(!)Played on Steam via the SADX Mod Manager. This included making the game widescreen, Dreamcast conversion, etc
Sonic's first traditional outing in a 3D setting (not counting Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R) is still pretty good even to this day! This game still has, for better or worse, something that modern 3D Sonic games don't and that being multiple characters. Most Sonic games nowadays just have you play as the titular hedgehog, but you have 5 whole other options here and each character has their own moveset and campaign to go through after (or during) Sonic's story
Speaking of, the plot SA is the pretty standard formula of Eggman is trying to harness an evil power so Sonic has to stop him, but what makes it unique from other games is how the story is told. Characters keep popping in and out of Sonic's story, but you never really get the full scope of the story until you've played through all 6 characters. You can find a pretty nifty visualization here (spoilers ofc)
That being said, its definitely not flawless. While everyone's stories overall I would say are pretty different, there are sometimes where they overlap a little too much for my liking. Meaning that if you want to get the full story, you need to fight the same boss 3 or so times with different characters and that's a little boring ngl. Not every story is made equal too, while Sonic and Knuckles' stories are perfectly fine, E-102 Gamma and Big's are severely lacking in any actual involvement in the overall narrative. I understand that Big's (really awful gameplay-wise btw) story is mainly a shitpost, Gamma not really being a part of anything was a little unfortunate
Anyway, story aside now. Gameplay wise, I would say that this game as a hit overall. I've only ever played the boost games so I was worried about how controlling Sonic would feel super awful and slippery, but I was pleasantly surprised! You can actually make slight adjustments to your movements now without Sonic slipping and sliding all over the place. Granted, some gameplay gimmicks are a little annoying. Apart from Big's whole story which has been shat on since 1998, a couple level specific gimmicks are pretty bad too. The ice stalagmites in Ice Cap Zone, the tilting mechanic in Egg Carrier, both flying stages, etc. These all take away from the gameplay a fair bit imo
One thing that later games do improve on that I think was kinda bad here is the homing attack. Sonic's homing attack is the definition of okay. Later games add a reticle and thank goodness they do, because 8/10 times the homing attack is responsive, but the other 2 times you will end up losing a life because Sonic went where you didn't want him to go and that's frustrating. That combined with this game's worst aspect: the camera
Now, I admit that this might be because of the mods I had installed, but the camera in this game is fucking awful at times. There is a certain part in Amy's story where I lost 4 lives because the camera was in a fixed position incredibly far away from her and I just end up walking off the platform. Ofc, this is not to mention the several other times throughout my playthrough where the camera just got stuck or clipped into walls completely obstructing my view of anything which definitely pissed me off for a bit
But if there was one thing I had to highlight in this review specifically, is the goddamn Egg Viper boss fight. Happens near the end of Sonic's story and this is probably the worst and most unfair boss fight I've played in awhile. What's crazy is that the boss isn't even that hard, its just that 80% of the time your homing attacks don't fucking work. I have GRAZED Doctor Eggman's eyeballs several times throughout that fight because of how close I was to him, but still never did any damage because the game registered that homing attack as a miss. Screw the Egg Viper seriously
That being said, I would still say that this is a good Sonic game. Definitely not timeless, its a little aged in a couple areas here and there, but overall still a fun experience. Likely would not go back to it all too much tho
Sonic's first traditional outing in a 3D setting (not counting Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R) is still pretty good even to this day! This game still has, for better or worse, something that modern 3D Sonic games don't and that being multiple characters. Most Sonic games nowadays just have you play as the titular hedgehog, but you have 5 whole other options here and each character has their own moveset and campaign to go through after (or during) Sonic's story
Speaking of, the plot SA is the pretty standard formula of Eggman is trying to harness an evil power so Sonic has to stop him, but what makes it unique from other games is how the story is told. Characters keep popping in and out of Sonic's story, but you never really get the full scope of the story until you've played through all 6 characters. You can find a pretty nifty visualization here (spoilers ofc)
That being said, its definitely not flawless. While everyone's stories overall I would say are pretty different, there are sometimes where they overlap a little too much for my liking. Meaning that if you want to get the full story, you need to fight the same boss 3 or so times with different characters and that's a little boring ngl. Not every story is made equal too, while Sonic and Knuckles' stories are perfectly fine, E-102 Gamma and Big's are severely lacking in any actual involvement in the overall narrative. I understand that Big's (really awful gameplay-wise btw) story is mainly a shitpost, Gamma not really being a part of anything was a little unfortunate
Anyway, story aside now. Gameplay wise, I would say that this game as a hit overall. I've only ever played the boost games so I was worried about how controlling Sonic would feel super awful and slippery, but I was pleasantly surprised! You can actually make slight adjustments to your movements now without Sonic slipping and sliding all over the place. Granted, some gameplay gimmicks are a little annoying. Apart from Big's whole story which has been shat on since 1998, a couple level specific gimmicks are pretty bad too. The ice stalagmites in Ice Cap Zone, the tilting mechanic in Egg Carrier, both flying stages, etc. These all take away from the gameplay a fair bit imo
One thing that later games do improve on that I think was kinda bad here is the homing attack. Sonic's homing attack is the definition of okay. Later games add a reticle and thank goodness they do, because 8/10 times the homing attack is responsive, but the other 2 times you will end up losing a life because Sonic went where you didn't want him to go and that's frustrating. That combined with this game's worst aspect: the camera
Now, I admit that this might be because of the mods I had installed, but the camera in this game is fucking awful at times. There is a certain part in Amy's story where I lost 4 lives because the camera was in a fixed position incredibly far away from her and I just end up walking off the platform. Ofc, this is not to mention the several other times throughout my playthrough where the camera just got stuck or clipped into walls completely obstructing my view of anything which definitely pissed me off for a bit
But if there was one thing I had to highlight in this review specifically, is the goddamn Egg Viper boss fight. Happens near the end of Sonic's story and this is probably the worst and most unfair boss fight I've played in awhile. What's crazy is that the boss isn't even that hard, its just that 80% of the time your homing attacks don't fucking work. I have GRAZED Doctor Eggman's eyeballs several times throughout that fight because of how close I was to him, but still never did any damage because the game registered that homing attack as a miss. Screw the Egg Viper seriously
That being said, I would still say that this is a good Sonic game. Definitely not timeless, its a little aged in a couple areas here and there, but overall still a fun experience. Likely would not go back to it all too much tho