What is it with this era of Sonic and stories involving the US Government? I'm not complaining, I'm just curious.
It's funny, despite being somewhat of a hater of this game, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the criticisms thrown at it. It's a perfectly functional game. Nothing about it makes it hard to enjoy for what it is. My take is that it's just too dumbed down from the first Adventure game and/or forgets a lot of the core ideas the series was built on from the beginning. A more casual fan or someone who's new to the series, likely will have an ok time at worst with this game. I'm just in too deep with this franchise to honestly enjoy much of what this game offers anymore. I don't dislike this game, but as a genuinely huge fan of the series as a whole, this isn't even in the top half of my personal Sonic tier list. Less "it's bad" and more "I've outgrown it". This is a game I find myself both adamantly defending, and also thoroughly tearing apart. I certainly will never understand how people say the camera is this game's worst enemy. Like bruh you may as well be saying you can't see what's coming in Crash Bandicoot. The game's a bunch of hallways with preset camera angles that give you the best possible view 99.5% of the time.
A lot of people say the game's 1/3rd good, referring to Sonic/Shadow's stages being the only good part. But imo they're the worst part by a long shot. There's nothing that makes the levels hard to play or poorly designed, they're just VERY straightforward. Not in a It's linear and therefor it's bad kind of way, but in a I feel like I'm playing a precursor to Sonic Forces kind of way. Goodbye to the idea that you can play at your own pace, speed being a reward for mastery of a level, with the core gameplay being about using momentum to your advantage. Hello samey empty hallways that shove you through at full speed with little to no effort. The varied landscapes of SA1 stages are nowhere to be seen. The ranking system added in this game is a great addition to the series, but in this case it feels like a bandaid solution. Ranking systems in Sonic are meant to really push the idea of replaying stages to get better at them, they're a seamless addition to the appeal of the Sonic formula. But in SA2 the system is skewed so hard to just killing enemies and hitting tricks. This is because your first playthrough of a SA2 stage is going to look VERY similar to your 20th and beyond. There's not really any mastery to be had, you can't really run down an empty path filled with dash pads and automated loops any better if you tried. And while getting an A rank is inherently satisfying to an extent, it's not enough to change the fact that SA2's speed levels are some of the most bare bones in the series. And every level is designed the same way.
Keep in mind this is coming from someone who REALLY values replay value in Sonic games and has replayed every single game in the series to a probably unhealthy degree. The average person will likely find no issue in how SA2's speed stages are handled. But for the same reasons Forces is a very limiting and uninteresting game to replay, SA2's levels do hit an expiration date. You can only run down the same shallow pathways so many times, hitting the same tricks for bonus points before you'd rather just play literally any other game in the series. This game's more boost to win than half the actual boost games are.
Mechs are inherently a bit more engaging and getting a higher rank is more satisfying as the gameplay style is designed entirely around getting higher combos for higher scores. Stretching your lock on as long as possible to aim as close to a perfect combo as you can is fun enough. It does get pretty repetitive really fast though as besides a very select few exceptions, there's very little in the way of level gimmicks to make many of them stand out. And platforming is mostly an afterthought. Any challenge really just comes from enemies with obnoxious placements. Still this segment of the game fares a bit better than the speed imo as it's more than just watching sonic run down a hallway. The Mechs just aren't even as satisfying to play as Amy from SA1 let alone Gamma who's their direct counterpart. The mere fact that you play as Eggman during half of these stages is enough to carry them for the first playthrough at least.
Treasure hunting is an interesting one. On paper it's a huge improvement over the ones from SA1. They get their own stages instead of piggybacking off existing Sonic stages. They get progressively bigger and more complex. Knuckles' movement and combat is now more acrobatic and fast than before. But they decided to use these levels as hard padding unfortunately by gutting the radar to only being able to find 1 emerald at a time, in a strict order. I understand nerfing the hint system from SA1 but they could have just made it a stationary arrow or SOMETHING, because the hint system is completely worthless to 99% of players now. Let alone later in the game when they put the text given to you by the hints in reverse...noissap ym si ngised emaG. Like they were just trying to be as annoying and unusable as possible seemingly on purpose here. Despite my complaints though these are definitely the best levels in the game. There's actually a lot of nuance to these stages not really present in the rest of the game. It's the only style that feels rewarding to master because of it. Simply optimizing how you're navigating the levels and its obstacles, and finding a quick route to check the most areas as fast as possible, feels great! I never memorized many of the hints, as there's so many different emerald locations and so many of the worst hints ever written by man that it's beyond me. But, unlike the speed stages, your rank is largely determined by...your speed. This makes consistently getting A ranks actually satisfying since it's not just about I pressed A in the right spots and killed enough enemies like in the speed levels, and more about actually getting good at the stages. (Since there's ROOM to get good at these ones) but also leads into the problem that the treasure hunting stages are honestly best without worrying about your rank. They're such an RNG nightmare and the stages quickly get WAY too big for the radar they give you. Just flying around Pumpkin Hill and vibing to the music and aesthetic is enough to make Knuckles' portion enjoyable. But this game's entirely built around you wanting to get A ranks and rewarding you for doing so. I think more people would enjoy the treasure hunting stages for what they are, if they didn't feel like anything other than an A rank meant well gee now I just have to play it again It goes against the entire appeal of the style I think.
So speed has very lacking, repetitive, mostly unengaging level design. Mechs are the most unfun to control things in this series and also too repetitive to be replayable in the slightest. And treasure hunting has room to be a really fun portion of the game but is still held back by flat out bad design choices. Story presentation is honestly the ONLY area that was objectively improved over SA1. Sonic doesn't make goofy faces while delivering his goofy dialogue that means the game's better I suppose? Eggman has a mouth that can open this time around so that's huge.
It definitely feels like a more polished game from a presentation standpoint, but if you go for 100% it honestly pushes the engine REALLY thin for what it can handle. Every level has 5 missions and really the further I get into doing these the more exhausted I get by the game. Hunting for the mystic music flute for every character with very little idea which level it might be in and hunting for the chao gets really obnoxious in a lot of these stages. I just don't think most of these stages were good enough to warrant having 5 missions in each one. You'll quickly blast through all the decent ones and be left with the worst stages getting worse and worse with each mission. Gotta love doing 100 ring missions in a game that spawns enemies on top of your head. Or the chill vibes of the treasure hunting stages getting even more obliterated by having a time limit as one of the missions. The missions are all the same across every level and gameplay style, it gets so exhausting by the end of getting 180 emblems. And for what? An extra average level unlocked once you get all of them?
This game's got it all, a complete lack of depth leading to boredom and no replay value, and total frustration through trying to 100% it at the same time! As well as a Chao garden that's more charming than it is actually fun. Sonic fans will really hold a grudge for literal decades on perceived "non-sonic" gameplay ideas like Big the Cat, or Amy...And sit there watching their chao do 30 really slow races for hours. Not to talk too much trash on chao, I do really like them and have had my fun with them, especially on Dreamcast where there's a bit of a Tamagotchi angle from the VMU's. And the depth in raising them is super interesting and the exact kinda thing I love out of classic niche games. I just don't understand Sonic fans. I feel like this game is given a huge pass given it's what introduced a LOT of people to the series. But to me it doesn't really feature much I love about this series. Seems to me a lot of people fell in love with this game and proceeded to hate almost every game after it despite (imo) those games being more faithful to the Sonic Formula and therefor more engaging than this one. To make a probably weird correlation... SA2 is to Sonic what Skyrim is to Elder Scrolls/rpgs in general.
This game's kind of the start of people preferring the dumbed down route for sonic games. The series even 20+ years later struggles to escape the shadow of the obscenely undeserved and double standard ridden pedestal SA2 is sitting on. SA2 being one of the most popular games in the series puts Sega in an unwinnable position. Trying to make a game more engaging than SA2 filters a LOT of people. But making a game as shallow as SA2 gets SA2 elitists scoffing and pretending their game is the Smash Bros Melee of Sonic when actually it's the Brawl at best. I don't mean to trash on other's opinions, I could just as easily talk about why I have a good time with this game. This is just my perception of SA2's place in the series and why despite me not actively disliking the game I find it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.
It's fine but it's not even in the top 13 best sonic games available on the Gamecube alone. Still I've managed to get all 180 emblems on both Xbox360 and Steam, as well as beating it on the Dreamcast. Lotta highs lotta lows, more lows the more I play it though as I've honestly just outgrown the level design long story short.
A lot of people say the game's 1/3rd good, referring to Sonic/Shadow's stages being the only good part. But imo they're the worst part by a long shot. There's nothing that makes the levels hard to play or poorly designed, they're just VERY straightforward. Not in a It's linear and therefor it's bad kind of way, but in a I feel like I'm playing a precursor to Sonic Forces kind of way. Goodbye to the idea that you can play at your own pace, speed being a reward for mastery of a level, with the core gameplay being about using momentum to your advantage. Hello samey empty hallways that shove you through at full speed with little to no effort. The varied landscapes of SA1 stages are nowhere to be seen. The ranking system added in this game is a great addition to the series, but in this case it feels like a bandaid solution. Ranking systems in Sonic are meant to really push the idea of replaying stages to get better at them, they're a seamless addition to the appeal of the Sonic formula. But in SA2 the system is skewed so hard to just killing enemies and hitting tricks. This is because your first playthrough of a SA2 stage is going to look VERY similar to your 20th and beyond. There's not really any mastery to be had, you can't really run down an empty path filled with dash pads and automated loops any better if you tried. And while getting an A rank is inherently satisfying to an extent, it's not enough to change the fact that SA2's speed levels are some of the most bare bones in the series. And every level is designed the same way.
Keep in mind this is coming from someone who REALLY values replay value in Sonic games and has replayed every single game in the series to a probably unhealthy degree. The average person will likely find no issue in how SA2's speed stages are handled. But for the same reasons Forces is a very limiting and uninteresting game to replay, SA2's levels do hit an expiration date. You can only run down the same shallow pathways so many times, hitting the same tricks for bonus points before you'd rather just play literally any other game in the series. This game's more boost to win than half the actual boost games are.
Mechs are inherently a bit more engaging and getting a higher rank is more satisfying as the gameplay style is designed entirely around getting higher combos for higher scores. Stretching your lock on as long as possible to aim as close to a perfect combo as you can is fun enough. It does get pretty repetitive really fast though as besides a very select few exceptions, there's very little in the way of level gimmicks to make many of them stand out. And platforming is mostly an afterthought. Any challenge really just comes from enemies with obnoxious placements. Still this segment of the game fares a bit better than the speed imo as it's more than just watching sonic run down a hallway. The Mechs just aren't even as satisfying to play as Amy from SA1 let alone Gamma who's their direct counterpart. The mere fact that you play as Eggman during half of these stages is enough to carry them for the first playthrough at least.
Treasure hunting is an interesting one. On paper it's a huge improvement over the ones from SA1. They get their own stages instead of piggybacking off existing Sonic stages. They get progressively bigger and more complex. Knuckles' movement and combat is now more acrobatic and fast than before. But they decided to use these levels as hard padding unfortunately by gutting the radar to only being able to find 1 emerald at a time, in a strict order. I understand nerfing the hint system from SA1 but they could have just made it a stationary arrow or SOMETHING, because the hint system is completely worthless to 99% of players now. Let alone later in the game when they put the text given to you by the hints in reverse...noissap ym si ngised emaG. Like they were just trying to be as annoying and unusable as possible seemingly on purpose here. Despite my complaints though these are definitely the best levels in the game. There's actually a lot of nuance to these stages not really present in the rest of the game. It's the only style that feels rewarding to master because of it. Simply optimizing how you're navigating the levels and its obstacles, and finding a quick route to check the most areas as fast as possible, feels great! I never memorized many of the hints, as there's so many different emerald locations and so many of the worst hints ever written by man that it's beyond me. But, unlike the speed stages, your rank is largely determined by...your speed. This makes consistently getting A ranks actually satisfying since it's not just about I pressed A in the right spots and killed enough enemies like in the speed levels, and more about actually getting good at the stages. (Since there's ROOM to get good at these ones) but also leads into the problem that the treasure hunting stages are honestly best without worrying about your rank. They're such an RNG nightmare and the stages quickly get WAY too big for the radar they give you. Just flying around Pumpkin Hill and vibing to the music and aesthetic is enough to make Knuckles' portion enjoyable. But this game's entirely built around you wanting to get A ranks and rewarding you for doing so. I think more people would enjoy the treasure hunting stages for what they are, if they didn't feel like anything other than an A rank meant well gee now I just have to play it again It goes against the entire appeal of the style I think.
So speed has very lacking, repetitive, mostly unengaging level design. Mechs are the most unfun to control things in this series and also too repetitive to be replayable in the slightest. And treasure hunting has room to be a really fun portion of the game but is still held back by flat out bad design choices. Story presentation is honestly the ONLY area that was objectively improved over SA1. Sonic doesn't make goofy faces while delivering his goofy dialogue that means the game's better I suppose? Eggman has a mouth that can open this time around so that's huge.
It definitely feels like a more polished game from a presentation standpoint, but if you go for 100% it honestly pushes the engine REALLY thin for what it can handle. Every level has 5 missions and really the further I get into doing these the more exhausted I get by the game. Hunting for the mystic music flute for every character with very little idea which level it might be in and hunting for the chao gets really obnoxious in a lot of these stages. I just don't think most of these stages were good enough to warrant having 5 missions in each one. You'll quickly blast through all the decent ones and be left with the worst stages getting worse and worse with each mission. Gotta love doing 100 ring missions in a game that spawns enemies on top of your head. Or the chill vibes of the treasure hunting stages getting even more obliterated by having a time limit as one of the missions. The missions are all the same across every level and gameplay style, it gets so exhausting by the end of getting 180 emblems. And for what? An extra average level unlocked once you get all of them?
This game's got it all, a complete lack of depth leading to boredom and no replay value, and total frustration through trying to 100% it at the same time! As well as a Chao garden that's more charming than it is actually fun. Sonic fans will really hold a grudge for literal decades on perceived "non-sonic" gameplay ideas like Big the Cat, or Amy...And sit there watching their chao do 30 really slow races for hours. Not to talk too much trash on chao, I do really like them and have had my fun with them, especially on Dreamcast where there's a bit of a Tamagotchi angle from the VMU's. And the depth in raising them is super interesting and the exact kinda thing I love out of classic niche games. I just don't understand Sonic fans. I feel like this game is given a huge pass given it's what introduced a LOT of people to the series. But to me it doesn't really feature much I love about this series. Seems to me a lot of people fell in love with this game and proceeded to hate almost every game after it despite (imo) those games being more faithful to the Sonic Formula and therefor more engaging than this one. To make a probably weird correlation... SA2 is to Sonic what Skyrim is to Elder Scrolls/rpgs in general.
This game's kind of the start of people preferring the dumbed down route for sonic games. The series even 20+ years later struggles to escape the shadow of the obscenely undeserved and double standard ridden pedestal SA2 is sitting on. SA2 being one of the most popular games in the series puts Sega in an unwinnable position. Trying to make a game more engaging than SA2 filters a LOT of people. But making a game as shallow as SA2 gets SA2 elitists scoffing and pretending their game is the Smash Bros Melee of Sonic when actually it's the Brawl at best. I don't mean to trash on other's opinions, I could just as easily talk about why I have a good time with this game. This is just my perception of SA2's place in the series and why despite me not actively disliking the game I find it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.
It's fine but it's not even in the top 13 best sonic games available on the Gamecube alone. Still I've managed to get all 180 emblems on both Xbox360 and Steam, as well as beating it on the Dreamcast. Lotta highs lotta lows, more lows the more I play it though as I've honestly just outgrown the level design long story short.
Of all Sonic games I expected to see less of when coming back, this may have been the absolute last one I could've predicted. The gameplay has been tightened to match the speed Sonic and Shadow are capable of, the treasure hunting levels are way more complex, and the story is just about the best it can be for a 3D Sonic game, even to this day (unfortunately). So, what is the problem?
Well to start off, I'm not exactly fond of most of the speed stages outside of Radical Highway, Metal Harbor and Green Forest. City Escape is great in concept but there's just something... wrong with the physics for me at times, especially the rails. This carries on for most of the game until the very end for sonic in Final Rush, which is probably the most skill based level in the series thus far, as it requires mastery of rail grinding, the level layout itself, and the absurdly shit camera controls, all of which I have none! But I can respect the sheer amount of branching pathways with varying rewards regardless. The absolute worst part about these stages though is the complete incompetence placed into Sonic and Shadow's kits. Wanna Spindash? Hold the action button, which now has a delay in this game but its not a problem in my eyes, considering the new Somersault mechanic, tied to the same button! Wanna Light Speed Dash? Tap the action button but not really because you'll just Somersault instead. Well how about the new Bounce attack? Obviously tap the action button while in the air repeatedly to gain height. You get the point, so many new things to work with and because of how hard they wanted to maintain the single button does all mentality from the classic games, the levels and by extension my enjoyment is as inconsistent as the controls themselves.
Tails stages just suck, filled with enemies that spawn right on top of you, bad platforming, a terrible camera that doesn't fix when going down (universal problem for all characters) and a gameplay loop that isn't even satisfying in the first place. Its even more frustrating that the answer to all of these problems is simply playing as Eggman, who has way better level design and intriguing levels (I'm only saying this because I A ranked Cosmic Wall first try 😁). Even with that going for him, both Eggman and Tails suffer from shitty collision with the levels themselves, which lead to the main cause of death throughout my time as them, other then Artificial Chaos' of course. I won't even go into detail about Artificial Chaos' but like imagine an enemy that can stunlock you and hide their only weakspot from you whenever they please, and appear in sections where you're falling where you just so happen to have a single shot at killing them, usually after you've been hit and too late to react. Other than that, these could easily be fixed by just making the aim more accurate akin to that of gamma from SA1, which these two are biting directly off of, yet done worse in every way somehow, leave it to Sonic Team I guess.
Just like SA1, I enjoyed my time with both treasure hunting characters, so outside of the obvious radar problem, there isn't much for me to comment on. That being said, FUCK MAD SPACE. Meteor Herd didn't give me too much trouble but I could've just gotten lucky, but holy shit who thought Mad Space was a good mesh with this games mechanics. My biggest problem isn't even the radar being absent for this stage, instead the god awful camera mixed with there being literal planets with their own gravitational pull that just serve to pad the time out every single time you drop down either on purpose or by the games sheer hatred of you. Somehow I felt lucky to beat this in 20 minutes, as I did cheat a bit and look into some of the possible locations of the shards, I got lucky enough after about 14 minutes of doing nothing and got my ticket out of that hellhole. Its a shame how bad Sega is at handling different characters considering how well they did it in the LAST GAME, even with Big in consideration he didn't void out the good parts of the game, especially because of how short his story was and how funny the context of that section was.
The last story is something I'm entirely conflicted on. On one hand the mech parts aren't terrible, but Eggman stoops down to Tails' level in terms of its layout so idk. The time stop mechanic is pretty cool but is abused during Knuckles and Rouge's sections, to the point it just becomes another gimmick getting in the way of finishing the level quicker. Also I drowned like 3 times as Knuckles here because I didn't know there was an upgrade to breathe underwater, leading to me getting a game over as Sonic. Speaking of, his section is... meh. Pretty short if you know what you're doing but I almost wish more was done here, but I can only assume Sonic Team realized how punishing the Knuckles section was and trimmed this down in late development. I guess now would be a good time to mention the bosses, yeah? Long story short, the rival bosses are boring, with the Eggman and Tails ones just being utterly mind numbing mechanically. Sonic and Shadow's bouts are pretty cool visually, but shallow like the rest mechanically. Biolizard/Hazard was pretty fun, and highlights the standard selling point of Sonic games: the soundtracks. As over the top as ever, I find it interesting how much more SA2's tracks blend together naturally (outside of Knuckle's rap songs but even those are a joy in their own right), and seem to use similar production, unlike SA1 which are varied due to how unstructured and isolated those levels were.
The last thing I should probably bring up is the characters themselves. Personally, I'm content with the cast, but the voice work is pretty hit or miss depending on the character. Ryan Drummond is still great as Sonic of course, and David Humphrey is arguably the best depiction of Shadow to this day, however I prefer his work in Heroes a bit more. Deem Bristow is an amazing Eggman, who nearly edges out Shadow as my favorite member of this cast. Rouge, Tails and Knuckles' voices fit them for sure but it just seems like they weren't given as good of direction as the main stars of the game, which is a shame because I enjoy their interactions (for as rare as they are outside of plot dumps). Amy is solid too but her inclusion just feels random, maybe just a placeholder for the Battle rerelease I guess but I'd rather her as well as many other side characters in this franchise do nothing in the story than just not show up at all, although it would be nice for them to have a purpose once in a while.
This is definitely the turning point for Sonic as a franchise, and it just so happens that I didn't grow up on it as much as many others who hail it as the peak of the franchise. I can certainly see through the cracks of this game's problems, within it lies yet another ambitious title, one that took in one too many ideas for its gameplay and didn't execute on a majority of them. Here's hoping for a remake, same as the last game, but for vastly different reasons.
Well to start off, I'm not exactly fond of most of the speed stages outside of Radical Highway, Metal Harbor and Green Forest. City Escape is great in concept but there's just something... wrong with the physics for me at times, especially the rails. This carries on for most of the game until the very end for sonic in Final Rush, which is probably the most skill based level in the series thus far, as it requires mastery of rail grinding, the level layout itself, and the absurdly shit camera controls, all of which I have none! But I can respect the sheer amount of branching pathways with varying rewards regardless. The absolute worst part about these stages though is the complete incompetence placed into Sonic and Shadow's kits. Wanna Spindash? Hold the action button, which now has a delay in this game but its not a problem in my eyes, considering the new Somersault mechanic, tied to the same button! Wanna Light Speed Dash? Tap the action button but not really because you'll just Somersault instead. Well how about the new Bounce attack? Obviously tap the action button while in the air repeatedly to gain height. You get the point, so many new things to work with and because of how hard they wanted to maintain the single button does all mentality from the classic games, the levels and by extension my enjoyment is as inconsistent as the controls themselves.
Tails stages just suck, filled with enemies that spawn right on top of you, bad platforming, a terrible camera that doesn't fix when going down (universal problem for all characters) and a gameplay loop that isn't even satisfying in the first place. Its even more frustrating that the answer to all of these problems is simply playing as Eggman, who has way better level design and intriguing levels (I'm only saying this because I A ranked Cosmic Wall first try 😁). Even with that going for him, both Eggman and Tails suffer from shitty collision with the levels themselves, which lead to the main cause of death throughout my time as them, other then Artificial Chaos' of course. I won't even go into detail about Artificial Chaos' but like imagine an enemy that can stunlock you and hide their only weakspot from you whenever they please, and appear in sections where you're falling where you just so happen to have a single shot at killing them, usually after you've been hit and too late to react. Other than that, these could easily be fixed by just making the aim more accurate akin to that of gamma from SA1, which these two are biting directly off of, yet done worse in every way somehow, leave it to Sonic Team I guess.
Just like SA1, I enjoyed my time with both treasure hunting characters, so outside of the obvious radar problem, there isn't much for me to comment on. That being said, FUCK MAD SPACE. Meteor Herd didn't give me too much trouble but I could've just gotten lucky, but holy shit who thought Mad Space was a good mesh with this games mechanics. My biggest problem isn't even the radar being absent for this stage, instead the god awful camera mixed with there being literal planets with their own gravitational pull that just serve to pad the time out every single time you drop down either on purpose or by the games sheer hatred of you. Somehow I felt lucky to beat this in 20 minutes, as I did cheat a bit and look into some of the possible locations of the shards, I got lucky enough after about 14 minutes of doing nothing and got my ticket out of that hellhole. Its a shame how bad Sega is at handling different characters considering how well they did it in the LAST GAME, even with Big in consideration he didn't void out the good parts of the game, especially because of how short his story was and how funny the context of that section was.
The last story is something I'm entirely conflicted on. On one hand the mech parts aren't terrible, but Eggman stoops down to Tails' level in terms of its layout so idk. The time stop mechanic is pretty cool but is abused during Knuckles and Rouge's sections, to the point it just becomes another gimmick getting in the way of finishing the level quicker. Also I drowned like 3 times as Knuckles here because I didn't know there was an upgrade to breathe underwater, leading to me getting a game over as Sonic. Speaking of, his section is... meh. Pretty short if you know what you're doing but I almost wish more was done here, but I can only assume Sonic Team realized how punishing the Knuckles section was and trimmed this down in late development. I guess now would be a good time to mention the bosses, yeah? Long story short, the rival bosses are boring, with the Eggman and Tails ones just being utterly mind numbing mechanically. Sonic and Shadow's bouts are pretty cool visually, but shallow like the rest mechanically. Biolizard/Hazard was pretty fun, and highlights the standard selling point of Sonic games: the soundtracks. As over the top as ever, I find it interesting how much more SA2's tracks blend together naturally (outside of Knuckle's rap songs but even those are a joy in their own right), and seem to use similar production, unlike SA1 which are varied due to how unstructured and isolated those levels were.
The last thing I should probably bring up is the characters themselves. Personally, I'm content with the cast, but the voice work is pretty hit or miss depending on the character. Ryan Drummond is still great as Sonic of course, and David Humphrey is arguably the best depiction of Shadow to this day, however I prefer his work in Heroes a bit more. Deem Bristow is an amazing Eggman, who nearly edges out Shadow as my favorite member of this cast. Rouge, Tails and Knuckles' voices fit them for sure but it just seems like they weren't given as good of direction as the main stars of the game, which is a shame because I enjoy their interactions (for as rare as they are outside of plot dumps). Amy is solid too but her inclusion just feels random, maybe just a placeholder for the Battle rerelease I guess but I'd rather her as well as many other side characters in this franchise do nothing in the story than just not show up at all, although it would be nice for them to have a purpose once in a while.
This is definitely the turning point for Sonic as a franchise, and it just so happens that I didn't grow up on it as much as many others who hail it as the peak of the franchise. I can certainly see through the cracks of this game's problems, within it lies yet another ambitious title, one that took in one too many ideas for its gameplay and didn't execute on a majority of them. Here's hoping for a remake, same as the last game, but for vastly different reasons.
This game has some of the highest highs in the franchise but also some low lows with the rest of the game. Kind of a polarizing experience but I genuinely loved the story in it and also loved Sonic and Shadow's parts. Too bad 2/3rds of the game doesn't come close to this, but hey I can admit that I had a fun time after finishing.
This is the one Sonic game I always find myself going back to because it shows what Sonic is all about. Everything about this game is great in my eyes. The music, the levels, the multiple gameplay styles, and the storytelling are all done with such care and you can tell SEGA put their heart & soul into this game considering the fact that this could've been the last Sonic game ever made.
I want to go over the pros and cons so this can be a fair review of a game that I genuinely have a lot of love for.
The Pros:
Gameplay Styles: The idea of choosing the best gameplay styles for the game was a great choice. While I do miss Tails and Amy's gameplay styles (Sorry Big, your gameplay wasn't doing it for me), the best gameplay styles out of everyone in SA1 was Sonic, Knuckles, and Gamma. That's why SA2 feels more fun to play in that aspect. Bringing in the best gameplay styles and not adding the ones that feel unnecessary.
Characterization: The characters in this game are really well written and actually feel like the writers care about the characters compared to later entrances like Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World. Sonic's character especially. His cocky carefree attitude is honestly what made me like enjoy games like SA1, SA2, and Heroes. Seeing how he was still willing to stop Eggman & save the world despite being a wanted criminal shows how he really does like doing things his own way. Tails was someone who just went from Sonic's Sidekick to being his own person back in Adventure 1 and I'm glad they kept that trope going in Adventure 2. I think Tails really shines when he's able to prove himself as a person and not just the kid who follows Sonic around. Knuckles also shined in this game because he wasn't playing games anymore. It wasn't just "I have to find the Emerald Shards to save my island", it was now "I have to get the Emerald Shards to save my island and make sure that batgirl doesn't get her hands on them". It helps Knuckles because he now has a rival that isn't Sonic, but something who matches him in every way.
The story: I know this is a franchise about a talking blue hedgehog trying to stop a egg-shaped man, but I think these games really pull me in with the storytelling. I always enjoyed stories Sonic and his crew have to fight off a bigger threat that isn't Eggman because Eggman was a good villain in the Classic Era of Sonic. But for games like SA1, SA2, Heroes, Shadow 2005, and even Sonic 06, his place as a minor villain would start to show. I think the Modern Cast fighting literal gods separates them from the Classic Cast who are always fighting Eggman.
The Cons:
Unlockables: I'm a big fan of unlockable content in Sonic games. It adds more stuff to do and adds on to the fun. But for SA2 most of the unlockable content is locked behind the 2P mode. Characters like Metal Sonic, Amy, The Chao Walkers, Tikal, Chaos, and the alternate costumes for the main playable characters are all locked behind 2P Mode and I find that strange. I thought at least that you would be able to use the racesuit outfits as a reward for getting all A ranks in a character's respective stage, but it turns out I was wrong. I think it would be nice to have something like the SA2 Character Select mod made by MainMemory, Justin113D, and Sora where you can select what character you want to play in a certain stage but you can only select Speed Characters for Speed Stages, Mech Characters for Mech Stages, and Treasure Hunter Characters for Treasure Hunting Stages.
Audio Issues (Exclusively SA2 Battle and the HD Ports): The Audio Issues in the cutscenes were always jarring for me. I don't have a problem with the English Dub issues because it's hard to get everything to line up correctly. But when it came to just the audio as a whole, it was kinda annoying to have the music blasting in my ears while not being able to hear what the characters were saying.
Overall, I really do love Sonic Adventure 2. Ever since I 100% completed Adventure 1 and played the SA2 demo on my XBOX 360, I wanted to experience the full game. Let's just say after playing through and 100% completing the full game, I'm glad I got to experience it and I recommend anyone who's new to the Sonic franchise to try this game out!
I want to go over the pros and cons so this can be a fair review of a game that I genuinely have a lot of love for.
The Pros:
Gameplay Styles: The idea of choosing the best gameplay styles for the game was a great choice. While I do miss Tails and Amy's gameplay styles (Sorry Big, your gameplay wasn't doing it for me), the best gameplay styles out of everyone in SA1 was Sonic, Knuckles, and Gamma. That's why SA2 feels more fun to play in that aspect. Bringing in the best gameplay styles and not adding the ones that feel unnecessary.
Characterization: The characters in this game are really well written and actually feel like the writers care about the characters compared to later entrances like Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World. Sonic's character especially. His cocky carefree attitude is honestly what made me like enjoy games like SA1, SA2, and Heroes. Seeing how he was still willing to stop Eggman & save the world despite being a wanted criminal shows how he really does like doing things his own way. Tails was someone who just went from Sonic's Sidekick to being his own person back in Adventure 1 and I'm glad they kept that trope going in Adventure 2. I think Tails really shines when he's able to prove himself as a person and not just the kid who follows Sonic around. Knuckles also shined in this game because he wasn't playing games anymore. It wasn't just "I have to find the Emerald Shards to save my island", it was now "I have to get the Emerald Shards to save my island and make sure that batgirl doesn't get her hands on them". It helps Knuckles because he now has a rival that isn't Sonic, but something who matches him in every way.
The story: I know this is a franchise about a talking blue hedgehog trying to stop a egg-shaped man, but I think these games really pull me in with the storytelling. I always enjoyed stories Sonic and his crew have to fight off a bigger threat that isn't Eggman because Eggman was a good villain in the Classic Era of Sonic. But for games like SA1, SA2, Heroes, Shadow 2005, and even Sonic 06, his place as a minor villain would start to show. I think the Modern Cast fighting literal gods separates them from the Classic Cast who are always fighting Eggman.
The Cons:
Unlockables: I'm a big fan of unlockable content in Sonic games. It adds more stuff to do and adds on to the fun. But for SA2 most of the unlockable content is locked behind the 2P mode. Characters like Metal Sonic, Amy, The Chao Walkers, Tikal, Chaos, and the alternate costumes for the main playable characters are all locked behind 2P Mode and I find that strange. I thought at least that you would be able to use the racesuit outfits as a reward for getting all A ranks in a character's respective stage, but it turns out I was wrong. I think it would be nice to have something like the SA2 Character Select mod made by MainMemory, Justin113D, and Sora where you can select what character you want to play in a certain stage but you can only select Speed Characters for Speed Stages, Mech Characters for Mech Stages, and Treasure Hunter Characters for Treasure Hunting Stages.
Audio Issues (Exclusively SA2 Battle and the HD Ports): The Audio Issues in the cutscenes were always jarring for me. I don't have a problem with the English Dub issues because it's hard to get everything to line up correctly. But when it came to just the audio as a whole, it was kinda annoying to have the music blasting in my ears while not being able to hear what the characters were saying.
Overall, I really do love Sonic Adventure 2. Ever since I 100% completed Adventure 1 and played the SA2 demo on my XBOX 360, I wanted to experience the full game. Let's just say after playing through and 100% completing the full game, I'm glad I got to experience it and I recommend anyone who's new to the Sonic franchise to try this game out!
Sonic adventure 2 is easily my favourite sonic game ever and the best send off to the sega dreamcast and the end of sega's console manufacturing. Whether thats from the high speed sonic and shadow stages, the more platformed based tails and eggman stages or the treasure hunting stages from knuckles or rouge. On top of that it has one of the best sonic stories ever made with eggman actually seeming like a proper villian for once and not a laughing stock. The graphics for 2001 were also very impressive. And the AMAZING soundtrack in the game with the best of the best. Live and learn. If you're going to play any sonic game. It should be this one
People like the idea of SA2 more than the game actually holds up. You see reviews of people dogging on the game and then giving it a 4.5 "just cause :P"
The controls feel like ass. Your homing attack as sonic/shadow will just miss sometimes, a lot of stages have instant death gimmicks (like the quicksand in the pyramid levels) which, combined with the bad controls, make a lot of levels annoying to play through. SOME of the knuckles/rouge levels are actually fun, but a lot of them are just kinda annoying and bad.
THAT BEING SAID, SA2 has a crazy aura and is still kinda fun to play through. Like it was annoying to play but I still wanted to finish it.
The controls feel like ass. Your homing attack as sonic/shadow will just miss sometimes, a lot of stages have instant death gimmicks (like the quicksand in the pyramid levels) which, combined with the bad controls, make a lot of levels annoying to play through. SOME of the knuckles/rouge levels are actually fun, but a lot of them are just kinda annoying and bad.
THAT BEING SAID, SA2 has a crazy aura and is still kinda fun to play through. Like it was annoying to play but I still wanted to finish it.
mixed feelings left and right.
at times i was loving the experience, at times i was dreading the massive jank this game is, getting stuck on geometry mid run, buttons fighting each other to decide which input to commit to, enviromental hazard not working as intended, it was almost as if the game was trying to balance itself by having a super fun rule of cool style of story and the most bland and broken gameplay, it gets a little better with shadow stages but you play so little of the two main characters, i overall enjoy SA1 much more, it had its fair share of jank but i could at least trust the systems to work, man if this is sonic all the way to next gen i dunno if i wanna continue the series, i asked a friend of mine who has much more experience with sonic (one of his fave stuff) and he quoted ''you havent experienced sonic until you ve died to shitty rails a dozen times'' power to whoever likes this game or liked back in the day but good grief, at least in SA1 the character while fast had some ground for proper controlling, SA2 perpetually left me stuck in a janky fight for proper control as even turning might break the physics and bring the running to a halt, lost count the amount of times i died to sommersault and light dash fighting each other to see who will register the input and kill me.
it stopped being fun at the hero sections, whose idea was it to triple the size of knuckles and tails levels anyway ?
i've seen the troubled development hell this game went through and its honestly a miracle this game and even sega stood after the storm like that, it makes me respect the story, but it doesn't make this game any less icky to play, story is cool tho, hopefully i can get to later entries and never open this again.
at times i was loving the experience, at times i was dreading the massive jank this game is, getting stuck on geometry mid run, buttons fighting each other to decide which input to commit to, enviromental hazard not working as intended, it was almost as if the game was trying to balance itself by having a super fun rule of cool style of story and the most bland and broken gameplay, it gets a little better with shadow stages but you play so little of the two main characters, i overall enjoy SA1 much more, it had its fair share of jank but i could at least trust the systems to work, man if this is sonic all the way to next gen i dunno if i wanna continue the series, i asked a friend of mine who has much more experience with sonic (one of his fave stuff) and he quoted ''you havent experienced sonic until you ve died to shitty rails a dozen times'' power to whoever likes this game or liked back in the day but good grief, at least in SA1 the character while fast had some ground for proper controlling, SA2 perpetually left me stuck in a janky fight for proper control as even turning might break the physics and bring the running to a halt, lost count the amount of times i died to sommersault and light dash fighting each other to see who will register the input and kill me.
it stopped being fun at the hero sections, whose idea was it to triple the size of knuckles and tails levels anyway ?
i've seen the troubled development hell this game went through and its honestly a miracle this game and even sega stood after the storm like that, it makes me respect the story, but it doesn't make this game any less icky to play, story is cool tho, hopefully i can get to later entries and never open this again.
elden ring but cool and edgy and awsome and rad and
I miss my wife Tails
Holy PEAK. Clears SA1 im sorry they cooked SO HARD
I PISSED ON THE MOON YOU IDIOT
A fun animal care/ raising/ racing game that has a lot of weird filler featuring anthropomorphic animals and a tall man arguing about gemeralds or something.
badly made. gameplay is so frustrating. overrated.
sucking and fucking in the chao garden
sondick and shatdow fight the big lizard
As someone who has spent many hours playing every port of this game throughout my childhood, even well beyond its sell-by date, and now finally the original - I feel truly qualified to review this game for what it is.
Sonic Adventure 2 is a game that is quite literally a product of its development cycle. For context, this game, as I recall, was developed over the course of a year as a follow-up to Sonic Adventure, the first true 3D Platformer in Sonic's catalogue. SEGA knew that the Dreamcast was on its last legs and they weren't going to go down without a fight - perhaps if it weren't for their awful business decisions throughout their time in the console market, this game would have been able to resuscitate the Dreamcast and the future of gaming would have gone very differently.
For better or worse, Sonic Adventure 2 is a practice makes perfect, skill-based action platformer. To say this game is divisive would be an understatement - on one hand you have delusional fans saying this is the best game ever created, and on the other you have uncultured SWINE who just aren't fans of Sonic's fast paced gameplay who dub this as an atrocity. The truth of the matter is that Sonic Team captured lightning in a bottle with Adventure 2 and hit it's full potential - which landed somewhere in the middle.
The sequel to Sonic Adventure presents you at first with a Story Mode to get things going. Out of the gate, first impressions are high, with one of the most iconic and well-made levels in all of platforming and video game history, City Escape (seriously, there are literal video essays on this). Unfortunately, moving on from this level the rest of the story is a rollercoaster - a mixed bag with ups and downs a plenty.
I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about the gameplay styles on offer here - this is amongst the most well-known games of all time and there have been no shortage of reviews for it. Each of the three gameplay styles for both campaigns have good and bad stages, but unfortunately the mech-shooter galleries and treasure hunting maps have it worse.
You may have wondered what I meant when I said this game hit its full potential - often times there are games (especially nowadays), where you think "If they just did this this game could be amazing" - I don't think thats applicable here. Any minute quality of life change does not solve the problems that these modes have (those who have modded the game on Steam may know what I mean), and any significant change and I feel you would risk sacrificing the good that these stages do have to offer or even the games identity completely.
The issue with these various gameplay styles is the design choices that went into crafting the game, rather than the actual variety itself. For the most part, most of the stages are decently mapped and can be enjoyed - the problem is that getting there can be an infuriating, controller breaking experience, and sometimes it can feel natural. If you have ever completed this game you may remember that sometimes, you'll go through a level for the first time and hit a C or a B rank, and think "Ah wow, if i'd have just executed that a little tighter I could've got the A Rank!" - which is a good, addicting feeling to have - and then for other stages, you'll complete them with multiple deaths, or take so long to finish it that you get a D or an E rank, and you think "Right, well next time I do this I guess i've got to remember that, that, and that". And hell, even if you've played this game back to back countless times like I have you still won't get it every single time, even on the best levels - I can promise you that.
Occasionally, this is due to general 3D platformer jank (this game doesn't suffer too greatly from a bad camera thankfully), but often you will fall off when trying to perform skips for higher ranks etc. if you don't literally get it pixel perfect. This isn't so much of an issue - that's the nature of the beast. Where the frustration comes in is when the game throws at you stage hazards and enemies that LITERALLY drop right in front of you, centimetres in front of your face as your hurtling forward at jet speed. If you took these hazards out altogether, there would be nothing to be an obstacle for you, making the levels too easy (seeing as Ranks come from a combination of both score and clear time), but if you slowed down the characters, it wouldn't be a Sonic game anymore (and believe me, this is like one of three games where it being a Sonic game is actually a positive trait).
As I'm sure you can imagine, these frustrating moments can make your story mode playthroughs a slog. This isn't to even mention boss fights, which there are a few of, but are rarely anything impressive (with some big exceptions, of course) and sometimes very frustrating themselves. So why then, would I rate this game so highly, in spite of this? You'll be surprised to hear that it's NOT the Chao Garden.
Simply put, Sonic Adventure 2 has some of the most iconic, memorable, and well-executed platforming segments in gaming history. It's a diamond in the rough to be sure - but what this game does that lends itself so favourably to fans is the inclusion of Emblem Challenges and re-playability that extends your save file far beyond the two stories.
Once you've beaten a stage in the story mode, you are given a stage select option in the menu where you can revisit the stage with a charming, well designed world map. Each stage, in addition to its first act that you played through in Story Mode, has 4 extra bonus missions to complete, which will require powerups (some of which are hidden in stages, but only a few, and they are mostly optional ones) from finishing the story mode to get anywhere close to full completion. This is something I like about the game, as it naturally encourages you to get the story "out of the way", as it were, before you get into the real meat of the game.
With Sonic and Shadow combined having a slight majority in levels for their gameplay style in total, and their levels being in general, more consistently good, having the freedom to revisit levels at your own pace and in whichever order you choose is a blessing. Where those previously mentioned frustrating levels don't inherently get better from a gameplay standpoint, they do feel more palatable and enjoyable when enjoyed in between the favourite stages, as often times what makes the Story mode drag is that these frustrating levels can come one after the other.
And even with the Stage Select being the clear outlier as the best mode (which feels really strange to write), that isn't where the highlights end. The game has an enjoyable 2 Player mode where you can battle it out across the stages with some extra 2P exclusive stages, a (mediocre at best) Kart Racing minigame that can also be played in 2 Player, and obviously the Chao Garden - a game within a game and the highlight for most people, where you raise your very own Chao with stupid animal limbs and pit him in underground Chao Races for rewards, with the additional option to take him to school and teach him mundane activities like watching TV or doing a spin.
Hell, with the Dreamcast being so ahead of its time, I was surprised to see that the original version of this game STILL to this day has an official webpage accessible from SEGA within the game menu! It was incredible to see and impressive that they even kept it running - you can download Halloween and Christmas costumes for each of the characters in 2 Player Mode, as well as Menu themes where the characters will narrate options in the menu. There's also online Chao Trading, a Black Market to buy things for your Chao Garden, and even downloadable Kart Racing tracks - all of which is available completely for free, and to add, I played this on an emulator, and was still able to just open the browser and connect to it.
The Dreamcast original of this game is absolutely the definitive edition - with the only content worth missing is the Chao Karate, but I would happily sacrifice that for the constant easter egg Big the Cat cameos in most stages, better looking character models, seasonal costumes and DLC content, and the original, unshrunk Dark and Hero Chao Worlds. Are you missing out if you've enjoyed the game on the Gamecube? No, at the end of the day, the game is 90% the same, but if you're an enthusiastic fan of Sonic Adventure 2, the Dreamcast version is absolutely worth your time, especially as there is no 59 / 60hz bug in this version of the game, which if anyone remembers, used to cause your character to perform homing attacks on the ground or hover the minute you leave the floor in the mech stages, which got you killed constantly.
Whilst Sonic Adventure 2 certainly isn't the greatest game ever made, it proudly boasts some of gaming's best stages, soundtracks, and satisfying challenges to overcome and complete. The amount of content on offer here is pretty huge as well - 100%ing this game is a sizable task in the best way.
To summarise, I can say this: All of the quality of life and small details lost in exchange for Chao Karate where you do minimal input and watch your Chaos fight to the death?
What a price to pay.
NERD SHIT:
For the optimal experience emulating this game "as it was" on the Dreamcast without actually owning one, here are my recommendations:
RetroArch Emulator
Flycast Core (to run the game)
Sonic Adventure 2 GDI file (needs the bin files also within the folder)
NO DEADZONE on analog sticks (IMPORTANT - can be changed within the Quick Menu on RetroArch by pressing F1 in game. You don't want to change this globally, just for this game in particular. The original Dreamcast game had no Deadzone).
640x480 Native Dreamcast Resolution (YES, even if you have a 4K monitor like myself, trust me).
"CRT_Consumer" Shader applied to RetroArch once you get in the game. (Change Interlacing Toggle under Shader Parameters to 0 instead of 1 if the screen flashing gives you a headache like it does me).
Enjoy your trip down memory lane.
Sonic Adventure 2 is a game that is quite literally a product of its development cycle. For context, this game, as I recall, was developed over the course of a year as a follow-up to Sonic Adventure, the first true 3D Platformer in Sonic's catalogue. SEGA knew that the Dreamcast was on its last legs and they weren't going to go down without a fight - perhaps if it weren't for their awful business decisions throughout their time in the console market, this game would have been able to resuscitate the Dreamcast and the future of gaming would have gone very differently.
For better or worse, Sonic Adventure 2 is a practice makes perfect, skill-based action platformer. To say this game is divisive would be an understatement - on one hand you have delusional fans saying this is the best game ever created, and on the other you have uncultured SWINE who just aren't fans of Sonic's fast paced gameplay who dub this as an atrocity. The truth of the matter is that Sonic Team captured lightning in a bottle with Adventure 2 and hit it's full potential - which landed somewhere in the middle.
The sequel to Sonic Adventure presents you at first with a Story Mode to get things going. Out of the gate, first impressions are high, with one of the most iconic and well-made levels in all of platforming and video game history, City Escape (seriously, there are literal video essays on this). Unfortunately, moving on from this level the rest of the story is a rollercoaster - a mixed bag with ups and downs a plenty.
I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about the gameplay styles on offer here - this is amongst the most well-known games of all time and there have been no shortage of reviews for it. Each of the three gameplay styles for both campaigns have good and bad stages, but unfortunately the mech-shooter galleries and treasure hunting maps have it worse.
You may have wondered what I meant when I said this game hit its full potential - often times there are games (especially nowadays), where you think "If they just did this this game could be amazing" - I don't think thats applicable here. Any minute quality of life change does not solve the problems that these modes have (those who have modded the game on Steam may know what I mean), and any significant change and I feel you would risk sacrificing the good that these stages do have to offer or even the games identity completely.
The issue with these various gameplay styles is the design choices that went into crafting the game, rather than the actual variety itself. For the most part, most of the stages are decently mapped and can be enjoyed - the problem is that getting there can be an infuriating, controller breaking experience, and sometimes it can feel natural. If you have ever completed this game you may remember that sometimes, you'll go through a level for the first time and hit a C or a B rank, and think "Ah wow, if i'd have just executed that a little tighter I could've got the A Rank!" - which is a good, addicting feeling to have - and then for other stages, you'll complete them with multiple deaths, or take so long to finish it that you get a D or an E rank, and you think "Right, well next time I do this I guess i've got to remember that, that, and that". And hell, even if you've played this game back to back countless times like I have you still won't get it every single time, even on the best levels - I can promise you that.
Occasionally, this is due to general 3D platformer jank (this game doesn't suffer too greatly from a bad camera thankfully), but often you will fall off when trying to perform skips for higher ranks etc. if you don't literally get it pixel perfect. This isn't so much of an issue - that's the nature of the beast. Where the frustration comes in is when the game throws at you stage hazards and enemies that LITERALLY drop right in front of you, centimetres in front of your face as your hurtling forward at jet speed. If you took these hazards out altogether, there would be nothing to be an obstacle for you, making the levels too easy (seeing as Ranks come from a combination of both score and clear time), but if you slowed down the characters, it wouldn't be a Sonic game anymore (and believe me, this is like one of three games where it being a Sonic game is actually a positive trait).
As I'm sure you can imagine, these frustrating moments can make your story mode playthroughs a slog. This isn't to even mention boss fights, which there are a few of, but are rarely anything impressive (with some big exceptions, of course) and sometimes very frustrating themselves. So why then, would I rate this game so highly, in spite of this? You'll be surprised to hear that it's NOT the Chao Garden.
Simply put, Sonic Adventure 2 has some of the most iconic, memorable, and well-executed platforming segments in gaming history. It's a diamond in the rough to be sure - but what this game does that lends itself so favourably to fans is the inclusion of Emblem Challenges and re-playability that extends your save file far beyond the two stories.
Once you've beaten a stage in the story mode, you are given a stage select option in the menu where you can revisit the stage with a charming, well designed world map. Each stage, in addition to its first act that you played through in Story Mode, has 4 extra bonus missions to complete, which will require powerups (some of which are hidden in stages, but only a few, and they are mostly optional ones) from finishing the story mode to get anywhere close to full completion. This is something I like about the game, as it naturally encourages you to get the story "out of the way", as it were, before you get into the real meat of the game.
With Sonic and Shadow combined having a slight majority in levels for their gameplay style in total, and their levels being in general, more consistently good, having the freedom to revisit levels at your own pace and in whichever order you choose is a blessing. Where those previously mentioned frustrating levels don't inherently get better from a gameplay standpoint, they do feel more palatable and enjoyable when enjoyed in between the favourite stages, as often times what makes the Story mode drag is that these frustrating levels can come one after the other.
And even with the Stage Select being the clear outlier as the best mode (which feels really strange to write), that isn't where the highlights end. The game has an enjoyable 2 Player mode where you can battle it out across the stages with some extra 2P exclusive stages, a (mediocre at best) Kart Racing minigame that can also be played in 2 Player, and obviously the Chao Garden - a game within a game and the highlight for most people, where you raise your very own Chao with stupid animal limbs and pit him in underground Chao Races for rewards, with the additional option to take him to school and teach him mundane activities like watching TV or doing a spin.
Hell, with the Dreamcast being so ahead of its time, I was surprised to see that the original version of this game STILL to this day has an official webpage accessible from SEGA within the game menu! It was incredible to see and impressive that they even kept it running - you can download Halloween and Christmas costumes for each of the characters in 2 Player Mode, as well as Menu themes where the characters will narrate options in the menu. There's also online Chao Trading, a Black Market to buy things for your Chao Garden, and even downloadable Kart Racing tracks - all of which is available completely for free, and to add, I played this on an emulator, and was still able to just open the browser and connect to it.
The Dreamcast original of this game is absolutely the definitive edition - with the only content worth missing is the Chao Karate, but I would happily sacrifice that for the constant easter egg Big the Cat cameos in most stages, better looking character models, seasonal costumes and DLC content, and the original, unshrunk Dark and Hero Chao Worlds. Are you missing out if you've enjoyed the game on the Gamecube? No, at the end of the day, the game is 90% the same, but if you're an enthusiastic fan of Sonic Adventure 2, the Dreamcast version is absolutely worth your time, especially as there is no 59 / 60hz bug in this version of the game, which if anyone remembers, used to cause your character to perform homing attacks on the ground or hover the minute you leave the floor in the mech stages, which got you killed constantly.
Whilst Sonic Adventure 2 certainly isn't the greatest game ever made, it proudly boasts some of gaming's best stages, soundtracks, and satisfying challenges to overcome and complete. The amount of content on offer here is pretty huge as well - 100%ing this game is a sizable task in the best way.
To summarise, I can say this: All of the quality of life and small details lost in exchange for Chao Karate where you do minimal input and watch your Chaos fight to the death?
What a price to pay.
NERD SHIT:
For the optimal experience emulating this game "as it was" on the Dreamcast without actually owning one, here are my recommendations:
RetroArch Emulator
Flycast Core (to run the game)
Sonic Adventure 2 GDI file (needs the bin files also within the folder)
NO DEADZONE on analog sticks (IMPORTANT - can be changed within the Quick Menu on RetroArch by pressing F1 in game. You don't want to change this globally, just for this game in particular. The original Dreamcast game had no Deadzone).
640x480 Native Dreamcast Resolution (YES, even if you have a 4K monitor like myself, trust me).
"CRT_Consumer" Shader applied to RetroArch once you get in the game. (Change Interlacing Toggle under Shader Parameters to 0 instead of 1 if the screen flashing gives you a headache like it does me).
Enjoy your trip down memory lane.
rouge made me gay
This game isn't as cool as you remember but when you get one of those banger sonic or shadow levels it kinda feels as cool as you remember it being. too bad the other 2/3s of the game is tolerable at best and absolute doodoo butter at worst.
This game rules. There are only a few games out there that play anything like it and they came out in the last like five years. One of my favourite games ever made played it more times than I could possibly count. Speedran it. Will play it again.
I miss the more open-world approach that Sonic Adventure 1 nailed
Top Tier Soundtrack. Sonic/Shadow sections were the best. Knuckles/Rouge sections were the worst. The First Last Story stage was ass. I think Sonic Adventure 1 has a slight edge over this game imo, but it's still a good game.
Only through time and experience can one gain the sagacity to realize they are a dope with worthless opinions. For four years, when asked the worst video game I've ever played, my default response would usually be this. I loathed it, based mostly on the fact it pissed me off. I remember finding Sonic and Knuckles unplayably jank, the levels all sloppily designed and the rest just generally unfun. The biggest problem in retrospect is that I went in with years of hearing every YouTuber I grew up with disparage the series. In my head, it was nothing but a disappointment factory from a failure company in the years where the Mario Galaxy brothers were collectively still my favourite game of all time. Hell, I don't think I'd have ever even played the damn thing if it wasn't for that Snapcube fan-dub. My opinion, as much as I hadn't realized it, was psychologically pre-emptive, established on experiences which weren't my own. Naturally, the one Sonic game I've played had to reflect that mediocrity. Then, now that I had a position, I found it bombarded by fans of the games or witnessed joy over a game I detested. Eventually, I began to respect the music and, having not touched the Chao garden my first time around, always heard that it was the best part and had to respect it. Originally despising the cast, I came to concede that most of them are quite lovable after playing Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (though I still sort of detest Sonic's character). I watched videos by hazel and KingK, conceding more and more while still holding arrogantly on to my view out of mere tenacity and the gripping comfort of having a scapegoat. Something in me needed a game to be the worst, to be a 1/10 point of reference by which all could be weighed in displeasure.
Recently, I've been holding off on purchasing games, instead completing or achievement hunting in games that have sat on the backlog long enough to be fatal. Having only the achievements for the Hero Story and First Level, the scent of the burning witch beckoned me. I'd dip my toes in the Chao Garden, perhaps give a couple of the Villain Story levels the old college try. Out of what I can only assume to be trauma from my first run-in with Miss Adventure 2, I looked into graphics and physics mods, admittedly indulging in a few cheats to hasten and make less punishing my return. After some troubleshooting amidst which I complained of the game's awfulness, off I went. While feeling out the Chao Garden, I began to come to a realization. Immediately, the little details charmed me as I scanned the setpieces in the Chao's kindergarten. The mistranslations echoed the charm of the obscure B-titles I'd been playing. The music, textures and skyboxes encapsulated this perfect childhood feeling. The Chao system shocked me in it's complexity, and the damn things were so cute it made me uncomfortable. Between all that and my character of choice, Eggman, hobbling at mach 10 between the homely Japanese schoolhouse and serene Windows screensaver, I was having fun. Not planning to wait around for 3 hours for my two unleveled Chao to develop into an angel and devil, I tried my hand at the Villain Story. I constantly found myself stuck by odd or misremembered mechanics (seriously, why does this game have a power-up system instead of having all the moves from the start?), but it wasn't as unplayable as I remembered. At the very least, getting to bring little treats and creatures back to my baby Chao's after each stage made it all feel worth it (like a true parent enduring the hardships of capitalism, or in this case, Sonic gameplay). On the level White Jungle, however, a change took hold. I was... having a blast. The level flowed incredibly smoothly and intently. The shortcomings of the game began to feel like my own. I began resetting the stage when I died to keep my ring count up, feeling each mistake was my own. I zipped through the stage, tasting each alternative path and feeling out the little secrets for the most rings possible. After finally clearing it, I was awarded with an A-rank. My first playthrough, I got all D's and E's, but this... this felt good. The level felt good. The game felt good. I stayed up until 8AM not only clearing the rest of the Villain story, but clearing the whole Hero story again (no cloud saves, thanks Sega...), collapsing before reaching the final part. Meanwhile, my Chao were around level 40 and I was fueled by an urge to play more and more of the game, weighing whether I would watch my Chao into adulthood or chip my way up to 90 emblems. The last level stunk, and the last boss wasn't nearly the Pinnacle of Gaming hypefest I'd seen it sold as, but what I must note is this itching desire I have, even now, to keep playing. I want to play more, see everything this game has to offer, to love my Chao through each racing cup and to hoard those A-ranks. While a lot of the game is rough to play through and quite often unfun, these alone are not the marks of a 1/10 game.
Be it absolutely drinking up the aesthetics and music, my friend mocking me in Steam DMs or the powerful maternal instinct I developed for, now admittedly, probably the cutest video game character of all time, the "worst game" has merits that I feel like a cretin for trying to take away from people in outputting and arguing my hatred. The moral of all of this self-indulgent rambling is that rating games sucks (hence my lack of stars, though if I must put a number to it now, 3 stars, but that's far too vague given the range of quality). It's a practice locking our value of an object on one experience in one place. I detested Evangelion until I rewatched it at the height of my depression and loneliness, and now it's in my top 5. I dislike very few games, so unless the game is irredeemably degenerate (like I judged the lone king of my half-star rankings, Nekopara), games are art and art is always worth protecting no matter it's quality. A reading for my Moral Philosophy class has taught me that rose-tinting the interior world often extends its effects into the external world, and no doubt this ought to be applied each time a beloved game gets us heated. Give me your buggy, your jank and your low-budget and may we dance the nights away not as enemies, but hand-in-hand for this limited life we have.
Recently, I've been holding off on purchasing games, instead completing or achievement hunting in games that have sat on the backlog long enough to be fatal. Having only the achievements for the Hero Story and First Level, the scent of the burning witch beckoned me. I'd dip my toes in the Chao Garden, perhaps give a couple of the Villain Story levels the old college try. Out of what I can only assume to be trauma from my first run-in with Miss Adventure 2, I looked into graphics and physics mods, admittedly indulging in a few cheats to hasten and make less punishing my return. After some troubleshooting amidst which I complained of the game's awfulness, off I went. While feeling out the Chao Garden, I began to come to a realization. Immediately, the little details charmed me as I scanned the setpieces in the Chao's kindergarten. The mistranslations echoed the charm of the obscure B-titles I'd been playing. The music, textures and skyboxes encapsulated this perfect childhood feeling. The Chao system shocked me in it's complexity, and the damn things were so cute it made me uncomfortable. Between all that and my character of choice, Eggman, hobbling at mach 10 between the homely Japanese schoolhouse and serene Windows screensaver, I was having fun. Not planning to wait around for 3 hours for my two unleveled Chao to develop into an angel and devil, I tried my hand at the Villain Story. I constantly found myself stuck by odd or misremembered mechanics (seriously, why does this game have a power-up system instead of having all the moves from the start?), but it wasn't as unplayable as I remembered. At the very least, getting to bring little treats and creatures back to my baby Chao's after each stage made it all feel worth it (like a true parent enduring the hardships of capitalism, or in this case, Sonic gameplay). On the level White Jungle, however, a change took hold. I was... having a blast. The level flowed incredibly smoothly and intently. The shortcomings of the game began to feel like my own. I began resetting the stage when I died to keep my ring count up, feeling each mistake was my own. I zipped through the stage, tasting each alternative path and feeling out the little secrets for the most rings possible. After finally clearing it, I was awarded with an A-rank. My first playthrough, I got all D's and E's, but this... this felt good. The level felt good. The game felt good. I stayed up until 8AM not only clearing the rest of the Villain story, but clearing the whole Hero story again (no cloud saves, thanks Sega...), collapsing before reaching the final part. Meanwhile, my Chao were around level 40 and I was fueled by an urge to play more and more of the game, weighing whether I would watch my Chao into adulthood or chip my way up to 90 emblems. The last level stunk, and the last boss wasn't nearly the Pinnacle of Gaming hypefest I'd seen it sold as, but what I must note is this itching desire I have, even now, to keep playing. I want to play more, see everything this game has to offer, to love my Chao through each racing cup and to hoard those A-ranks. While a lot of the game is rough to play through and quite often unfun, these alone are not the marks of a 1/10 game.
Be it absolutely drinking up the aesthetics and music, my friend mocking me in Steam DMs or the powerful maternal instinct I developed for, now admittedly, probably the cutest video game character of all time, the "worst game" has merits that I feel like a cretin for trying to take away from people in outputting and arguing my hatred. The moral of all of this self-indulgent rambling is that rating games sucks (hence my lack of stars, though if I must put a number to it now, 3 stars, but that's far too vague given the range of quality). It's a practice locking our value of an object on one experience in one place. I detested Evangelion until I rewatched it at the height of my depression and loneliness, and now it's in my top 5. I dislike very few games, so unless the game is irredeemably degenerate (like I judged the lone king of my half-star rankings, Nekopara), games are art and art is always worth protecting no matter it's quality. A reading for my Moral Philosophy class has taught me that rose-tinting the interior world often extends its effects into the external world, and no doubt this ought to be applied each time a beloved game gets us heated. Give me your buggy, your jank and your low-budget and may we dance the nights away not as enemies, but hand-in-hand for this limited life we have.
this is my favorite sonic game despite the jankiness n shit
it really needs a remake with better story and gameplay
it really needs a remake with better story and gameplay
Better then I remembered but still not as good as the original IMO 🤷♂️
Substantially better than the first game. However while that game was dragged down by its ambiguity and lack of polish, this one is by its inconsistent quality and that exact same trademark lack of polish (thanks Sonic Team). The Knuckles stages are definitely the worst part of the game, but the other characters are fun enough.
how did they fumble this hard.
It could've a great game if it wasn't for Eggman/Tails, Knuckles/Rouge sections.
Bascially anything that is not Shadow, or Sonic.
I can't bring myself to like it because of that. But I still completed it. Played this as a kid and I couldn't get pass Green Forest.
It's okay.
Bascially anything that is not Shadow, or Sonic.
I can't bring myself to like it because of that. But I still completed it. Played this as a kid and I couldn't get pass Green Forest.
It's okay.
This game does a great job of existing.
saying this is the best sonic game ever is a big red flag to me
its okayish but thats it
the story is cool, everything beyond sonic and shadow levels can stay away from me
its okayish but thats it
the story is cool, everything beyond sonic and shadow levels can stay away from me