8

Posted by Vger, Oct.11, 2010, under Articles, Reviews, Comments (3)

Sonic Adventure is one of those games that has made a lasting impression on the series, first released in 1999 as a launch title for the short lived (and much loved) Dreamcast. It was the first Sonic game to be fully 3D it sold over 2.5 million copies and brought Sonic the hedgehog back to the living room of many old fans. The game was then re-released as a directors cut in 2003 for the gamecube and PC with a lukewarm reception mostly due to it no having aged well, and now we have it re-released once again this time for Xbox Live, and Playstation Network, the question now is, has the game faded any more from it’s last re-release?

Now I’m fortunate enough to have played Sonic Adventure in it’s original form on the Dreamcast, and then latter on the Gamecube and PC, and I will admit I loved playing it all three times, okay the DX editions weren’t as good as I remembered and controlling Sonic by a keyboard is not the best in the world but I still enjoyed them.

Graphics
Graphically speaking nothing has changed, the environments are the same bright and colourful levels, the character models are the same stiff and jerky which look slightly peculiar although I will give them credit for using the upgraded DX models which do look better than the original. The facial animation entertainingly bad for the over reactions and peculiar twitches in the cut scenes, but this really comes down to the technology of the time.

Controls
One of Sonic Adventure’s weakest aspects has always been it’s control system, when I played this game originally I dismissed it as the control issues were fairly infrequent and with enough repetition I worked around them. Today though it’s just annoying, the camera angle (a long time enemy of Sonic team) does not help in the slightest occasionally putting you in a wall so you can’t see anything, or suddenly changing view so the controls are different from before (I noticed this mainly playing as Amy on Twinkle Park). While I didn’t expect these long-standing issues with this re-release to be fixed I did hope they wern’t as bad as I remembered.

Story
Nothing has changed from the original here, and why should it? The story is an epic adventure told from 6 different view points, with each character having there own chance to develop as an individual, and move beyond the two dimensional characters of the previous games. The great thing about Sonic Adventure is it added so much more to the world of Sonic, the nature of game lends itself to a big story and it delivered it nicely. However after a while I did find myself skipping most of the cut scenes as you see the same bits over and over from several characters perspectives.

Longevity
This game has 6 different characters to play through (and a 7th once you complete all the others), each character has different abilities and objectives providing a great deal of variety to the game, Sonic and Tails racing through levels, Knuckles looking for emeralds. Amy ruining away very very slowly from the robot Zero. Big… fishing, yeah I still don’t like it, and Gamma Shooting his way through levels which I find very relaxing for some reason. There is something for everyone in this game each setting it’s own pace and changing things to keep you interested although not every game style will appeal to the player.

Then we have the mini games, the chao races, collecting all 130 emblems and getting an A rank on each level which involves playing each level three times with different objectives. So yeah plenty to keep you busy… oh and lets not forget the achievement’s and avatar awards!

Conclusion
It’s hard for me to say with this, yes I enjoyed playing it again and reliving the story, and yet after a while I began to lose interest, this may be down to it being my forth play through of the game, and the story is repetitive in places. Overall if your into Sonic and have never played Sonic Adventure before, go and pick it up, it’s worth it. For fans that have played it before well it’s harder to say, if you feel the need to play it again then go ahead, but there’s no real difference to the original. For none Sonic fans looking to try it this game has aged terribly, I’d say wait for Sonic Colours.

3 Comments

AngryFox

October 11, 2010 at 8:51 pm

It was the only reason why I bought a Dreamcast actually.

…then the Gamecube.

c.c

…and when I am no longer poor and destitute, XBL. :V


Blizzard

October 12, 2010 at 8:25 pm

fourth? you really only played it once per console?
btw is this counting the DX add on?
and that’s why you should have a PC gamepad


Vger

October 15, 2010 at 12:15 pm

When I say four, I have played four versions, probably played them far many more items than 4. The review does not include the DX add on.

Hmm maybe I should get a game pad for the PC.


RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment






youtube

Emerald Coast 6.4 is a Phil 'Vger' Sims production 2005-2011. EC is powered by ground up Chao and pony's,
the grey Chaos Emerald (aka the evil one), magic and Wordpress. Sonic and all related characters are copyright of SEGA and Sonic Team and are
reproduced here without their permission. For best results this site should be viewed with Firefox, however other browsers are supported.