Now I see what I've gotta do, Open your heart, and you will see

Heart and soul. What drives our heroes, and our villain to their goal, but also what killed Sega’s Dreamcast and fierce notoriety in the gaming industry. Mentioned in a previous review, I’ve always been curious about the rivalry that the moustached man and the speedy hedgehog had throughout their early lives. Although, throughout my earlier life too, I’ve always favoured Mario. Not my fault as a child I guess, there’s some kind of wiring in a young kid’s brain that forces you to essentially pick between one or the other. It wasn’t actually until late 2022 and even up to January this year that I picked up and played Sonic’s earlier titles for myself, and I was sorta disappointed? My perception of him was this cool attitude, daredevil speedster that zoomed and wittily ruined the plans of Dr Eggman and Co. The Genesis titles don’t do his character or what the franchise means as justice, as for some these games may be good but being made and produced just to be competition can ruin a franchise. Sonic however improved over the years, as each title progressively began being better and better. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a game which I just think is fine but god if you’re a Sonic fan you’d probably find this game really awesome.

This is where 3D gaming comes along. The Nintendo 64 saw less sales than the Famicom and SNES but changed the course of gaming forever. If you look at the 64 now, you’d find it’s probably the worst ageing console ever, and it wasn’t even the dominating console this time around. The PlayStation released nearly two years prior, and with the increased competition, and the cancellation of Sonic Xtreme, the team only had 10 months to produce something new for the Dreamcast. Born out of struggle, desperation and love, came the most ambitious game yet.

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There’s something about the atmosphere and how the game presents itself that makes Sonic Adventure seem so respectable. For starters, it’s kinda wild to see that this game was released as early as 1998. Few 3D platformers were released at the time (weird to think Banjo and Spyro were released in the same year as this!) but none seemed as advanced and less polygonal than the Dreamcast ones. Unfortunately, you do have to put up with releasing the same year as Ocarina of Time, Half-Life and Metal Gear Solid so you probably mean little importance in the year of 1998. Ok, maybe this one didn’t age that well visually too, but I’m happy that the aesthetics of this game still sticks today. The game swaps between this more monotone city scenery, new for Sonic at the time, and swaps them out every now and again with the more colourful palette that older Sonic fans would recognise; think Emerald Coast and Casinopolis for example. Helps balance out the repetitiveness of the game, as most levels are more unique than your average Mario. The level design in this game is actually really good! The more open environment does allow you to make more riskier and faster moves, and when you go fast as Sonic it feels great. The more linear levels mean little to no path choices unlike the classic Sonics, but it’s up to you if that’s a pro or a con. All are great EXCEPT FUCKING SKY CHASE. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT SO MANY TIMES? The minigames are good and chop up the gameplay loops a little but having to basically sit through a 4 minute fucking cutscene when I was already bored from Sonic 2 is mindblowingly dumb. Another thing that the Sonic Team tried was the “Adventure Field'', just another hub world where characters would travel in between. It’s cool and neat for the idea, but it's mostly just two areas. And the fucking jungle. Whoever designed that is genuinely a horrible human being. I don’t want to talk about gameplay problems that much, mostly because I’m playing this on the PC port which is a port of the Gamecube port which is a port of the Dreamcast one. All I can say is, just use the BetterSADX and Dreamcast Conversion mods, and that is much about bugs that I’m touching in this review. Frankly because I'm also tired of hearing, “Sonic had a rough transition into 3D!!” Yeah everyone did, buddy, and every reviewer in the whole wide world has mentioned it. The game did what it could do best, and it threw anything it could at the wall and it stuck. The gameplay is fairly unique, seeming as there’s 6 or sorta 7 heroes to choose from. I have to probably talk about them now.

Welp, a quick round-up:

Sonic is what you’d imagine the game to be. Your average levels, go crazy fast with his broken spin dash (unsurprisingly fun!), jump on enemies, what you’d expect. His movement is really great and his abilities make you feel unstoppable. You’ll spend the quarter of the game playing as him albeit it spends the time introducing you to the rest of the cast, and acts as the “main story” of the game.

Tails is kind of a repeat of Sonic’s levels with the new criteria of beating him in a race. Basically, go as fast as you can. His fly ability is, really, really, broken and that automatically makes him great. Seriously, fly off the map and see how many shortcuts you can find. Makes Tails a fun character to play, especially after playing as him after beating Sonic’s story (on a side note, I forgot how Tails is literally 8 until I heard his voice. Bring back the kiddy voice. It’s way funnier).

Knuckles’ gameplay is fairly different to the first two. You still explore area’s similar to Tails and Sonic but instead you search for parts of the Master Emerald. Essentially he acts as a big metal detector and it’s our turn to play Hide and Seek with magic crystals. Really cool too! Either you spend about 2 minutes on each level or 8 depending if you’re as stupid as me. Not much to say about his moveset? His punches are kinda boring but the glide is pretty useful. His story arc acts as a semi-explanation for the whole Master-Emerald-Chaos-Thingy but who was really listening..

Amy does absolutely nothing to impress. Her movement is slow and her hammer jump is SO inconsistent. Practically her loop is running away from a big robot which is so sluggish that you don’t notice it except the first ten seconds of the stage. Also, she had absolutely no need to be in the story, except her bird friend ate a Chaos Emerald?? Worst part of the game. Girlboss fail.

Big the Cat.

Gamma is quite interesting, as we finally get to play from the villain’s perspective, although he turns good about a third through (but he’s cute so it’s ok C:). You speedrun through Sonic’s levels with some changes, except you have a rocket and you’re constantly on a timer. Fine, but the level changes are kinda improvements over the original.

If I were to rank them:
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles
Gamma
Him.
Amy

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Story spoilers ahead

The game finally climaxes with the Super Sonic, which ties all the heroes stories’ together into a final fight against Perfect Chaos. It was then, during the second phase, the vocals for Open Your Heart kick in, and I feel something I’ve never felt before. This is what Sonic is. The rebellious counterpart, always crazy, inconsistent but filled with so much heart and love that you can’t help but feel admiration for the series. And when it’s all over. You feel like a hero. You feel like a badass. And that might never be recreated in the way that Sonic can ever again.

The Dreamcast flopped, and due to this Sega had to step down as a console manufacturer in the industry, even third-partying for their rivals. Because of this Sonic has had a messy and mediocre history ever since. Icarus, Sega pushed themselves so hard it destroyed their long-term longevity. However recently there’s been a revival in the sixth-generation. The Dreamcast and Gamecube, both market failures, have received a cult-like following as of recently as many have realised the under-appreciativeness they’ve received. Coming out of the end of this, I have only one thought:

Sonic is really awesome.

”Our positive feelings toward each other can make them work.”
”Our hearts together form awesome power.”