Happy Birthday Sonic!

Originally I planned to be the first person to review this game. However, once I started to play this game, I had problems being able to quit playing it long enough to actually write this review!

Since I am the type of person that has problems deicing where to start when it comes to writing, I guess I should start at the begging.

The year is 1991, and my family and I are at Sam’s Club. We walk into the electronics department, and I come up to the new Sega Genesis system. I play a game called Sonic The Hedgehog. I am amazed by the fast speed of the game, and the amazing (at that time) 16 bit graphics. I am instantly hooked, and quickly became one of Sonic’s biggest fans.

Flash forward ten years to the release of this game. Man I cannot believe that Sonic is already ten years old! Since his first game back in 1991, his comic has reached the 100th issue mark, he has had three different cartoon series, and lots of other licenses with his name on them.

As proven with the original Sonic Adventure, he has survived the test of time. He has even undergone cosmetic changes, and still survived. He now has green eyes, bigger hands, and is a little slimmer, he must have been working out a lot!

Still, despite all the changes he has undergone, people still love that super-cool, super-fast blue hedgehog.

This game explores new area for Sonic games. This game features a story line that is heavily focused on the whole “good vs. dark” theme. By doing this they have allowed you to play as not just the good guys, but as the bad guys as well. Yes Sonic fans, you finally get to play as Robotnick!

The first thing I noticed when I started to play this game was that they decided to drop a lot of the RPG-like elements. In fact, the entire idea of having to travel in one area (like Station Square) to get to a certain action stage is thankfully history! This is great as that whole Station Square interface seemed to slow the game down greatly, and I really got sick of wandering around Station Square, and Mystic Ruins just to get to the level I want to play!

Now the interface for selecting your levels is just like a menu. It has a map, and you select what level you want, and what mission you want. This simple point and click interface makes the game much more enjoyable than the first as you can skip around and play the levels you want to play, instead of just wandering around aimlessly. So if you missed an item you need in a certain level, you don’t have to wander around Station Square just to get to the stage you need to be in to retrieve that item.

I just love this new interface, and am glad that this Sonic game has less of an RPG feel to it than the original Sonic Adventure.

Then there is the graphics. Just by saying WOW could sum it up, but I will say more than just the word WOW. The graphics have improved over Sonic Adventure 1’s graphics. The polygon counts are higher now, and there just seems to be more details to each character.

For example, in SA1 (that’s short hand for Sonic Adventure) the characters always hand their fingers together. In Sonic Adventure 2, each character has the fingers spread apart, making the game look more realistic. I mean who actually picks everything up with their fingers crunched together?

Yes the graphics are great. There is no pixelation, or any of that nonsense in this game. Man do the characters in this game look sweet.

Speaking of characters, Sega really pulled a smart move on this game when it comes to characters. For one, Amy has a much smaller part in the game (thank God) and in fact she is not even playable. I love this as I can’t stand Amy. Amy has the entire ditsy female look that is a little sexist, and very annoying. I am so glad they didn’t have her play as big a part as she did in the first Sonic Adventure.

They also don’t have Big in it anymore. Although while he does make a few small cameos in the game, he is not really in the game, in any major form at all. I think Sega really listened to the fans on that one, as I still hear people complain about just how annoying Big was.

I do sorta miss Big though, but it is more than made up for in my next point!

Not only did they get rid of some annoying characters! They also made some awesome new ones. For one Sonic now has an evil look-alike. His name is Shadow, and he was an experiment from Robotnick’s grandfather.

Basically Shadow is Sonic’s twin, except he is black, and his quills point in a different direction. He looks like a total beast. In fact he is a total beast. Never in recent memory do I recall any new Sonic character (in games, cartoon, or comic) do I recall anything as cool as Shadow. He just looks so cool.

Then there is Rouge. Rouge is one of the first real attempts at making a female character in a Sonic game to look “sexy”. Rouge is a female bat, who likes to hunt for treasure. She has big, bouncy, breasts, and a fairly big wingspan. I like Rouge (no nearly as much as Shadow though) but I think she may have been a tad bit overdone! I mean, come one! This is Sonic, NOT Tomb Raider. Overall though, both Shadow and Rouge are refreshing additions to the Sonic series of games.

Now voices are important to when it comes to the characters in a game. Thankfully Ryan Drummond IS back as the voice of Sonic, as are the voice of Tails.

The voice acting for Sonic is great! His voice sounds like that of a 16 to 18 year old male, which is what Sonic’s age is. His voice makes him feel like he is cool, calm, and somewhat relaxed. I simply love his voice!

Shadow voice is even greater. Shadow’s voice makes him sound older than Sonic, and evil as well. His voice sounds deep, dark, mysterious, and a tad bit scary. Thankfully though, his voice sounds natural, and not like someone is just trying to do the deepest voice they can!

Rouges voice is great as well. She sounds like she is maybe in her mid twenties, and she has a very relaxed, and almost “sexy” voice. Her voice seems to fit her persona well.

Knuckles voice seems to be a tad bit deep but not near as deep as Shadows. I think the best way to say it is that Knuckles has a “strong” voice. When I hear his voice I think of someone who is very strong and masculine. This also fits his persona as he is a strong person (Echidna actually) and is someone you would not want to mess with.

Tails voice sounds like that of a young kid. Tails is a young kid! What did you expect, the voice of Barry White? His voice fits him well. It makes him sound young, and innocent!

Robotnick’s voice sounds evil, and old. He sounds like he is in his 40’s and is a tad bit scratchy. This make his character sound kind of rough and mean. Just like the others this voice seem to fit him well.

Overall, I like Shadow’s voice the best. I have no idea as to why people don’t seem to like the English voice acting in this game, as I think it is great!

The control in this game is great. Although I have discovered two bugs in it, for the most part it is excellent. They have made the control to where the is an action (other than jumping) button, and a way to select what pushing it will do. This great as once you get used to it, you wont be likely to do the wrong action at the wrong time. It does take a tad bit to adjust to it though. The control is really smooth, and the analog stick works wonders in this game. It allows for smooth and precise jumps, and attacks. It is much improved over SA1’s control, which sometimes had me landing wrong from a jump.

The two bugs I have found are that sometimes (and this is very rare) Sonic will hit a Chao when he was actually feeding it, and in one of Shadow's levels, you can accidentally die when you should not have because you attacked an enemy!

The depth in this game is astounding. Chao raising, multiplayer modes, and many other things give this game an incredible amount of depth.

For one the Chao raising is awesome. A Chao is a little blue (starts off as Blue anyways) creature that’s head sort of looks like a Hershey’s Kiss, and a little blue ball over it’s head. You have to raise, like an advanced virtual pet. You feed it, give it animals to assimilate abilities from (running, swimming, flying, and power) and have to give it love and attention. What you do to your Chao affect it’s personality. If you love your Chao, it will love you, beat it up, and it will hate you. Also your Chao can be a Good Chao (which will turn white and have a halo over it’s head) or a Dark Chao (which will turn black, and have a spikey ball over it’s head). This just adds so much depth to Chao raising as it lets you have more control over how your Chao develops. You can also race you Chao, and you can even race all your friends Chao in party race mode.


Then there is the mini-game A Chao Adventure 2. This has you taking your Chao for a walk, and it can run into many things on the way. Your Chao will also ask you questions along the way. Answer nicely every time, anf you will end up getting a seed to plant in the Chao garden!

In Chao Adventure 2, it seems to have more dialogue. The Chao will talks about the weirdest stuff. It will even ask you what human babies come from. You can even pet, or scold, your Chao right inside the VMU!

The two player modes are awesome! Not only can you race Chao, but there is action level racing, and kart racing as well. These all add depth, and are a nice distraction from the game when a friend is over.

Of course, what would a Sonic game be without speed? This game has plenty! In fact it really makes SA1 looks slow. It is so incredibly fast that it is just jaw droppingly amazing. The frame-rate is almost always at a steady 60 fps. Even when it does slow down you rarely notice. In fact the Chao garden, of all places, seems to be the only place that really suffers from slow down all that much. Even then it isn’t too terrible

The camera seems to have made little progress. It still has it annoying bugs here and there. If you are in a small room sometimes it gets a little buggy. However, it does seems to help you know which way to go on some action levels. Overall it isn’t terrible, and isn’t awesome either. It doesn’t seem to bug me much at all though really.

The level design is awesome! I just love how (with a few exceptions) all the level are so full of action. Even in the Tails and Robotnick levels there s tons of action. Even though Tails and Robotnick are not as fast as Sonic by any means the action is still fast paced, and fun.

However those boring find the emerald levels need to be axed.

The music is much better this time around. Sonic has rock music, Shadow has grungy almost metal like music and Knuckles has Rap. All these not only fit the character you are playing as, but the levels designs as well. This is some of the best music I have seen in a Sonic game in long time, and I hope to be able to find the soundtrack from this game for sale at some game store on the net!

Despite its few small flaws, which didn’t manage to knock the score down to 4 stars, this game is excellent and is highly recommended by me! It is just (in my opinion at least) a darned fine game!

Congratulations Sonic on ten years of fun. Can’t wait to have ten more!