell on the player to play on these maps.” I think the camera is actually worse in SA2B then in SA. I know you’ve read that in all the online reviews, but it’s so true. If it weren’t for the camera I would’ve given this game at least a half point higher of a score. You don’t notice the bad camera too much on the shooting levels (Tails, Eggman) and racing levels (Sonic, Shadow), but it is painfully present in the treasure hunting levels. Also the game seems slow in the treasure hunting levels. Sonic has always been fast, so why put in these slower levels? They aren’t too bad. If the camera was fixed up these other levels wouldn’t seem to bad, but after playing Sonic and Shadow’s levels, it just sucks changing from super fast to super slow. Sonic team needs to scrape everyone except for Sonic and make this game all about speed again.





Well, the upside is the controls are rock solid, what you would expect in a Sonic game. The controls are about the same as in SA, basically all you need to do is jump using the “A” button. As you learn new techniques with each character the controls get a little more complex, but nothing ever too difficult. Later on in the game you face harder enemies with Tails and Eggman, making you do multiple things such as gliding, shooting and avoiding lasers all at once. It gives new meaning to the word multi-tasker. Sonic team also added in a few new things to the Sonic world. Now Sonic can grind ala Jet Set Radio Future. You can grind on rails, some vines in the forest levels allow you to grind on them, and some levels consist almost entirely of grinding down steep slops. It adds a new dimension to the game. You also get more bonus points depending on how long you grind.





The game looks great on Nintendo’s machine. That doesn’t mean it didn’t look good on DC, but DC never had progressive scan mode. With just the regular set-up the game still looks beautiful. Sharp, huge, detailed levels show off the power of Nintendo’s machine running at 60 FPS consistently with NO slow-down. It makes you look at the tiny GC and say to yourself, “Damn that baby packs a punch”. But graphics are at a point where it’s not the system that can't handle them…it’s the TVs. The TVs today can't handle what the systems pump out, that’s why things always look better in progressive scan mode (or even the VGA adapter for computer monitors that will be released soon to see what the Gamecube can really pump out). Things instantly look more vibrant and sharper, you feel like your looking at a whole new game, well almost.





But what makes it so much sweeter is how fast this game runs. You think Sonic Adventure was fast? You haven’t seen anything yet. Even the 2 player game runs smooth. I believe it's running 60 FPS in the 2 player mode but I can’t confirm that. But it doesn’t matter if it does or not, it's fast with no slowdown which is always a plus. Easily one of the better looking games on Nintendo’s system.





Sound is rock solid as well. Each character has his or her own form of music. Sonic has the rock titles, while Knuckles has rap tunes. I must say I was impressed with Knuckles music. He has a different rap song for each stage. Pumpkin Hill has one of the best rap beats I have ever heard. For some Japanese guys, Sonic Team did a great job with that. Short and simple, each character’s music fits them perfectly. I really liked the music. The voice acting for the characters is better than SA’s, however with the quality in that title, that’s not saying much. They sound average, and now they fixed it so when a character talks his whole face doesn’t move, but the voice acting still isn’t great. Maybe you should mute the T.V. during the movies.





For replay you have the return of Chao rising. You have the chance to raise an artificial life form in the game called Chao, little creatures that change as you feed them animals you collect in action levels. This little feature can become addictive, as DC players can already attest to. Also the game has a very nice 2-player mode. Allowing you to play almost all levels in 2 player modes. A great addition to SA, brings back memories of me playing the old skool Sonic 2 on Genesis.

Gameplay: 3.5
Graphics: 4.5
Sound: 4.5
Value: 4.0
Multiplayer: 3.5

Final Score: 3.5   (out of 5)